‘Minimal techno is a form of electronic dance music (EDM) that is considered a minimalist sub-genre of techno. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition, and understated development. This style of dance music production generally adheres to the motto less is more; a principle that has been previously utilized, to great effect, in architecture, design, visual art, and Western art music. The tradition of minimalist aesthetics in Western culture can be traced to the German Bauhaus movement (1919 to 1933). Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detroit based producers Robert Hood and Daniel Bell.
‘In an essay published in the book Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music (2004), music journalist and critic Philip Sherburne, asserts that minimal techno uses two specific stylistic approaches, one being skeletalism, and the other massification. According to Sherburne, in skeletal minimal techno, only the core elements are included with embellishments used only for the sake of variation within the song. In contrast, massification is a style of minimalism in which many sounds are layered over time, but with little variation in sonic elements. Today the influence of minimal styles of house music and techno are not only found in club music, but becoming more commonly heard in popular music. Regardless of the style, minimal Techno corkscrews into the very heart of repetition” so cerebrally as to often inspire descriptions like ’spartan’, ’clinical’, ’mathematical’, and ’scientific’.
‘In his essay Digital Discipline: Minimalism in House and Techno Philip Sherburne also proposes what the origins of Minimal techno might be. Sherburne states that, like most contemporary electronic dance music, minimal techno has its roots in the landmark works of pioneers such as Kraftwerk and detroit techno’s Derrick May and Juan Atkins. Minimal techno focuses on rhythm and repetition instead of melody and linear progression, much like classical minimalist music and the polyrhythmic African musical tradition that helped inspire it. By 1994, according to Sherburne, the term “minimal” was in use to describe any stripped-down, Acidic derivative of classic Detroit style.
‘Los Angeles based writer Daniel Chamberlin draws parallels between the compositional techniques used by producers such as Richie Hawtin, Wolfgang Voigt, and Surgeon and that of American minimalist composer Steve Reich, in particular the pattern phasing system Reich employs in many of his works; the earliest being ”Come Out”. Chamberlin also sees the use of sine tone drones by minimalist composer La Monte Young and the repetitive patterns of Terry Riley’s ”In C” as other major influences. In recent years, the genre has taken great influence from, to the point of merging with the microhouse genre. It has also fragmented into a great number of difficult to categorize subgenres, equally claimed by the minimal techno and microhouse tags.’ — collaged
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Robert Hood ‘Grey Move’ (1999)
‘Robert Hood makes minimal Detroit techno with an emphasis on soul and experimentation over flash and popularity. Having recorded for Metroplex, as well as the Austrian Cheap label and Jeff Mills’ Axis label, Hood also owns and operates the M-Plant imprint, through which he’s released the bulk of his solo material. As part of the original UR line up whose influential releases throughout the early and mid ’90s helped change the face of modern Detroit techno and sparked a creative renaissance. Infusing elements of acid and industrial into a potent blend of Chicago house and Detroit techno, UR’s aesthetic project and militant business philosophy were (and remain) singular commitments in underground techno.’ — mplantmusic.com
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Daniel Bell ‘Baby Judy’ (1996)
‘Bell was influenced primarily by Chicago House as well as the works of the minimialist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. His productions are characterized by minimalist house grooves accented by blips and bleeps. Some tracks feature bizarre voice effects and eerie atmospherics. He was born in Sacramento, California, but grew up outside of Toronto, Canada, and later moved to Detroit where he collaborated with Richie Hawtin as Cybersonik for three years on Plus 8 records. In 1991, he started his own label, Accelerate, where he released a string of influential releases as DBX. In 2000, he relocated to Berlin, Germany, and released his first mix CD, The Button-Down Mind of Daniel Bell, on Tresor Records. 2003 brought a follow-up release on Logistic records, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back and soon after a retrospective was released: Blip, Blurp, Bleep: The Music of Daniel Bell.’ — collaged
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Richie Hawtin/Plastikman ‘Spastik’ (1993)
‘Richie Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and internationally-touring DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno’s second wave of artists in the early 1990s. Hawtin is best known for his haunting, minimal works under the alias Plastikman, a moniker he continued to use into the mid 2000s. Hawtin is also known for DJing intelligent, minimal techno sets making use of high-tech electronics such as drum machines and digital mixing equipment. With fellow second-waver John Acquaviva he founded and still runs the Plus 8 record label in May 1990, and in 1998 he launched Minus, primarily for his own projects. Hawtin has recorded music under the aliases Plastikman, F.U.S.E, Concept 1, Circuit Breaker, The Hard Brothers, Hard Trax, Jack Master, and UP!. He also recorded and performed, in combination with other artists, under group names such as 0733, Cybersonik, Final Exposure, Spawn (with Fred Giannelli and Daniel Bell), and States Of Mind.’ — collaged
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Ricardo Villalobos ‘The Contempt (Trip Through Tools Mix)’ (1995)
‘In the beginning it’s like a hobby. DJing paid something between one hundred and five hundred Euros. You couldn’t live out of it. I was studying at University and doing parties and stuff, but more or less doing this as something I just enjoyed. Then we started a little label in ‘93 called Placid Flavour… it didn’t go very well, so, we started again. I met the Playhouse people in ‘93 and made my first record for them in ’94. In ’95 and ’96 I started to be more serious, also with DJing. Since ’98 this has definitely been a career. I’ve only done this to earn money. I need to live, and I need to work hard. It’s quite late: some people get known at 22 and 23 for being DJs. This didn’t happen to our generation; our generation took a lot longer and it wasn’t that easy to get musical information and good records. Now you have high standards of production and a lot of people to learn from. You get your information in big packages, you get told a lot at once. Friends tell you now, whereas [people from] our generation were on their own.’ — RV
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Pan Sonic ‘Urania’ (1995)
‘In the early eighties, we were very interested in industrial music like Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten and Suicide. Eventually our musical tastes turned toward reggae, hip hop and experimental music. When acid house began, that obviously heavily influenced us. We have a synthesizer which is one big box that has twelve oscillators on it; you can connect them to each other and modulate them together. We also have this small synthesizer which is built to an old typewriter — we call it ‘Typewriter’. We have several drum modules to make rhythmic sounds which we are using with an 808. Jari Lehtinen is also building us this large synthesizer that will have eight oscillators and a cross connection board, like the early 70s, late 60s synthesizers.” Alongside Typewriter, also known as “Complex Sound Generator” there is also a self-built, approximately six metre-long infrasonic tube, called “John Holmes”.’ — Mika Vaino
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Basic Channel ‘Octagon’ (1995)
‘This is the key to Basic Channel. Where Techno hurls blinkered into the future, Mark and Moritz have turned their backs on it. Theirs is an archaeology of Techno, almost, which burrows beneath the future-shock debris to work up new geometric shapes from the music’s original architectonic ground plans. Its a kind of Techno classicism, one best heard on vinyl, sure enough. The duo are so committed to vinyl that they have established their own cutting plant to ensure their records obtain the desired dynamic range. And on vinyl Basic Channel’s minimalism does work a wholly other kind of magic. But the CD works well as an entity because Basic Channel has worked a singular groove over the nine records released since the label was founded in 1993. But what you don’t get on compact disc is the same dynamic sense that the musicians are exploring every possible rhythmic permutation. Early tracks lock distorted, needle-dirt blocks of noise into hypnotic rhythm loops that gradually push out of phase, compelling minor changes that trigger seismic shifts in the sound layers.’ — The Wire
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Jeff Mills ‘Gateway of Zen’ (1997)
‘Mills is credited with laying the foundations for legendary detroit techno collective, Underground Resistance, alongside ‘Mad’ Mike Banks, a former Parliament bass player. Just like Public Enemy did some years before in hiphop, these men confronted the mainstream music industry with revolutionary rhetoric. Dressed in uniforms with skimasks and black combat suits, they were ‘men on a mission’, aiming at giving techno more content and meaning. His albums and EPs are mostly separate tracks of his compositions, which Mills would mix into the live DJ sets for which he became a legend. Mills has been credited for his exceptional turntable skills. Tracks are almost chopped to bits to showcase the strongest fragments for his relentless sound collages. Three decks, a Roland 909 drum-machine and seventy records in one hour: at breakneck speed Mills manipulates beats and basslines, vinyl and frequencies.’ — lastfm
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Steve Bug ‘1303’ (1996)
‘Few German electronic producers are as versatile as Steve Bug. Starting off with a small residency in Ibiza in 1991, Bug enhanced his reputation and was invited to play the prestigious Love Parade later that year. His career in music production came two years later with the release of Bride & Bridegroom on the Superstition label. Several other releases on smaller labels followed, and in 1996 he started his first label, Raw Elements. This label, however, would be short-lived, as Bug would pull the plug and start up two labels — Poker Flat and Dessous — in 1998. Each label had its own aesthetic in mind, with Poker Flat concentrating on edgy dancefloor tech-house releases and Dessous focusing on deep house and downtempo sounds. Bug would continue to record singles for Poker Flat and Dessous as well as other labels worldwide, and he quietly established a reputation internationally for his DJ sets as well as his productions.’ — collaged
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Wolfgang Voigt ’20 Minuten Gas Im November’ (1999)
‘Wolfgang Voigt is an electronic music artist from Cologne, Germany, known for his output under various aliases on a plethora of record labels, including Warp, Harvest, Raster-Noton and Force Inc. Although widely known as a tireless producer, he is best known for co-founding the influential German techno label Kompakt alongside Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. Wolfgang Voigt has never shied away from difficulty, of course. Typically, it’s taken the form of minimalism, but his most revered minimalist records have been lush, even outright beautiful. Studio 1, Burger/Ink, Gas: None of these aliases trafficked in audience alienation. Quite the reverse, in fact. Some may have revealed their pleasures immediately, as with Gas’s deeply affecting mix of mountain-sized melancholy and beatific calm. Others, like the proto-microhouse of Studio 1, required some acclimation time in order to hear the echoes of deep house warmth left after Voigt had gutted the genre of anything pop.’ — Pitchfork
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Carl Craig ‘Science Fiction’ (1995)
‘Carl Craig may be known as one of Detroit Techno’s “second wave” of producers, but probably no other Motor City artist has remained as relevant for as long, in quite as expansive a context. Born in Detroit in 1969, Craig was first exposed to Detroit techno in the late 80s via a cousin that ran the lighting for Jeff Mills. After early collaborations with his “first wave” mentor Derrick May, Craig struck out on his own in the early 90s. Recording as 69, BFC, Psyche, Paperclip People, Tres Demented and under his own name — as well as a slew of other aliases and collaborations — Craig developed an instantly recognizable (and oft imitated, if rarely matched) style, at once lush and economical, bursting and streamlined.’ — The Wire
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Regis ‘We Said No’ (1995)
‘Regis (Karl O’Connor) began making music in the early 1990s and founded Downward Records with Sutton in 1993 in the Halesowen area of Birmingham. He set up the Integrale Muzique distribution company in 1996 with Sutton and Antonio Soares-Vieira.[4] Regis’ debut EP Montreal included the hypnotic industrial track “Speak To Me”. Other releases from the period include the Gymnastics 2×12″, and the Application of Language EP, both featuring hard minimal electronica. The era was capped off by a remix of “Totmacher” by DJ Hell. Things came full circle in the late 1990s, when O’Connor went on to work with and produce his childhood heroes Robert Gorl and Chrislo Hass of Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, but by this time he was already developing a more layered and tonal sound that would become his trademark in the following years.’ — collaged
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Surgeon ‘Syllables’ (1996)
‘Surgeon’s musical style is characterised by his incorporation of the more cinematic and left field aspects of his musical background into his club-based material. His production, remix, and DJ repertoire are inspired by krautrock and industrial music bands such as Faust, Coil, and Whitehouse. In particular, the extent of Coil’s influence is such that most of the track titles from Surgeon’s Tresor album “Force and Form” are direct references to Coil recordings. Child also draws influence from Chicago house, Techno, Dub music, and Electro, and also from non-musical works by Mike Leigh, David Lynch, William S. Burroughs, Bret Easton Ellis, and Cindy Sherman.’ — collaged
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Morning, David. ** Billy Lloyd, Hi, Billy! Iceland, totally, me too. I don’t know that documentary — thanks a lot! — but, even before watching it, the music scene there seems ultra-inspiring. The performance scene too. A lot excellent performers come from there, including Margret, the star of Gisele’s and my piece ‘This Is How You Will Disappear’. And then there’s the teeming, melancholy landscape, obviously. Summering there sounds good to me. Icelandic people I know say it can be quite boring there due to its size, but overfamiliarity can turn anywhere too cozy, I guess. So, you’re in Leeds? Did you get any of the white stuff yet? Hopefully you’ll get it over the viruses that you say are flying around there. My fingers are crossed on your health’s behalf too, if that helps. ** Tosh, I hope one of your fears isn’t Minimal Techno, ha ha. Oh, the book fair, sigh. Is it a one-time thing, or is the beginning of an annual shebang, I hope? Did you buy a bunch of stuff? ** Bill, Hi, Bill. I hope that small chance gets big. Yeah, ‘Blank Generation’ is pretty period-oriented in its pleasures, but Richard is great in it. I’m reading the galley of his forthcoming memoir, and it’s pretty gripping and wild, as you can probably imagine. ** Steevee, Yeah, excellent work. I guess I’m not surprised that Daily Beast pays kind of shittily, but it is a good, much read venue. Haven’t seen ‘Infiltration’. I’ll look for online evidence. I had a slight hope that ‘Bullet to the Head’ might be a lot of fun too. The two ‘Expendable’ movies were a total semi-guilty pleasure to me. And I did read that it’s a big flop, and right after Arnold’s comeback/flop. Kind of sad that their fans don’t care or that there are so few fans left, sort of (sad). ** Sypha, Hi, James. I have read Dostoyevsky, yeah, a few books, but, as I so often seem to say, not in a very long time. People seem to tend to think ‘Notes from the Underground’ isn’t such a great one by him, but I remember being pretty way into it. How are you liking ‘BK’? ** Misanthrope, Little Eyes … how little? If they weren’t too little or else were very, very little, that sounds better. I envy even your squib of snow. I really think we’re post snow already here. It just feels that way. I think I need to take a trip into the higher altitudes before winter is over, and, actually, I’m going to. I assume you watched the Super Bowl. You can assume that I barely even knew it was in existence. ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. Oh, escapism from the dark side of being a writer, i.e. ‘corporate’ approval. Gotcha. So did your Austin-based, Superbowl-occasioning weekend go as planned or even transcendently? My friend? He’s a visual and sound artist. I don’t know what to say, really, except he’s a really extraordinary person, and I feel very grateful to know him. My agent was pretty much like yours in terms of tight lips — I have a new one, but I don’t know what she’s going to be like yet — although he would tell me about the no’s. He just wouldn’t get into the why’s unless I really wanted to know the why. I guess the whole publisher consideration period fills one with equal amounts of excitement and low grade terror. You’ve got to stay pragmatic. You’ve got to remember that publishers have agendas, quotas, specific tastes, etc., and not think of each one as a god who has your value as a writer and future in their hands. It’s too easy to let each rejection feel like a sign of some kind of consensus when that’s absolutely not true. Have not seen the new Knife video/song, and I haven’t even heard the new MBV album yet. Today’s the day. ** Paradigm, Thank you again and again so much for the incredible post/weekend, Scott! Headtorches, yeah, right, of course. I’m still determined to find the secret tunnel under the Recollets where I live. A friend and I are on the hunt, but other equally interesting adventures keep getting in the way. It will be done, though. I got a teeny bit of novel writing in, but I guess that’s better than nothing. I’ve gotten way behind on blog post making, so that ended up being a big weekend user. Glad to hear you were able to write. ** Rewritedept, Hi. It seems like there must be all kind of secret tunnels and shit under those Strip hotels. But maybe not? Seems like there would be, though. Ouch, shit, about your ankle. I hope it’s de-swelling or whatever. Still haven’t gotten the MBV. Weird, I know, but for sure today. Reunionitis is, like, an advance condition. Pre-thing anxiety. Usually when I actually see a reunion show, I end up digging it, and even digging the kind of depressing ‘we give up, we’re spent, and will now mine our past and rationalize why that’s okay’ aspect. My weekend was okay. Went to a nice party on Friday, had a belated b’day dinner with pals on Saturday, and mostly worked on stuff the rest the time. ** MP Watkins, Mitch! Whoa, hey, buddy. Okay, that explains a text I got from you while I was in Lille that made no sense to me at the time. I almost never go on tour with the theater stuff, and I usually have no idea when things are playing where even. You didn’t really take a bunch of kids to see ‘Jerk’. I don’t believe you, although, hm, I guess that does seem like something you might do, come to think of it. Ha ha, yikes, yes, imagining kids watching the Dean Corll puppet fisting the dead boy puppet … I suppose that could have been a bit too much for them. But maybe it turned one of them into a genius or something? Anyway, shit, it would have been awesome to see you, not to mention watch the soul-destroyed kids. Let me know when you’re headed here. I’ll try not to be in one my reclusive modes. Big love to you, Mitchy-witch! ** Trees, Hi, T! Legal troubles, err, okay, sorry, but you’re still online and typing, at least. Drones, yeah, nice. No, I didn’t get the MBV yesterday. A bit of fear of the too long anticipated, I guess, but I’ll score it today. Haven’t heard the Knife track either. I need to step up my game. I’m doing well, thanks, man, and I hope you are too, majorly. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh. Blocks come, blocks go. You just have to ride them out. A block due to the cutting of smoke intake sounds as natural and predictable as, I don’t know, as French accents in Paris. Don’t sweat it. It’s the fault of your discombobulated senses, not you. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! ** Grant maierhofer, Hi, Grant! I got your email, and I’m glad things are better, and I will write to you. I’m horribly slow at email. It’s kind of a real problem of mine, but I will. You have a pub date on the chapbook, great! I want to celebrate its birth on the blog, so let me know the scoop when the time is right, if you feel like it. And really cool about the collaboration too. Very exciting! Thanks a lot for the link to your publishing ‘rant’. I’ll go read that when I get done here. Everyone, superfine writer and d.l. Grant Maierhofer has a think/reaction piece newly up on the Open End site called ’50 Thoughts Upon Receipt of Another Rejection Email’ that I can guarantee you is really worth your time, so please do go check it out for your own sakes. Thanks a lot again, Grant! ** Statictick, Good, very good, about you feeling better now. Nice nurse. And I hope the uptick in your Lamictal intake goes okay. Is there an immediate physical effect or side-effect when you first up the dosage? Fun things from you, anytime. Love from me. ** Chris Cochrane, Hi, Chris! I’ll be joining you and everybody else in the post-new MBV album altered world today. You sound good, and it’s awesome that Ben’s actually into negotiations with Yerba Buena. That would be hella sweet. Love to you, buddy. ** Chris Dankland, Thanks about the Ferris post, and your robbery of any bits and pieces is only the highest compliment. Whoa, so if I watch ‘Yacht Rock’, I’ll be danger of binging on Loggins and McDonald vids. I don’t know, man. On the other hand, that could be just what my creativity needs. Such a dilemma. My weekend was nice. Trusting yours was. I guess Mssrs Loggins and McDonald are nothing if not niceness spreaders. I don’t know. Take care of your good self, pal. ** Grant Scicluna, Hi, Grant! Really great to see you! It goes real good with me, thank you. Oh, gosh, ‘Wrong’, thanks. There are things in there that were written so early in the development of whatever talent I have that I regret giving them book covers sometimes, but, luckily, you didn’t mention them, ha ha. The title story, yeah. Writing that was kind of big for me. It was originally going to be in my novel ‘Closer’. It was the piece where I found the form and voice of ‘Closer’, and, in a way, of the Cycle itself, so it was kind of a real breakthrough piece for me. But it ended up not fitting in ‘Closer’, even though it’s the same George character. Anyway, thank you a lot. I don’t remember where I was emotionally or psychologically. I wrote it during a period when my real friend George and I were painfully estranged, and that probably played into it. That’s actually a really, really hard story for me now because it revolves around someone shooting himself in the head, which my friend George did just a few years later. If you mean things I wrote that made my gut tense, well … there’s a piece of nonfiction called ‘AIDS: Words from the Front’ that I later fictionalized and used as a chapter in ‘Guide’ that was very hard because it was about these HIV+ street kids in Hollywood whom I hung out with for a while in order to write the piece, and they were in rough shape, and it was very sad, and most of them are now dead. Generally, it’s the most emotional pieces that are the hardest for me. Writing about violence isn’t so hard because I processed that stuff when I was young, and my relationship to it is pretty established, and I can negotiate it without a lot of trauma. The hardest thing to write by far is this novel I’m trying to write about George. Anyway, thank you, Grant, and it’s really good to see you. How are things with your script, film projects, life, and anything or everything else? ** Un Cœur Blanc, Hi! You’re welcome to clone my heart, if you can do that somehow. It’s in pretty good shape right now. Maybe I should interview myself with great formality. Hm, that would be an interesting challenge. I hope your Monday is the perfect starter to a great week. ** Okay. Go be in the presence of the Minimal Techno gods, if you will, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
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