Minimal House

As the name implies, minimal house (or microhouse) is a minimalistic style of house music. According to music journalist Philip Sherbourne who coined the term »microhouse« in 2001, the genre stripped house »down to a trifold essence: rhythm, soul and silence«.

Minimal house emerged in the late 1990s from house, bitpop and (minimal) techno. Sometimes, it is referred to as the »house version« of minimal techno. Therefore, prime fathers of minimal techno Robert Hood and Daniel Bell are also considered to be the prime fathers of the genre. Especially David Bell’s tracks were influenced by Chicago house and minimalist composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Further, glitch music pioneers like German electronic music group Oval can be seen as genre forerunners.

It can be quite difficult to tell minimal house from minimal techno. While minimal techno tracks have an overall cooler, more machine-like sound, minimal house tracks tend to have a slower tempo and to show more soul and funk influences. Typically, they have a tempo between 115 and 125 bpm and feature the usual steady 4-on-the-floor beat as well as monotonous and often atonal synthesizer chords. Sampling is characteristic of the genre: often, drum sounds are replaced by (extremely) short samples with glitches, clicks or simply bits of noise. Also melodic components are often created by using (ultra-) short samples of the human voice, musical instruments or anything else – a good example is »1968 (Ark remix)« by Krikor from 2002. The same year, Canadian electronic musician Marc Leclair alias Akufen released his debut album »My Way«, introducing his concept of »microsampling«. If vocals are included they usually are also rather minimalistic, monotone or even nonsensical, like on »Airolo« (2000) or »Chicken Fried Rice« (2004) by Swiss artist Kalabrese.

The cd compilation series »Da Minimal Funk«, started and released 1997 by German dj/producer Steve Bug on his own label Raw Elements, helped to promote the minimal house style. Other notable genre labels are e.g. Perlon, Playhouse and Trapez. »Beau Mot Plage« (1998) by highly acclaimed German producer Isolée is credited to be the first microhouse record to reach the club charts.

Good examples for minimal house are e.g. »Simply Driving Gold« (2006) by Daze Maxim or Losoul's »Sawce« (2012). Further notable and prominent genre artists are Michael Mayer, Matthew Herbert and Richie Hawtin.