ritchie hawtin - decks, efx & 909 = ritchie hawtin before final scratch & sven vath!!

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www.mtlnights.com

Really nice to see many of you here still remember and miss the sound and energy of something that was once commonplace in Montreal.

This coming May will see a modest return of techno to the afterhours scene. Will post more details soon.

quote:

Originally posted by VDub You know what guys??? The same arguments are being had here in Toronto as well... To me, minimal techno is a contradicion in terms.... I'm into the hard bangin stuff as well... Techno is supposed to drive you into a frenzy not put you to sleep.. Now that being said, there are a coupla tracks i can listen to and enjoy... Now we have Addy here whos bridged the gap by playing minimal at 130 and up... The speed makes it pound and therefor he's the only DJ I can listen to minimal with... This 126 bullshit is like elevator music...or good to drive to...keeps me from speeding... God remember Carl Cox up till last year...man he would kill me...

Minimal techno doesnt need to be slow. Hell, some of sleeparchives tracks get pretty thumpy/fast yet still strive to a very minimal asthetic (and pretty much pure 'minimal' and not 'minimal techno', I'd say there is a distinction between the two)

Minimal & Minimal techno can push me into a frenzy of dancing, as if my body gets locked into motions that are beyond my control and get lost in a 'state' that few other genres of music can take me to. It hit's me on a pretty basic/instinctual level where all the other 'fluff' of other genres seem to get into the way. Strip away the annoying synths, the cheap effects, the crappy mixing, the lame vocal. Tone down the needless "in your face" aggression - toss in that smooth analog bass, that thumpy kick, effective use of whitenoise, have the low-end sounds hit me in the gut and get my feet moving and the high-sounds take my head off to another place.

That is what gets me lost in a 'frenzy of dancing' quite like no other genre can get me into at the moment.

This is what works for ME - if you dont like it / doesnt get you movign - its because you dont like the music, not because the music sucks.

Last time I was at the Guv't for one of their mega parties - I went into the trance room for a short bit. Sure, the room was going bonkers - but I sort of stood there thinking 'uhhh..wtf?' and shortly left - instead of writing off the music as 'you know, that stuff is shit' its more 'well, that isnt for me'

Less is more

When I first started partying and didnt know much about EDM and just went to 'whatever party', I generally noticed that the parts of sets I enjoyed the most were the transitions. When most tracks were in their most basic elements and being mixed into the next track. Then, (house music is terrible for this), that lame vocal or build would come in and ruin a perfectly good instrumental / baseline / beat that I was enjoying.

Same with say: Psytrance, electro, trance, house, tribal, - hell even rap, hip-hop and R&B, etc- all of these genres have elements that I do really do enjoy. However, the bits that I do like are surrounded in so much 'extra crap' that it ruins the track for me.

Minimal for me, takes all of the elements that I really like from various genres, and pulls it together in such a way that all the 'fluff' is stripped away, and I love it. Hell, allot of the minimal I'm enjoying these days just reminds me of slower psytrance without all of the squelchy crazyness (which I dont like anymore)

and, its not just because your messed up. Hell, some of the stuff I used to like most when I first got into partying was from being overly messed up and hearing shit in my head that wasn't even being played. With minimal - I hear those same elements that I loved so much, but while completely sober.

That being said, there is a certain element of "getting it" with Minimal music. For a while I'd try listening to some minimal and would usually think "meh, I dont get it" and would move onto the other stuff I liked at the time. Then one day, I "got it", sort of made more sense - and been hooked on it ever since.

i have one word for all of you

SONA

quote:

Originally posted by VDub You know what guys??? The same arguments are being had here in Toronto as well... To me, minimal techno is a contradicion in terms.... I'm into the hard bangin stuff as well... Techno is supposed to drive you into a frenzy not put you to sleep.. Now that being said, there are a coupla tracks i can listen to and enjoy... Now we have Addy here whos bridged the gap by playing minimal at 130 and up... The speed makes it pound and therefor he's the only DJ I can listen to minimal with... This 126 bullshit is like elevator music...or good to drive to...keeps me from speeding... God remember Carl Cox up till last year...man he would kill me...

i really didnt like addy at circus... and his ableton kept skipping...

nice guy just couldnt get into the music- and i wouldnt call it anything like minimal lol

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Fortuna Favet Fortibus.

quote:

Originally posted by VDub But 126...cmon man....so boring...

Techno has evolved. Times have and will change indefinately.

*) Tracks have become more of a "tool" for a Dj than ever before, that is to say, the producer leaves room for mixing creativity for the Dj. That doesnt mean the track isnt complete, it just means that today it is more likely to specializes in an idea which you may use as a tool in your set. Whereas 140bpm tracks were developed to be as maximal as possible, and this leaves the Dj with very little room with mixing creativity.

*) Techno has become more sophisticated that it ever has been. Consider the word "techno", short for "technology", and today we got alot of powerful equipment that are used to bring creative sonic expressions. 140bpm techno tracks have a great number of sounds, its the only way the track can hold its groove. Whereas today the 126 bpm track gives the producer the option to integrate more groove/ideas in between the beats simply because there is more time in between the beats in a 126bpm track compared to a 140. And trust me if you were to pitch +6,7% on a track that holds the groove at 126 then you'll have a very groovy track, with sonic ideas designed to play with your brain.

It's all a game of psychoacoustics, and we're playing with it.

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http://moevalith.com

i couldnt agree with you more when it comes to sleeparchive. solid, original and interesting minimal.(big props to mutek for booking him. looking forward to him most out of the entire event.) However, much of what you described below, to me basically applies to well produced and executed techno. i agree with you in relation to needless aggression...hence my own distaste for eg. schranz

quote:

Originally posted by kaniz Strip away the annoying synths, the cheap effects, the crappy mixing, the lame vocal. Tone down the needless "in your face" aggression - toss in that smooth analog bass, that thumpy kick, effective use of whitenoise, have the low-end sounds hit me in the gut and get my feet moving and the high-sounds take my head off to another place.

You haven't heard sleeparchive until you've heard him live on a proper system - totally changes the sound/dynamic of his music.

Home speakers just don't do him justice at all. Saw him in Toronto @ Sudburry'99 a year or two ago and they bought in an amazing system for him - blew me away. The lows punch you in the gut, the highs echo/bounce around the room in interesting ways - his entire sound becomes much 'harder' and almost industrial sounding at times as a result.

and before VDub just says I 'dont get' harder music - I come from a background of 'harder' music, grew up listening to punk/hardcore (not pop punk), then steered off into various forms of electronic hardcore: Digital hardcore/noisecore/speedcore, gabber/rotterdam, then started to get into jungle/DNB for a bit, then more into hard-dance (hard-house/hard-trance) for awhile. Then I got sucked into the world of Psytrance which took my 'passing interest in electronic music' and threw it to a full-blown love. Really got into psytrance, had had a soft-spot for the super-fast-hard squelchy stuff that ran at 140+BPM

Then, started to party in Montreal, went to clubs like Stereo and got introduced to proper house music, parking for their overdose nights which introduced me into Electro/Techno, which then lead to my love of minimal techno.

Now and then I still get the odd itch for harder/denser sounds, but all in all I've moved past that now. So its not like I 'dont get' the harder/faster side of EDM - got it for quite a long time, just find it rather uninteresting (generally) now.

But hell, even when I get the itch for 'harder' techno - I'm more inclined to go towards say, Robert Hood - which is still very minimal techno (and more so in the traditional sense) but pretty hard/banging at the same time. You should check out his most recent Fabric mix.

Minimal/Minimal techno has nothing to do with hard/soft fluffy/mellow or fast/slow - its an aesthetic and an approach to music.