A series of very special minimal funky music based on very small and sneaky samples, danceable music but very much influenced by architecture and by the idea of taking minimal by the word and leaving out as much elements as possible to bring the maximum within the minimum.” – Wolfgang Voigt on the Studio 1 series. With this re-release of two tracks from Wolfgang Voigt’s seminal Studio 1 series, Lisbon’s Assemble Music turns the spotlight back on to what amounts to the basic grammar of most contemporary underground house and techno. Along with Basic Channel and the Concept series, Studio 1 has long been acknowledged as one of the forerunners of minimalist techno, though Voigt is at pains to point out the ‘differences between their handwriting’. Rightly so, since neither Mark & Moritz nor Hawtin prioritised the funk and fizz that jumps out of these two tracks: ‘Gelb’ the determined younger brother to the more conventionally dubby (but no less groovy) ‘Lila’. Any producer who has spent long hours making minute adjustments to the interplay between the simplest of elements – kick, bass, snare, hats – should know they’ve been walking in Voigt’s ever-so-well-placed footsteps. This re-release from Assemble Music serves as a reminder of where the music has come from; where it’s yet to go will become apparent in the label’s next release from Daze Maxim, with a remix from another of the scene’s grandmasters, Peter Ford.
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