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Drastic Plastik >> Richie Hawtin stretches his sound by KRISTA
As far as the world of electronic dance music is concerned, Richie Hawtin, aka Plastikman and owner of Plus 8 Records, is arguably Canada's foremost talent and, along with John Aquaviva, certainly our most successful export. It would seem all those midnight excursions over to Detroit paid off for the two Windsor natives. But then, what else are you supposed to do in Windsor? For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with Hawtin's unique approach to techno, his latest album, Consumed, which he released under the pseudonym/alter ego Plastikman, might seem a trifle confusing. The hollowed-out, barely-there rhythms. The haunting strings and resonating loops of background noise, sounding as if Hawtin the scientist somehow found a way to coax a human response out of his machines. For many, the music on Consumed is probably the last thing they expected to hear. For Hawtin, though, it's a perfectly natural progression. It is the result of building something inversely, his version of "less is more." The infamous Plastikman describes the creative process of this album as one where he felt it necessary to push the available technology further than he had before. For him, this meant taking away from the music in a way that he felt made it more complete. Hawtin describes his earlier works as quirky, funky acid, a tag that no longer holds. "Not only am I taking a different approach," Hawtin explains, "but there is also more equipment around now than there was when I put out my first releases. Meaning there is that much more room to experiment." Hawtin also admits that the amount of hype and exposure generated for this project gave him the freedom to move in a new direction. His attitude toward this latest phase in his long career makes perfect sense. "I've been DJing almost every weekend for 10 years, and after a while you get tired of hearing the same thing over and over. I love dance music, house and techno--I always will--but there's so much further to go." Fair enough. It's also fair to say that the majority of people who enjoy Hawtin as a DJ enjoy him because he can be counted on to throw down that slightly off-the-wall record at calculated points during a set. "I think people who know me expect to hear something different, whether it's my DJing or my music," he says. Hawtin is reliable in that way: we're never quite sure what to expect, but we know not to expect the run-of-the-mill. With Tiga, XL, Din, Mark Dillon and Fred Everything at Sona on Friday, June 5, 11pm, $20
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Just how far is too far? In the world of electronic music, there is no correct answer to this question. And in a world where we are increasingly bombarded by hip funky beats and dense scratchy noises to sip colas and purchase jeans to, it's refreshing to find someone out there still looking for a challenge.