I won't go into too many details, but let's just say the house, acid house and then techno scenes of the late 1980s and 1990s were a formative part of my youth. Even today, I just have to stick on Leftism by Leftfield and within seconds I'm mentally back in those heady, intoxicating times.
There are a number of other records that pull off the same trick, too. Frequencies by LFO. Experience by The Prodigy. Dubnobasswithmyheadman by Underworld. Happy Days.
By 2001, though, I was in early middle age, burnt out from too many warehouse parties and free festivals, and had long walked away from the scene. So Richie Hawtin's DE9? I have to admit: never bloody heard of it.
Why DE9 was important
Turns out, though, I've been missing a trick. This landmark recording was put together by British-Canadian electronic musician and DJ Richie Hawtin. It was an album constructed by cutting records into hundreds of short loops and fragments and reassembling them into a continuous mix.
It's minimalist techno, which means it's very stripped back, laid back and the kind of thing I'd listen to when back from the club at 4am. But that's not really important. What was really groundbreaking here was that alongside the album came DE9: Closer to the Edit Parts: a vinyl release containing individual loops used in the process and allowing listeners to experiment with the material themselves.
And that's not all. Ritchie didn't just release the finished mix. Alongside it came DE9: Closer to the Edit Parts; a companion vinyl release containing the raw loops themselves. It was an open invitation for listeners to do their own cutting and reassembling at home.
That invitation is the whole premise behind DE9 Parts, a new anniversary project from Dutch designer and creative director Merijn Straathof, who had the brilliant idea of rebuilding the idea of the Parts release as an interactive website.
Reborn online
Now all 120 original loops are available to anyone with an internet connection, to play, chain together, run through effects or trigger via MIDI hardware. And there's absolutely no charge for any of it. This is not a commercial project. It's a labour of love.
Visit the website, and you can move through the 120 loops however you like. Play them one at a time, then run them continuously, rearrange them into their own sequence: it's entirely up to you. Along with the possibilities offered by effects and MIDI mapping, Merijn has basically turned a static tracklist into something closer to a functioning instrument.
Visually, the design is spot on. Ritchie's Minus label was designed around minimalism, monochrome and hairline type; the website evokes that visual language perfectly. Its black background, thin white grids, and functional dial-style controls are stark, but they do the job of getting out of the way and letting you focus on the task perfectly. The interactive 3D renders of the CD case and vinyl sleeve, too, are beautifully understated.
Closer to the Edit was the first techno record Merijn bought, aged 14. Twenty-five years on, he's turned his own teenage listening habit into the kind of anniversary present most of us could only dream of.
Here's hoping this exceptional project will excite other fans, sparking another virtuous cycle of deconstruction and inspiration that will continue for decades to come.