Currently enjoying “DE9: Transitions” by Richie Hawtin

Richie Hawtin is a DJ and producer known as much for the approach he takes to music as the end results. Not one to mix a standard, everyday set if he can avoid it, Hawtin hooked up the drum machines and effects and released Decks, EFX and 909 in 1999. The album became the first in a series with the release of DE9: Closer to the Edit in 2001, and that series was pushed to new heights in 2005 with the release of DE9: Transitions.

Hawtin is a DJ who’s as much at home in the pages of Wired as he is in the pages of MixMag, and each of the DE9 albums is sort of a celebration of the new technology of the time. The first was arguably the closest in execution to the typical, basic “blend one record into another” format, while the second used the new software of the day to isolate loops from its source tracks, which themselves became the foundation of the mix.

The third and certainly most grandiose installment of the series once again flirts with the limits of contemporary technology – mainly an early version of Ableton Live in this case, I believe – by mixing an extraordinary number of tracks into a single ninety-seven minute mix. With half a dozen tracks simultaneously blended into each other at the best of times – the result of which would be cacophonous and disastrous in any genre other than minimal techno – it’s definitely an understatement to call this mix ambitious.

The release itself is also an experimentation in format, or at least an exercise in excess. The complete mix, divided into twenty-eight tracks with their own original titles, is actually contained on a high-quality MP3 as part of a multimedia DVD; the companion CD contains an edited mix featuring the first twenty-one tracks. The DVD contains a wealth of additional content, including videos for tracks, a minimal video version of the whole mix, a brief interview with Hawtin, and an excerpt from an impressive live set.

So what does it sound like? Well, it’s as sharp as any Hawtin mix; he doesn’t mess around, and he doesn’t miss an opportunity to delve into the details. There’s a lot going on in the mix, to say the least, but it never sounds muddy or misguided; the source tracks complement each other nicely, each one playing a part in a lengthy narrative that never goes off the rails.

The end result is much more than the sum of its parts – and if there are any DJs out there figuring that it’s the software doing the work, and that any chump with a copy of Ableton Live could pull a mix like this out of their ass, then by all means, I encourage them to give it a try.

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