Minimal. Minimalminimalminimal. Minimal schminimal. At this stage, even chancer Irish house DJs better suited to suburban niteklubs are proclaiming themselves to be ‘minimal’ DJs, dontchaknow. A death knell if ever there was one. So what happens next? What occupies the, er, post-minimal void? What will all the unemployed people in Berlin do?
One producer who more or less made his name via minimal is Anders Trentemoller. And the genial Dane is thinking about what happens next.
“It's a great time for electronic music – but there's a danger of it all ending up sounding the same," he admits, speaking from a Copenhagen coffee shop after a weekend of partying. "Like in Berlin right now, yes it's amazing and the parties are incredible, but when one sound takes over, you get fed up with it. But there's also a positive to that – out of homogeneity can come something new as a reaction to it.”
So maybe Anders’ debut album, The Last Resort is one of the opening salvos in the inevitable minimal backlash – because one thing is for sure, m*****l it ain’t.
“As soon as I decided to make an album, I knew I wanted it to be different from the traditional dance album,” he explains. “Too many of them are just collections of banging tunes. I wanted to express myself differently. I was a little nervous when I told the label what I wanted to do – a listening album – but they were totally cool with it. They liked the vibe and weren't afraid to put it out, they're 100% behind it.”
The Last Resort is very different to any of Trentemoller’s previous output on the excellent German house imprint Poker Flat. It’s a dark journey, referencing dub, prog rock, hip-hop and grime, all smothered in a murky sprawl. It’s not always easy listening but when it comes together, it makes sense in a satisfyingly unsettling way. What section does he see it filed under in a record shop?
“Hmmm, that's a difficult question for any artist. It’s dubby, there’s elements of rock...but I think it'll end up in the electronica section.”
I mention the Basic Channel throb that underpins the more uptemo tracks but, while a fan of theirs, Anders maintains that The Last Resort wasn't influenced by any one sound or style.
“It’s an amalgamation of the noises in my head," he reflects. "I had total artistic freedom with it, it's 100% what I wanted to do. There are dub techno moments for sure, but that wasn't necessarily the intention starting out.
“It took a year-and-a-half to make the album, two months of which was spent working on the sequence of the tracks. It was very important to get the flow right, so that it told a story. I wanted the album to be like a journey.”
Does he listen to much dubstep? The album shares a similar sense of paranoia and tension with the more accomplished end of the morphing UK scene.
“I don’t listen to much dance music at home. I listen to a lot of indie bands – for instance, I think you can hear The Cure in there, also a lot of singer/songwriters. The new Thom Yorke album is amazing – great voice, great mix of elements, great melodies. I don’t think my album's as good as that, but I can see similarities between them.”
Is this the path he intends following in the future?
“Yes, but I also say ‘never say never’ when it comes to making techno tracks, either. If I want to make a techno track I will for sure. But I suppose I'm afraid of repeating myself, of becoming one of those artists who's only known for remixes. I was doing a lot of remixes for a while, and that's not something I want."
Why The Last Resort?
“A lot of people have asked me about the title. I saw it when I was flicking through a magazine and liked the connotations of the phrase – I like its connection with the weird, the mystic. I see this album as the opposite of chill out, you know? Like it’s about the darker side of life – when your girlfriend leaves you, when you're feeling insecure, maybe even the place before death. It’s hard to define.”