Pete Adkins' _______

Amidst a busy summer-schedule, you can’t help but wonder if Hawtin was slightly blind-sided by the news that Magda, Marc Houle, Troy Pierce, Fabrizio Maurizi and Click Box are all leaving M_nus.

Magda, Houle and Pierce have constituted the meaty core of M_nus for the last half-decade and it’s obviously going to have a huge effect on the label. For my two-cents, I think this is going to be a breath of fresh-air for all parties involved. I’m excited about both how M_nus are likely to evolve and the label ‘Items & Things’ which Magda & co. intend to prop up. As Hawtin amiably notes below in his statement, this move can only spell fresh and exciting prospects for the world of techno.

“We are very happy and excited about the developments that we have actually encouraged, as it has always been a goal for us to help develop our artists to create a foundation where each of them could one day go on to explore their own unique brand and vision of electronic music. We are excited and hugely proud to see some of our long standing artists take these first steps into the greater unknown, where we are sure they will grow personally, professionally and – more importantly – artistically AND creatively.

Minus remains committed to being an open door for past, present and future artists, continuing its tradition of developing next generation talent to help further the growth of our scene – we will continue to fully support our associated artists, help grow the newer additions to the family and look out for new talent. It’s an exciting time for Minus and electronic music in general – we can’t wait to see where our current artists and the next generation can take us.”

Richie Hawtin, August 2011

You can also read a really good interview with Magda and co. here.

The last weekend of July is always Global Gathering weekend and is nearly always one of the most reliable music festivals to crash. Even more so for me, as it’s literally twenty miles up the road.

So I went. I saw the likes of Skream, Hawtin, Heidi, Underworld, Prydz, Rusko and even the world’s most controversial DJ (currently)  Steve Angello. Then I wrote some words down about the whole experience.

Then Data Transmission published them in a very hackneyed form, with all sorts of grammatical dubious sentences and missing words. Having my name attached to this mess isn’t my proudest moment, but on the whole it reads O.K. You can laugh at the missing words and participle errors here.

You can also enjoy my videos from the event below: