minimal

[lola]

I wouldn't want to pay money to go see a DnB or Trance DJ.

that hurts, you put dnb and trance on the same level :eek: just kidding!!, i know i know, to each their own... but tell me what about it that you don't like. just curious...

[Nephew]

Here's one from Ricardo Villalobos, this tune is probably the one that really opened my eyes to what minimal can be and the possibilities it has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0i1Szq6GM8

One more from Ricardo since it was there,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzxyw...eature=related

Here's one from Luciano when he was still doing Minimal,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eNkmrFNT50

Here's a remix from Luciano that still sounds fresh today,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuos4NtmOkY

And here's one from Marcel Dettmann, going a bit more heavier and almost industrial with his samples, but still very much minimal music, something for the peak time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXgwK...eature=related

Here's another unique tune from Marcel, but works just as well all the same,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ln5o...eature=related

Here's a moody little number from Ben Klock,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-EUkoxWGmw

One more from Klock, as with Marcel this one is a bit heavier but still very much a minimal tune in it's approach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDurw...eature=related

These are just a few prime examples that I would use to describe what minimal music is. It's just those long, drawn out grooves that have very minimal (excuse the pun) effects going on, but they still have a powerful effect on the listener through the repetitive, hypnotic nature of the tunes.

What's being labeled as minimal nowadays is more techno oriented. With the hard hitting 16th swinging hi's/percussions, big, massive throbbing basslines and use of white noise and effects to build tension, ala Fergie and Dubfire as prime examples, you couldn't be any further from what minimal really is what it's trying to accomplish. Sure they use a lot of minimal samples and sounds, but they are presented in a very maximal way if you will. And by no means is there anything wrong with that, that music has it's time and place and I love it just as much as I love minimal music.

[bumtsch]

Nephew, I like that last post of yours - good examples and explanations, we're getting there !
(thanks for the link to melchior+luciano - heard that again recently and wondered what it was)

IMO "minimal" by itself doesn't mean much as you hinted to. Typically it's minimal house (which is what it probably meant at some point) and minimal techno and I really think there is a clear distinction most of the time. Of course there are some tracks where you really can't tell :P

For those not liking that "minimal is too techno atm" let's not forget minimal started with techno in the early/mid nineties when some producers decided to strip it down to the bare essentials in a reaction to the extremes techno was exploring then (140++bpm in your face distorted hoovers epic hands in the air techno).
=>see Wolfgang Voigt and Moritz Von Oswald's RBMA lectures for some insights on that, for the curious.

As others have stated in the thread it's really a way to make house/techno that's stripped down, that's not "wave-your-hands-in-the-air", an exercise in making variations and melody with very little and usually having a soundstage that isn't cluttered. In house it's led to click-house-like styles with very short glitch samples and such, but still some melodic elements and usually obvious structure.
=> John Tejada - Mono On Mono

In techno it was very tooly tracks, finding an hypnotic loop that would go on for ages.
Daniel Bell - Baby Judy
Jeff Mills - Growth
Maurizio - M5

Whola there...leaning into dub techno here which leads us nicely to Klock and Dettmann who are definitely minimal - techno. Their tunes are rough, industrial, cold in a way, very loopy, they don't have that sort of "human" feel to them you get in most house and minimal/click house, ie when compared to the Ricardo/Luciano tracks linked above.

To the Berghain guys I'll add this for your perusal.
(had a ticket to see Dettmann recently and I ended up not going. Aughhhhhh)

Full support on what you're saying about modern "minimal", Dubfire/Fergie and the like (add Chris Liebing's CLR label to that). Most of it that I have goes with the "techno" tag due to the production and structure.

<trolling>
Oh and considering all of the above, if we considered "Erotic Discourse" to be minimal (which it certainly isn't !), there is no way it could be called "seminal" in any way due to the year it was released.
</trolling>

[Nephew]

Loving the Moritz von Oswald Q&A, really insightful. Good looking out!

[tekki]

[..]In house it's led to click-house-like styles with very short glitch samples and such, but still some melodic elements and usually obvious structure.
=> John Tejada - Mono On Mono

This one is also featured in the mix I posted earlier on. Loving Tejada by the way. One of my fave producers!