‘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
*
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.
Now available in North America 
Wow, I was raised on this music. As a teenager I would frequent a Leeds techno club called The Orbit, where a bunch of these legendary names would DJ. This is a clip of how it used to go down. That sound always had a huge influence on me, something that's visceral and uncompromising, "banging", as we used to say. This Minimal Techno Day makes a happy partner to my own Acid House Day. To me, each informs the other in the annals of revolutionary electronic music. Beautiful day! Thank you!
Dennis, Oh, not very, very little. Smaller than the actual eye but big enough for people ride on. Or so it looked in the dream.
I did indeed watch the Super Bowl. They had an exciting 34 minute power outage when half the lights of the New Orleans SuperDome went out. That was strange. But it was a pretty good game.
I got shit sleep last night. Ugh. A recurring pattern on work nights for some reason.
The title "Techo Gods of The Plague" comes to mind (Fassbinder Meets HIV) Those street kids you knew, most now dead, bring much more to mind Dennis. MUCH more.
Sometimes I forget who's still alive.
thanks dennis! i love these and this'll make for a fantastic playlist throughout the day. i can think of no better place to celebrate the birth of this book than right here. thank you, i'd absolutely love it. i'll send you everything relevant as i receive it, along with a few copies when i get them.
everybody have a fantastic monday.
xo
grant
Heya D,
Firstly, this day: wow. I was just thinking the other day that I needed to make a serious study of good techno and now here you are, making one for me. Normally I browse days, picking and choosing a few choice fruits, but I think I'm going to really listen and bookmark and organize material (a lot of which you've done for me, thank you).
Austin was super fun. Continues to drive the question of where to move. Chad makes one good point: in DC we could get married. Sure, we could marry in DC on a vacation or something but still live in Austin, but we'd still have to jump through so many more hoops with insurance and taxes and shit to prove domestic partnership; for that to happen, we have to bring like six documents (utility bills, mostly) with both our names on them. It's just a pain. Most of the bills are from before I met Chad, anyway, so they're just in my name anyway.
Your words on publisher approval are really helpful. I'm trying not to think about it, like I said. Or, even, to be excited about it. That's something I have to remind myself pretty often: I really do *enjoy* the act of writing. It's so easy to get sucked into the agonizing dread of it I often miss sight of the fact that it makes me very happy. And so maybe publishing will be the same case, as has pretty much been the occasion of all the things I've had appear so far: a low-burn happiness.
Joining the gym this week, which should be fun. Getting into some sort of shape, hopefully. I'll never be a muscle twink but maybe I can fight back against the asthma that's hounded me all my life. I feel like I might actually have the discipline for it.
J
Yeah the landscape does look absolutely stunning and inspiring, that is something I would like to experience. My friend went last year and said it was really quiet though. I think it'd be somewhere I'd want to live when I was ready to be more quiet and less social. Right now I just like living in loud busy cities. It seems like a really cool place of experimentation and creation, I wonder though if it's a bit clique-y against non Icelanders? I don't have any evidence to suggest that, but it's often the case with smaller communities.
I am indeed in Leeds. No snow, just what sounds like a hurricane. I've not left the house in a few days because I got the bug that was going around our house. Feel rather rotten but I'm sure it will pass soon. I watched Perks of Being a Wallflower finally last night as well. I really like the book, it has the same sort of effect on me as your GM cycle does when I read them. The film was ok, it felt very different to the book but I still enjoyed it. Mainly because of Ezra Miller, who is a god amongst men.
What are you excited for or looking forward to?
Oliver Sacks (my favorite Leather Daddy) on Memory
The book fair, what I have seen, and heard, was a total success. Lots, lots, lots of people looking at weirdo books and i have to presume they were buying books as well. Some of the New York citizens told me that this festival was the best yet, better then the ones in NYC. For me it was a real eye-opener. I have been hearing about the death of publishing/books for the past…. ten years. This festival proved that there are fascinating people making fascinating books of all sorts. I think what is dead is the BEA and in my opinion the L.A. Times Books Festival – that sort of mainstream business is not interesting whatsoever. So impressed with the high quality of the books, and I have to say I have never seen so many good looking boys and girls in one location.
Now I must work on a new project, and listen to minimal Techno through out the day.
right-hand side masonries has to skirt medical hundred has to feel which them days of large further still changed it and flat was now covered with grids of and greenhouses under the mixture of ether which of cotton soils humours of blood dyed that and scraps of flesh passed slowly as the icebergs too only the odor of ether gasses and bandages felt current unrolling their right of each towards
The only group today who's name is familiar to me is Pan Sonic. I recall listening to them a lot during the early 2000's, around the same time period where I was also listening to groups like Aphex Twin and Autechre. I recall liking Pan Sonic quite a bit, along with the VVV album they did with Alan Vega. I should give 'em another listen one day, huh?
I don't know, I read "Notes From Underground" last year and I kind of liked it. That's the only Dostoevsky I've read. So far I'm 10% into "BK" and enjoying it so far. I hope to finish it this month as I want to read DFW's first novel in March.
Latest FaBlog: Oh GAAWWD!
Hi Dennis
Minimal yums, i never really thought of Pan Sonic as part of it but i guess your kinda right. that Vandal EP Vainio put out a while back are really amazing dance tracks. use to pay a bit of minimal when i could get away with it, also great for when you have to run off to piss & smoke.
just saw your name pops up on the top of this press release http://www.templebargallery.com/gallery/exhibition/ed-atkins
opens next week, looking forward to it. finishing pieces for my own show slowly, everything is going ok but slow. Nayland Blake has a lovely looking show over in Matthew Marks in NYC, id love to see it for real http://www.matthewmarks.com/new-york/exhibitions/2013-02-02_nayland-blake/
would like to know your thoughts on MBV's new one if you got to listen to it. i still have to check out the knifes new one too. im gonna try andbe around a lil more the next while, my mind has been bust with other stuff the last week or so, hope alls wel?
Hey. Hey. Sorry for the absence. Skipping from semi coma to semi coma. Some self-induced. Others glommed from aerobic organisms oxidizing from the breath of humanity, ahh … sharing. But you gotta love the soup we are dancing in, right? I do, most times.
I will be doing the Blog catch up for the next couple of days.
Coop, supreme techno primer. What could I add? Porter Ricks, perhaps.
How goes it?
Hey Dennis,
Great day here, and one of my passions, too! This music is how I got into techno in the first place— through Villalobos and Isolee, then delving heavier into Detroit. Detroit techno is still the best, in my opinion— after all, Basic Channel copped their entire style from Detroit— but much here is quite amazing, especially the Detroit stuff.
But speaking of other guys, are you familiar with the work of Ian Loveday, aka Eon, aka Minimal Man? He did this pretty famous track as Eon that samples "Dune." You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stNMF2DmfJA . And then there's the absolutely SUBLIME "Treatment Feel," a true classic of the minimal genre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0f7Lzmr_mw . "Treatment Feel" very well might be one of my favorite songs of all time.
Things are good here. Went to a great reading and art opening last night, heard Ben Mirov do an awesome reading and saw some good art that Kevin had curated. Also ran into Bill Hsu, which was nice. Kevin took a hilarious photo of us.
Well, I am off to shower and head to work. We're having an opening/art patron event tonight, which is going to be boozy and schmoozy. Silly, but I have to be on my best behavior, whatever that means.
Hope all's well with you.
xoxot
Oh, there's also this gem that Ian Loveday did under the name of R. Rash called "Smokin Jakkit." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rns6FPOrK74
Hey Trees, good running into you last night at the opening at ATA.
Ahhhh, the 90s. I'm not familiar with Wolfgang Voight; that track sounds a lot like some of my favorite Tim Hecker material. Is it typical of his work?
I like Plastikman in his super-dark "I just kicked heroin and am depressed all the time" phase. Never got into Pan Sonic until I caught one of their shows; then I understood it's about the beats physically pounding against your body.
Thanks for the good wishes regarding Australia. On that note, I've been returning to an area of sound-based work I kind of left behind for a few years. It's pretty interesting enjoying again the aspects that I used to, and running up against the damned hard problems that you have to muddle around. Again.
Bill, back to muddling
Hey Dennis – Nice techno day. I've been getting into Ricardo Villalobos lately, but haven't heard his newest one yet. Have you?
Like many folks, been digesting the new MBV album but feel like I really need to blast it from my speakers at top volume to be able to have a proper opinion. Initially strikes me as surprisingly relaxed and confident, even slightly lackadaisical in places, gorgeous in others, the last third being where it truly gears up. Interested to hear your reactions.
Excited that Guernica published a (streamlined) excerpt from my novel: http://www.guernicamag.com/fiction/my-year-zero/ Consumed with final edits on the book now, plus navigating some behind the scenes stuff. How's your writing been going?
d-
there's probably some great urban caving around the strip, but the police presence is too massive to really pull anything off.
my ankle is not as bad as it looked at first. it's still a little sore but it didn't swell up that much. i thought i was going to have a cankle, and that is just unacceptable. but no, i'm cool. kinda limping a little but nothing i can't handle, you know?
so i got my tickets for the spzd show and also for the selecter with lee 'motherfuckin' perry. april is going to be an awesome month. but i'm going to be so poor.
yeah, i get reunion-itis a lot. probably the only band i was excited for their reuniting right when i heard about was mbv. but you know how i feel about shields and co since i speak so frequently of them. have you heard it have you heard it have you heard it? i'm so in love. it's like all i've listened to since saturday night. 'new you' is my immediate favorite, but the whole album is solid mbv greatness. one of those bands that i know mean a lot to myself and only a few other people i know, but we're all obsessed. the converts, at least. you might as well just like bold a statement about the new one at the beginning of the ps since everyone is obviously going to ask you.
that is quite a belated birthday dinner. was it tasty? i'm making an effort to not eat so terribly as i've been lately. it's probably not going too well. i'm just so rushed for time lately, which obviously means i don't have time to cook the nice food i'm used to eating. so instead i eat crap food. and it shows. i'm getting bloated.
i just downloaded my newly purchased copy of 'unsound,' the new one by burma, direct from their label. and none of the songs were tagged correctly and the artwork wasn't included. so i had to enter it all myself. god, that's frustrating. you'd figure the label that releases the shit would be a little more on top of things, like matador, who've made the downloading process insanely easy, and now even offer multiple formats of their new releases. but i guess some indie labels know how to keep their game tight, and the rest scramble to catch up.
cont'd…
i had an idea today for maybe a short story or something. but it's based on the modern urban myth about walt disney's cryogenically frozen head. my mother denies this to this day, but i vividly recall her telling me on our first visit to disneyland that his head was kept in a vault underneath the haunted mansion until which time they found a cure for old (or i guess maybe after the white people win the race war that old walt seemed to be so in favor of happening) and could thaw him out. so i've got some wheels turning on how to make a good story about trying to find walt's cryogenically frozen head. i just have such a hard time writing fiction without it coming across as a shitty genre exercise. when i write about myself (as i do so frequently here), i have a much easier time of it, as i just write how i speak, and then people compliment me on thinking up some original or eloquent form of writing and i'm like 'guh? i type-speak like a fucking valley girl on downers.' so i suppose this will be my exercise in making my writing style fit a topic other than myself. like, i like writing fiction but most of the time after i write it, i decide that it's too derivative of someone else (you, HST, burroughs are probably the biggest victims of my literary aping) and so i end up scrapping it. i guess it could be worse: i could be writing third rate palahniuk ripoffs, like so many of the alt kids at my highschool did all those years ago. consafos, as the french say.
(and yes, i know that consafos is actually a spanish statement. it's one of my favorite phrases in any language. and i like throwing in the little misnomer there to make people think i'm less intelligent, as it's always worked wonders for me.)
ok, i've got a stout and some layouts to finish. hopefully tonight i can breathe my huge sigh of relief that the book is done, but i'm not going to say anything more on the subject so i don't jinx myself. talk soon.
-me.
It was so nice to hear this music today. Ricardo Villalobos and Surgeon in particular. It's far too absent from my recent playlists. Back in the 90s, I did not fall immediately in love with techno like everyone I knew did. I dunno why. Finally, I got a very cool housemate who was a girl just out of high school. She was SO into it, as was her weird little boyfriend. So, I got to hear it all the time and it eventually cast it's spell. And after letting those youngsters drag me out to 'see' some techno, I was sold. That was a superfun time.
Dennis: Yo. Regarding Lamictal and side effects along with dosage increases… It seemed to make the insomnia I always struggle with (since childhood) worse. Or it did for a few of the dosage raises. It's really hard for me to tell if it's the increase, or if it's just another night awake. The drug itself seems undetectable, which is a good thing. But, I think it also makes my sleepwalking / lost time episodes more, uh, 'intense' isn't the word for that. Scary, I guess. That's the thing I'm trying to keep an eye on. There's not always someone here to observe me when that happens. So, if that is indeed worsening, then I gotta wonder how this is helping with epilepsy at all. And it's not touching the pain. The doc wants me on a few hundred more mgs per day, but understands I can't tolerate the speed of the increases. So, I'm not really sure where this is ultimately headed. I want it to work so very much.
Well, after that uplifting aside, it's time for late night cartoons. Thanks for letting me spew about that. I really appreciate your interest, man.
Best to everyone.
Njr
my favorite part in Yacht Rock is when the guy from the band Toto tells Michael McDonald, "It's the 80's, you have to change with the times or you'll become an irrelevant joke" and Michael McDonald just laughs and says "Me? An irrelevant joke? Please."
I've listened to "What a Fool Believes" like 10 times today
I've been listening to some lectures by Terence McKenna lately, do you know him? Do you have any opinion about him? Tao Lin has been posting some McKenna links lately, that's why I've been listening to him lately. He's interesting, he's got some weird ideas.
Did you ever get much "religious feeling" from taking acid and similar stuff? Do you know what I mean? Some acid people make it into sort of a religion, like McKenna did…I knew some people who felt that way about DMT, like it being "the spirit molecule" and a way to tap into the spirit world and stuff. I guess "Enter the Void" kind of follows along that line of thinking.
It's a pretty vague question, feel free to ignore it. I'm mostly just curious if you know much about McKenna, or if you ever went through a phrase where you felt "religious" or "metaphysical" about lsd. Maybe "metaphysical" is a better word.
When I trip, I usually end up thinking about God in one way or another…although I also come from a really religious background, my dad is a preacher and that stuff is almost genetically encoded into my unconscious.
Also, have you seen this TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor describing her experience of having a stroke? It sounds so much like an acid experience, listening to her talk kind of freaked me out a little bit. It's really worth watching, though…it's basically her describing the experience of having a brain hemorrhage, in which the left side of her brain was wholly disconnected from the right side of brain, so she describes slowly losing right brain functioning, until she couldn't remember who she was or what she was doing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTrJqmKoveU
I guess that's what I mean specifically, that experience of not having a "self" while tripping…or not being able to distinguish/separate yourself from the rest of the universe.
That's such a powerful experience, it's interesting how people react differently to it, how people explain those experiences to themselves…how do you explain those experiences to yourself? Maybe that's too big of a question.
I've read that according to recent brain scans and things like that, scientists say that the way mushrooms work is by cutting off circulation to certain parts of the brain that regulate important perceptual processes, and parts of the brain that control things like "ego" and things like that. So it makes sense to me that those type of drug experiences are more of a "ghost in the machine" type of thing… Despite that, after a heavy trip I usually end up feeling like maybe Philip K Dick was right…and I go through this long questioning of reality…
Anyway, I'm mostly just rambling. Talk to you later, you're super awesome…
🙂
Mistake: I mean that Jill Bolte Taylor slowly lost LEFT brain functioning
grant m, i can understand submerging yourself underground to get away from the noise of the superbowl. that's what attracts me to these places in the first place.
grant s, if i was in melbourne still i would be up for it but i haven't called that place home for over 4 years now (3 and a bit years in the territory and 1 year here in the west). the one that's most accessible on the yarra is the anzac drain which i linked to in the day. It's safe and quite large and in terms of first adventures definitely worth checking out. helped a friend put on an exhibition and film screening in there a few years ago
un couer, yeah there is definitely some interesting metaphors at work in the sub terranian space. i've always found it interesting that the sign of civilisation- harking back to the romans and egyptians for that matter- is the burial of the bodily products and the body itself underground ie. roman sewers and. where as 'uncivilised' places don't have this. i think this is part of why people find travelling in India or outer China difficult as the body fluids are in the open to see and not buried out of the way.
i think by extension theres something to be drawn about the mixed feelings around bodies and death and the like in the west. i don't know there's something to think about there for sure. thanks for the thoughts.
Dennis, hope you got on top of the blog days so you can spend more time writing. i didn't get much writing done truth be known. having been working a lot lately its hard to get back into it. did read some John Kinsella short stories. not sure if you know him he's a Western Australian poet/essayist/novelist who writing focuses on history and environment. he's blend of the anecdotal, historical, ecological and colloquial is something similiar to what i would like to do with my seed story ideas.
saw Django today. i enjoyed it but had some problems with it. i think i prefer the Tarrantino movies were he plays around with the narrative structures more. in Django the homage to the western is perhaps too strong and the story too faithful to that narrative structure.
hope you have a good day.
rewritedept, i think your story idea is interesting. maybe you can start by using your experience as the start and flesh it out from there. if you recollect those memories maybe it'll be easier to find that voice for the story.
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Love Song
Hey that above was the first time I did my l'ecume des jours today. I don't know, I just love fucking that book. Thought I'd drop you a line and say hello. Super busy, party rocking some science and crying heart-broken. Wanna get this shit done so I check the blog and I've started reading Triptych, pretty amazing. Hugs
Thanks a lot! Here’s the whole collection from here as single YT playlist, back-linked to this article:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFB_nCuKHDIkdIPLjIgr4lcqUcS8Pw3Ts
Technoest regards from Ukraine!