home > browse > cd-feature > view article

CD Feature/ Richie Hawtin: "Concept 1/Variations"

  Tobias

For an entire year, Richie Hawtin forced the world to listen. Techno was no longer a baby anymore in 1996, but the genre had still not been granted intellectual acceptance. A fate it shared with the earliest emanations of Freejazz or the industrial movement, by the way, which by then had long been integrated into the general canon. Each month of that year, Hawtin released a two-track Vinyl record, later compiling the material on “Concept 1:96”. Based on lucid self-reflection, fuled by a strengthened self-assuredness and introducing a new kind of self-perception, it heralded the advent of a contemporary current on the scene – and is still considered a classic ten years later.

When listening to the album with the ears of today, one immediately recognises the progressive potential it tapped into. Richie Hawtin’s vision of timelessness has two important point in common with that of Kraftwerk – purity of arrangements and a playful creativity. “Concept 1:96” breaks with everything formerly deemed defining for techno as a genre, while maintaining true to its general sound and overall feeling. First, Hawtin strips the tracks bare, leaving nothing but kickdrum, hihat, snare, claps and bass. Then he contaminates the tissue with dub echoes, metallic rattlings and synthetic snarls, creating a desolate, dense and dry sound. Finally, he regards no element as given, moves every knob at least once and laughs at the old notion of hypnoticism.

In practise, this means that bass drums can run through endless filter modulations, morphing from droney, subcutaneous poundings to wooden kicks. Hihats will start in an offbeat position, before sliding out of sync with the rest of the track, melting with a second stream of parallel lines and giving birth to a new meaning. In one of the pieces, Richie Hawtin pans the music from right channel to centre, to the left and back again, developping the piece as he goes along. In another, he places the cogwheels of the machinery in a threedimensional continuum, stretching the fabric of the imagination. Pieces start abruptly and take forever to die down, build up meticulously, only to eschew the expected climax in favour of a gradual decline.

Repetition as the pilar of techno no longer has a meaning here, nor has the four to the floor-beat as the easily recognisable groove base – some of these bewildering tunes trudge along like drowsy electro, while others even have a lonely reggae-vibe to them. The only thing Hawtin leaves intact is liniear motion, the idea of the pieces concentrating solely on their opening parameters and allowing nothing to stand in their way.

In the postmodern view of the world, of course, whether or not an album can be considered a classic depends largely on its ability to inpsire other artists to personal interpretations. In this respect, “Concept 1: 96” has doubtlessly earned its laurels. Roughly a year after the final Vinyl contribution to the series had been published, Thomas Brinkmann travelled from Cologne to Richie Hawtin’s home in Windsor. In his bag, he carried the mix to his “Variations”, an album which rebuilt Hawtin’s music from its own memory.

Brinkmann had used his turntable to play the original tracks alongside each other, but with varying degrees of delay. Essentially, the raw material to both works is the same, but in Brinkmann’s version, the concepts start talking to each other, remembering themselves. Every moment is a combination of present and past, which flows into an unpredictable future. The doubling also creates a sensation of opaqueness and bluriness, which tightens the ambiance even more. The “Variations” move much slower than their counterparts, almost as if caught in hypnagogic hallucinations, and even though one can hear their sources shining through, they appear remote and too far away and ghoulish to touch.

Techno had every right to be a little proud of itself after this powerful act of will and among the many, many re-releases, this one stands out as a most welcome one. If you like, the new edtion of both albums as a double-CD follows a similar logic. This release comes a year later than the first “Concept” 12 inch and a year earlier than the tenth anniversary of Thomas Brinkmann’s edit – a “Variation” itself, so to speak. To celebrate the occasion, Richie Hawtin has asked Stefan Betke of Pole fame for a remaster, which manages to sound both swampy and pristine and awards the record a noteworthy place in the 21st century repertoire. The fact that media attention was again extremely high only proves that the world has listened and learned in 1996 - and that techno has outgrown its childhood days.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Richie Hawtin
Homepage: M-Nus Records