The Detroit/Windsor pioneer breaks the silence and gives us a look into what M_nus and +8 have been up to… take a read…

WE ARE BACK!

Our Ten Weeks of Silence has now been officially over for nearly a
month and already our (sort of) quietness has been punctured, yet
again, by the sound of the night, Basslines & Bleeps! But after
such a pause, I feel that we are all once again invigorated, ready to
tackle the late nights and long days of touring and performing,
bringing with us new ideas, aspirations and inspiration that will take
us and our music through this year and beyond!

But what, might you ask, have we all been doing for the past ten weeks?

Well, perhaps attempting to live a normal life, sleeping, eating and
resting in our own beds and apartments, slipping into a rhythm similar
to what most of the planet calls “normal” and of course, enjoying the
time away from unfriendly airports and unfamiliar hotel rooms. But
perhaps more interestingly, spending a lot of time focusing on new
ideas, releases, music, and plans for Minus 2008 and beyond!

Over the coming months you will be able to enjoy the fruits of our
labor! Jesses wonderful Heartthrob album “Dear Painter, Paint Me” was
mastered and finalized today, and will be out in early summer! Jon
nearly drove himself mad locked away in his studio for most of the Ten
Weeks, with some subtle deep space results! Marc & Magda have been
sampling and looping their way through a collection of percussionists,
basslines and general nerdiness! Kevin has been mixing dozens of his
new songs in between packing for his summer move to Europe, as has
Barem! Man, the entire gang will be in Europe this summer, expect some
craziness!!! Jeremy, affectionately known as Jipples by his friends,
has been busy working on concepts of time travel from within his
laboratory deep within the cornfields of Indiana (oh, he’s on his way
over to Europe for the summer too!), while Adam & Joel have been
chasing each other in circles, trying to agree on which are the best
tracks for the next Tractile single! Mr. Pierce on the other hand has
been in constant collaboration with his LA-based vocal counter-part,
Gibby, working confidently on dark (of course!) and moody Louderbach
material! Matt has been so busy with his “Big Hands” live band project,
that we’ve given him a bit more time to finish his next False release.
? And, the rest of the gang?! Dice has just released his amazing new
album “7 Dunham Place” on his own Desolat and so we hope his next
studio sessions are for his long awaited follow-up to his brilliant
“Seeing through Shadows EP”. The same goes for Mr. Jonson, who was at
my studio the other day playing me some very inspiring ‘possibilities’
for his next Minus release! Hopefully if Ali “Dubfire” finds time to
get back in his studio, he’ll continue from where “Emissions” left
off!! Our other Ali spent his time off in Turkey working on a whole new
visual show that will be seen at some of our upcoming events! And of
course, we can’t forget to welcome the newest member of our gang,
Fabrizio Maurizi, who has the pleasure of having his first release on
Minus be our first release of the year!

And that’s just covering the Minus gang, what about Plus 8? Well, Plus
8 has already kicked into high gear with its first releases of the year
with an intense percussive workout from Paco Osuna! Coming up next is a
series of dance floor bombs by the Italian stallion himself, Mr. Marco
Carola! And keep your ears open because we are fast approaching
PLUS8100, and there’s sure to be some special surprises and excitement
surrounding that!

Remembering that this IS our Ten Year Anniversary, in the next days
we’ll be announcing more details on our ten special anniversary events,
Contakt, taking place worldwide throughout the year (hint, first Date,
Saturday May 17th)! To go along with that, prepare to make contact with
us in a way never before possible with the upcoming Contakt Membership,
offering new ways of strengthening the connection between all of us! Of
course, they’ll be lots of other special events, showcases, and Minus
nights throughout the year, a few to remember already are the Minus
stages at Sonne, Mond & Sterne (Germany), Extrema Festival
(Holland), Wild in the Country (UK), we also continue our cooperation
with our friends at Cocoon with TWO special Minus/Cocoon Disco Invaders
nights at Amnesia (Ibiza) this summer and the Sunday Adventure Club
returns to Berlin sometime in June, watch out!

On the business side, we’ve made a few changes, our friend Seth Hodder
has moved over to a new advisory position here at Minus, while long
time Clark Warner protégé, Rudy Delgado, has taken over his position!
We’ve also moved to Word & Sound Distribution strengthening our
physical distribution side, while also continuing to build up our
digital distribution network with our friends at Beatport.com and of
course here on our own m-nus.com website. Check out now the exclusive
m-nus.com digital only Plus 8/Probe re-mastering campaign. On that
note, I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Sigi and
everyone over at Neuton for years of support with Plus 8 and Minus and
continuing our talks regarding new opportunities together for the
future!! And always remember to keep an eye on m-nus.com for new
merchandise, special offers and other goodies!!!

I’d like to welcome Konrad Black, Barem and Ambivalent on board with
Clonk::, our related agency that handles most of the Minus and Plus 8
artists bookings, as well as many other friends! I’d also like to be
the first one to welcome Clonk:: and Katrin to Berlin, to welcome Patti
onboard to Clonk:: (he jumped ships!!!), and to welcome Nima onboard as
my new Tour Technician (r u ready?!)! We’re also in the process of
pushing forward to making Clonk:: the first Artist Agency offsetting
all artists traveling, allowing all the artists to entertain you now,
while helping to build a brighter future for the next generation of
Electronic Music lovers!

And on a final note, I’d like to personally thank everyone who came out
in support over the past few weeks, on the Spain Tour, at our
Anniversary celebration at Fabric (thanks Judy!), everyone at all the
events in Miami at the Winter Music Conference, and of course, to Ata
& everyone in attendance at an unbelievable night last week at
Robert Johnson (Frankfurt), and ALL OF YOU who made your way to
Mannheim last weekend for this years sold-out Timewarp event!!! For
those who didn’t know, I’ve moved over to a completely new setup for my
performances, releasing the shackles of turntables and going to a fully
digital laptop setup, allowing me to get closer to the edit than ever
before!!! Thanks to the THOUSANDS of you who were still on the
dancefloor at 2pm Sunday afternoon, to my friends who supported me on
stage for seven hours, to Sven, Magda, Marco, Dice, Ricardo, Luciano
and all the other artists who performed (and danced) and of course, to
Steffen and his team, who know how to throw THE Biggest Baddest Techno
party on the planet!!!

WE ARE BACK …and the 2008 Season has begun!!!!

Richie Hawtin

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