From William D. VanLoo Sent Wed, Jun 24th 1998, 14:53
From William D. VanLoo Sent Wed, Jun 24th 1998, 14:53
You wrote:
> i just picked up my ticket for the ritchie hawtin show to be held at the
> glasshouse in pomona on thursday the 2nd of july. the flyer claims that
> ritchie will be doing a five hour d.j. set along with effects and a
> 909. plus a two hour set from john aquaviva. i am just bubbling over
> with excitement. i've slowly evolved in to quite the plastikman fan
> over the past few years, and at this time i think he's one of the most
> important people making music today. well, at least to me. to give you
> an idea of how much i'm looking forward to this show, the last time i
> went to any sort of rave/club experience was almost two years ago. it
> takes a lot to get me away from my home stereo.
You'll be in for quite an experience. Hawtin debuted this sort of set
(which I believe is being tagged "the Richie Hawtin Experience now, if
flyers are any indication) at Consumed, a party held about a month & a
half ago. Hawtin was controlling a quadrophonic sound system along with
the tables/effects/etc. so he could pan sounds across all 4 corners of the
room. It _was_ a pretty intense experience, especially with the heat
factor of the room. I think there was one stretch where he played only
Mike Ink-produced material for about 30-40 minutes ;)
That, I suppose, leads to this next question:
> so here's the question. i'm very in to the concept:one cd out on
> hawtin's m-nus label. i've heard talk that it is similar in style to
> the basic channel material, none of which i have heard. if i dig on the
> minimal style of the concept:one cd, will i enjoy the basic channel
> stuff? any other minimal techno suggestions?
There's a wealth of amazing material out that you'd enjoy based on your
reaction to the concept material. First off, I'd actually recommend that
you try & track down the individual 12"s from the concept series. I have
10 out of the 12 right now, and I was actually dissapointed with the way
the compilation disc turned out (although I wish the last track had made
it to vinyl!). In my opinion, Hawtin is creative & talented enough to put
together a more interesting package than the results of the concept:one
disc - I would have loved to see a disc filled with interesting layering
of the material, long blends, new effects - I know the interesting stuff
that can come out of mixing the concept material myself, and I wish he'd
pushed it harder. Having said that, I think the concept 12"s are excellent
- each one has close to 20 minutes of music each, and with only one track
per side, the mastering quality is excellent.
I mentioned Mike Ink above - I can highly recommend his Studio 1 series of
12"s as a funkier, more straight-ahead sound than the concepts. If you
have no luck finding the 12"s (although I believe bent crayon, at
www.bentcrayon.com has them), get the compilation CD (also @ bent crayon,
I believe). Ink also has phenomenal material out on the Profan label (of
which Studio 1 was a limited-time sublabel) which is well worth tracking
down. The M:I:5 disc on Profan is excellent, especially.
And of course, this wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Basic
Channel camp of artists who have a pretty good claim on popularizing the
minimal, sound-oriented side of techno. The Basic Channel CD compilation
(sometimes referred to as the "metalbox" compilation because of the
packaging) is a great starting point. You'll find all the BC info you
could possibly want on Ines Ackermann's site at:
http://www.snafu.de/~circonium/music/main.html
Chain Reaction, which started during the time of BC and, unlike BC, is
still releasing material, is a superb label. Check the Monolake release
"Hong Kong" and the Porter Ricks release "Biokinetics" as excellent
reprentations of their sound. Both of these are easily attainable on CD,
since they're distributed through EFA, a widely carried distributor. CD
Now or Music Boulevard (www.cdnow.com; www.musicblvd.com) will have them
for reasonable prices, as well as other decent record stores.
Hope this helps,
Bill / dj marathon
>
> stv
>
ps - check http://www.m-nus.com/events/static/consumed.html for more info
about the party (along with full technical layouts for the event)
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