glad you started this thread. there was a point in like 2018 where i was sure rod modell was about to become one of my favorite producers but it just never quite happened. so imo he's an interesting artist to discuss.
definitely agree about his sounds having a special "glow" he's like the rothko of dub techno in that regard. and i get the sense that if you listened to all his stuff as deepchord in chronological order you would hear this "midas touch" gradually expand to cover a wider and wider range of timbres. as of "the coldest reason" the classic dub techno chords are already perfected but the wind sounds are still a bit crude—whereas if you listen to his stuff from the 2010s, on a basic level he's still probably just filtering white noise, but the specific forms he sculpts get more and more vivid and satisfying, at least to my ear.
plus not only is he great at shaping individual sounds, he's also good at sequencing them. in particular he's skilled at weaving together these atmospheres that are basically static yet feel alive and breathing. he obviously listens to nature really closely. for example if you just stay in one place and listen to your environment for a while you'll often hear a lot of distant, enigmatic one-off sounds (someone shouting, a car door slamming shut, etc.) that come and go in the blink of an eye, and he's one of the only producers i've heard include those sorts of incidental details in his music.
...so it might seem weird to say that this same voraciousness for "painting" the sonic landscapes of the world is actually what bothers me about his music. or more accurately, it's his urge to do this combined with his urge to simultaneously hold onto the basic channel-isms that he started with. even when they don't fit. the thing about basic channel (and vainqueur - elevation, etc.) is it's just about the most machinic/posthuman/postearth/"hard sci fi" music ever made. that's where it's power comes from. it's atmospheric, sure, but in a completely different way than say, new age music. the chords and kinetics of basic channel instill experiences that seem to come from a world so far in the future that campfires by lake huron or forests in western europe—or whatever modell finds himself painting sonically—aren't even distant memories. so for me the associations that different aspects of his music create clash with one other. they don't cohere into an appealing diegesis. arid futurism and warm pastoralism cancel each other out.
and maybe he's just joking, but it's baffling to me how he'll say in interviews that in his music the bassline and kick are incidental and that he actually prefers the versions without them. it's like, why keep them in, then, other than out of habit? it's as if these old techno tropes are a ball and chain for him, aesthetically. i think he says it's to create a sense of forward motion but for me the lush real world environment sounds + motorik propulsion sometimes bring out unfortunate associations with those car commercials that are just a bunch of HD shots of the car zooming through some scenic landscape.
basically i think he's a true master craftsman who unfortunately applies his craft to aesthetically confused ends. obviously one might counter than i should just shut up, stop overthinking it, and just enjoy the nice relaxing tunes.... but i just really like when music evokes a compelling and coherent world in my head. that's what it comes down to.
