I'm a new convert to the church of minimal techno. After years of disregarding the form with "un-tiss-un-tiss" mockery, techno crept up on me like fishing does a middle-aged man. I was looking for a stripped groove in a world of busy, aggressive electronic music. I caught myself buying record after record of this minimal stuff, enjoying something as bare bones and vicious as Female's remix of Svreca "Seda Muerta" more than a new release from a label a year prior I'd have blindly purchased. It wasn't until a night at Public Assembly and a flight with hours of marathon sessions that I determined the allure of techno and the reason for my new-fangled adoration.

Listen to our new mixtape, Worth The Wax #28: Hypnosis, here

A good record will keep your attention for its duration, be it 3:30 or 8:40 minutes in length. A good DJ set will keep you grooving for its entirety, be it 30 minutes or 3 hours. A good techno record will work beyond its duration to provide a piece of a long-form narrative spun by a DJ in real time, thereby evolving its original composition into a growing tapestry of music that works beyond itself. A song working at the expense of itself to create something larger by the hands of somebody who - in some cases - played no role in its original conception. 

Considering that notion of a minimalist record, I saw similarities in how I feel and react when listening in the club or at home to a techno set. The music - singular or extended - offers no distractions, no hooks, no drops and rewinds, which enables complete egoless listening. The simplicity of a groove with unnatural intricacies seduces me into a state of meditation I've never experienced with music before. My thoughts drifted from myself, exploring deep-seated memories and addressing forgotten worries like a $20 therapy session with beer. 

Minimal dance demands attention and focus; the reward is hypno-therapy for a fraction of the price. Cambo and I (the kort) performed our first Worth The Wax mixtape in over two months using records to get lost into as we attempted to tell our own narrative of a boy lost in his thoughts somewhere by a sub-woofer.