Minimal house anthems

[sodiumnightlife]

gek opel just hit upon something i've been thinking about for a while - minimalism in general has really been in in the past little while. There is nothing more associated with the modern than sleekness and sparseness. This is seen in design and in other music forms than house. If you think about it, alot of recent lauded hip hop has been pretty minimal.

i guess this preference for minimal is just a reaction to what we now perceive as the overly fussy and ostentatious styles of the 18th and early 19th centuries. I find it interesting to wonderwhether this backlash against maximalism will ever be the subject of a backlash itself.

Though certainly in design, i think it unlikely. If only for this reason: in the past, the overblown styles such as baroque were possible because of the huge amounts of moeny available to people doing the designing. Now that the onus is very much on cost efficiency buildings are minimal almost as much out of necessity as they are out of preference. I can't see the cost efficiency situation changing so I don't think this will either.

 

[Chris]

I think "minimal" basically equates to an aesthetic of luxury in the same way as "minimalist" penthouse flat design-- a simplicity of form but a deep appreciation for finely burnished texture, a shagpile deep sonic sense of space... its about sound design and its design in the sense of graphic design or interior design, a plush, luxurious functionalism, modernist machines-for-living, or in this case, dancing (tho of course, not necessarily!)

Yeah, I get that sense from this stuff too... Small, understated-yet-concise and functional percussion defining the contours of an elegant, sleeker whole really create a "refined" feel. I don't neccesarily identify it with luxury or an upper class sensibility though (though I might be wrong or thinking wishfully here), but to a German ethic of making things of fine quality, combined with their technofetishism (not just in techno music but cutting edge technology and scientific advancement in general), as well as to being a residual continuation of the Modernist aesthetic (in it's minimalism), as Sodiumnightlife suggested... although there has been a bit of a sweeping Baroque feel (in the nu-trance stuff), and Classical form (Solomun's "Feuervogel") sneeking into minimal lately...

 

[Alfons]

Somewhere I got an mp3 entitled 1º Encuentro Latinoamericano de la Soledad by Ricardo Villalobos, nice little tune. Google doesn't return many usefull sites in english, does anyone know about this tune? Was it released?

 

[smn]

That Villalobos track was originally leaked here: http://ohmygoshparty.blogspot.com/2007/06/len-faki-cancelled-this-friday-too-bad.html as far as I know. Don't think it's been officially released yet.

 

[sodiumnightlife]

No it's not been released...i don't think anyone knows which label its coming out on. Great tune though.

 

[gek-opel]

Yeah, I get that sense from this stuff too... Small, understated-yet-concise and functional percussion defining the contours of an elegant, sleeker whole really create a "refined" feel. I don't neccesarily identify it with luxury or an upper class sensibility though (though I might be wrong or thinking wishfully here), but to a German ethic of making things of fine quality, combined with their technofetishism (not just in techno music but cutting edge technology and scientific advancement in general), as well as to being a residual continuation of the Modernist aesthetic (in it's minimalism), as Sodiumnightlife suggested... although there has been a bit of a sweeping Baroque feel (in the nu-trance stuff), and Classical form (Solomun's "Feuervogel") sneeking into minimal lately...

The minimalism reflects the quality of the materials used, no need to hide beneath layers (or not all the time at least). The important thing with minimal strangely isn't its minimalism (half the stuff is quite baroque as you say) but rather the luxuriousness of its component sounds. I don't listen to this music to dance, or even necessarily to hear compositions as such (in terms of structures) rather its all about purely sensual audio-porn. I'm not sure if it is necessarily advances in technology (over the mid-90s say) that have led to the current fixation on excessively elegant and ear-candy-ish sound-design but yes- totally agree with the "German ethic of making things of fine quality"... its a master-craftsman's art now, of finely judged abstract sculpting of sounds to delight and titillate. It is a luxurious (tho not necessarily elitist or upper class) sound, ergonomic consumer friendly- a function of the everyday disposable luxury-capitalism of decadence we exist within (but, like, one of the good aspects of it, obviously...)

 

[DJ PIMP]

Gregor Tresher - A thousand nights

 

[gek-opel]

nu DJ Koze 12" is meaty...

 

[mms]

nu DJ Koze 12" is meaty...

its funny but i think the last suburban knight 12", also soultech and omar s are making more convincing minimal anthems, i saw koze recently and he's got an affinity with this stuff for sure, but the most satisfying, deep and melodic stuff taking minimalism as a pragmatic framework is coming out of the d, which is nice cos Detroit stuff has been pretty bad lately.

 

[zhao]

i heard some 12s of Pantha du prince and was not impressed; however the album's combination of a very becoming sense of melody and nice non-show-off programming makes the release a charming lissen all the way through. which is SO fucking hard to come by these days.

 

[Chris]

Really enjoying that wind-chime-y percussive sound used in a lot of Efdemin and Pantha tracks these days...

 

[DJ PIMP]

i heard some 12s of Pantha du prince and was not impressed; however the album's combination of a very becoming sense of melody and nice non-show-off programming makes the release a charming lissen all the way through. which is SO fucking hard to come by these days.

Heard the Guy Gerber album? Pretty nice...

 

[psherburne]

Re: the bell tones in Efdemin, Pantha, et al -- There's a fantastic softsynth called the Zebra2 (www.u-he.com) that excells at plucked and struck tones, if you're looking for them. (Efdemin doesn't use it, though. Apparently many of the sounds on the opening track come from the MUMOK museum in Vienna, which is covered in raised basalt tiles that make a muted chime when struck. Amazing place.

Re: Primer Encuentro de la Soledad Latinoamericana: It was originally a song by Los Jaivas, a Chilean protest rock group from the 60s & 70s (though still active). Oddly enough, I heard the Villalobos edit on the beach in Barcelona yesterday. It's not intended for an official release; I suspect that someone recorded it off the boards when Villalobos was DJing, cut it out of the mix and uploaded. When I interviewed Ricardo a few weeks back, he didn't even know that it had leaked. He was pissed.

 

[tox]

Do you ever get in the mood where pretty much any minimal tune sounds like the best thing ever (and I'm not talking a chemical induced state here).

This evening I'm loving:

Argy - Love Dose (Luciano Remix)
Agnes - Controversial Advantage (Ripperton Remix)

and

Pikaya - Fango

I'm not sure I'll think they're all that tomorrow, but I'm loving them right now.

 

[elgato]

Argy - Love Dose (Luciano Remix)

Easily one of my favourite minimal tracks, I never tire of it. A definite minimal anthem! Its been a while since I heard something as funky as that out of minimal. Except maybe Drunken Ballet actually!

Just checked the Pikaya, its nice, so dense! Pretty epic. Feeling Jedi a lot more though to be honest

 

[sodiumnightlife]

back to front by luciano is really good...saxaphone snaking in and out of it. that's pretty damn funky.

 

[Chris]

Do you ever get in the mood where pretty much any minimal tune sounds like the best thing ever (and I'm not talking a chemical induced state here).

I almost get that with any good genre, depending on what day you catch me on... but yeah, I know exactly how you feel!

Re: the bell tones in Efdemin, Pantha, et al -- There's a fantastic softsynth called the Zebra2 (www.u-he.com) that excells at plucked and struck tones, if you're looking for them. (Efdemin doesn't use it, though. Apparently many of the sounds on the opening track come from the MUMOK museum in Vienna, which is covered in raised basalt tiles that make a muted chime when struck. Amazing place.

Thanks for the info, I actually was wondering what they were using. Incidentally, I was just in Vienna not too long ago... Wish I had a chance to check that place out!

By the way Philip, out of curiosity... is there a "Barcelona sound" right now... are there any local influences seeping into the production there? ...Or is Barcelona more of just a sister scene to Berlin/Cologne sounds right now? I'll be out in continental Europe again next year, and I'm trying to decide if I want to check out Berlin or Barcelona, or both...

 

[elgato]

back to front by luciano is really good...saxaphone snaking in and out of it. that's pretty damn funky.

I found that 12 a little disappointing to be honest, although I do have perhaps unfairly high expectations of Luciano. Love Drunken Ballet though.

A record which I forgot which is hugely funky is the Digitaline EP on Cadenza

What about more dancefloor minimal without too much grind and trip if you know what I mean? With swing, funk and maybe a smile? I've really been feeling Circus Company of late, a very recent discovery, and some of their catalogue is quite phenomenal. Orac, Floppy Funk et al are also doing some good things, although rarely do they hit my spot quite right

 

[psherburne]

I definitely wouldn't say there is a Barcelona sound in terms of production (largely because there are so few producers here, if we're talking about house/techno). Factor City is doing some great stuff, at times strikingly original (that Lontano remixes 12" is great) but they're generally following in the shadows of Bpitch/Kompakt/Get Phys... The only other label of note I can think of, Galaktika, is ballsy electro-house. For whatever reason, I think BCN has produced far more DJs than producers. And another frustrating thing about this city: the clubbing public isn't very adventurous at all. Generally they either like it hard and loud, or minimal and tweaky, but in the most general sense. I think a lot of it has to do with the closing hours here (5 or 6am) and the fact that people don't go out until 2 or 3am, so there's really only a few hours of proper clubbing to be had (and no real afters). So there really isn't anything but a peak hour, by default.

 

[dogger]

I found that 12 a little disappointing to be honest, although I do have perhaps unfairly high expectations of Luciano.
right

no way! especially the a-side is stunning - hypnotic, delicate, beautiful.

with you absolutely on the digitaline tho.

argy's "unreliable virgin" on cocoon is bound to be an anthem this summer - not exactly a groundbreaking release but very effective.

loco dice's remix of son of raw on objektivity is probably my fave of the year so far...deep like the original but with bursts of blaring synth a la mouth to mouth/ballandine/the foghorn school of "minimal", and an irresistable build throughout.

the mekong delta/rainbow delta remixes are devastatingly good as well...serafin's forthcoming on mountain people sounds pretty tasty too....there's just too much good stuff coming out at the moment!