Minimal techno blowing up

swears

preppy-kei
I reckon it could happen. Think about electro in 1997-2000, such an underground scene, you had I.F., Dopplereffekt, a few tracks on Gigolo, it was the ultimate 'spotters genre, since most other dancefloor forms had been commercially exploited to some extent.
Look at minimal now, it's in pretty much the same position, I mean it has been around since Richy Hawtin, perhaps early bleep techno, etc...but being around ages didn't stop electro crossing over. Considering how distinctive that sort of Kompakt/Tresor sound is and how open the genre is to absorbing other styles within it's bare-bones framework then a kind of populist development could be achieved. What really fascinates me is the idea of minimalism, so opposed to the current mainstream of vulgar over-design and over consumption, so much potential to strike a chord with people feeling a general malaise regarding popular culture at the moment.
 

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
i think it already has to some extent.

the big club genres here right now are that blend of hard house and electro, and minimal techno.

when i went to the WMC in miami this year, i expected nothing but commerical, ibiza style club house. what i got was a LOT of minimal techno. plus, a little breaks and jungle thrown in, so i was happy. but i was suprised then to see how many people were into minimal techno, especially "clubbers".

and now.... its everywhere.
 

bassnation

the abyss
Do you mean "mainstream" blow-up, or "clubs everywhere" blow-up? If the latter, Freakaholic is right; it's everywhere. If the former, not a chance in hell. No hooks, no videos, no radio.

yes, agreed. certainly in terms of the uk (and i suspect, many other countries) its crossed over in a big way.

partly because the commercial end is in such dire straits, the underground has become the mainsteam.

didn't mixmag have a minimal techno special the other month?
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
No hooks, no videos, no radio.
I don't think it's going to happen, but wasn't electro a bit like that before electroclash branched off it, brought in hooks and vocals and videos and went massive? Villalobosclash, hmmm, I'm not sure if that's the best idea I've heard in ages or the worst...
 

tate

Brown Sugar
Do you mean "mainstream" blow-up, or "clubs everywhere" blow-up? If the former, not a chance in hell. No hooks, no videos, no radio.
I take your point, and Slothrop's villalobosclash is a funny thought, but there have been some hooks haven't there? Superpitcher's Here Comes Love certainly had hooks, and that came out March 2004. (Unless someone will object that the hooks were over schaffel beats rather than villalobos-style minimal.) Ada has melodies. There have been some pretty catchy remixes of the Quarks et al ("I walk," for example).
 

swears

preppy-kei
I don't think it's going to happen, but wasn't electro a bit like that before electroclash branched off it, brought in hooks and vocals and videos and went massive? Villalobosclash, hmmm, I'm not sure if that's the best idea I've heard in ages or the worst...

Villalobosclash! Awesome. Plus it would be a total break from rock, as a lot of the electroclash stuff had a punk/new wave influence, whereas 'lobosclash (heh) could take it's cue from elsewhere...I'm not sure exactly, that's why it could be interesting.

And yeah, it is making headway into hip dance nights like Fabric and the like but you have to remember that's like becoming a big fish in a small pond.
 

tate

Brown Sugar
And yeah, it is making headway into hip dance nights like Fabric and the like but you have to remember that's like becoming a big fish in a small pond.
If you haven't already, you should consult the many excellent ILM threads on minimal techno and minimal house, the archives of Sherburne's blog and "This Month In" columns, Geeta's blog (The Original Soundtrack), and so on and so forth. The impression that one gets is that minimal has been huge -- more than merely making headway -- for years now. Not only in Koln and Berlin. But obv I emphasize 'impression,' since I'm not there.
 
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swears

preppy-kei
Yeah, I'm up in Liverpool and the only decent nights around here are Chibuku and Voodoo, maybe Bugged Out, Ladytron used to run a good night called Evol, but it became just another indie club. There seems to be millions of indie nights actually, and cheeseball scouse house of course.
I get a bit jealous because people can just stick a couple of guitar bands on and their place is rammed, I wish it was like that with (good) DJs.
Maybe I should move to Berlin...

Yes, and Sherburne is wicked. I know minimal has been kicking around for a bit but it could really do with a more definate shape, or dare I say "image".
 

blunt

shot by both sides
Yes, and Sherburne is wicked. I know minimal has been kicking around for a bit but it could really do with a more definate shape, or dare I say "image".

I dunno, I think Perlon has been representing the genre well for the last 5 years or so, and image-wise it's very very strong.

Maybe not in the grander scheme of things yet. But at the very least, if any label's gonna carry it thru, it's Perlon.

Did I mention that I think Perlon are the bomb? ;)

But yes, swears, you should move to Berlin. From your posts thus far, I think it's safe to say that you would fucking love it...
 

bassnation

the abyss
I dunno, I think Perlon has been representing the genre well for the last 5 years or so, and image-wise it's very very strong.

Maybe not in the grander scheme of things yet. But at the very least, if any label's gonna carry it thru, it's Perlon.

Did I mention that I think Perlon are the bomb? ;)

But yes, swears, you should move to Berlin. From your posts thus far, I think it's safe to say that you would fucking love it...

correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't perlon more on the glitch / microhouse axis or is that just splitting hairs?
 

swears

preppy-kei
blunt: Ahhh...Perlon the Superlongevity comps are excellent, I've been meaning to get 'em on vinyl for a while now.

bassnation:I think what's supercool about Perlon is that they twist elements of glitch and microhouse into more dancefloor friendly shapes, so you get the best of both worlds.
 

tate

Brown Sugar
correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't perlon more on the glitch / microhouse axis or is that just splitting hairs?
Wiki has an entry. So clearly written by a German! (Cf the plural and capitalized "Percussions" mid-sentence; Germany and Cologne coming first in all of the lists; attributing the earliest "echoes" to Oval; and no mention of Akufen in the paragraph on microsamples, but instead demoting him to the discography, bah!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microhouse
 

Sef

Wild Horses
I'd say minimal is huge in the larger cities around the U.K. and the rest of Europe; indie reigns supreme everywhere else.
 

blunt

shot by both sides
correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't perlon more on the glitch / microhouse axis or is that just splitting hairs?

Hmmmmm.

Not splitting hairs, I don't think. Hombre Ojo and a lot of Panytec stuff is definitely glitchy, which I love. I've always found there to be something innately funky about microhouse; each cut just makes you want to jack your body, eh? :)

But, say, Dandy Jack and Villalobos, and certainly the latest Superloooongevity compilation, are comparitively glitch-free.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
I'm unconvinced that minimal proper- as opposed to electrohouse- has made THAT much headway in the UK. In Germany, yes, but not here, outside of a few small regular nights and infrequently at places like Fabric/The End in London, and even then these are still at least half electrohousy-maximalist sounds.
 

fandango

Tiny Robot
What really fascinates me is the idea of minimalism, so opposed to the current mainstream of vulgar over-design

In a nutshell, this is why I'm finding Cassy's "Panorama Bar 01" mix thrilling and vital at the moment, but the glossy and arguably overproduced likes of Booka Shade, Trentmoller, quite a hefty chunk of electro-house and quite a lot of basically-interchangeable-with deep house stuff... not so much (generalising wildly, apologies).

I suppose I'm just dissapointed in general at how heavily massaged into existing preconceptions a lot of this music needs to be for actual dance music fans in the UK to not write it off from the word go. What happened?

Rock audiences get a slating but honestly I think conservatism is rife across the board in a lot of ways. "Dance" enthusiasm for innovation seems just as much trickle-down spoonfeeding as your archetypal NME reading kid sometimes.

By which I mean a lot of the so-called underground BIG records that have broken through in some small way seem to have actually been very heavily promoted through the usual channels of Radio 1 and Mixmag as much as they've had success at ground level. "Washing Up" (played by Zane Lowe!) Mylo ("first good dance album in ages" (and only one we've heard) sez NME/R1) Body Language/Get Physical breaking to Radio 1, record/label of the year in DJ Mag quite a while after the fact, Mixmag finally stumbling across minimal as a "discovery" when it reaches critical mass @ DC 10, Ibiza. Border Community being but a whisker away from old-prog (and Holden himself somewhat Sasha endorsed). All that said, it (minimal) is definitely gaining ground all the time, but in conjunction with all the other things as Freakaholic said.

And you can slate the likes of The Killers and The Monkeys for being depressingly '80's and adding bringing little new to the table but I'm still unconvinced that electroclash (which I'd say was for a while a "good thing") didn't in the end simply birth el-retro-clash (Cut Copy = ugh. I'd like to ban cliched vocoder use for the next five years) and the Klaxons just fucking suck. Vampiric and desperate. And pointing out the indie-Warp-fan allergy to actual dance beats (despite the label history) has been beaten to a puree long ago now.

The whole DFA/punkfunk/indieclash thing seems still nominally more interesting to me somehow, as does the Justice-Nu-French-House end... but I'm getting off the point here.

I do think theres a strong argument to be made that Prole House in general, as Tim F rightly points out to be the commercially breaking end of things in reality (as defined by prescence in the Top 40/radio/clubs outside London i.e. Bodyrockers) might actually be more open-minded than people intently focusing on the "next big thing" (w/old roots) but... 1) it's just not to my taste (cheesey, tho' sometimes fun) 2) the argument is somewhat undermined by the heavy amount of (re)releases on labels like Defected, Data, MOS compilations etc, again the channels of influence still mostly tweak on the status quo of fierce heterosexuality, big tits, big hooks & big vocals.

The argument however does stand up, when you look at the chart success of say, UK Garage & proto-Grime (which I'll admit to innocently loving the 'hits' of, but passing me by completely as a 'movement' at the time) which was innovative, successful but widely disliked for the appearance of flashiness (hello sexy-funky-house fans???) and probably having the wrong colour skin to be validated by certain sections of the media.

Okay, this is about the longest most foolish thing I ever posted to dissensus and I'd like to tidy it up, cut it shorter, chase away the strawmen and received wisdom but I'll risk it as is.

Britain really, really, needs to lose it's cloying attachment to "happy" and "uplifting" dance forms to have any return to the glorious late 80's-90's, and for minimal techno to have any chance of "blowing up" IMHO.

In fact I'd put money on Dubstep doing it first (via the d'n'b club network) and (real) minimal surfing in on the shockwave, I just don't think it can do it alone right now (if ever). And when that happens Ricardo Villalobos will probably be the "new Aphex Twin"... and Flat Eric will make a sudden comeback.


Edit: baah this... this is more venting than anything constructive or worth reading I think, and partly me being annoyed at my own naivety ... every time I discover something I find exciting, always wondering "why isn't this big then??" and then actually finding out (very gradually) a perfectly decent explanation why that has nothing to do with people being just fuckwits. I enjoy the discussions here but I'm deleting my login, for fear of getting sucked into yet another board and getting my bile up unnessecarily often. Toodle-pip! :D
 
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swears

preppy-kei
Fandango: :) Couldn't have put it better myself!

Gek: Yeah, maybe people are getting confused between electro-house and minimal, there is quite a lot of crossover.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
To pick upon Fandango's last point... tis that dynamic sense of evil that I love about minimal music most... its a juvenile thing I suppose, but I just love it when I hear some dark, pulsing, febrile, alien textured piece of music, be it Dubstep or (proper) minimal (or indeed Scott Walker, but that's another story...)
 
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