The Best Produced Minimal Techno--Reference Tracks?

[Kindred]

Originally Posted by 8bit

I need to add one more (ok maybe a few) as well as minimal nation, as far as minimal goes. I preface by saying as far as best production is concerned, maybe it aint the best, but i don't think clean, massive or pounding sounding makes the best production. Just as an example some of those highly produced swedish tracks, are some of the most boring records ever made, and pretty much killed a love of techno for me.

Maurizio - M5 (absolutley awesome)

Also all the Studio 1 and Profan records (mike inc) and we cannot forget Unit Moebius (the early bunker records) plus the Basic Channel discs.

Just my few cents.

as much of a genius as Maurizio is/was, I would hesitate to ever use his material for mix referencing, as his trademark was tracks buried spookily in the background of hiss - not too many people can get away with the stuff he tried - eg - having a track that does almost nothing for 2 minutes, but still remains engrossing...

[kikumoto]

another cool dubchord kinda track is Dave Clarke - 'wisdom to the wise',

this is from 1995/6 as well

[chopstickkk]

Originally Posted by Lessli

Ricardo Villalobos (Fabric 36) Best production in minimal I've come across!

Really have to agree with you there. If any of you haven't heard this you should check it out.


Turn it up load and it sounds like it's bangin out through your dream Funktion One rig....

[Mark1353]

Originally Posted by kikumoto

another cool dubchord kinda track is Dave Clarke - 'wisdom to the wise',

this is from 1995/6 as well

That's a LEGENDARY track! I remember when me and some of my pals tried back in the nineties to figure out how that chord sound was made. "Is it a piano blended with saw tooth stab, or..." etc. It was just sooooo good sound... Had to listen to it over and over again. And of course the track itself was completely mindblowing in some storage hall with 10000W PA. If anyone knows how that sound was made please chime in.

Great names mentioned in this thread... Maurizio, Basic Channel... I almost worshipped Robert Hood and Jeff Mills. It's really sad to see what happens with electronic music nowadays.. A whole culture ruined.. But that happened to disco, hippies and punk too.. Everything gets commercialized in the end, and the vibe just gets lost in the process. Or maybe I just grew up. :)

[endosine]

I really agree with all the tracks mentioned above, some good stuff there. I have to say my two ultimate reference tracks are Richie Hawtin - Consumed and Jeff Mills - Gamma Player. I used those to reference the Barefoot Micro Mains, sounded incredible.

I guess they are just the two tracks I know the best. To find good material to use as a reference you really have to find tracks that speak to you and have the same kind of tone and energy you are going for in a mix. Those two tracks are it for me.

ES

[danasti]

Originally Posted by morebutter

I would like to have a few minimal techno tracks to reference when mixing. Not necessarily the best music but very well produced that sounds incredible in clubs (good music is good too though).

Are there some you would suggest? And specific tracks?

A very important thing to be aware of relative volume and dynamic range when you make judgements on a track's production quality. Some producers go with more dynamic range and others will compress/limit more making the track sound louder. I adjust gain so that the quietest part of each track is at a equal level for playback when I reference.

Most people will hear the quieter track, in comparison to another, and think less of it which is wrong. Also, European vinyl comes out louder than American vinyl - that does not mean that the production, engineering or recording is better. I don't want to go into all the reasons why here but look at the waveform or adjust the gain on your dj mixer til they sound equally loud.

Len Faki - odyssee 2 (Podium #5 - split 12" w/Redshape's what's on a moog's ming?) released November 2007
The production, especially the effects are unreal. Warm, warm and massive verbs. Tons of smooth depth. Crank this up - it's crazy. Len Faki is also DJ Lamonde (or Lamonde) who did an album called "Music For Some Place Other Than This" - came out 2001. A single release he did called "eyesight" and another EP called "wanna be with you" are also just amazingly produced. These are on Feis which was a label he owned an operated had 20+ releases. Need a high quality 256kbps and up MP3 or .wav and well recorded to get the full effect of the effects on odyssee 2, IMO.

Red Robin & Jakob Hilden - Snapdragon (Trapez ltd 57)
Very crisp, clear, warm and super effective production.

wighnomy brothers - pele blos (fachmisch #19)
Track just builds and builds, massive effects, ultra crisp, solid construction. High quality recording/encoding is necessary to get the full effect.

abe duque - what happened (feat. blake baxter) - Gigolo #170 (whole album is very well engineered) - song is very stripped down and minimal but I always notice something new and cool that I've never heard before.

Matt Starr - Hypno (International Freakshow)

[barefoot]

Tipper - Surrounded

"Adrift for Days"
"Illabye"
"Over The Coals"
"Screw Loose"
"Tear Strips Off"

Great production with amazing low end, dynamics, transients, etc. Not exactly minimal techno, but the sound palate applies at least.

Thomas

[initialsmm]

John Tejada's engineering on his productions has gotten really great over the past few years.

Same goes with Stefan Betke's mastering work. Records mastered by The Exchange in London are good to compare to if you want a big, brick wall sound reference.

Monolake as some one else referenced would be a good choice too. As an ultra minimal reference I would say that T. Brinkman's re-edits of R.Hawtin's Concept series is quality hi-fi reference. But for the big warm syrupy sound M5 by Maurizio is a good choice, or even the Farben records on Playhouse.

Best thing to do, is to make your tracks as best sounding as you can, then reference them on a club system that is if you have access to one.
Then send them off to Dub Plates and Mastering in Berlin, Stefan will work his magic.

On a footnote:
The word "minimal' has always been a contradiction in techno much like "no-wave" was to NY experimental rock.

[bjarnenorheim]

Originally Posted by ignatius

the last 2 monolake records. also, autechre's untilted might be a good refernce and draft 7.30. both are mixed/mastered wonderfully and have some really lush moments and though not at all minimal techno i think the sounds sometimes fit that aesthetic as does the frequency range.

i'll add more later. can't think about it right now.

autechres new album sounds very good, but its not the same quality music as untilted and draft, but nice reverbs!!

I would add cristian vogel, surgeon, rob hood , jeff mills

[gst]

jay haze

[Acid Hazard]

Basically, everything technosmoker and 8bit have said. I'm really tired of all this over produced crap. ****ing laptop techno. Pretty soon, every thing's going to be cold sterile recordings.

[Acid Hazard]

Originally Posted by Blitzkrieg105

Benny Benassi Presents the Biz

Surely you jest...

[Mantik]

you should check some tunes by extrawelt. they realy know their stuff its not exactly minimal but every slut should take a listen. the production is stunning.
check out: "soopertrack"and "titelheld" for example.


and dont forget one of the ultimate hit tune of 2008 so far... this one is a killer, especially on the big big soundsystems its a miracle of sound.
YouTube - Rekorder 00 - (Stephan Bodzin & Oliver Huntemann)

[initialsmm]

btw I'm selling a ton of "minimal" techno and lots of Detroit, about 200 various titles.

Labels include Transmat, Axis, Underground Resistance, 7th City, Planet E, Sound Signature, etc.

PM me if interested.

[olafmol]

for me it's definately Trentemoller..it's warm, round, deep but still very dynamic...

[msl]

Robag Wruhme

[Gryten]

Sleepy Hollow by Stefan Goldman and Âme is a great reference track, imo. You should also check out Dan Curtin's tracks on Tuning Spork

[schnerg]

Originally Posted by initialsmm

John Tejada's engineering on his productions has gotten really great over the past few years.

Agreed. He puts out so much material it's insane - the vast majority of it is quality guaranteed.

My take on some current minimal that's being produced very well is most anything on the Dumb Unit label, especially Jeremy Caulfield's work. Super-tight. "Kickerflipper" is a few years old but still stands out as one of his best tracks, imo.

[MrHope]

Might want to check out some Bluetech tracks on Sines and Singularities. (I think that's what it's called, it's a double album). Prima Materia? I forget

[Absent1]

Originally Posted by Mantik

you should check some tunes by extrawelt. they realy know their stuff its not exactly minimal but every slut should take a listen. the production is stunning.
check out: "soopertrack"and "titelheld" for example.


and dont forget one of the ultimate hit tune of 2008 so far... this one is a killer, especially on the big big soundsystems its a miracle of sound.
YouTube - Rekorder 00 - (Stephan Bodzin & Oliver Huntemann)

Man, I must really be out of the loop if that is a hit tune.

[bleepbleep]

Originally Posted by Absent1

Man, I must really be out of the loop if that is a hit tune.

yeah - this track seriously lacks kik, its so underproduced its almost mandatory to pay it over the top of a decent rhythm track

[h4nc0]

+1 for Trentemoller.

[kidhandsome]

Gui Boratto - Wonderful sounding stuff

Trentemoller - Completely overcooked but in a cool way. Sounds like he puts about 2 hours of work into every 20 seconds of a track.

Stephan Bodzin
Dominik Eulberg
MArtin Buttrich
Shlomi Aber - a really rough warm sounding techno thing. His stuff sounds so sonically different to everything else right now. chunky basslines, detuned monotonous stabs etc.
Gel Abril - sort of along the same lines as Shlomi Aber

Everything on Ovum Recordings, and everything on Shlomi Aber's BeAsOne Imprint.

The production on a lot of these records isn't exactly hi-fi, but it's better that it's not. Sort of beautiful sounding deliberately lo-fi stuff that just cuts through with so much punch.

Oh and maybe Kid Handsome

[mikesilence]

Robert Babicz aka Rob Acid
Trentemoller

[Fade&Saturate]

i think the best good sounding "modern" minimal techno artists are definitely:

adam beyer (drumcode records)
riccardo ferri (alchemy records)

but if u are into more melodic stuff (my favourite) you should listen all border community records discography:

james holden
nathan fake
ricardo tobar
luke abbot
avus
petter

and so on..

[msl]

+1 Stephan Bodzin

also Oliver Huntmann

[Fade&Saturate]

yeah bodzin is cool on synths, but i don't like his grooves..

[vartan k]

Checkout, Stewart Walker - Stabiles

[Karloff70]

Originally Posted by kikumoto

another cool dubchord kinda track is Dave Clarke - 'wisdom to the wise',

this is from 1995/6 as well

I was going to jump in with Dave Clarke....you were faster

[212121]

YouTube - Rekorder 00 - (Stephan Bodzin & Oliver Huntemann) Sorry but that sounds boring as hell and looks like a track produced in 1 hour using FL studio

I can't wait to play Boards Of Canada - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country with barefoot monitors + prism converter