Minimal Techno
Minimal techno was born in the early 1990s in Detroit, USA. It can be seen as a stripped-down, minimalistic variant of Detroit techno.
Founding fathers of the genre are Detroit-based djs/producers Daniel Bell and Robert Hood. His 1994 albums »Minimal Nation« and »Internal Empire« can be seen as the origin of the minimal techno style with tracks like »One Touch« and »Minus«. Hood was unhappy with where techno was going in the early 1990s, i.e. the rave culture and the tracks becoming more and more faster, louder, harder. He was missing the original feeling and the funk and soul roots, thus, he wanted to bring techno back to its essential elements and »a heart-felt rhythmic techno sound«. Daniel Bell, who released his »breakthrough« track »Losing Control« in 1994 under his alias DBX, draw his influences from Chicago house and minimalist composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
Minimal techno has a close relationship to minimal house – which often makes it difficult to differentiate between the two styles. While minimal house tracks tend to be slower and to show more soul and funk influences, minimal techno tracks have an overall cooler, more machine-like sound focusing more on the middle frequencies than deep basses and typically have a tempo of 125-130 bpm. Due to its repetitiveness and the hypnotic atmosphere they create minimal techno tracks often qualify for chillout floors as well, like e.g. »Game One« (1994) by INFINITI.
Another important name in minimal techno is British-Canadian dj/producer Richie Hawtin, also known as Plastikman and F.U.S.E.. Not only with tracks under his belt like »Spastik« or »Plasticine« (both 1993) but also with his labels Plus 8 and especially Minus (or M-nus) he is one of the genre's pioneers. Minus became the home for many minimal techno artists, like Canadian producer Mathew Jonson – known for tracks like »Decompression« (2004) and »Marionette« (2005) – or the »Queen of Minimal« Magda.
In 2004, Hawtin and Minus relocated to Berlin, Germany where another important genre label operates: Perlon, originally based in Frankfurt/M, famous for the »Superlongevity« compilations and home to artists like German dj/producer Ricardo Villalobos or Canadian dj/producer Marc Leclair aka Akufen. Known for the »Sound of Cologne« is Kompakt, a label co-founded by Wolfgang Voigt who is considered one of the most influential artists of minimal techno.
