minimal techno

Cenk Akyol’s style has always been distinct and his lists picky. Once again he’s told us that he wasn’t able to find 10 or so releases to enjoy completely this year, so his best of lists consists mostly of songs.

One of Istanbul’s best kept secrets, the Sublime Porte netlabel has just released their 5th excursion into dubby minimal techno soundscapes. Free download.

Ah, Studio 1, but not the Jamaican Studio 1. Continuing our series on Early Minimal House/Techno, I had to post the definitive minimalist dance album, Mike Ink aka Kompakt boss Wolfgang Voigt’s Studio 1. Released from 1995 to 1996 and then pressed onto CD in 1997, this is by far the most repetitive (it’s almost unchangin) but true to the roots minimal techno/house you’ll ever get to hear.

Here’s a piece that I’ve been planning to post from the golden days of minimal house before it got infested with electro crap and everyone became a shitty producer. This piece from 2001 was on Dietrich Schoenemann’s obscure Remains label.

Quick selection with four tracks of solid minimal house and techno gold from Losoul, Cristian Vogel, Green Velvet and Michel Cleis.

This weekend Ricardo Villalobos and Zip will be performing in Istanbul with our own Tutan and (((Emre))) who’s back from a looong army duty. Introducing Ricardo Villalobos is unnecessary as he’s world famous, yet there’s a relatively small cadre of people who can point back to the start of the minimal house scene and claim Dimbiman aka Zip as one of the progenitors.

Icelander Yagya has been making music for some time and I’m sure everyone interested in minimal / dubby techno music still remember his 2002 release “Rhythm on Snow” on Force Inc. His third album Rigning is once again inspired by weather, as it’s the Icelandic word for “rain”. It’s also the doinant theme in the album more evident especially on the beatless tracks.

Swiss techno merchants Styro2000 and Bang Goes are two of the best kept secrets of the minimal techno underground. I remember seeing their live show in Istanbul a few years ago, in front of a huge desk with godknows how many analogue devices, creating this mindblowing raw improvised techno with no computers in sight.