Minus is hands down the flagship label for minimal techno, and has become rightly legendary for its literal ‘less is more’ approach. But as the inevitable ‘backlash’ looms in ‘07, the label has been watched like a hawk by the ever hypocritical and discursive dance music industry. The said genres’ inimitable maestro Richie Hawtin has always walked coolly along techno’s glistening edges, assured and untroubled, but I am sure even the ice prince must have broken a slight sweat this year over the fire and brimstone hailing down on the dry bleeps and hollow drums (which had otherwise been dominating dance floors across the globe). Glitch wunderkind Jay Haze called Minus parties “very boring” with “zero soul, zero funk” and in that same interview called Marc Houle’s tracks “horrible, truly horrible”. And along with criticism that minimal is snooze inducing unless pumped with more Ketamine than a sedate race horse, coupled with the new wave of Germany techno DJs moving toward a more aquatic sound flecked with deep house and Detroit soul, it’s made it an uneasy year for Hawtin and Minus.

Even European powerhouses like Perlon, Playhouse and Kompakt (similar bastions for all things micro) saw their DJs Villalobos, Luciano and Mayer sky rocket in popularity while criticism toward Minus DJs Magda and Troy Pierce started to build around the edges of dancefloors from Berlin to Miami. Why all the flack then? Minus has always done what it’s done, without pretense of trends or regard for producing a hit, underground or otherwise. The world has caught up quite simply and if any one label represents the dry-as-you-can minimal sound, then it’s Hawtin’s stable of artists. With Minus being at the center of the storm, this release comes inevitably tainted and with a heavy burden to bear for its beloved aesthetic.

Having said that though, people forget how much of a genius Hawtin is, as an auteur and artist with a talent for making simplicity complex. Minus records have always been aimed squarely at twisting dance floors into incomparable knots. They are tools, rather than torch songs and watching Hawtin tailor them on his duo of silver Mac books into unrecognizable slabs of mutant funk is not only why he is one of the worlds best DJs, but also why Minus is an indelible label. If anything, Hawtin and his cronies have taken the concept of minimal back to the days of old when a DJ had to work several tunes at once to genuinely ‘create’ a reaction. Nothing Much is simply a collection of those sonic fragments used by Hawtin and the rest over the last decade and it is an impressive roster; Magda, Matthew Johnson, False, Pierce, Houle, Villalobos… hell, anyone who has made a splash in techno in the last ten years features and it is undeniable most of the tracks on here have been high watermarks for the minimal sound.

Magda’s stormy 48 Hour Crack In Your Bass is steeped in spiky drug humor, as is the hilariously titled Horse Nation Amended by Pierce and Heartthrob, who seem to throw as many Ketamine drones at the ears as their machines allow without ever losing that tight funk. Personally I agree with Jay Haze, Bay Of Figs is pretentious and cumbersome but it was one of 06’s biggest tracks and its inclusion will no doubt hold mythic resonance. I remember the first time I heard R U OK by Ambivalent at DC10, sneaking up on my ears through the dust and dragging me into some strange aural vortex it made perfect sense. On here though, the droning croon “Are you alright, drink some water, you don’t look so good” sounds almost contrived and the funk sounds too dry, but the delirious groove of Hawtin’s The Tunnel is timeless techno and it closes out a strong disc of mesmerizing minimal.

The Second Disc is an epic selection of the back catalogue mixed by Pierce, but it’s Ableton-tight and devoid of any personality which is a shame, as he’s an outstanding DJ that was no doubt given a job to do. The disc grooves on but at 28 tracks it is a lot to take from a label that holds a singular musical ideal that rarely changes. How well the Minus sound will age is beyond me, it’s still too involved in the ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ lists to stake any claim at being a classic. No doubt though it represents an era it helped define and Hawtin, continually evolving and changing like a techno David Bowie, will be trail blazing in another direction by the time the space dust settles. For now though his beloved Minus stands defiant in the winds of criticism and Nothing Much is testament to his unwavering willpower and techno ideals.