I'd love to chirp in here but I'd sound egotistical. :)
+odd
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On Nov 21, 2005, at 11:42 PM, Matt MacQueen wrote:
On Nov 21, 2005, at 9:25 PM, Wojtek wrote:
It was fitting for him to play the Abe Duque track "What Happened?"
with Blake Baxter saying "what's up" to Detroit techno,
I love that part.. where he's sort of skeptical in tone of voice, but
certainly not throwing in the towel, heh... I feel the same way I
guess
as the local music scene of late rarely plays host to any Detroit
talent, largely favoring and booking the dj's who play the current so
called "minimal" sound instead. But then again, SF has been a trend
following city lately.
LATELY!?! ;)
But yeah i know you what you mean about people calling certain styles
of boring click-house as "minimal". It kills me when people use that
word to describe 2-3 hour DJ yawnfests of the same boring,
quasi-glitch-but-not-quite-ACTUALLY-funky lean house tracks. The
tracks are never as interesting enough on their own to make a really
great set... well usually, anyway. It's a dis-service to the word..
minimal used to mean it had a mental, introspective element. Less was
more. (Now, apparently, less is even less?) Minimal was pure techno.
Now, I realize that it couldn't last forever because making GOOD
minimal techno is/was a lost art. Rob Hood's Minimal Nation, Internal
Empire and stuff on M-Plant. Jeff Mills "Growth" and Cycle 30 records
on Axis, some Shake tracks, the stuff on Molecular records, some
Dopplereffekt, even some F.U.S.E., the early Accelerate Records & Dan
Bell material (which Kompakt basically took that sound an made
hundreds more records off of it, but none quite as good). There are
bright spots of course, but also the 20 more labels that sprang up to
imitate even that sound... eesh)
With a good minimal record, at least the way I was taught, it doesn't
NEED anything else in it, because every trace element of what's in it
is so acutely funky to begin with. A good minimal record made you a
little freaked out, there was a headspace element to it. Even look at
something like Basic Channel - Phylps Trak II.... a looped groove, not
much in it... minimal even... but OH so funky. An old head Dr.
Attaman once famously described (probably on 313) upon hearing Movable
Parts that "Rob Hood has the power to make teeny-tiny atoms funky".
It has funk and actual INTEREST and appeal in it's very DNA. I'm
sorry I'm just not hearing that in the truckload of "minimal"
glitch/cut-up/tech-house I've heard in the last couple years.
Desperately waiting for that blah phase to pass, and there's no end in
sight. Now as for what people CALL IT, that's up to them of course,
but I ain't buyin it.
["I just don't get it" rant mode off...] I also make no claims to be
cutting edge either... So I guess that means I'd take Mike Clark over
Michael Mayer ;)
peace
--
MM
http://sonicsunset.com
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Todd Sines, director
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