‘The hooky yet hard-edged, guitar-driven musical style known as power pop didn’t generate spontaneously. There were threads and uprisings—disconnected sounds that later combined into something like a movement—as early as the late ’60s, when some young rock-‘n’-roll fans were already starting to rebel against rock’s increasing pretensions and ponderousness. The impulse that led to power pop was already alive in the network of collectors of obscure ’60s garage-rock singles, and in the creators of the disreputable pop hits classified as “bubblegum.” Some key songs by Badfinger and The Move were power pop before the genre really existed, and once the sound became more viable and widely imitated, it was easier to trace the roots of the genre back to rockabilly, doo-wop, girl groups, and the early records of The Beatles, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, and The Who.

‘Power pop evolved throughout the ’70s and early ’80s, running parallel and sometimes absorbing other trends like glam rock, pub rock, punk, new wave, college rock, and neo-psychedelia. But for the core power-pop sound—the one that came closest to breaking through to the mainstream and challenging ’70s rock radio’s preference for grandiosity—the best place to start is with The Raspberries. The Cleveland band’s 1972 single “Go All The Way” (written by lead singer Eric Carmen) is practically a template for everything the genre could be, from the heavy arena-rock hook to the cooing, teenybopper-friendly verses and chorus. The body of the song was The Who; the soul was The Beach Boys. The Raspberries only lasted five years, breaking up in 1975; and they only recorded four albums, of which only the twin 1972 releases Raspberries and Fresh really fulfill the promise of “Go All The Way.” Still, The Raspberries’ initial fusion of fist-pumping guitars and sugary melodicism—and the chart success they had at the start—inspired young rockers across the Midwest.

‘While The Raspberries didn’t last long enough or stay true enough to popularize power-pop, the genre’s next big band had a stronger impact. Cheap Trick, formed in Rockford, Illinois in 1973, were pegged by critics early as one of the great hopes for the survival of meat-and-potatoes American rock ’n’ roll. Less cutesy and more muscular than The Raspberries, Cheap Trick really picked up the post-Beatles mantle of Badfinger, and gave it some middle-American blue-collar beef. Cheap Trick spent the next decade as solid sellers, while scoring the occasional chart breakout, but the band warred with its own sound throughout the ’80s, sometimes embracing pop, and sometimes rebranding as a mainstream hard-rock group, complete with power ballads and glammy videos. The reasons for Cheap Trick’s identity crisis may have had something to do with the trouble power pop had catching on—not just with the public, but with the top rock critics of the era, who were frequently distrustful of the genre’s elements of sweetness and simplicity. Even the acts that the critics did embrace often languished in obscurity, as Cheap Trick did in the early going.’ — A.V. Club

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Shoes
‘The brilliant quintessence of American power pop hails from Zion, Illinois and began by recording at home on a 4-track, which resulted in a self-released LP that attracted national attention and (eventually) a major-label contract. Bassist John Murphy, guitarists Jeff Murphy and Gary Klebe and drummer Skip Meyer blend electric guitar — loud, distorted and multi-tracked, yet sweet — with breathy, winsome vocals to create melodic rock made most impressive by the strength of three equally talented singer/songwriters.’ — Trouser Press

‘Too Late’

‘Now and Then’

‘Cruel You’

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Pezband
‘Formed in the late seventies, Pezband combined Beatles-esque melodies with a gritty rock ‘n roll edge. The band released three studio albums from 1977 till 1979, all of which were critically acclaimed. Rolling Stone cited their 1978 sophomore release, Laughing In The Dark as one of the best albums of the year, and Billboard and Trouser Press sang their praises as well. However, Pezband’s adoring reviews didn’t translate into album sales, and the band broke up shortly after they released their third studio album in 1979, Cover to Cover.’ — Chicagoist

‘Love Goes Underground’

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The Bongos
‘The Bongos emerged from Hoboken, and Manhattan’s New Wave and No Wave venues such as Tier 3 and the Mudd Club, with a guitar-driven pop that belied a strong influence of the avant-garde. What set them apart from other such groups of the era were their sudden guitar outbursts or saxophone improvisations that echoed the work of Lou Reed, Ornette Coleman, or Captain Beefheart within the context of a pure, melodic pop song. In addition, unlike many of their peers, the group explored unabashedly sensuous dance rhythms that made their recordings dancefloor favorites.’ — collaged

‘In the Congo’

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Great Buildings
‘Great Buildings was one of a series of bands that were part of Columbia Records “Developing Artists” series in the early 80’s. (Paul Collins’ Beat, The Laughing Dogs, 20/20, Tommy Tutone and others) Danny Wilde and Ian Ainsworth (former singer/guitarist and bassist with Los Angeles Sparks-loving glam/bubblegum band The Quick) went on to form Great Buildings. They recorded the Apart From The Crowd album for Columbia in 1981 before breaking up a short time later. Danny Wilde went on to release several solo albums for Geffen before teaming up again with Solem to form the Rembrandts.’ — Powerpop Presents

‘Another Day in My Life’

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Phil Seymour
‘Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Phil Seymour is probably best remembered for his time with the Dwight Twilley Band, who turned out some of the finest pop songs of their era, including the classic “I’m on Fire.” After two albums (1976’s Sincerely and 1978’s Twilley Don’t Mind), Seymour left to pursue a solo career. While waiting for a recording deal, he began recording solo sessions, as well as contributing session work for Tom Petty, 20/20, and Moon Martin. His self-titled debut was well received at the time (the single “Precious to Me” made it to number 22 on the pop charts) and has become highly revered in power pop circles as one of the landmark albums of the era. In 1984, Seymour was diagnosed with lymphoma. He returned to Oklahoma, carrying on at a diminished pace and recording infrequently, until the disease took his life on August 17, 1993 in Tulsa.’ — allmusic

‘Love Receiver’

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The Three O’Clock
‘The Three O’Clock were the quintessential L.A. Paisley Underground band. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio in fact coined the term to describe the set of bands, including the Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green On Red and the Bangles, who incorporated the chiming guitars of the Byrds and the Beatles into their pop songs with a psychedelic bent, and the clothes to match. Their final album and first for Warner Brothers/Paisley Park (Prince was a fan), proved to be their undoing, as they never really fulfilled the label’s expectations and Quercio refused to be pigeonholed as a pretty-boy pop star or spokesperson for the premature retro revival.’ — collaged

‘With a Cantaloupe Girlfriend’

‘Fall to the Ground’

‘Jet Fighter’

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Off Broadway
‘The year is 1980, and Chicago based power pop outfit Off Broadway has just released their first album, ON. The critically acclaimed debut album includes the singles “Stay in Time” (which reached #51 on the Billboard Hot 100) and “Full Moon Turn Your Head Around,” and goes on to sell nearly 300,000 copies in Chicago alone (more than most modern bands sell on a national level). The music industry is buzzing over this young Midwestern power pop band, and a bidding war amongst over a dozen major record labels begins. In the end, Off Broadway signs with Atlantic, but the glitz and glamour of being on a major label never come into fruition for Off Broadway.’ — Chicagoist

‘Bad Indication’

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20/20
‘One of the key bands in the Los Angeles power pop explosion of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, 20/20 never quite scored a hit single, but they were a powerful draw on the West Coast in their heyday, and their signature song, “Yellow Pills,” became a cult favorite, covered by a number of later power pop acts and providing a noted pop fanzine with its name. In 1978, the group came to the attention of Greg Shaw, who was documenting the new L.A. pop scene with his label Bomp Records. Bomp released 20/20’s debut single, “Giving It All” b/w “Under the Freeway,” which earned enthusiastic reviews as the group worked the L.A. club circuit. Portrait Records, a subsidiary of CBS, signed the group, and 20/20 went into the studio with producer Earle Mankey (formerly of Sparks) to cut their first full-length album. The LP, simply titled 20/20, received rave reviews, but while “Yellow Pills” received scattered airplay on progressive outlets around the country, radio didn’t embrace the single as they had with the Knack’s “My Sharona” (doubtless due to the song’s oblique drug references).’ — collaged

‘Yellow Pills’

‘Nuclear Boy’

‘Remember the Lightning’

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The Boys
‘Although the Boys never achieved massive commercial success, their music legacy has been carried on by influence. German punk band Die Toten Hosen championed their music for more than a decade, covering several songs and introducing new fans to the Boys. They also recorded cover versions of some songs, namely “First Time” and “New Guitar in Town” for their album Auf dem Kreuzzug ins Glück – 125 Jahre die Toten Hosen and “Brickfield Nights” for the cover album Learning English, Lesson One. In the late 1990s, Japanese band Thee Michelle Gun Elephant had a hit with a Boys cover. This prompted the re-release of several Boys albums with encouraging international sales (more than 30,000 albums being sold in Japan alone).’ — collaged

‘Brickfield Nights’

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The Records
‘Like the Motors, the Records were reborn pub-rockers, who made a giant leap into the present by leaving their history behind and starting afresh with finely honed pop craftsmanship and the full-scale record company support they had never previously enjoyed. While the Motors went for grandiose production numbers, the Records — led by ex-Kursaal Flyer drummer/songwriter Will Birch — made sharp, tuneful confections that offered maximum hooks-per-groove in a classic Anglo-pop style not unlike the Hollies, with similarly brilliant harmonies and ringing guitars.’ — Trouser Press

‘Starry Eyes’

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The Plimsouls
‘From inception, the Plimsouls, formed by singer, guitarist and songwriter Peter Case (who had previously fronted power pop band The Nerves), quickly became a crowd favorite in the Los Angeles club scene. Long Beach promoter Stephen Zepeda signed the group to his Beat Records label for a five-song EP called Zero Hour. Guitarist Eddie Muñoz joined the group during the recording of the EP. The band achieved national popularity in 1983 when the single release “A Million Miles Away” was included on Valley Girl’s motion picture soundtrack and became a minor hit. The band, which also appeared on camera in the film performing the song and parts of two others, quickly re-recorded the song for inclusion on a second album, Everywhere At Once, produced by Jeff Eyrich, but broke up shortly after.’ — collaged

‘A Million Miles Away’

‘Now’

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The Pop
‘The Pop recorded two albums for Arista in the late ’70s, but could never shake the impression that they were little more than an attempt to build the ideal power-pop band from scratch. The Pop believed in the new DIY values of the punk ethic and their first LP shows it. It is an eclectic powerful combination of Punk meets Pop and two of the album’s songs, “Down On The Boulevard” and “Animal Eyes” soon became authentic anthems on the Southern California music scene, mostly through air-play on The Rodney Binginheimer radio show on KROQ and the bands extensive clubs dates up and down the coast. The Pop called it quits on July 4, 1981.’ — collaged

‘Go!’

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The dBs
‘The dBs released their first album, Stands for Decibels, in 1981, to critical acclaim but negligible sales. Their sound was a modernized version of earlier power pop, with precise arrangements and highly accomplished instrumental work. Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple were the band’s songwriters, and while Holsapple was skilled in the composing of fairly straightforward tunes such as “Big Brown Eyes” and “Bad Reputation,” Stamey’s songs, which include “Espionage” and “Tearjerkin’,” tended to be somewhat more experimental. They released a second album in 1982, Repercussion, which built upon the strengths of the first album, and also released singles such as “Judy.” These two albums, recorded on the British label Albion, have since been reissued on one compact disc.’ — collaged

‘Black and White’

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Cheap Trick
‘Combining a love for British guitar pop songcraft with crunching power chords and a flair for the absurd, Cheap Trick provided the necessary links between ’60s pop, heavy metal, and punk. Led by guitarist Rick Nielsen, the band’s early albums were filled with highly melodic, well-written songs that drew equally from the crafted pop of the Beatles, the sonic assault of the Who, and the tongue-in-cheek musical eclecticism and humor of the Move. Their sound provided a blueprint for both power pop and arena rock; it also had a surprisingly long-lived effect on both alternative and heavy metal bands of the ’80s and ’90s, who often relied on the same combination of loud riffs and catchy melodies.’ — allmusic

‘Way of the World’

‘Come On Come On’

‘She’s Tight’

*

p.s. Hey. So, tomorrow I’m going to Amsterdam for the weekend. As far as you’re concerned, this means that the p.s. tomorrow is likely to be a bit rushed as I try to get it done pre-departure time. On Saturday, you will get a hopefully lovely rerun post and no p.s. per say. On Monday, everything will be back to normal with a new post, full p.s., etc., at which point I will catch up with the comments from both Friday and Saturday ** Scunnard, Hi. Certain things (age, location, general profession, etc.) about the seeming brother of George match, and others (for instance: wow, does he look different, if that’s him, etc.) make me wonder. Mm, I just want him to be the right guy, I guess. I don’t like the uncertainty. A friend of mine is going to make the initial contact with him for me to see if he’s the guy and if he will be willing to talk to me ‘cos I’m scared a bit shitless. Oh, thanks about the DG-F post, man. ** Misanthrope, Who ever knows with those motherfuckers. It just always seems like these really hyped up crises always get ‘solved’ albeit in some disappointing, heavily compromised way. Rallo?! Rallo is still alive? You’re kidding me. Weird, cool. ** xTx, Extie! My pal! Err, no, ‘Billie’ has not arrived. Hm. It is getting a little long. I’ll go down to the office today and make sure they don’t have some package for me that they forgot to tell me about because that has happened. Yikes, want! Very, very top notch news about your progress on the novel! Mega-whoopie! Mine, err, is crapped out right now, so, bleah, yeah, but I’m a stubborn motherfucker, so it’s not over yet. I miss you too! All love to you! ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. Sorry about the non-Skyping last evening. Yesterday got away from me. New Park Chan-Wook definitely has potential, I agree. I’m curious. It would be nice if Glass did something interesting again. I’ll use that link, thanks. I’m not giving up on the George novel yet, but I think it’s good to be realistic so I won’t crash and burn inside if/when it gives up my ghost. Art, yeah, but it and love are kind of all we’ve got or something. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. That thing Bill is doing sounds fun. If I were nearby, I would go and learn a lot. Give him a big ‘merde’ for me. ** Billy Lloyd, Balls plus great instincts and inherent talent. In your case, you’ll nail it, in other words. Assembling a team to make it happen, that sounds really logical to me. And it seems like angling for a label is the obvious and right thing to do, at least to start with. Let me know how your talk is received. Snow, awesome. We’re still without. Word is that it might rain-snow today, which is the worst. With my luck, we’ll get a massive, gorgeous blizzard while I’m in Amsterdam, where it never snows, which will have turned into a chilly swamp by the time I get back. Fully and heavily enjoy your London/ Oxford trips. Anything particularly exciting pre-planned? We can compare our respective trip notes upon our respective returns. ** Steevee, Hi, Steve. Thank you for the sympathy. No, I’ve never gotten this far into a novel and still felt this deeply negative about it, but I’ve never written a novel like this one before, so it’s hard to compare its status to the other ones. I don’t know. I’m going to trying to fix it, at least for now. Yeah, thanks, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, You got snow. Hunh. Usually, when you get it, we get it, but not this time unless today holds a big surprise. Thanks for the tip/link re: the AN website. That does look useful, and it’s a swell review, man. A real pleasure. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. I hope so too re: the novel. I’m not giving up yet. Thank you. I’ve listened to the MBV twice, and it’s really gorgeous, and I can tell it’s going to unfold and unfold in an amazing way. I actually really like the later Celine novels. ‘Normance’, ‘Castle to Castle’, ‘North’, all pretty fantastic, I think. I haven’t read the posthumous one, ‘Rigadoon’, but I want to. ** Statictick, Hi, N! Dude, spooning vs. commenting, no contest. Hope it was a soup spoon. Hope it was a ladle. Awesome re: possible guest-post, man. Really sweet of you. ** Trees, Hi, Ted. Thanks about my novel problems. I tried stepping away from it for a few months, and that didn’t work, so I’m trying fiddling with and chiseling what I’ve already written rather than trying to generate more prose. We’ll see if that helps. Cutting back could be plenty. I hope whichever route you go does the trick. All your upcoming book stuff is really exciting. Remember that I’d love to celebrate any of them on the blog, if you like. It is weird how multi-tasking just happens so naturally and easily sometimes, yeah. Weird stuff: the brain, I guess. ** Sypha, My sympathies to you re: the Gaga cancellations. Your worrying about her feelings on the matter is very odd and sweet. ** Un Cœur Blanc, Hi. Oh, thanks. Saki is mysterious and kind of magical to me for some reason. It could partly be the little bottle and cup. It would be nice to drink it while not in a restaurant. I think that’s the only place I’ve ever tasted it. Nice pic of Bacon. He looks very tender. ** Grant maierhofer, Hi, Grant. Really interesting about the sigil thing. That whole novel, ‘Guide’, is a sigil. Novel as sigil, or vice versa. I can’t say whether it worked or not because I think that would fuck something up, as I understand the principle. I am excited to read ‘Rontel’. I have to get on ordering it. My opinion on ‘Cremaster’ has changed towards the more positive as time has gone on. Partly for the reasons you mention, I mean for the reasons that you say you’re taken with it. The hype around it at the same was very off-putting, or it was to me. Thanks for being into Little Caesar. It was cool, and it was great to do, but, man, it was so much work to put together entirely on my own. I don’t miss typesetting machines and laying-out and the physical pasting and the endless trips to the post office whatsoever. But, yeah. My agent has been trying off and on for years to get Grove to put out a single volume version of the Cycle, but they’re just not interested at all. They think that would cause them to earn even less money on the books for whatever reason, and those kinds of decisions always drive everything, I guess. Good day to you! ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. The very first blog post, which was on my old, dead blog, happened on May 15, 2005. My first blog didn’t get hacked in the usual sense of the word. Back in those days, Blogger had this annoying set-up where people could flag a blog as offensive, and, if it got flagged a certain number of times within 24 hours, the blog would be automatically shut down, and, when that happened, all of the images in blog would be deleted. Basically, someone who hated the blog, or, more likely, hated me, hit the ‘flag’ button a ton of times one day, knowing that would kill the blog. When I managed to get Blogger to finally restore the blog, it was empty, and I just gave up on it because refilling it with the images would have taken an insane amount of work. Anyway, it got ‘hacked’ and died on November 20, 2006. Zac’s piece in ‘Userlands’ was his first published work, yeah. The online writing scene in those days was nothing at all like it is now, to the point where the premise of the ‘Userlands’ anthology seemed very fresh and novel, which is pretty funny to think about now, and which shows you how fast the online writing scene grew. Thanks for saying ‘Userlands’ was ahead of the curve. I think it was, yeah, if only by accident. It was well received and did pretty well, but I had hoped that there would be more concentration on the importance of the blog context and how that affected the work and the community in which the writers interacted, but there wasn’t a lot of thought put into that, or not to the degree that I thought was important to the project. Mm, I can’t remember exactly when HTMLG started, or exactly when Tao’s online movement/ sites/ self-branding outreach started. I guess the main difference between then and now is the obvious one, i.e. that back then it was still about posting fiction and poetry online whereas now the forms dictated by the internet’s shape and dimensions and possibilities are very central to so much of the forms being used by current writers in Alt Lit and otherwise. So, I think it’s significantly different now. Re: underrated sites and blogs, mm, I’ll need to think about that and get back to you ‘cos I think there are a bunch, and I would really collect my thoughts and check my bookmarks and stuff. Yeah, online writing is a huge and completely fascinating area/topic, for sure. I know I think about it and what it means and the innovations and things happening because of it a lot. Anyway, there are my initials answers, and I’m very happy to talk a lot more about that and about my experiences, if you like. It’s inspiring. My word overuses are legion. Like ‘yeah’, which I type at the drop of a hat. And also starting sentences with the word’ oh’. Bad habit, but whatever, I guess. Thank you a lot about the red lightbulb pieces, man. They’re from that book ‘The Weaklings (XL)’ that’s coming out. Great day to you, sir. ** Grant Scicluna, Howdy, Grant. Thanks a lot re: the novel struggles. I mean, it makes sense that this one would be the extremely hardest one and the most likely to fail. I’m trying to tackle the biggest thing of all, and it could be way too big for me. Still trying, though. I really hope the meeting goes incredibly well today, and, yeah, try not to worry, and that’s the spirit, and … how did it go? Hm, I don’t remember there being a film outlined from ‘A Herd’. Maybe I’m just forgetting, or maybe I never knew about it? So, as far as I know or can remember, I don’t know anything about that possible project. Hunh. Best of the best to you, man. ** Adrienne White, Whoa, hey, pal! How utterly sweet to see you here! Wowzer! I hope you’re doing really, really great! Are you? Much love to you! ** Bollo, Hey, J! No problem, man, just very happy to see you. Very cool score on the books and stuff. So fucking wish I could see/go to that show of yours that you noted on FB. Are those pix from that show? Wait, hold on, … oh, yes, they are. Seeing them is way better than nothing. They look fantastic! I’ll pore over them heavily a little later, and have a huge blast at the opening! Everyone, the ultra-great visual artist Jonathan Mayhew who hangs around under the guise Bollo has an exhibition opening imminently called ‘Envelope’ at the Ballina Art Center where his work will be shown alongside works by the artist Alan James Burns, and you can see some beautiful photos of Mr. Mayhew’s work in the show here, and, if you’re in Ireland, you can find out more about the show and how to see it here. Awesome! Happy V Day to you too! ** Right. Today I present some awesome past music makers who were into creating very precise, self-reflexive and/or subversive perfect pop songs in hopes of spreading brainy joy, and, if you would like some brainy joy in your life, I recommend give the post your attention. See you tomorrow.

‘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.