Plastikman Re-Invents the DJ Mix Album

Richie Hawtin has used new software to mix his forthcoming mix CD and suggested this week that the new technology could eventually replace vinyl. "I don't like mix CDs, everyone's being lazy, so I gotta' do something different," he said. "I recorded, sampled, cut and spliced over 100 tracks down into their most basic components and ended up with 300 loops, ranging in different lengths. I started to recreate and reinterpret each track and then put the pieces back together, as if in an audio jigsaw puzzle - using effects and edits as the glue between each piece."

The new software, Final Scratch, comes from Holland and allows DJs to play tracks stored on a laptop alongside the usual two turntable/ mixer set-up. DJs can instantly play tracks from their laptops by using a special piece of vinyl which also allows them to scratch, cut or speed up the track. Carl Cox, catching up with Hawtin's Plus 8 partner John Acquaviva in Amsterdam, suggested the new software is 'amazing'.

"He had this programme called 'Final Scratch', which allows you to download your entire record collection onto a PC and then play tracks just as you would on a pair of decks," he wrote in his latest Muzik column. "You've just gotta' pray the computer doesn't crash."

Hawtin, however, sees the new equipment in a different light. "Some people think it's about me using some extra equipment - a drum machine and some effects- but it's a philosophy really. 'Let's take it to the extreme, to somewhere that it's never been before."
'DE9: Closer To The Edit' is out on Novamute in September.
http://www.plus8.com (Plus 8, includes Richie Hawtin's tour diary)
http://www.jacq.com (Richie's Plus 8 partner, John Acquaviva)
http://www.djsounds.com (Pioneer; new digital decks)

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• Richie Hawtin