Analouge bubblebath

If you’ve a passing interest in techno and like to keep an eye on eBay, you may be aware of the recent kerfuffle over a series of limited 12”s by a shadowy outfit called Echospace. Released in May as four limited white labels, the pair’s Coldest Season series is now changing hands for up to £150stg. There’s definitely something going on.

The fuss has come as something of a surprise to the duo behind Echospace, Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell. The producers – Detroit and Chicago natives respectively – had been releasing deep techno for the past 10 years, never achieving anything more than cult status (thanks, in part, to their analogue/vinyl only ethos).
But recently, something has changed.
“This is all surreal to me” explains Steve Hitchell. “I’ve always put my contact details on the internet, on industry sites like Discogs, and within the last three or four months, I’ve gotten two or three hundred positive e-mails. The fact that so many people are catching on to it is so endearing. It captures my heart and I feel so sentimental towards it.”
The Echospace album is the culmination of a slow-burning 10-year friendship. The pair connected after Steve – best known for his output as soultek – heard Rod’s first release as Deepchord in the mid-’90s, and immediately sent him a demo. The bond grew as the years passed, drawn together by a set of defined loves (analogue equipment, deep techno, the idea of the underground) and hates (popular culture, throwaway music, Fruity Loops).
In recent years, the strength of their bond has grown inversely to the amount of current music they felt strongly about – the less they liked, the more determined they became. Talking to Steve about what finally forced the pair into the studio as Echospace, he becomes almost militant. “It took a matter of time until we were both so frustrated and ready to quit that we inspired one another – to go back to when we were kids and this was all new. Music has become very faceless, very redundant. People are using loop factories or Fruity Loops, and not coming up with thoughts that are original. That’s what’s missing in music today. What was so inspiring about music in the days of old? About Metroplex? About Juan Atkins in 1985? The Model 500 stuff? Derrick May’s ‘Icon’? Why are those records still timeless, and why have they never been matched by any other artists? And it’s not just about the music, it’s about what it stands for. Artists like Rhythm & Sound, Monolake and Vladislav Delay have really influenced my sound. It’s what it stands for, the way it’s presented. It’s the underground.”
He left them out of the list, but German pioneers Basic Channel are an obvious reference point for the pair; the sound, the presentation and the feel are pure mid-’90s Hardwax. How do they feel about the inevitable comparisons? At various points in our 40-minute conversation, Steve expresses his respect, admiration and obsessive love for Moritz and Mark’s work (“I have all the releases in all the different colours… I’m a total geek for all their work”) – but the constant name checks are beginning to rankle.
“I’m not going to say it’s frustrating. Echospace is the first time I’ve encountered it really. It’s flattering… frustrating and flattering. It puts you in a league with two guys who are my most influential artists. So it’s an honour, but by the same token, I think that Echospace with this album doesn’t fall into their sound. It stands on its own two feet.”
He has a point. The pair’s output individually – Rod’s Deepchord work in particular – may be more homage, but The Coldest Season explores different territory, examining the outer reaches of dub techno. There’s an unusual difference between the vinyl releases – each with one piece of music on each side – and the nine-track CD; taken individually, the Basic Channel comparisons feel somewhat justified, but listen to the 70-minute compilation, and the project comes into its own. Between the deep ambient soundscapes, the extended, intricate techno-meets-dub excursions and the unexpectedly human closer ‘Empyrean’ – driven by Steve’s deft organ and memorable live bass – the pair’s grand plan has been brought to life perfectly.
“The basis of the project came from some ambient recordings Rod had made, which I added a load of atmospherics and different instrumentation to. The results are pretty unique.”