IDM Mailing Archive

Hi all, I've heard the mention of this artist a number of times and have noticed some of his albums in my locals and have been intrigued - but not enough to take the plunge as I haven't heard any of his work. I would appreciate it if any IDMers out there could enlighten me with a brief description of his stuff. Cheers, Gav.

Plastikman gets old fast????? Repetitive 303 bashing???? All eighth notes??? I think not.....Richie Hawtin is a fucking genius. The things he thinks to do with a 303 are a total mindfuck. Believe me, I have a 303, and I have absolutley no idea whatsoever how he manages to get it to do the things he does. Very, VERY few people are able to create the kind of grooves he creates with it. Very few people. If the sound of the 303 is not for you, then fine, its not for everyone, I understand. But if you want to hear some of the most brilliant acid lines ever created, then check out his very vast body of work. I guarantee you won't regret it. Where to start? Either of his full length Plastikman albums would be a good primer. Also, his remix of Robotman is a classic... Oh, and if you haven't heard his new remixes of System 7's Alpha Wave on Dragonfly, get it. 20 minutes of pure acid house bliss - Sven Vath played it when he was at Fever in Balt, before I knew what it was, and weeks later, we got it in here at our store completely by chance. Now *THAT* was a good day :).......... Peace.... Babylon

On Wed, 24 May 1995 Babylon909@aol.com wrote:

quoted 9 lines Plastikman gets old fast?????

> Plastikman gets old fast????? > Repetitive 303 bashing???? > All eighth notes??? > > I think not.....Richie Hawtin is a fucking genius. The things he thinks to > do with a 303 are a total mindfuck. Believe me, I have a 303, and I have > absolutley no idea whatsoever how he manages to get it to do the things he > does. Very, VERY few people are able to create the kind of grooves he > creates with it. Very few people.

If someone can do something unique that few people can do and it's not something people like, who cares? I'n not saying Hawtin fits in this category as I'm aware many people like his work. The point being, uniqueness, and and the fact that few people can do it, doesn't necessarily make it good.

quoted 5 lines If the sound of the 303 is not for you, then fine, its not for everyone, I

> > If the sound of the 303 is not for you, then fine, its not for everyone, I > understand. But if you want to hear some of the most brilliant acid lines > ever created, then check out his very vast body of work. I guarantee you > won't regret it.

I like the sound of the 303 but I don't like some of the things Hawtin has done with it. I find much of his work uninteresting. On the other hand, I think the FUSE album is brilliant. Tony

AH'ers who cringe at 303 stuff, please press "n" (or equiv for skipping) now sorry...but On Wed, 24 May 1995 Babylon909@aol.com wrote:

quoted 6 lines I think not.....Richie Hawtin is a fucking genius. The things he thinks to

> > I think not.....Richie Hawtin is a fucking genius. The things he thinks to > do with a 303 are a total mindfuck. Believe me, I have a 303, and I have > absolutley no idea whatsoever how he manages to get it to do the things he > does. Very, VERY few people are able to create the kind of grooves he > creates with it. Very few people.

I think the Plastikman stuff is merely ok, maybe a great tool for dj's, but 'few people are able to create the kind of grooves he creates...' Uh, Bzzzt, I don't think so. I program 2x606's 2x101's and a 303 and many other on-board step-sequencers (like a *lot* of people) and I must say that Hawtin is often just programming straightforward overlaps of different pattern lengths, which sounds great, but ain't that difficult. He probably discovered the virtues of it via the remove-the-batteries approach to getting random sequences on the 303. He and his label have further pioneered that stripped-down x0x usage to a, well, even more stripped-down aesthetic which I definitely get into sometimes. Hawtin has excellent taste in tweaking timbres (esp the Fuse LP + Train Tracs), but does not do terribly complicated programming on his 303 from what I've listenned to outside of those Warp releases. If you want to hear painstaking 303 programming, listen to the band Imagination from '81-82, they programmed the 303 for *entire* songs, not just patterns and key changes, but bridges, unique accents etc. Suffice it to say, they *never* tweaked it to sound like acid-style zipping: they just used it to sound like what it was designed to be -- a bass (for a bass-less band). Boring, but a ton more programming was done and a better understanding of the sequencer than for much of what is on Plus 8. However, the Plus 8 artists have taken the *timbre* to new heights and pioneered the aesthetic for that techno "acid" sound. For a Sly & Family Stone bass lick, try this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 C1 C3 F1 C#1 F1 D#1 A#1 G#1 F#1 D#1 C2 D#2 D#1 AU DS DS DS A DS S DS AS (R) AD S (R) AD S (R) C1 C3 F1 F1 F2 G#1 F1 C2 C#1 F1 D#1 C2 AU DS (R) D AS (H) A DS AS (R) AD S (R) AD DS US A=ACCENT, D=DOWN OCTAVE, U=UP OCTAVE, S=SLIDE ON, R=REST, H=HOLD Experiment with notes 2,3,4, & 7 having the gate held on also Enter these is as goddam-16th-notes merely! Psh! WARNING: This sounds like a funk bass gtr, heh heh heh!! That's right, mr-peace-pipe-808, this is Rock Music! Ok, so why after a couple years on AH, is *nobody* entering in their fave step sequences?!?!?!?!? Don't you program?... or do you covet 'riffs'? ;) THEN, tweak the acid timbres %-) "Blood in the Mug that I'm drinkin' from..." (sung to Love is the Drug - RM) David Chandler - chandler@nethost.multnomah.lib.or.us (503)301-3011 grep -i casio goodwillbins >> mystudio ; grep -i atari goodwillbins >> mystudio ;