Flash back 15 years - clubland has crashed after a turn-of-the-millennium peak, the trance and progressive house from that era starting to feel long in the tooth, music journalists searching hard for the next "big thing"... but slowly building up in Berlin-by-way-of-Detroit's underground, a type of music that would dominate the club scene like a giant force of nature. Music journalists would praise it, DJs who got their fame in progressive house would suddenly shift styles, BPMs would slow down across the board, the whole superclub era and formative UK scene would be swept under the rug by journalists, and plenty a TA flamewar would erupt between the prog/trance stalwarts and those who jumped on the "mnml" bandwagon. Hell, even some other genres would cherry-pick elements of mnml (namely soundscapes and some of the filtering/white noise), prog and tech house being the most obvious.
In the meanwhile, a lot of big things have happened with dance music, from an American perspective the fact EDM finally went mainstream in the early 10's after so many failed starts was a big one. Popularity in dance music always seems to be like a pendulum - super srs bsns music, then bold and brash big room, then back to the more underground house/techno, rinse and repeat.
Some 15 years later, apart from TWTMEGP memes about Ricardo's overly long tracks and excessive drug usage, the genre is rarely reminisced about the way other electronic music scenes are (i.e. early jungle, Twilo era prog-house, etc). I don't really see any mnml "classics" sets, nor a whole lot of newer throwback tracks, nothing in the BP top 100 (not the best representation but in 2007 I'd recall seeing a few mnml tracks in the top 10).
What do you think the whole legacy of "mnml" was?
What do you think finally "killed" it? Did people just simply get tired by its lack of dynamism and formulaic tracks? Did the ket wear off and everyone suddenly emerge from its k-hole? Or did elements of it just diffuse into many other genres (late 2000's/early 10's deep and tech house, Burial-esque 'future garage', Guy J-esque 'tech-prog')?
What tracks/sets could we say are bonafide classics from this era? Most of it left me cold, personally.
I quite liked some of the stuff from Mirko Loko's "Seventynine" album:
Not really my thing but probably the most commercial-friendly and most successful tune to come out of this scene, sampled a traditional Cumbia track:
This song seemed to crop up everywhere the year it was released, mnml meets UK garage:
The rise of mnml inevitably led to people rediscovering lots of early Detroit techno pioneers of the sound, most notably Robert Hood. This one still feels like something from the 23rd century:
And finally, my personal favorite song from this particular scene/era. Even if it's far more melodic and dynamic than your typical Loco Dice plink plonker, I still heard this in a few mnml-focused sets (usually as the crescendo) so imma include this here. This is from before Solomun became the superstar DJ and TWTMEGP punching bag:
SYSTEM-J
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch
Flash back 15 years - clubland has crashed after a turn-of-the-millennium peak, the trance and progressive house from that era starting to feel long in the tooth, music journalists searching hard for the next "big thing"... but slowly building up in Berlin-by-way-of-Detroit's underground, a type of music that would dominate the club scene like a giant force of nature. Music journalists would praise it, DJs who got their fame in progressive house would suddenly shift styles, BPMs would slow down across the board, the whole superclub era and formative UK scene would be swept under the rug by journalists, and plenty a TA flamewar would erupt between the prog/trance stalwarts and those who jumped on the "mnml" bandwagon. Hell, even some other genres would cherry-pick elements of mnml (namely soundscapes and some of the filtering/white noise), prog and tech house being the most obvious.
In the meanwhile, a lot of big things have happened with dance music, from an American perspective the fact EDM finally went mainstream in the early 10's after so many failed starts was a big one. Popularity in dance music always seems to be like a pendulum - super srs bsns music, then bold and brash big room, then back to the more underground house/techno, rinse and repeat.
Some 15 years later, apart from TWTMEGP memes about Ricardo's overly long tracks and excessive drug usage, the genre is rarely reminisced about the way other electronic music scenes are (i.e. early jungle, Twilo era prog-house, etc). I don't really see any mnml "classics" sets, nor a whole lot of newer throwback tracks, nothing in the BP top 100 (not the best representation but in 2007 I'd recall seeing a few mnml tracks in the top 10).
A very accurate summary all round. I think "minimal" still survives, most notably in the form of the Romanian sound, but it's become warmer and housier these days. And actually, I quite like a lot of those records. It's also important to note that "minimal techno" goes right back to the early '90s (think Plastikman, Robert Hood) and again was responsible for plenty of good records before its explosion in the 2000s. Looking back, my biggest beef with the 2005-2010 era of dance music was not necessarily the existence of minimal dance music in general, but two specific trends:
1. The extremely "laptop-y" aesthetic of that era - white noise, clicks, glitch effects, heavily quantized reverb, etc. - that cropped up in almost every genre, and for which minimal was the trojan horse.
2. The death of melody and energy in dance music - AKA the shedding of "big room" euphoric aesthetics as ecstasy became low quality and was usurped by ketamine on the dancefloor, and the 1990s superclub aesthetic was rejected. Again, minimal wasn't the only genre following this curve, but was certainly the most extreme example.
Basically, what I'm saying is that "minimal house/techno" isn't inherently bad, but rather the minimal of that era was both extremely ty and extremely popular. Thankfully the laptop aesthetic stopped seeming new and radical by about 2011 and died off, and good pills returned shortly afterwards and heralded a slow but triumphant resurgence of melody and energy to the dancefloor. I'm not ruling out a nostalgic comeback in another 10 years though, as club culture has the infinite capacity to self-cannibalise.
As for lasting influence? I think a general emphasis on sound design. Minimal techno dropped about 10bpm off the pace almost overnight, and the production emphasis shifted from using high energy "banging" techniques to create dancefloor dynamics in favour of deeper, bassier, more twisted druggy dance music that worked in a different way. An awful lot of modern music, from Bedrock Records to Tale Of Us to the aforementioned Romanian guys, still reflects that shift in emphasis.
Sykonee
It was a necessary mistake.
While we could debate endlessly as to what music and production constitutes the 'mnml era', there are a couple things that spring to mind that made it huge, but resulted in it becoming the stylistic dead-end it was.
1. The supposed need for electronic music to keep evolving.
We can wax on forever about how the '90s was a Cambrian Explosion of electronic music diversification, and that carried on into the '00s as well. However, whereas the '90s felt natural in its evolution, something about the '00s felt forced, like producers and DJs had to keep doing different things, even if it made little sense to do so. mnml was the nadir of this mentality, so many superfluous sounds and effects amounting to a dry fart of creativity, such that when tracks started retreating back to genres of old, it was a breath of fresh air. Folks wondered, why did we abandon these vintage sounds in the first place? We were so quick to move onto the next big thing, we forgot what we once had, until we realized that next big thing was a big ol' nothing.
2. The rise (and fall) of blogs.
Anyone remember 'mnml ssgs'? Philip Sherburne's monthly techno write-ups for Pitchfork? The endless memes of Sven, Richie, Ricardo, and co. at hedonistic parties. Remember THE CUBE!? We may not remember much of it now, but boy, did all these outlets ever sell this idea of the mnml scene being this ultra-hip place, exquisite parties with the best drugs held at DC10 and the like. Mnml wasn't just a style of music, but a style of LIFE! One that soon turned so insular and elitist, that all the up-and-coming punters felt far more welcomed and loved-up at festival stages instead. Besides, who has time for blogs when there's Social Media to partake in!
As for recommendations that have held up from that era, one can't go wrong with Magda's mixes.
planetaryplayer
minimal techno is detroit, mnml is the gentrification of such, usually by dumb whites in the camp of richie hawtin
miamitranceman
What about Trentemoller's remix of "Les Djinns"? Maybe too melodic for this category but if "Heater" can be included I think this can as well. This track was everywhere in mid to late 2000s and I liked it at the time (and still do). Lots of clicks and clacks in it.
Most of the rest of the minimal stuff (especially with less melody) really bored me.
SYSTEM-J
quote:
Originally posted by miamitranceman
What about Trentemoller's remix of "Les Djinns"? Maybe too melodic for this category but if "Heater" can be included I think this can as well. This track was everywhere in mid to late 2000s and I liked it at the time (and still do). Lots of clicks and clacks in it.
Most of the rest of the minimal stuff (especially with less melody) really bored me.
The remix was originally released in 2003 and I don't think there's anything minimal about it. I wouldn't have batted an eyelid if it had been released on Bedrock Breaks that year.
djthunderbird
quote:
Originally posted by miamitranceman
What about Trentemoller's remix of "Les Djinns"? Maybe too melodic for this category but if "Heater" can be included..
To my internal "genre quantizer" neither can be described as minimal techno, but I'm glad you reminded me of Les Djinns. It's a perfect tune in every way. It cant really be compared with Heater, which is infinitely simpler and more commercial.
While I'm on the subject. How is "Solomun & Gebrüder Ton - Tagesschau" not considered trance? Btw I think its a great tune!
Come to think of it, I think my personal definition of minimal techno is something that is non harmonic, almost atonal, druggy, stripped down to a minimal viable sound, whilst still retaining the groove
Perhaps something like this:
Mr Game+Watch
Also, not my favorite tracks but these 2 probably have done more to convert prog heads/prog djs to mnml than any other:
Sykonee
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch
Also, not my favorite tracks but these 2 probably have done more to convert prog heads/prog djs to mnml than any other:
Mmm, I dunno. I think this very underground anthem from a former 'prog' guy was far more influential in getting everyone on the bandwagon.
SYSTEM-J
Nah, you're miles off. I couldn't even tell you what Ribcage sounds like. Those two Holden tunes were both massive at the time and were released 3-4 years earlier, so were definitely watershed moments. Although personally I always ing hated The Sky Was Pink, and still hate it now - and plenty of DJs still play it.
Another one in that vein would be Oxia - Domino.
Sykonee
Oh, J', why'd you have to make a Very Serious reply to my tongue-in-cheek quip?:p
mnml, Very Serious muziks.
SYSTEM-J
Did we used to joke about Ribcage? I can't remember.
