Minimalism

could well have been explained and answered around here numerous times before, but...

spent a good decade out of the loop on music. suppose SAW 85-92 attracted me initially, all those years back, but the output varied from there on in. never found warp material, and relatively obvious surrounding music, went near that stuff stylisitically, that often; suppose LFO was closest, 808 state always impressed me with more dance-oriented takes on that warm, stark, intelligent, measured sound. what else did though? i don't think it's an impossible Q to answer, but i'm not sure where the answers are myself.

quite attracted to the idea of deep chord / techno / dubstep (instrumental stuff) / and other things that often seem to be drifting around.

who are the best exponents of minimalist house-tinged, techno-like, drifting, cinematic, thoughtful, layered, dark, beautiful electronic pieces?

what are the labels and the genres to look into?

i listen to snippets at places like boomkat and don't quite sense who does the best work that might suit my taste for accessible structures with deep long-term effects? w

ho should i take a taster of?

all help and pointers appreciated.

WISP

The 808 State reissues are dope as hell, but I don't think they are a very minimal band at all. Perhaps circa Newbuild but once you get to the ZZT albums it's much more maximal stuff with like 12 copies of Bjork per song and shit.

I think Deepchord is pretty boring in general, you might as well wring every last drop of enjoyment out of Basic Channel & related projects before getting into their modern imitators, in my opinion.

If you want lush warm drifty stuff you probably want something like Gas or Vladislav Delay or something. Which in my mind isn't really all that "minimal" (I usually think more of that term applying more to stuff like Raster-Noton, SND, Ryoji Ikeda than lush or "warm" sounds). And this is all apart from what the techno heads think of as "Minimal" with a capital M which I take it is some kind of minimal techno sort of aesthetic like Ricardo Villalobos or something. Which, again, doesn't sound exactly like what you want; that stuff is more pure percussion kind of minimal.

That said, it has been a good couple years for reissues of (M)inimal techno .. stuff like Studio 1, "Minimal Nation", BCD-2, Concept 1 and all the Plastikman budget represses, etc.

EDIT: Oh and while sound-wise it's pretty different, I always felt that Drexciya's later "Storm Series" was similar to SAW85-92 in like, the vibe. That sort of loose-limbed soulful vibe. Nothing wrong with a little Drexciya.

Thinner netlabel has also been rocking my world lately in terms of capital-M Minimal techno.

+1 for Thinner...been tuning in there since 2005

Gas

Stars of the Lid

  On 12/28/2009 at 8:00 PM, logboy said:

who are the best exponents of minimalist house-tinged, techno-like, drifting, cinematic, thoughtful, layered, dark, beautiful electronic pieces?

Check out the album "We are Monster" by Isolee. It's from a few years back, but it's incredible.

good starting points there. need time to through these, and still want more

;)

btw, tried latest wisp album & didn't

find any reward in it. too reminiscent

of 90s output I followed at the time.

ten to like extremes, so SND could

be great, but too minimal, bit colder

than i would want most if the time.

best minimalism I've heard recently

was perhaps one or two pinch tracks.

2562 sounds good, but dubstep

in general shows potential & not

success for me. soundtracks to "Jesse James" & "let the right one in" are stunning forms of minimalism with warmth and layered character, melody.

what about reload albums?

house stuff that might shows origins

of what more directly inspired SAW;

but more modern takes on that style?

I assume you're familiar with Orbital's output? Probably not the most minimal but it seems like something you might like... In Sides is generally considered their best, but Orbital 2 (brown album) and Snivilisation (my personal favourite) are also very good.

http://rooftopaccess.bandcamp.com/album/the-usual-bridge

  On 12/28/2009 at 11:45 PM, Springymajig said:

I assume you're familiar with Orbital's output? Probably not the most minimal but it seems like something you might like... In Sides is generally considered their best, but Orbital 2 (brown album) and Snivilisation (my personal favourite) are also very good.

Yeah In Sides is the best

well, it depends what your definition of minimalism is - i mean these are all minimalist (and all tracks i love)

and as different as chalk and cheese. the word minimal is a fucking woeful name for a musical genre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxKtr5nF7Y

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

The best album that I would consider very minimal is "Stdio" by SND.

http://www.discogs.com/Snd-Stdio/release/21422

  On 12/29/2009 at 3:08 AM, kaini said:

well, it depends what your definition of minimalism is - i mean these are all minimalist (and all tracks i love)

and as different as chalk and cheese. the word minimal is a fucking woeful name for a musical genre

 

 

Well considering he's after stuff like 808 state and SAW I don't think Steve Reich is really that appropriate but of course Steve Reich is awesome.

yep, I was buying orbital as it was released. never liked in sides.

to reitterate, I'm trying to avoid the over-complicated and find the stuff that collectively serves as inspiration

for SAW; and then the stuff that follows on from that material that

been released over the last decade or two.

minimalism is a terrible idea, but I

think there's lots to be said for

melody, imagination and accessibility

without being too bloody minded

about creating a puzzle. that is,

because it seems "simple" doesn't

mean it has nothing but simple ideas.

SAW 85-92 isn't minimalist

  On 12/29/2009 at 9:16 AM, logboy said:

yep, I was buying orbital as it was released. never liked in sides.

 

to reitterate, I'm trying to avoid the over-complicated and find the stuff that collectively serves as inspiration

for SAW; and then the stuff that follows on from that material that

been released over the last decade or two.

 

minimalism is a terrible idea, but I

think there's lots to be said for

melody, imagination and accessibility

without being too bloody minded

about creating a puzzle. that is,

because it seems "simple" doesn't

mean it has nothing but simple ideas.

cluster - sowiesoso

harmonia - musik von harmonia

  On 12/29/2009 at 9:24 AM, Capsaicin said:

SAW 85-92 isn't minimalist

not as desperately minimalist as some, but far more confident in minimal expression that any drill n bass output - which, coincidentally, i still like, but not as much.

i think GAS hits the spot. stars of lid are potentially spot-on too. might order a couple of those now.

Rhythm & Sound - http://www.myspace.com/burialmix

Opiate - http://www.myspace.com/thomasknak

System - http://www.myspace.com/cphsystem

Try some of these.

ordered 3 "stars of the lid" to kick me off. "refinement of the decline", "tired sounds of" and "carte-de visite".

It don't get more 'minimalist' then this....

http://www.discogs.com/Steinbr%C3%BCchel-Skizzen/release/347920

  On 12/29/2009 at 4:04 PM, logboy said:

ordered 3 "stars of the lid" to kick me off. "refinement of the decline", "tired sounds of" and "carte-de visite".

Haven't heard carte de viste, but tired sounds and refinement are spectacular. Now you have to order Nah und Fern and you're set for a long time.

im starting to absolutely love alva noto....check him out

The Black Dog - Radio Scarecrow

You'd dig it heavily I bet.

if you feel like digging deeper into the classicambientronic direction of SotL, check out johann johannson or max richter. or porn sword tobacco although that's a bit different.