Published
Tue, Dec 8, 2015, 19:47
- Hawtin takes credit for the recent Plus 8 12-inches sold through Hard Wax, the latest of which drops this week.
Richie Hawtin is behind the white label Plus 8 releases that recently surfaced at Berlin's Hard Wax record shop, which are due to be assembled into a compilation.
There's been plenty of speculation about the records since Hard Wax started stocking them in late October—and perhaps a bit of obfuscation. While the music seemed to fit right into the style of loopy, drum-heavy acid techno Hawtin has crafted though his celebrated moniker Plastikman, RA's Will Lynch pointed out in his review of Plus 8 25/1 last month that "Hawtin's camp claims to be unaware of its existence."
Aside from the similarities in sound, you could be forgiven for greeting that claim with skepticism, as the records' catalogue numbers seem to suggest an ongoing series, and refer to the 25 years Plus 8 has now been in operation, while the "From My Mind To Yours" stamp brings to mind the influential 1991 Plus 8 compilation From Our Minds To Yours Vol. 1. (Hawtin and John Acquaviva founded the label in 1990.) Now, along with Hard Wax adding credits for Plastikman and a couple other aliases to their store entries, Hawtin's recent studio talk with EB.TV should help clear things up.
In the video, Hawtin talks about how a studio change, "[getting] back to basics" and "just having fun" helped inspire the new dancefloor-focused productions, specifically pointing out the Plus 8 25/2 tracks that we now know come from Plastikman and two other monikers, Childsplay and Robotman. He also discusses the process of selling limited, vinyl-only whitelabels through Hard Wax, an early overseas champion of his music. At several points he reveals that the records are part of a "compilation" or "collection," without offering further details. For now, though, we can expect the project's next release to arrive on Friday.
Hawtin sums things up by describing how "we all have our own little compartments [with] something special inside" in the "bank vault of electronic music." "Mine had been pretty empty," he explains, "and I'm putting some new stuff in there."
Check out EB.TV's video below.