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Richie Hawtin

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Richie Hawtin
Hawtin in 2018
Hawtin in 2018
Background information
Birth nameRichard Hawtin
Also known asPlastikman, Concept 1, F.U.S.E., Forcept 1, Circuit Breaker, Robotman, Chrome, Spark, Xenon, R.H.X., Jack Master, Richard Michaels, UP!
Born (1970-06-04) June 4, 1970 (age 54)
Banbury, Oxfordshire, England
OriginLaSalle, Ontario, Canada
GenresMinimal techno, acid techno, IDM
Occupation(s)DJ, record producer, record executive
Years active1987–present
LabelsPlus 8, M-nus, NovaMute, Warp, Probe, Definitive, From Our Minds
Websiteclose.richiehawtin.com

Richard "Richie" Hawtin (born June 4, 1970) is a British-Canadian electronic musician and DJ. He became involved with Detroit techno's second wave in the early 1990s,[1] and has been a leading exponent of minimal techno since the mid-1990s.[2] He became known for his recordings under the Plastikman and F.U.S.E. aliases. Under the latter, he released his debut album Dimension Intrusion (1993) as part of Warp's Artificial Intelligence series.

In May 1990, Hawtin and John Acquaviva founded the Plus 8 record label,[3] which they named after their turntable's pitch adjust function.[4] In 1998, Hawtin launched M-nus Records.[5] From 2012-2015, Hawtin held the ENTER. Ibiza weekly party at Space in Ibiza.[6][7] In 2016, Hawtin launched his own technology company called PLAYdifferently, and released the MODEL 1 mixer, co-designed with Andy Rigby-Jones.[8]

Biography

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Hawtin was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England,[9] and at the age of nine moved with his parents to LaSalle, Ontario, a suburb of Windsor, Ontario, where he was raised before spending time in Detroit, MI.[10] His father worked as a robotics technician at General Motors and was a fan of electronic music, introducing his son to Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream at an early age. He has one brother, Matthew, who is a visual artist and ambient music DJ. Hawtin attended Sandwich Secondary High School in LaSalle.[11]

He began to DJ in clubs at 17. He was mentored by Scott "Go-Go" Gordon at The Shelter in Detroit and his early style was a mix of house music and techno.[11] With Canadian DJ John Acquaviva he formed the label Plus 8 in 1989 to release his own tracks under the name F.U.S.E.[11] He dropped out of the University of Windsor, where he was studying film, and Plus 8 went on to release material by artists such as Speedy J and Kenny Larkin. Hawtin adopted his 'Plastikman' incarnation in 1993, releasing the single "Spastik" and parent album Sheet One, going on to release a number of albums and touring a live show for the next decade.

Career

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Richie Hawtin @ Fabric, circa 2008.
Richie Hawtin @ Fabric, circa 2008.

Hawtin was among pioneers of the Minimal techno movement that emerged in the early 1990s, where he represented a "second wave" of American producers, such as Daniel Bell, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Kenny Larkin, and Mike Banks, associated with Detroit techno.[12] In 1996, he released a series of monthly 12-inch singles, entitled Concept 1, which, alongside the work of Robert Hood and other producers, explored minimal techno. His M-nus label also pursued this direction. In 1999, the Decks, EFX & 909 mix album, the first in a series of three, included 38 tracks molded via effects and drum machines.

In 2001, Hawtin performed at Life Fest in Windsor.[13] He spent part of 2002 and 2003 living in New York City, before opening a label in Berlin, Germany, where he focused on his M-nus label, developing the careers of DJ-producers such as Magda, Gaiser, Marc Houle, Hearttrob and Troy Pierce.

In 2006, he collaborated with choreographer Enzo Cosimi on a composition called "9.20" for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. He said, "Enzo and I are very much interested in pushing boundaries, both as artists and for our audiences. Working together for the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Games delivers the creative endeavor to not only entertain a huge audience, but to also introduce them to sights and sounds that they may have never experienced before."[14]

In 2012, Hawtin worked with Loco Dice and Ean Golden in promoting Electronic Dance Music on a tour of North American universities entitled CNTRL: Beyond EDM, which included music production seminars, lessons in the music business, and live music performances.[15]

In July 2015, Hawtin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music Technology by the University of Huddersfield.[16][17]

Hawtin composed and scored music for the XXth Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony[18] and 1928 silent French film Brumes d’automne.[19]

Recordings

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"Substance Abuse"
"Released in 1991 under the pseudonym F.U.S.E.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Hawtin has recorded under the aliases Plastikman, F.U.S.E., Concept 1, Forcept 1, Circuit Breaker, Robotman, Chrome, Spark, Xenon, R.H.X., Jack Master, Richard Michaels and UP!. He recorded and performed, with other artists, under group names such as The Hard Brothers, Hard Trax (with his brother Matthew Hawtin), 0733, Cybersonik (with Daniel Bell and John Acquaviva), Final Exposure (with Joey Beltram and Mundo Muzique), Just For Fun (with Holger Wick), Narod Niki (with Akufen, Cabanne, Dandy Jack, Daniel Bell, Luciano, Ricardo Villalobos, Robert Henke and Thomas Franzmann), Two Guys In The Basement (with John Acquaviva), Spawn (with Fred Giannelli and Daniel Bell) and States Of Mind (with Acquaviva).

Hawtin and Pete Namlook collaborated to produce the From Within series of albums which blend minimal techno and ambient. He released a mix CD Sounds of the Third Season with Sven Väth.[20] Slices magazine launched a series of biographies in 2007 called "Pioneers of Electronic Music"; their first issue was a 60-minute biographical documentary on Hawtin. The film follows his career from his early days crossing the border to Detroit to his current life in Berlin, and contains interviews with many colleagues and family members.

2011 saw the release of Arkives 1993 - 2010, a massive box set containing everything Hawtin has released under his Plastikman moniker, as well as a new mixed set and previously unreleased material. The collection includes CDs, vinyl, digital downloads and a DVD.

In November 2013, Hawtin performed as Plastikman at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The recording of this show was included in EX album, which was released digitally on June 10, 2014, followed with a CD release on July 15, 2014 .[needs update][21]

On December 11, 2015, Hawtin released a fifteen-track LP titled From My Mind To Yours to commemorate the 25 year anniversary of his record label Plus 8. The album consists of all new tracks from his various aliases such as Plastikman, F.U.S.E., Robotman, R.H.X., and Circuit Breaker. In its first week, it reached the top 20 in the UK dance album charts.[22]

Other Hawtin's collaborations include an installation performance in the Grand Palais in Paris with Anish Kapoor in 2011,[23] Not Abstract II exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in New York with German artist Andreas Gursky, and an audiovisual installation at 180 The Strand in London under his F.U.S.E. alias alongside his brother Matthew Hawtin, among others.[24][25]

Entrepreneurship

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Richie Hawtin circa 2010
Richie Hawtin circa 2010

In 2014, Hawtin launched ENTER. SAKE, a sake brand in USA and Europe.[26][27] The same year he was awarded a title of Sake Samurai.[28]

Hawtin's established his own music technology company, called PLAYdifferently, in 2016. The first release was the MODEL 1 mixer, co-designed with the award-winning Andy Rigby-Jones. The mixer has been adopted by DJs such as Carl Cox, Jamie Jones, Loco Dice and many others.[29][30]

Hawtin co-founded Plus 8 Equities, a music technology fund along with John Acquaviva, Rishi Patel, Ben Turner and Pete Tong, where Hawtin serves as chairman. According to Billboard, the funds main goal is to advance music technology and collaborate with the startups engaged in developing new technologies able to advance music industry".[31]

In 2019, Hawtin launched his CLOSER App, a tool for deconstructing the audio from his own live performances while toggling between multiple camera angles.[32]

Selected discography

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Albums

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Mixes / sets

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  • Richie Hawtin: Mixmag Live!, 1995 (Live DJ mix album)
  • Richie Hawtin: Decks, EFX & 909, 1999 (DJ mix album)
  • Richie Hawtin: DE9: Closer to the Edit, 2001 (DJ mix album)
  • Richie Hawtin and Sven Väth: Sound of the Third Season, 2002 (DJ mix album)
  • Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos Live at the Robert Johnson, Offenbach, Germany, 2004 (11-hour DJ set)
  • Richie Hawtin: DE9 | Transitions, 2005 (DJ mix album)
  • Richie Hawtin: DE9 lite: Electronic Adventures, 2006 (DJ mix album, produced with Mixmag)
  • Richie Hawtin: Sounds from Can Elles, 2008 (free with DJ Magazine issue 467)
  • Richie Hawtin: Mixmag presents: Richie Hawtin - New Horizons, 2012 (DJ mix album)
  • Richie Hawtin: CLOSE COMBINED (GLASGOW, LONDON, TOKYO - LIVE), 2019

Music awards

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DJ Awards

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Hawtin has won DJ Awards' Best Techno DJ Award three times and received 17 nominations overall.

Year Nominee / work Award Result
1999 Richie Hawtin Best DJ Innovator Nominated
2001 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2002 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Won
2003 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2004 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2005 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2006 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Won
2008 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Won
2009 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2010 Richie Hawtin Best International DJ Nominated
2010 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2011 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2012 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2013 Richie Hawtin Best International DJ Nominated
2014 Richie Hawtin Best International DJ Nominated
2014 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated
2015 Richie Hawtin Best Techno DJ Nominated

AIM Awards

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The Association of Independent Music (AIM) UK the AIM promotes independent artists producing their own music globally.

Year Nominee / work Award Result
2014 Richie Hawtin Outstanding Contribution[33] Won


DJ rankings (current)

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The DJ List Ranking

The DJ List has approximately 1 million members who rate DJs in different EDM genres, these are the statistics for The DJ List as of 6 November 2015.[34][35]

Year Genre Ranking Source Rank
2015 Top Global Techno The DJ List 2nd

Top Deejays Ranking

Topdeejays is a global DJ database founded and operated by FM Agencija. It uses an algorithm that measures general social media influence of a DJ by combining their Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, SoundCloud, MySpace, Last.fm and YouTube fans, subscribers and followers TDJ calculates and applies TDJ points to in order rank artists global, national and by genre influence. These are the statistics for topdeejays as of 6 November 2015.[36][37]

DJ Genre Ranking Source Rank
2015 Top Global Techno The DJ List 1st
Top Global Tech House 1st

DJ Rankings The Official Global DJ Rankings is calculated according to an advanced algorithm, compiled to give an accurate, independent and fair ranking of all DJs. It considers the following criteria

of DJ earnings, media presence, chart data from music releases and remixes, airplay data from radio stations, public data about royalties collected from copyright associations, followers on major social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. and polling and rating data from various sites, such as dj-rating.com and djmag.com.[38]

Year Genre Ranking Source Rank
2015 Top Global Techno The DJ List 4th
Top Global Tech House 3rd

References

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  1. ^ "The Dummy Guide to Detroit techno part II: the Second Wave to the present day". The Dummy Magazine.
  2. ^ "Richie Hawtin Bio, Music, News & Shows". DJZ.com. Archived from the original on March 30, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  3. ^ "Beatport's Definitive History of Techno". Beat Portal. 24 March 2021.
  4. ^ Reynolds, Simon. Generation Ecstasy. London: Routledge, 1999. 225-226. ISBN 0-4159-2373--5
  5. ^ "ten weeks of silence". richiehawtin.com. Retrieved on March 6, 2009.
  6. ^ "Richie Hawtin 'ENTER.'s the final phase of residency at Space Ibiza". Mixmag. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  7. ^ Reynaldo, Shawn (2013-07-15). "ENTER. the Void: Richie Hawtin and Ibiza". XLR8R. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  8. ^ "Richie Hawtin Unveils MODEL 1 Mixer From His PLAYdifferently Line". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  9. ^ Gregory, Andy (ed.) (2002) International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002, Europa, ISBN 1-85743-161-8, p.224
  10. ^ "Artist Biography by Sean Cooper". AllMusic.
  11. ^ a b c "Richie Hawtin: Biography Archived 2010-04-13 at the Wayback Machine". Mute records. Retrieved on April 5, 2009.
  12. ^ Nash, Rob. "Techno: Encyclopedia of Modern Music". The Times.
  13. ^ "LIVE: Life Fest"[usurped]. Chart Attack, August 28, 2001 Reviewd by: Darrin Keene
  14. ^ "Richie Hawtin creates 9:20 for the XXth Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony". Resident Advisor, January 16, 2006. Retrieved on April 5, 2009.
  15. ^ Yenigun, Sami (29 October 2012). "Dance Music Looks Beyond EDM And Hopes The Crowd Will Follow". GBP News. Georgia Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  16. ^ "Digging Deep Gets Richie Hawtin an Honorary Doctorate for Music Technology". Popspoken. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  17. ^ "Richie Hawtin Awarded an Honorary Doctorate". Billboard. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  18. ^ "Canada's Richie Hawtin creates music for the XXth Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremonies in Torino, Italy". NewCityMovement.
  19. ^ "Hear Plastikman's alternative score for 1928 silent film Brumes d'automne". Fact Magazine. 8 October 2014.
  20. ^ "Richie Hawtin & Sven Väth". Mute Records. Retrieved on March 6, 2009.
  21. ^ "Richie Hawtin Confirms New Plastikman Album 2014 Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine". Mixmag. Retrieved on December 13, 2013
  22. ^ "Official Dance Albums Chart Top 40 | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  23. ^ "Richie Hawtin: Facing The Leviathan Of Anish Kapoor". Wire.
  24. ^ "Richie Hawtin brings audio-visual F.U.S.E. Dimensions exhibition to The Store X, 180 The Strand". Fact Magazine. 29 March 2019.
  25. ^ "Richie Hawtin marks 25 years of his F.U.S.E alias with new boxset". Creative Review. 26 March 2019.
  26. ^ "Richie Hawtin Wants You to Ditch Vodka and Tequila for Sake in the Club". Vice.
  27. ^ "RICHIE HAWTIN'S ENTER.SAKE GOES GLOBAL". DJ Mag. August 2014.
  28. ^ "Richie Hawtin". Sake International Association.
  29. ^ "Richie Hawtin reveals PLAYdifferently Model 1 DJ mixer". FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music. 2016-05-03. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  30. ^ "FIND OUT MORE ABOUT RICHIE HAWTIN'S MODEL 1 MIXER". DJ Mag.
  31. ^ "Plus Eight Equity Partners Talk 'Pushing the Bounds' of Electronic Music Through Investment". Billboard Magazine.
  32. ^ "Richie Hawtin's new app lets you deconstruct his DJ shows". The Verge. 20 December 2019.
  33. ^ Brandel, Lars. "Richie Hawtin to Receive 'Outstanding Contribution' AIM Independent Award". billboard.com. Billboard, 14 August 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  34. ^ "Statistics The DJ List". thedjlist.com. The DJ List Rankings. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  35. ^ "Global Rankings Techno". thedjlist.com. The DJ List Rankings. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  36. ^ "TopDeeJays rank: All countries Over Techno artists". topdeejays.com. Top Deejays. Archived from the original on 13 October 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  37. ^ "TopDeeJays rank: All countries Over Techno artists". topdeejays.com. Top Deejays. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  38. ^ "Tech House - DJ Rankings". dj-rankings.com. DJ Rankings. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
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