Techno Minimalism

**Dustin Zahn** · 20-09-2005, 09:29 PM

there's a time and a place for everything. I love it all.

**Agent Orange NYC** · 20-09-2005, 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by Just Music

A lot of this minimal stuff these days seems a bit too much about chin stroking and being clever as far as I can see. Random squirty little metal noises fiddling around with each other. I mean 'MICRO HOUSE', 'GLITCH HOUSE' etc etc.... It's just minimal techno that thinks it's more intelligent than it is.

That is spot on my man, do you mind if i use this for my sig? lol

**Stella Boy** · 20-09-2005, 09:37 PM

I saw BC live last year and the last thing I wanted was crushed velvet pillows. I was stood in the dj booth screaming and shouting my arse off, totally unlike me

:lol: . They were only on an hour but I could have done with another 6

Anywho, Hood & Dan Bell are the ones for me. All this new euro-style mnml which is being released is getting plain daft. It's not mnml, it's tech-house imo

**Dustin Zahn** · 20-09-2005, 09:38 PM

My biggest gripe about the new "minimal" fad isn't really about the music but the people. The majority of the people getting on the bandwagon are super elite and have no clue or history about techno or electronic music in general. Right here on BOA you'll find a lot of hard techno heads who appreciate minimal just as much as any other form of techno or house. If you go out to the trendy wine-techno hangouts or places like mnml.nl, those new DJ/producer types will frown upon anything that isn't the newest poker flat or akufen cut.

**Stella Boy** · 20-09-2005, 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by Dustin Zahn

My biggest gripe about the new "minimal" fad isn't really about the music but the people. The majority of the people getting on the bandwagon are super elite and have no clue or history about techno or electronic music in general. Right here on BOA you'll find a lot of hard techno heads who appreciate minimal just as much as any other form of techno or house. If you go out to the trendy wine-techno hangouts or places like mnml.nl, those new DJ/producer types will frown upon anything that isn't the newest poker flat or akufen cut.

hahaha, spot on :clap:

uber-chique.

**holotropik** · 20-09-2005, 09:43 PM

I like minimal. When its sone right its very crafty.
That said, a lot of the tripe comin out at the mo' is just bleep-blop using one machine and is boring as bat-shite. I havent heard many good tracks that are currently floating around in this fad.

**stjohn** · 20-09-2005, 09:48 PM

mnml.nl is a bit like that.....
i posted in the 'LIVESETS' asking for a few mixes, recommended or otherwise....... and the mod just deleted the thread straight away.

:dontevengothere: PAT RAFTER!

**audioinjection** · 20-09-2005, 09:53 PM

i dig the occasional minimal set here and there, also spin a bit of it myself sometimes, im not too picky

**DrewDavid** · 20-09-2005, 10:10 PM

cool... can't say I've heard anything live by them, so the only thing I can go by is the studio recordings. I do play some of the maurizio stuff out though.

Originally Posted by Stella Boy

I saw BC live last year and the last thing I wanted was crushed velvet pillows. I was stood in the dj booth screaming and shouting my arse off, totally unlike me

:lol: . They were only on an hour but I could have done with another 6

**pumpinglemma** · 20-09-2005, 11:14 PM

Spot on man. Could not have said it better myself. Yeah not a big fan of the chin-stroking stuff either. A bit too devoid of any attitude..

Originally Posted by Just Music

Depends, really. On whether or not you want it to sound 'compressed'. Your opinion about programming isn't strictly correct, though.

Feeling the old DBX myself, in my opinion none of this modern stuff stands up to old dan bell/pulsinger/hood stuff (even the output from these guys themselves!).

Whether or not something is fast or slow, hard or soft, you can always tell something cool when the hook grabs you straight off. All this old minimal stuff used to do that for me, I'd be zapped in straight away - the 'new wave' of minimal gear.... well.... doesn't.

One of the best nights out I've ever had was seeing Dan Bell about 8 years or so back, it was **** perfect. Hypnotic and punishing. I doubt anyone would have the gall to drop anything so relentlessly minimal and robotic these days. His sets seem to have gone all jazzy now (though the quality of the music is high and I love it, it's not the same style).

A lot of this minimal stuff these days seems a bit too much about chin stroking and being clever as far as I can see. Random squirty little metal noises fiddling around with each other. I mean 'MICRO HOUSE', 'GLITCH HOUSE' etc etc.... It's just minimal techno that thinks it's more intelligent than it is.

Also, minimal doesn't just mean 'slow and quiet'. Minimal tracks can be banging too ! As far as I'm concerned myself and many of my contemporaries play and produce 'minimal techno'. It fits all the criteria, anyway, it just don't sound like 'I'm losing control' anymore.

I think these categories may have arisen cause kids nowadays don't know the old gear and to them it's NOT what they are used to calling 'techno'.

Anyhoo, that's my 5 pence worth. :lol:

**MARKEG** · 21-09-2005, 12:35 AM

i realise this minimal thing is creating a really trendy scene, but if i'm being totally honest, i like it alot but. i don't love it. and just cause it's trendy doesnt mean i'm going to love it. but i do like it. alot. in the car - i LIKE it -cause it's something different.

but i really would like to see this develop into something harder.

slam's mix got me cause it was harder.

richie's was almost progressive. still really good though ;)

yeah, there's some very interesting stuff coming out here right now. we all need to keep our eyes on it imho

;)

**stjohn** · 21-09-2005, 01:57 AM

so...its not bangin.........

but you have to admit. if you were at a festival, big tent style..... and DJ XYZ was playing a 4 hour set.

He starts of with some ****y-tekke minimalistic sh*t unitl t - 3 hours. then by the time t -2 hours is about.... everything is all upbeat and driving, funky as f*ck..... by the time the t- 2 and t- 1 arrive, the place is just bangin .

then the whole place goes north...for the summer!

**eyeswithoutaface** · 21-09-2005, 09:52 AM

its good stuff most the time, but everyman and his dog is jumping on the minimal applecart and it shows in the productions those who've been there from the start and those who are trying to get a slice of the pie so to speak

**The Overfiend** · 21-09-2005, 10:31 AM

bleep block
chizz
schoomp schoomp tack
drip drip drip drip
bleep block
chizz
schoomp schoomp tack
drip drip drip drip

**Jay Sanders** · 21-09-2005, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by SummerOfSam

bleep block
chizz
schoomp schoomp tack
drip drip drip drip
bleep block
chizz
schoomp schoomp tack
drip drip drip drip

Yeah Tony thats what i was thinking man!!

:lol:

**Jay Pace** · 21-09-2005, 10:58 AM

I think minimal is amazing, but its more reliant on a good system.

Sonar this year with Richie finishing up was incredible. Broody, dark and funky at the same time, but the bass just slammed at you. Played nearly a third of his set with the EQs cut, but when the bass kicked back in my lord it formidable.

I can't fail to be impressed by someone rocking a crowd at 120bpm with so few noises, when others fail at 150 with all the crunch in the world.

**JamieBall** · 21-09-2005, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by MARK EG

but i really would like to see this develop into something harder. ;)

Think you've hit the nail on the head there, sir.

There's always room for more bump and grind. You can apply this rule to anything in life, really, unless you're making flat frictionless surfaces that is (read into this what you will ;) )

Also, how come a schranz record can do NOTHING for 6 minutes and not be classed as 'minimal' ? If you got a recording of someone screaming down a mic for six minutes I'd call it minimal, even if they were screaming REAL loud.

'Minimal' stuff nowadays seems to have a lot more smarts, production wise, when compared to a lot of the churned out 'hard' techno I'm currently hearing. Seems like the description 'hard' is chucked at anything that's fast and 4/4 with distortion on it. That's not the recipe for hard in my book. There are other ingredients. You can even use different ones entirely. Strange that things should become less innovative when the ability to become more so has been handed to us on a plate, at least technologically...

Maybe this is what you're driving at, Mark ? In that music excels when it is both for (and by?) the brain AND the body. A lot of techno these days is very predictable. In my book, this means it's not techno. No matter how 'hard' it is.

Let's look FORWARD !

**RDR** · 21-09-2005, 11:42 AM

Haha your minimalist ****ers! Where is the Boom Boom Boom Boom?

We need more Sven! throw some more East Germans on the fire!!! more steam i tell you!

**holotropik** · 21-09-2005, 11:58 AM

Its interesting that peeps think it has to be "just like hawtin does it" to be minimal. Then they proceed to chees it up to the point where you just end up with bleep, blop, plop and no guts.

Minimal is a very tricky thing to do properly and I consider it a very evolutionary stage of a producers path, not to be taken lightly or just jumped on like some sort of band-wagon.

It can be fast or slow, hard or soft.

**Jay Pace** · 21-09-2005, 12:04 PM

Read a good essay once on the link between techno and abstract art.

Basically said that the less is more approach was evidence of mastery of of more complex forms.

You can only reduce to minimalism and abstraction when you know exactly what you are doing.

Otherwise you actually do sound like a bunch of bleeps and wibbles.

Thread: Techno Minimalism

Thread Tools

Display

Posting Permissions