Is Minus becoming the Get Physical of minimal?

[theclockstrucktwelve]

let's leave the dubby stuff out... he said dancefloor

[Thomas D and Jack Thomas]

You guys are fucking crazy. There amount of great quality dancefloor minimal tracks in the past rivals today's amount by far (imo). The stuff that gets passed off as minimal these days is house music.

[isa]

There were simply not enough good dancefloor minimal releases in the 90s to play a primetime set of that stuff.

Absolutely disagree.

without him, there's be half as many labels around, half the touring djs would be out of work, and half the clubs that support minimal will be playing cheesy house because Hawtin's put in the hard touring and networking yards that has allowed the media and public know about this type of music.

There's a whole world of great musicians, djs, promotores and listeners apart from Richie Hawtin who supported the minimal scene... Never thought I had to point this out...

[steevio]

There's a whole world of great musicians, djs, promotores and listeners apart from Richie Hawtin who supported the minimal scene... Never thought I had to point this out...

thank you isa, that is an absolute fact, and i'm sure richie hawtin would be the first to agree. richie has certainly done more than his fair share.
did the whole of the ninetees not happen or something ?.
Plastikman inspired a generation of electronic musicians, give him a break, he's human.

[ri]

Totally disagree with you on this point.

Remember, since you're quoting the M series, that they nearly stopped in the 90 (last one was released in 1997). Remember Basic Channel. Remember 7th City. Remember the Studio 1 series and Kompakt. Remember Sahko. Remember Ifach, EMD, Pal sl, Audio.nl and so on. Remember Kompakt too.

And for the DJs, just remember Daniel Bell, and I'm not even talking about Robert Hood who is absolutly overlooked on this board IMHO.

It's just that minimal wasn't that mainstream right there.

Ok. I know there were a lot of records released over the several years in the 90s... But what I was saying that there was a relativly slow release pace, bugger all releases compared to today (especially ones that were dancefloor friendly) so if you wanted to play fresh stuff each week, you had perhaps 10 records from the minimal end worth djing to dancefloors (remember you'd get away with maybe one rhythm&sound track on a dancefloor at a time and then maybe 50-100 per week of more 'club' styles. Everyone seems to be thinking of the minimal 'hits' rather than just playable dance music. And Richie was playing that stuff mentioned.

But you can't tell me that the weight of releases were way more squarely in favour of 'big' tracks rather than 'minimal' ones.

Check Richie's mix cds, quite a lot of minimal tracks on there:
http://www.discogs.com/release/2997
http://www.discogs.com/release/4078 (last 10/11 tracks really nice)

and then of course, the first major mix CD that was purely minimal that blew the sound up all over the globe:
http://www.discogs.com/release/13765


And as I said before, Richie was playing all of that music, he was by far and out of the djs who played that stuff he was way more in the limelight over extended time, and if you were involved with distribution or labels, if Richie Hawtin played one of your records, sales would boost.

As for Dan Bell and Rob Hood - these guys are absolute geniuses. And they left their mark in a BIG way musically with not only minimal music, dance music in general. But they're hardly anywhere near near Richie's standing these days, and even though they are always fondly rememebred for their mindblowing cuts when their stuff was first released, they are only a tiny blip on the music radar today.

As for Maurizio not being 'mainstream' I'm not sure the exact numbers, but I know for a fact that they have sold more units than any other 'minimal' label/series. The are in techno, dub, hiphop, house, chill, experimental, etc etc djs and collectors crates all across the globe. Their market is 50 times as big as any minimal label has ever had. So I'd guess, their total lack of publicity aside, they'd be considered more mainstream than most other minimal

And I stand by the fact that without Richie there would be a HELL of a lot of this music that would never have had the platform or momentum to get where we are today. What other artist has his standing that is playing and promoting minimal for so long? What other dj today had one of the most seminal minimal techno labels since the early 90s? Who else had the balls to put such obviously minimal music on MAJOR mix cds that were partly aimed at the MOS kids? There are thousands and thousands of minimal producers and djs, but none who are in the general public's awareness to the degree that Hawtin is, or that has paved the way for the global dance network (clubs, press, etc) be able to do more, and let's not forget his involvement with the actual industry. Many of these labels on these boards would probably not be getting the representation online without some of Richie's influence

Maybe looking at it like this: if Hawtin didn't exist, would there be the minimal scene like we have today? I doubt it would be like this . It would still be relageated to back rooms, bars and quirky get togethers, rather than main stage of festivals, the worlds leading clubs, radio etc.

All good, and while I think Richie deserves his place in not only the minimal, but dance hall of fame, there's plenty of others who have done a lot fo the scene

[idealstandard]

Sorry. I don't want to jump on you on this one, but no.

Not meaning to draw this endlessly but Hawtin's really good at bringing things in the mainstream, sure, but that's all I'm going to accept here.
And I'm sorry but Robert Hood, for exemple, has always been way bigger in the Tresor back in the days. But it's true, some djs were not as exposed. Which doesn't mean IMO that Hawtin is anyway better or whatever than them.
And I'm really sorry again, but you cannot be serious when saying that the M series or Hard Wax crew or whoever else have anything to reward to Hawtin.
And about BC, the M series or R&S, so Hawtin is the man when it comes to bringing things up to a wider audience, but so much more underground when it comes to the sales of his own records? Come on, just ask yourself how long these records have been out and how long they have been sold... This is not a matter of underground or not. We'll see what will happen in ten years with the actual minimal school, we already knows what happened with the old one.

[idealstandard]

let's leave the dubby stuff out... he said dancefloor

Is 7th city or sahko dubby to you? Go listen to Digweed as you once nicely said.

[idealstandard]

There's a whole world of great musicians, djs, promotores and listeners apart from Richie Hawtin who supported the minimal scene... Never thought I had to point this out...

Thanks, you just saved my night.