Richie Hawtin - Concept 1 (Bandcamp re-release)

[dcom]

Quote

Richie Hawtin's 1996 minimal series Concept 1 will be available as a digital release for the first time next month.

Concept 1 was a subscription series beginning in late 1995 which featured limited-edition monthly 12-inch releases. 25 years after the project was originally released, the entire series will be out on Bandcamp for one month, where both individual tracks and the entire set will be up for grabs (the latter comes with an exclusive bonus track).

The initial release is set to land via Hawtin's From Our Minds Bandcamp on January 1st, and will be followed by a triple vinyl release and a final release on all streaming sites later on. Previously, the series was reissued in 2007 as a limited-edition double-CD set.

"This release marked a real shift in my production style in 1996, and was the start of a significant chapter in my recording career. Everything was handled independently— from design to distribution to a subscription service to accompany it—so releasing this with Bandcamp now really captures that spirit of the landscape back in the mid-'90s," Hawtin says. "Concept 1 was recorded in isolation at a time when I was not allowed to enter the USA and with everything going on in the world at this moment, it felt like the right time to finally release this project to a larger audience."

Richie Hawtin will re-release his '90s Concept 1 material on Bandcamp for one month (Resident Advisor)

Spoiler

Personally I find the Concept 1 series boring and harbinger of the type of minimal techno later released on M_nus (although there are some tolerable Plastikman releases here and there). I will most probably get the digitals, though.

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by dcom

[dcom]

Oh, no-one has mentioned this either: Time Warps, first release on his From Our Minds label (a new sublabel of Plus 8).

 

[exitonly]

nice. proud to say i have this whole set on vinyl. one of my favorites by richie hawtin, along with Consumed and Artifakts

[dr lopez]

definitely one of the best richie bits. along with consumed and decks efx 909. consumed is really fucking underrated imo, probably because richie seems a bit wank but if you put it on thinking it was echospace or something everyone would rave about it.

 

this is great news. I could be wrong but i don't think the full concept 1 records were ever available digitally. the CD release was annoyingly edited down, although the thomas brinkmann CD is fucking awesome and a total classic.

richies cool and he's been around a looooong time. people forget his first album was part of the AI series on warp. thats a pretty fucking big deal.  weak that this is only going up for a month tho

[IDEM]

6 hours ago, dr lopez said:

consumed is really fucking underrated imo

I agree

[Richie Sombrero]

I quite liked the 12" series he did a couple of years ago under different alias. I accepted it as a partial apology for all the shite mnml.

[dcom]

6 minutes ago, Richie Sombrero said:

I quite liked the 12" series he did a couple of years ago under different alias. I accepted it as a partial apology for all the shite mnml.

That would be From My Mind To Yours, a collection of fresh material from many of his aliases, and it's brilliant.

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by dcom

[Richie Sombrero]

Aye I really enjoy it.

[Extralife]

2 hours ago, Richie Sombrero said:

I quite liked the 12" series he did a couple of years ago under different alias. I accepted it as a partial apology for all the shite mnml.

Somehow I missed this. Will have to give it a spin later.

[dcom]

56 minutes ago, Extralife said:

Somehow I missed this. Will have to give it a spin later.

It's the best material since Artifakts (BC), well worth getting on vinyl.

I splurged on Arkives 1993-2010 back in the day but got only REFERENCE (didn't want the ANALOG 6x12" box, the remixes are mostly meh). I've been vacillating over FUSE's Dimensions special edition - I've had Dimension Intrusion and Train Tracs since they were released - but 300 € for the box is too spicy even for me (I did get the digital remasters, though).

[Richie Sombrero]

Yeah I've the full Arkives inc. the 12", it's a shame what he chose to go on the vinyl but nice to have it complete. The Dimensions set I'd pick up at a discount maybe. I've an original white copy. Quite thin vinyl, would be good if Warp just repressed it in sensible fashion.

[Alcofribas]

On 12/18/2020 at 10:54 AM, dr lopez said:

definitely one of the best richie bits. along with consumed and decks efx 909. consumed is really fucking underrated imo, probably because richie seems a bit wank but if you put it on thinking it was echospace or something everyone would rave about it.

 

this is great news. I could be wrong but i don't think the full concept 1 records were ever available digitally. the CD release was annoyingly edited down, although the thomas brinkmann CD is fucking awesome and a total classic.

richies cool and he's been around a looooong time. people forget his first album was part of the AI series on warp. thats a pretty fucking big deal.  weak that this is only going up for a month tho

consumed is insanely good, especially the track by that name. i think i really like the concept 1 stuff but i burn out listening to it rather quickly. like dcom pointed out, it can definitely feel pretty boring. hawtin is weird to me bc he is such a huge force in the techno world but it seems like he has more meh material than good. anyway he's a proper legend. hope his hair is sorted out now

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Alcofribas

[dcom]

I remember this about Hawtin.

Quote

Is this “DJ” pulling records behind him? Is this Berlin 2011 or NYC/Detroit/Chicago 1988? How far we’ve come and how little we’ve progressed!

Hasn't stopped him from releasing physical records, though.

[Alcofribas]

that is such a quintessentially online “controversy.” some completely innocuous comment ends up in a Hitler meme. 

[Limo]

Tempting. Already paid for the cd once but it was edited, so might just pay for it again. One of my favorite cds of all time. Only one I’ve kept a physical copy of, in fact.

[IDEM]

I don't think I've ever heard a Plastikman record that was boring or even meh, and since Richie Hawtin is the Bruce Wayne to Plastikman's Batman, the guy's a legend in my book.

However I did kind of like bald, nerdy Windsor-to-Detroit LSD Richie with glasses better than asymmetrical hairstyle Berlin cokehead Richie with contacts. Or, as he would say, CONTACTS.

[exitonly]

2 hours ago, IDEM said:

I don't think I've ever heard a Plastikman record that was boring or even meh, and since Richie Hawtin is the Bruce Wayne to Plastikman's Batman, the guy's a legend in my book.

However I did kind of like bald, nerdy Windsor-to-Detroit LSD Richie with glasses better than asymmetrical hairstyle Berlin cokehead Richie with contacts. Or, as he would say, CONTACTS.

Extra points for topical avatar

[dcom]

9 hours ago, IDEM said:

Or, as he would say, CONTACTS.

KONTAKTS?

[Soloman Tump]

The brinkmann "remixes" are amazing, will definitely grab this as my cd is well scratched

[Extralife]

On 12/19/2020 at 12:25 PM, dcom said:

That would be From My Mind To Yours, a collection of fresh material from many of his aliases, and it's brilliant.

 

Just listened to this. What an excellent collection. 

[BobDobalina]

On 12/21/2020 at 3:10 AM, Soloman Tump said:

The brinkmann "remixes" are amazing, will definitely grab this as my cd is well scratched

Shit, I totally forgot that he did this to Concept 1, thx m8, will have to track this version down.  I'll sill regularly cane Brinkmann's Studio 1 Variations album, which is some hypnotic screwed techno funkee ish.

[dcom]

It's out, 25 € (~$30) for the full set.

[Limo]

Aargh ... €25 for a bunch of mp3s ...

Then again, the vinyl box set is at least €350 ...

 

 

[exitonly]

sounds a lot nicer than the vinyl rip mp3s ive had for a while

[dcom]

5 hours ago, rhmilo said:

Aargh ... €25 for a bunch of mp3s ...

What do you mean by that? You can get all Bandcamp purchases in MP3, FLAC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, ALAC, WAV or AIFF. Yeah, the price is a bit steep, but I'm always a bit surprised when people complain about the price of digital releases - the inherent zero-cost replication of digital files is not the basis of valuation, the music is. To emphasize - I would hazard a guess that if this was released as a triple or quadruple CD, 25 € (+ p&p) would be a bargain. OK, you get the physical item, but if you get (lossless/multi-format) files at no extra cost, how many times do you think you'll pop the 3/4 CDs in the player in succession and listen to them that way? How much time do you spend with the physical item?

I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool physical format (vinyl) person for nearly 30 years; a couple of years ago I bought a pair of XDJ-700s to accompany the pair of SL-1200MK5s, and I've not looked back since. My purchasing habits went from 100 % physical to less than 10 % in the span of a couple of months. Even if I purchase releases like this I'm still getting a lot more music for my money - I'm literally getting more for less - and I couldn't be happier. I still buy vinyl and CDs, but they're either only available in that format or a special/limited edition - otherwise I opt for digital, preferably from Bandcamp.

But I digress, as usual - although I haven't been that impressed with this series, I will buy it and give it a proper listen, maybe I'll even start to like it. You don't have to, it's not mandatory.

Edited January 1, 2021 by dcom