Minimal Tech, Electro etc

rob_giri

Well-known member
Yeah so i figure this is something really amazing and great that is good to still talk about and keep up with. Berlin is a very happening place

Sherburne has pretty much got it covered, but anyone got any goodies they want to leak?

cheers,

rob :)
 

zhao

there are no accidents
minimal_my_ass.gif


funny was just talking to a label dude about how it's become a bad word in berlin 5 minutes ago
 

tox

Factory Girl
Sherburne knows his stuff, clearly. But occasionally his discussion of dance music strays a little too far from the dancefloor, if you see what I mean.

Tim F is pretty clued up.

This is obviously the master thread.

...and blog wise I like Modifier, Chantilly and Basic Sounds.
 

rob_giri

Well-known member
minimal_my_ass.gif


funny was just talking to a label dude about how it's become a bad word in berlin 5 minutes ago

haha, yeah i think i saw that t-shirt when i was in berlin last year, or at least something similiar too it. Such pedantry is ein Liebling für die deutschen volke. lustig, oder? :rolleyes:
 

psherburne

Well-known member
"Minimal" has been a bad word since at least as long as the music hasn't been, basically. There's also a certain tongue-in-cheekness to the minimal slagging; that "Minimal My Ass" t-shirt is by Paul Snowden (Rave Strikes Back, Bang Bang Berlin), who certainly runs in circles that have their share of "minimal" artists & scenesters. For the most part I don't worry about what is or isn't minimal, really, as neither diehard advocates nor critics of "minimal" have much to say either which way. Martin Dust is right, the prevailing winds are certainly blowing deeper and housier these days; in some cases that makes me happy, but just as two years ago there was a glut of bloopty-bloopty third rate minimal releases, these days there's a glut of two-chord, shoompty-shoompty nu-deep releases. But there's also plenty of good techno, too, from the Dettmann/Klock camp, for instance, and also from Tobias. (Tobias Freund) who is in blazing form these days, IMO.

I just posted a top 10 on my blog, but I'll try to chime back in with some more goodies as I come across'em...
 

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
new albums from romboy, hacker, kiko, rother.

bassfinderdf4.jpg

A bit squinty but the a side is "Minimal scarf fuckers drown".
 
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tox

Factory Girl
I'm heading to Berlin for this M_nus Sunday Adventure Club thing tomorrow. Will be around until Wednesday.

Any of you Berlin heads got any recommends for the start of the week? Noticed Trickski have a night in a bar called Cookies on Tuesday. Worth a look?
 

zhao

there are no accidents
I'm heading to Berlin for this M_nus Sunday Adventure Club thing tomorrow. Will be around until Wednesday.

Any of you Berlin heads got any recommends for the start of the week? Noticed Trickski have a night in a bar called Cookies on Tuesday. Worth a look?

i might go to this. just heard about it the other day... how ever much i make fun a good dj like Magda can really deliver the untz untz.

looking for info on the web though everything says it is the weekend of 29-31?!?! what the hell?
 

zhao

there are no accidents
i guess that's another one, and the one tomorrow is "behind berghain" like someone told me...
 

zhao

there are no accidents
last night somehow ended up at Cookies where i hoped to hear Pantha Du Prince but it was 3AM and he still doesn't come on and it was some run of the mill dj just the same shit over and over so i got the fuck out of there and wish i had done it sooner.

here come the morning after pseudo psychoanalytical post:

the obsession with minimal techno is basically about repression, isolation, escape, fear of emotions, and fear of human connection.

and you can quote me on that.

last night just reminded me of how utterly boring, repressive, and absolutely un-sexy this particular party culture can be. there is only one kind of dance: no hips, no ass, no sex -- just pogo with head jerk, and arms pumping air. FOR HOURS ON END. no one dances with others: i tried to dance with some girls and each of them said "sorry i dance alone" - at the party earlier they were acting very differently where different music was playing -- it is particularly techno that they only dance alone to. so a group forms a circle facing eachother, everyone in their own space, not talking, not dancing together -- sharing their respective frustrated desire for connection, and turning that frustration into more energy to pogo. FOR HOURS ON END.

i am SO FUCKING GLAD that i have moved on from this sexually, mentally, physically and spiritually stunted music. it is a dead end.

the music we play is an extravagant feast for the senses, body, heart, and mind; compared to minimal techno eating endless ice cubes for eternity.

of course it can still be amazing when it's done well. but there is SO MUCH SHIT in this culture that sounds exactly the same; and so many aspects of it i now find supremely unappealing.

will still go to m_nus party today though as it will be fun being outside and hopefully with quality sets from good artists.

rant over. thanks for listening. proceed with lives.
 

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
I've heard loads of people moaning about the mnml party action but I have to say, I been to all the clubs in Berlin and some select nights here and they've always been good, bleepy, deep and sexy - fun even.

I guess there's a difference betwen minimal and mnml.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
I've heard loads of people moaning about the mnml party action but I have to say, I been to all the clubs in Berlin and some select nights here and they've always been good, bleepy, deep and sexy - fun even.

well a good artist/DJ can indeed make it a sultry, subtle, interesting and even sexy experience. it's just that I've found that to be VERY rare, even in Berlin. mostly it's mind numbingly stupid.

and I'm sure most people in the packed club last night would say they had a fun, sexy time. and that's because THESE PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT THESE WORDS REALLY MEAN.
 

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
well a good artist/DJ can indeed make it a sultry, subtle, interesting and even sexy experience. it's just that I've found that to be VERY rare, even in Berlin. mostly it's mind numbingly stupid.

and I'm sure most people in the packed club last night would say they had a fun, sexy time. and that's because THESE PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT THESE WORDS REALLY MEAN.

Shame, I always see to manage to have a good time anyways. Have you tried Club 25?
 

psherburne

Well-known member
I've definitely had times where I've felt similarly, though i usually reserve my frustration for individual events or DJs; i've had too many quality times (and continue to) to write off the music/genre/scene/subculture entirely. I do think one major culprit, which almost never gets mentioned, is the drug culture. As much as I love parties lasting 12, 18 hours, the reality is that you simply can't process that much music, generally, and fatigue inevitably sets in; meanwhile, people are taking various drugs to propel them far into the next day, to the point where their bodies are making a semblance of movement but there's no real connection with the music; dancers and DJs in that state often lack the judgement to realize how fucking dull the music has really gotten. (Normally when I've felt like this, it's been 10am at Watergate and I've realized there are like 4 people left, sort of mechanically swaying to a beat that's been indistinguishable for hours.)

But like I said above, I've been to too many worthwhile events marked with a genuine spirit to write off the whole enterprise...
 

lissajou

Well-known member
Never have understood why it is mnml's tepid swoon 'n' boomp is celebrated by hipsters as profound, epochal artwork, while the hot blooded weird what is wonk appears almost universally ignored.

I'm super biased, having been in love with this stuff since time immemorial, tho for my money, the eccentric intensity I hear in Subhead, Robot, Michael Forshaw, et al has been the most exciting techno going for some time now, balancing innovation and jacking party fun more capably than anything I've ever heard from the ubercoolische camp:

http://www.fun-in-the-murky.com/Audio/Subhead/Subhead Live @ Kari'S Leaving Party (03.11.2002).mp3

http://www.mikeholmes.fun-in-the-murky.com/mikeholmes-murkymarathon.mp3

http://plethora.fun-in-the-murky.com/audio/jeromehill/Jerome Hill - reckno.mp3

http://torsten.newstreet24.eu/html/sysfiles/download/wurm/wurm_goliat003_part1.mp3

http://torsten.newstreet24.eu/html/sysfiles/download/wurm/wurm_goliat003_part2.mp3
 

psherburne

Well-known member
in all fairness, i don't think that those have to be the only two options -- there's a lot more to contemporary (continental) house & techno than simply "the ubercoolische camp." thanks for the links, though - wasn't aware subhead were even still active (or are they?).
 

rob_giri

Well-known member
yeah thats part of the whole hilarious thing in berlin, for me when i was there i had this sense, that, however fanciful and imaginary this may seem, that this music is the sound of the europe intellect finding a groove, and most of the stuff you here is just dry, , completely mnl, completely empty and repressed, rigid and stark and barren as humboldt university professors sex life..

but then you know you get those moments where there is all this machinic repetitiveness and discpline and germanness and so on and then there is this warm synth thats just giving it so much water and so much life and so much feeling that it just sounds like the human heart is making up for all that intellectual stupidity and the whole thing just coming into this beautiful union.. and, you know, thats usually when the kick goes out for 16 bars and everything starts to come together and when the track kicks in again the whole thing gets not just divine but sexy in the bodies truest sense

then your like yeah this music is great, and you hear all the aesthetic qualities that have developed in this music over the past 10 years or so, mille plateaux's depth and abstraction, chain reaction and basic channel etc etc, and you think, yeah fuck this is some truly amazing shit... so why are all these mnl jerks over here onto a different trip? Party culture is always like that, usually the majority of people will miss out on the true beauty of whats happening and give more energy to, say, the animalistic urges of getting fucked up, for instance. Then it just takes some jerk dj to come along and 'give the people what they want', project a big definintion of what he THINKS the music is, then it just fucks the whole operation up and it turns to shit and parties become meat-markets again.

But in short, i always described minimal, at least what i thought it was, as very emotional, very intimate, and very sexy - and in a very intricate and personal way. Of course, this is only about 10% or im sure much much less of what this 'scene' has become.

And like i said, its always mass psychology and psychic warfare between scenesters who want to take a collective thing and get people to align with their definition of it and thus make them the star of the show. Culture is never a 'thing', never can be definined or captured. Its a living process - and when this truth is really meditated on, perhaps all of our issues will find their answer.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
^Some good points there.

I'm in Berlin weekend 25/26 July - any good shizzle to look out for? Have only been to Watergate of the big clubs. Slinky, banging, insistent, experimental, sexy minimal is what I am after (!).

Anyone - How is Ame described / classified? Minimal deep house blabla? I'm not too clued up here. I saw them with Gerd Janson and it was pretty nice.
 
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