What is the appeal of minimal techno?

finelikewinefinelikewine "ONCE UPON A TIME, I HAD A VINYL." http://www.discogs.com/user/permabulker 1,416 Posts
edited April 2009 in Strut Central
Seriously, i don't get it.Over here in Germany "Minimal Techno" is the number one club music since a fewyears. In some areas it is hard to find a venue which is playing something different. Some friends of mine (I regerade them a lot) are very into it and try to convince me of it's qualities.So far they had no luck. To me this kind of music is totaly repulsiv, cold, monotonous and boring. It seems to me like a big hoax, I can't even understand how people can bear this kind of music voluntarily all night long. They can't be all on drugs, or can they?Can someone please explain the appeal of it and show me some minimal bloodschitters? Please convince me that it can be decent music.

  Comments


  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    Horse for courses dude. If you don't like something why ask to hear it?






    Not in any way meant to sway you, (cause what's the point really?) this is very good.




    01. Steve Reich & Pat Metheny - Electric Counterpoint ??? Fast (Movement 3)
    02. Etienne Jaumet - Repeat After Me (??me Mix)
    03. Kenneth Bager - Fragment Eleven??? The Day After Yesturday Pt.1
    04. Liquid Liquid - Lock Groove (Out)
    05. Cymande - For Baby Oh
    06. Patrick Moraz - Metamorphoses 1st Movement (Live)
    07. To Rococo Rot - Testfeld
    08. Matematics - Blue Water
    09. I:CUBE - Acid Tablet
    10. ?? - Atomit
    11. Conrad Schnitzler - Electrocon 11
    12. Green Pickles feat. Billy Lo & M. Pittman - Feedback
    13. La Funk Mob - Motor Bass Gets Phunked Up (Richie Hawtin???s Electrophunk Mix)
    14. John Carpenter - The President Is Gone
    15. Yusef Lateef - The Three Faces Of Bala
    16. Robert Hood - Minus
    17. Raymond Scott - Bass-Line Generator
    18. Moondog - Invocation

  • phatmoneysackphatmoneysack Melbourne 1,124 Posts
    Some people I know who advocate it openly say the best way to get into it is by listening to it while walking to and from places.

    The guy said he needed to do that for about year in order to truly appreciate it.

  • LamontLamont 1,089 Posts
    Tribal techno goes downtempo.

    There's days I can't stand it, there's days I think it's pure genius, takes time to get into (certainly if you're coming from an ORGANIC music background).

    Bonuspoints if you like Basic Channel dub stuff.

    The Beatport vortex is where all the crap 'made in 4 hours on Pro-Tools' tracks are being sold for 0.89$. Pitchforkmedia prolly has an interesting article about it written by someone who's indieband didn't quite made it in the 90s.




    Try needledropping this 6CD set: Circoloco @ DC10 - 10 Years Anniversary

    Typing in "Villalobos" on Soulseek will also get you some heaters.

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    I can't really speak to anything recent, I stopped listening to it and buying it quite a while ago. I still do pull out the Basic Channel/Chain Reaction/Rhythm & Sound/Burial Mix and Kit Clayton stuff now and then and still enjoy it. The genre has elements I generally like in music - repetition, interesting subtle to dramatic progression and dub'ed out sounds (this especially applying to the R&S/Burial Mix releases). The R&S and Burial Mix stuff began to get really boring and same-sounding after a while with the exception of Mango Walk (Chosen Brothers/Wackies)/Mango Drive which is the definite stand-out imo.

    I totally agree with you on the coldness, which is how I feel about techno on the whole, but when the minimal stuff is well executed, it has a beautiful warm, driving feel that swings between trippy, sexy and creepy or all of them at the same time.

  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    The older I get, the more I look at my friends who listen to the stuff as, really, just in it for the drugs. It's sad but true. I am still heavily into old-school dance and older house and techno, but not so much with the minimal ("mnml").

    I think Bassie pinpointed it -- it's pretty much about repetition and subtle shifts in the soundscape. I sort of look at it like sped-up ambient. Not super into it myself and, in my experience, folks who dig it tend to stay up all night and go to creepy afterhours and spending large portions of the night in expensive clubs. Oh, and...




    I'd rather just put on Cybotron.

  • erewhonerewhon 1,123 Posts
    The older I get, the more I look at my friends who listen to the stuff as, really, just in it for the drugs. It's sad but true.

    I think you're shortchanging the music by judging it's merit on those terms. Why not paint psych or reggae with the same brush while you're at it?


    "Villalobos" on Soulseek will also get you some heaters.

    Ricardo Villalobos is probably my favorite house producer right now, although I think his music is less "minimal" and less "techno" than the label implies.

  • jaysusjaysus 787 Posts
    dancing to miniml is the best.

    no "i can feel the love" shrieking vocals or police sirens

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    somebody post some of the good stuff.

    I'm interested.

  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,789 Posts
    Anybody remember the lines from Goodwill hunting about repetitive, thumping techno?

    According to the u-tube comments, this rip doesn't do it justice.

  • finelikewinefinelikewine "ONCE UPON A TIME, I HAD A VINYL." http://www.discogs.com/user/permabulker 1,416 Posts
    Anybody remember the lines from Goodwill hunting about repetitive, thumping techno?

    According to the u-tube comments, this rip doesn't do it justice.

    This is quite good and has a great dub feel but it sounds nothing like the stuff teenagers over here are dancing to.

  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    The older I get, the more I look at my friends who listen to the stuff as, really, just in it for the drugs. It's sad but true.

    I think you're shortchanging the music by judging it's merit on those terms. Why not paint psych or reggae with the same brush while you're at it?

    Like I said, in my experience. To me, psych or reggae provide a much more dynamic palette -- one which can be appreciated under the influence or uninfluenced by outside substances.

    I appreciate minimal techno, even like some of it. But when I take it out of its context of dark, druggy clubs, it loses some of its appeal. Take what I said as a tangent. I'd still rather listen to vintage Carl Craig than Richie Hawtin's latest.

  • ZEN2ZEN2 1,540 Posts
    Paging PLUR girl...

  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    Carl Craig is a minimal genius though, you can't compare much to him.





    This is a mix I made.

    It's kinda old now, but still good, I hope.

    d/l here - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IA1SFHWR

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    minimal techno in a club was boring as hell imo, and that warmth I was speaking of earlier, is definitely not enhanced by or conducive to pharmeceuticals

  • jaysusjaysus 787 Posts
    I love the label SHITKATAPULT, especially this release:

    http://www.shitkatapult.com/index.php?page=releaseinfo&products_id=1317

    Track 6 - fenin - yellow dub

    Live:


  • erewhonerewhon 1,123 Posts
    The older I get, the more I look at my friends who listen to the stuff as, really, just in it for the drugs. It's sad but true.

    I think you're shortchanging the music by judging it's merit on those terms. Why not paint psych or reggae with the same brush while you're at it?

    Like I said, in my experience. To me, psych or reggae provide a much more dynamic palette -- one which can be appreciated under the influence or uninfluenced by outside substances.

    I appreciate minimal techno, even like some of it. But when I take it out of its context of dark, druggy clubs, it loses some of its appeal. Take what I said as a tangent. I'd still rather listen to vintage Carl Craig than Richie Hawtin's latest.

    As someone who has never used drugs and appreciates a lot of this kind of music, I guess I don't get the connection. I mean, I know there often is a connection, but that's never been part of my experience. For me it's all about a long late-night or early morning drive. Or a club with a good sound system and happy people minus the drugs.

  • KaushikKaushik 320 Posts
    I've started listening to a couple of "minimal techno" artists and found their music to be far from minimal, but with definite techno qualities.

    What makes them interesting is the many layers they add on top of a techno foundation -- like dub, dancehall, rock, pop. etc.

    Check out anything by Gui Boratto, Robert Babicz, or David Last -- good stuff.

  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    What makes them interesting is the many layers they add on top of a techno foundation -- like dub, dancehall, rock, pop. etc.

    I have to respectfully disagree. I listen to techno cause I enjoy techno, if you want dub or dancehall, listen to dub or dancehall.

    I think the beauty in anything 'minimal' is the creating of something that's eventually larger than the sum of its parts. It takes real skill to combine that with something that's inherently repetitive like techno and make something that isn't instantly boring.

  • AserAser 2,351 Posts


    all the guys from sonar kollektiv, innervisions are killing it right now.

    google ame, dixon, henrick schwarz, wahoo, atjazz, etc...

    a bit more house, but carl craig's rmx of the tony allen track was monster last year....he's beyond ill.


  • PonyPony 2,283 Posts
    Not sure if Claude Vonstroke fits into this category but I love his stuff...

  • BeatnicholasBeatnicholas 1,005 Posts
    classic debate

    to be honest there's a big difference between "real" pioneering minimal techno - like Robert Hood, Dan Bell, Basic Channel / Maurizio etc - and the third generation stuff that is all over europe at the moment.

    i would argue that much of this newer stuff isn't minimal at all. I've seen Robert Hood play a whole show off one 909 drum machine, THAT is minimal. Glitchy, sparse, click-house is the newer stuff, sometimes dubbed "microhouse", and it's not minimal at all, if anything it's maximal, it's an assault on the senses of little shards of cut up sounds, influenced by people like Plasticman / Richy Hawtin.

    I went to Sonar festival the year it "broke" (ie about 3 years ago.. or 4?) and the bastard stuff was everywhere, after 1 day of hearing that music all over the place i was begging djs to play something vaguely soulful, even bananarama would appeal more than that stuff. I find it totally un-emotive and an experiment in boredom. I did go to ONE exhibit at sonar that year where they were making "minimal" on a 6 speaker-array and positioning the sounds in surround, and that was vaguely interesting. but still boring to dance too and just dull musically.

    the "real" minimal has a subtletly to it which is comparable to (and often heavily influenced by) dub, and a soulfulness that IS moving. the newer stuff leaves me cold.

  • BeatnicholasBeatnicholas 1,005 Posts
    oh and i wouldn't class Dixon, Henrik or Ame under the "minimal" tag at all, that innervisions group seems to me to be more like a re-evaluation of house, a very informed and clued up german take on "classic" house sounds, with a bit of detroit in there, and a real soulfulness you can dance to. and a bit of quirky humour too. that "grandfather" mix which is great is almost taking the piss a bit, it's kind of saying "well u think THAT stuff is minimal, here are the philosophical roots".

  • finelikewinefinelikewine "ONCE UPON A TIME, I HAD A VINYL." http://www.discogs.com/user/permabulker 1,416 Posts
    Not sure if Claude Vonstroke fits into this category but I love his stuff...

    Thanks, this is great and one of the first tracks that doesn't bore me to death.

  • the_dLthe_dL 1,531 Posts
    I'd still rather listen to vintage Carl Craig than any other techno[/b].
    having said that i went to see him dj a few months ago (believing that i was going to see him do a live show) and it was terrible, schitty mixing coupled with average at best track selection =

  • PLURPLUR 28 Posts
    Paging PLUR girl...

    ACKSSCUSE ME BUTT I AM NOTT A GURL!!!!! Al tha tiem ppl thnk so bcuz i had long hair (ntil i set in on fire that nite wen we wer outside uv newhaven n we wer huffin drano n smokin meth n the blotorch totallee set my hair on fire!). IM TOTALLEE A GUY GUYZ!!!!! N reelly I h8 2 sound liek a broken rekord even tho reckords r totallee gr8 but MNML TECKNO IS BREAKZ GUYZ!!! How many timez do i have 2 say it??? ITZ ALL JUST BREAKZ GUYZ!!! FOR REAL STOP TRYING 2 MAEK THA BREAKZ SEGARERGATED! ITZ ALL JUST BREAKZ!!!! Gabber hard house drumnbasss teckno mnml teckno hiphop breakz is ALL JUST BREAKZ!!!!!!!

  • nzshadownzshadow 5,518 Posts
    Paging PLUR girl...

    ACKSSCUSE ME BUTT I AM NOTT A GURL!!!!! Al tha tiem ppl thnk so bcuz i had long hair (ntil i set in on fire that nite wen we wer outside uv newhaven n we wer huffin drano n smokin meth n the blotorch totallee set my hair on fire!). IM TOTALLEE A GUY GUYZ!!!!! N reelly I h8 2 sound liek a broken rekord even tho reckords r totallee gr8 but MNML TECKNO IS BREAKZ GUYZ!!! How many timez do i have 2 say it??? ITZ ALL JUST BREAKZ GUYZ!!! FOR REAL STOP TRYING 2 MAEK THA BREAKZ SEGARERGATED! ITZ ALL JUST BREAKZ!!!! Gabber hard house drumnbasss teckno mnml teckno hiphop breakz is ALL JUST BREAKZ!!!!!!!


  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
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    all the guys from sonar kollektiv, innervisions are killing it right now.

    google ame, dixon, henrick schwarz, wahoo, atjazz, etc...

    a bit more house, but carl craig's rmx of the tony allen track was monster last year....he's beyond ill.

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