Minimal Hood

Robert Hood explains the development of minimal techno to RA-

RA: did minimal techno - as evidenced by (your classic albums) "Moveable Parts," "Internal Empire," and "Minimal Nation," all of which were released in 1993/94 - come about by accident or design?

"I would say it was by design, I had minimal ideas before I even learned how to turn on a drum machine. Around '92, everyone was just grabbing onto technology, everyone was big on tone generators. Rave was everything in techno then, you know, the gabba sound and stuff. I wanted a more humanistic approach. So I just focussed on what felt good to Robert, and not what the latest trends were. I knew it was the chordy, organistic, really stripped down minimal sound that was natural for me, so I embraced it and went for it."

Tha D

Mini Video documentary on Theo Parrish in Detroit funded by Adidas. Especially like the Detroit wall at Rick Wilhite's record shop Vibes New & Rare Music, 14500 W 8 Mile Rd Ste 203, Oak Park, MI 48237.

Master of Mastering: Ron Murphy passes

Record cutter and mastering engineer Ron Murphy passed away this weekend of a heart Attack. The importance of skillful mastering to music can never be under-estimated and in Detroit, more often than not, that job went to Ron Murphy of National Sound Corporation / Sound Enterprises. The list of people whose records he mastered on discogs is incomplete but when you look at the development of electronic music in Detroit it's impossible not to see his fingerprints. Murphy cited Chez n Trent "The Choice" on KMS as one of his favorite mastering jobs - hear it.



Read an interview with him from Detroit Metro Times. Listen to him speak in Submerge Podcast #1. The story of NSC can be read here and here's Ron's Vinyl Mastering guide.

Memorial services for Ron Murphy (March 3, 1948 - January 12, 2007) will be held on January 26 2008 at Santeiu Funeral Home, 1139 Inkster Rd, Garden City, Michigan 48135. Services are open to the public from 6 pm - 9 pm. An official page has been set up for the Ron Murphy Memorial Fund. All donations will be forwarded directly to the family to help pay for expenses.

In a statement on his myspace Carl Craig said "I got the word recently that Ron Murphy has passed away. My sympathy goes out to his family. Ron mastered many of my early releases on Planet E and my former label Retroactive. Ron taught me everything I know about mastering records. Though he loved to talk quite a lot, Ron always made sure all of his clients understood the correct way to make records, not only to make his job easier but to encourage us to make better records. I've wanted to see Ron again for some time now but it didn't happen. Unfortunately our paths will never cross again. So, I will say here what I've wanted to tell him for some time: THANK YOU RON!!!."