Improv Techno, Motown Style

xtract the extraneous: in a word, minimalism. How does one arrive at this in techno? Excise the catchy vocals typical of French disco house. Cut off the faucet of rainy synths from Germany and Holland. And that glowstick in your mouth has gotta go.

Let there be silence: Welcome to the wee hours in Detroit, the Motor City. A flickering streetlamp near the Ford manufacturing plant reveals two turntables, a drum machine and 70 records in crate, each containing sounds from the plant while in full operation, as well as some noises from a PC and a G4. What's a melody to you, line operator #52, who tightens bolts around engine interiors? Why, only the rhythm created from clinks made by operator #51, your bolt-fastening, and the clangs of operator #53. So with those turntables, drum machine, PC, G4, and records, what are you supposed to do?

Create music extemporaneously: You've been enlightened to the concept behind the music of Richie Hawtin and the Minus crew. They believe in keeping their sound simple and impressively off the cuff. The album compiles many of what are commonly referred to as tracks (they call them ID points) consisting of two or three records, each with mere echoing bleeps, or metallic dinks, to which he adds crisps hi-hats from a Roland TR808 and heart beats for basslines a TR909 (both drum machines). Plastikman (his alter ego) puts it best himself in the album insert:"After recording, sampling, cutting, and splicing over 100 tracks down to their most basic components, I ended up with a collection of over 300 loops, ranging in length from one note to four bars. I then started to recreate and reinterpret each track, putting the pieces back together as if an audio jigsaw puzzle--using effects and edits as the glue in between each piece. This 53 minute piece, consisting of over 70 tracks and 31 ID points, represents what those loops became, and how their interactions created something that had not existed before."

As he uses each sound percussively, there rarely exists anything one would call a melody. Rather, there are moments when the simple sounds align rhythmically, subtly hinting to listeners of the gentle, trance-like bliss they're experiencing. Waiting for an epiphany similar to that induced by track 22 of Hawtin's previous success, Decks, EFX, and 909, will only frustrate and disallow maximum listening pleasure. The album comes from the deep side of house, from the graveyard shift of techno, not the 9 a.m. shift with coffee (four sugars).

Maintain the mood: The album artwork is worth quiet praise, featuring only one picture. From both sides when opening the jewel case stares a pasty Richie with albino eyebrows, pixilated eyes and his characteristic 21st century cat glasses. Contrasted against a bright white background as greatly as albino flesh can, viewers can focus only on the facial region around his steel blue eyes. Stark if only due to its starklessness.