Archive for minimal
June 17, 2006 at 2:17 am · Filed under Amazon.com, cold & clean, Drum & Bass, hard & nasty, minimal
Dieselboy’s Render is an astounding track from America’s most famous D&B DJ/producer. It can be found on the The 6ixth Session, an otherwise uninspiring release. I much prefer his older mix CDs, like A Soldier’s Story, but between 6ixth’s dope cover (I’ve blown it up into a huge poster on my wall) and this one track, I feel I got my money’s worth.
Absurdly funky, yet calculated and synthetic, this track is both organic and flowing, and yet, technological and unfeeling. Beautiful! Try not bopping your head to this unadulterated freshness as you listen… it can’t be done.
Dieselboy – Render
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get this from Amazon.com
May 9, 2006 at 3:37 pm · Filed under Amazon.com, Beatport.com, House, minimal, Techno
Maurizio, aka Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, is what immediately springs to mind when I think of Berlin-style deep, minimal techno and house. While stripped back and minimal on the surface, there’s so much craft in what Maurizio does that I find his songs are repetitive but in a good way. While it is essentially the same loops of sound over and over, there’s ample analogue knob-tweaking and more snaps, crackles and pops than a Costco-sized box of Rice Krispies. Moreover, the short loops themselves are so hypnotic, funky, and just plain “right” that listening to them over and over as they progress is like scratching some deep itch in a satisfying way over and over.
Stripped back mad freshness; simple on the surface but with layers of depth and subtlety.
While intentionally adding analogue hiss and vinyl pops and surface noise to music often seems cliché, with Maurizio’s work it is his signature sound, and an homage to his favorite medium (vinyl, the traditional medium for electronic music and the medium on which his music was released in 1996). It also reflects his roots and passion for Dub, a music genre characterized by sample-based analogue remixes of Reggae music. The flaws and character of the medium are intentionally amplified and brought to the fore, and made an integral part of the music. A brand-spanking new Maurizio vinyl release sounds like an ancient, second-hand, scratchy dusty record.
I recommend the entire MCD release, available through either Amazon, or as MP3s from Beatport.
May 9, 2006 at 11:10 am · Filed under Beatport.com, cold & clean, minimal, Techno
You know those truly ground-breaking, incredible talents out there you go your whole life not knowing about? Then you discover them, freak at how they could have escaped your radar for so long? Then you binge on their works.
Berlin, Germany is a hothouse of vine-ripened talent, especially when it come to minimal techno. But don’t take my word for it: have a listen to Monolake, aka Robert Henke.
This guy is incredible. The first song of his I heard, White II, blew me away. It’s like… the auditory equivalent of floating, slowly, through a Tron-like city of light, skyscrapers of white light slowly moving past as you hover 800 feet above the ground, defying gravity.
Then I came across Ionized, which is like being in a huge, run down old warehouse, with rain pouring in through slats in the roof, splashing on the concrete ground. This track is a huge, dark mass, with rich, deep bass that resonates and reverbrates throughout the imaginary space. Towards the end, cold, dawn air and bleak dawn light enter. The more I listen to this track, the more it grows on me.
Finally, the track Cubicle. I still remembering freaking out the first time I heard this track. With headphones on, this song is a spasm-inducing combination of warm gusts of air flowing up your neck, while cold, wet ice cubes fall onto your brain, bouncing wetly off. Wow. This guy freakin’ rules. If you’ve never heard of Monolake, well, you can thank me later.
Almost his entire catalogue of music is available through Beatport. I’ve bought about a third of it. I’m still waiting for Robert Henke’s track Delta to show up on there; it should be up sometime this year.
