I went though a similar thing with the music. I got into electronic music around 1996-1997 and I was mesmerized by the amazing variety of sounds to be experienced. I found it so much more interesting then just your plain old lead guitar, bass and drums kind of music. Pop culture was also kind of grungy at the time and I was never much into that sort of thing so electronic was a welcomed escape. One of the things that I liked was the culture of the music, it was somehow laid back, yet positive and energetic. Crazy parties going on too. Not to be all nostalgic but I have never experienced parties like that since those years.
I was much like you except that we didn't have tractor yet, just turntables and a mixer. I started buying records and became a little obsessive. I discovered the minimal techno section and instantly became hooked. Not many people seemed to like the music though. It was often described as too mellow or 'not party music'.
I had moved out west to the other side of the continent in 2001 and met few people who were into the music and I had a hard time getting anyone interested in it to be honest. It was a different sort of culture. When I moved to my new city there were two record shops but one closed down within a year and the other didn't have any records that I liked, in fact pretty much zero minimal. The guy who ran the shop was really into hard acid techno which is ok but not my bag you know.
By 2003 I had pretty much given up on minimal music. I felt like it was dead. No parties, no access to records. I just said to hell with all this and I put electronic music behind me. I would say that this sonic abstinence lasted about 4 years (2007 I suppose) then I decided to start poking though my records one day. I pulled a deck out of the basement and hooked up my mixer and started listening to some records and next thing you know it was like falling in love all over again. Then I discovered netlabels which was just fantastic. I don't think such a thing existed way back when. The advent of the digital delivery of music is one of the best things I think have ever happened, it opens up so much that was previously unavailable. If that annoys dj elitist types who want a record nobody else can get then I just have to say go fck yourself and I hope you can't sleep at night because of it.
For me the only thing I miss about records was actually going to the record shop and meeting interesting people who were into similar stuff. You can't get that from Beatport. Rediscovering the music greatly increased my appreciation for whats out there. I had pretty much ignored anything to do with electronic music so I was very much surprised to find that minimal had blow up so much. To be honest though... the sound that had blown up was not really all that minimal to me. In fact I can't really say that I much cared for it. It was kind of a lifeless, empty sound. That minus style. Often imitated, often duplicated. Not that I don't like minus per-se. I was smitten with minus back in the late 90's. I couldn't get enough of the kinds of records Theorem, Swayzak, Stewart Walker and Sutekh were putting out. Just fantastic. Loved those Theorem VS whoever tracks. I think its weird that the newer sounds of minus became so popular when you consider how much better the older releases are. Seems weird to me. I can't even listen anything from minus that is post 2003. Just terrible stuff.
Anyways, I think that maybe you just need a hiatus. Take some time away, not just a few days but more like a few months. Don't listen to electronic for six months and then see how you feel. I bet you will be itching to get back. Just don't be crazy like me and take 4 years off.
Excellent point. Minimal as a genre is is not all that good and I think minus is much to blame for this. Most 'minimal' that I hear sounds like a (modern) minus mimic. They have defined a genre with a sh!t sound and now people think that is minimal. You can't blame people for being negative about it but you can blame all the crap producers who are jumping on the bandwagon and putting this stuff out. Even worse are the people buying it.Hutch wrote:One thing that I've learned is that minimal is definitely not a genre. It's a style. And there are 100's of genres with minimal ascetics.
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