plus/minus

i accidently hit a button on my mp3 player which resulted in the latest RA mix coming to an early end and old plastikman starting all of a sudden. while i was kind of enjoying the house of house mix, i was not complaining when the old, warped sounds of plastikman started filling my head. and that was enough to motivate me to write this post about 2 new projects to emerge out of the m-nus / plus8 stable. the first is the new ambient mix from matthew hawtin, the second is the string of plastikman live gigs planned for this year. both have definitely got me intrigued, but at the same stage, it is noticeable that these are both backward looking projects. it *might* be a sign that richie might slowly be emerging from his own ass and realising that the avenue he has been going down has reached a dead end, yet at the same time, he has failed to work out a new creative direction to pursue... anyway, a few more thoughts on each project:

i was very happy that i actually received a promo copy for matthew hawtin's 'once again again' mix CD, composed of 90s ambient classics. it is an ode to the long lost chill out room, something the ssgs reminisced about some time ago. the mix CD is pretty solid, but doesn't quite work - there isn't enough space for the music to breathe. luckily plus8 have also put out a digital release composed of essentially the same tracks and is 3 hours long. this gives the records the space they need. i've only listened to it a couple of times, but it works really, really well from what i've heard. last saturday i put it on and went to my favourite temple in tokyo and relaxed there for about 90 minutes. it was pretty awesome. really deep, spacey ambient stuff, which is very unique to that period of the early to mid 1990s and has managed to date pretty darn well. there is nothing overly amazing about this release, but it is a very nice tribute to a special set of sounds. and because it has the m-nus/plus8 branding, one advantage is that it will introduce this whole genre to mnml heads that would have been unlikely to come across it otherwise. anyway, you can get it here. and don't be silly, make sure to get the wav version for an extra euro or two. you want a proper copy of it.

as for the plastikman live gigs. hmm... i have decidedly mixed feelings about these. on the one hand, if he plays in japan, i will be there in a heartbeat. without doubt. and i'm sure it'll be good. when richie is on it, he is amazing, no question. quite a few of the very, very best moments i've experienced with techno have been thanks to him. and the source material for plastikman is so incredibly strong that he'll definitely be able to put together a 60-90 minute performance filled with quality. but. on the other hand, something feels not quite right about resurrecting plastikman in this way. i am still angry about the god awful dubfire remix of 'spastik', one of the worst acts of musical vandalism i have had the displeasure of hearing. the fact that he let this steaming pile of shit get released is hardly a good sign... beyond that, on a deeper level, i'm just not sure if there is much of plastikman left in richie. for me, plastikman is very deep, dark, twisted music. to put it bluntly, i think richie is too happy, carefree and enjoying his superstar DJ lifestyle. this is a long way from the dark places of his brain that plastikman must have come from. also, plastikman is the very context specific - it is tied up with the 90s and the way techno was developing then. iphone apps and the mnml m-nus lifestyle is a long way from the warehouses and raves of the '90s. all in all, i think plastikman would have been better left alone. an artifakt of a different era of techno...

so where next then? the most promising - and forward thinking - thing m-nus has done in a while was one of its least promoted, the collab party it put on in berlin with the raster-noton crew late last year. raster have been moving towards a more techy sound in the last year or two, and pushing forward in a very interesting direction. and raster fits closely with richie's aesthetic and some of the more sonically interesting parts of his sound palette. the only report i heard about the gig was very positive. given how good richie was, and can be, and how prominent m-nus has become, it'd be good if they could start playing a more progressive and positive role again. i'm not confident, but there are a few positive signs. lets see...