German dub techno producer Insect O. (born Oliver Hartmann) is the head of Etui Records and, some 20 years after its inauguration, he has the privilege of releasing the label's first-ever full-length artist album. Hartmann is a seasoned world traveler, and his escapades have always informed his music. This album is the soundtrack, essentially, to a 900-mile road trip through the Atacama Desert of Bolivia and Chile (as seen on the cover), and on it, Hartmann has put his 20 years of experience to good use; this is an absolutely classic dub techno album. As aficionados will tell you, dub techno is one of those genres where it's really hard to define what makes it good. It's often unfairly derided because so much of it sounds "the same" and, to be fair, it is a style with a relatively small number of prerequisite elements that can only be recombined in so many ways. Hartmann recognizes this and keeps things fresh; while maybe half the tracks here hew close to the well-worn genre template (which in itself is no bad thing), he mixes things up and inserts enough interesting elements to stop the listener from drifting off; there are ambient interludes, more uptempo tracks, and unusual sounds scattered throughout. After an ambient intro, "Resonance" kicks things off with all the classic hallmarks of the genre on display: spacy, reverberating chords; huge, warm, enveloping bassline; midtempo chugging beats, and a sensation of vast space. The excellent "Forest of the Monkeys" and title track remain in this vein before things start to change up about halfway through. "Train to Tresor" is, fittingly, the most banging track here, referencing the famous Berlin nightclub and label that has been home to some of the best techno of the last 20 years. "Pan de Azúcar" (named for the Chilean national park) slows things right down with ringing ethnic percussion; after the drifting ambient interlude "Oceans Plastics," the dub returns on "New Dawn," before "Afterrave" leaves the template behind altogether for an incessant, hammering, arrhythmic beat. Closer "Ghosts in Space," the album's longest track, is pure chill goodness with plangent, reverberating chords, and, somewhere deep in the mix, what sounds like the tide coming in. Just before the halfway mark, a funky, jiggy beat kicks in and powers the rest of the track through to its conclusion, while outer-space sounds punctuate it. This is a great album from a master of the style at the height of his powers and should be an essential listen for dub techno heads everywhere.