Mnml Rdx: Another Perspective
Gabriel Stargardter's Anglo Colombine blog chimes in with a discussion of the (ma)lingering mnml strains of the late '00s. I'm not going out enough to hear much of it in action, but I've definitely noticed a rising tide of Italian mnml in the promosphere, the Beatport charts, etc. The first name that stuck out to me was the Minicoolboyz, a name so goofy I figured it had to be a joke, but no: these Minus worshippers seem to be serious about what they do, and their name pretty much sums up the M.O.: "Mini" as in minimal, "cool" as in scenesterish, "boyz" as in young. (From their bio: "Born in 1984, Mike and Raphael discovered electronic music in 2000.") I have to think that Väth's Cocoon parties in Amnesia have to be partly responsible for the rise of Italian mnml, given the army of young Italians shielded by enormous designer sunglasses that one sees descending upon the island every summer. Another outpost for the post-progressive school of mnml seems to be Argentina (source of a recent compilation on Minus, in fact), for whatever reason -- striking if only because of Argentina's strong Italian heritage. I can't say, per Gabriel, whether any of this makes mnml "important" again, but I'm intrigued by the sociological aspects of it.
(It's news to me to hear that Berlin's Golden Gate club is ground zero for nu-mnml! I played there a few weeks back, with A Guy Called Gerald, Tyree Cooper and Laboratory Instinct's Ryo Yamazaki, and it seemed to be a heavily (refreshingly?) German crowd...)