thinner history, extended version

1998
in summer of 1998 the swedish guy thomas jaldemark decided to start a netlabel dedicated to minimal techno, driven by the idea to create a platform for releasing own works and tracks from his friends. at that time thomas was quite close to the pc demomusic scene and was able to recruit the artists from there. the first "thinner" releases were appreciated, and due to that lots of demomusic people became interested in releasing on "thinner", such as hakan samuelsson, patrik b, tommi malinen and dr. vanskapt. though "thinner" grew up quite fast thomas ran the office alone and organized everything by himself. the peak was "thinner" having 6 members. after just 1 year "thinner" had 35 ep releases in .mod/.xm/.it format, from minimal techno over electro to detroit techno.

1999
during late summer 1999 thomas got amazed by other streams in electronic music and stopped running the techno-orientated "thinner". he began to compose ambient and idm-music for other netlabels. some of the "thinner" musicians became professional producers and left "thinner" for vinyl purpose, so thinner itself, more or less, came to a halt. another group was formed called "abnormal music", ran by friends of thomas, so he himself fully concentrated on this label. but quite after some time the heads of "abnormal music" stopped their internet activities, after almost 70 releases in module and mp3 format "abnormal music" closed. thomas thought about opening "thinner" again and so he did. though all of the former releases remained "out of stock" and are from nowhere to download anymore.

2000
the resurrection of "thinner" took place on june 1st 2000 with it's 36th release - "forest" by teori. now, thomas had a new concept - quality then quantity. he wanted to have more "decent" music to be released on "thinner" - tracks with more original ideas and professional programming. thus the amount of releases decreased a lot compared to original "thinner" due to two main reasons - reputated techno musicians in the demoscene began to work with professional softsynths and produced mp3s, (a format which didn't suit in "thinner" at this time) the other "plain" reason was just that only little noteworthy technomusic was composed. after it's 50th module release, a "thinner" showcase, the modulelabel stopped and applied itself to the new leading format for musicfiles - mp3.

2001
in early 2001 thomas met the german guy sebastian redenz who introduced him to the deeper grounds of minimal techno music. thomas reached the point sebastian already had passed - the hard/detroit techno music lacked lots of innovation and became fairly boring. so, sebastian made thomas familiar with dub techno/house (basic channel et al.), static minimalism (mille plateaux and the likes), urban dub electronica (~scape) and other new streams of digital music to make him find a new sonic home. both heads shared the vision to create a nonprofit, "educational" webproject dealing with such music, which had at that time been totally uncovered within the realms of netlabel. they merged in their theories and decided to set a new profile for the label "thinner", introducing new paths of professionality, creating a netlabel that is oriented towards the layout of a vinyl label to help people familiarizing with the format “netlabel” and at the same time setting new standards with (at that time) high bitrates, consistent filenames, metadata and dedicated artwork - the second generation of "thinner" was born, artist wise becoming independent from its demoscene roots.

mid-2001 saw thinner’s first release of seven for that year with “va - thinnerism.01”- a brief auditory snapshot into what kinds of sounds listeners could expect the label to provide (at least initially). this virtual debut included a minimal techno selection from pheek, a click-and-cuts influenced track from thomas jaldemark, and a relaxed piece of dubtech from digitalverein (jorerg schuster) who would go on to make a number of impressive future appearances on the thinner. karsten hammer hansen’s “electrik.01 ep”[thn003] is the epitome of those very early attempts at fusing dub with trademark techno and house styles. curse’s two-track “resolved ep”[thn004] showed how the lighter elements of dub and techno could be blended in such a way as to provide the first of thinner’s more relaxed, atmospheric releases - with the term “soapdub” being coined especially for this ep. rktic (ronnie pries) gave thinner its first long-player virtual album fittingly titled “northern lights”[thn005]. dub and minimal techno are the key ingredients here, but there are some unmistakable ambient textures present that give “northern lights” a special place in the thinner roster as the first release of “intelligent dub“. the year ended with the self-titled deep, dub-infused techhouse four-tracker “nulleins ep” [thn006] and benfay’s energetic and moody techhouse stomper “carbon ep”[thn007].

2002
thinner’s second year saw the previous year’s number of releases more than double with sixteen more eps and albums put on online. dolby started 2002 off with four tracks of darkish tinted dubtech on his “dub expo ep” [thn008]. a second compilation “v/a - thinnerism.02” [thn010] took the label back to its roots giving a sampling of what the near future might bring by way of releases. this six-track compilation included a second appearance by benfay this time showing his mellower side with a synthesis of lounged moments and techhouse, a laid-back atmospheric piece of effects-laden idm by selffish, and a straightforward track of thinner’s signature techhouse style by label owner sebastian redenz. blamstrain’s “kavel ep” [thn013] marked thinner’s first serious foray into what has become known as ambient-dub dishing out four tracks of soul-affecting ambience. this was followed by digitalverein’s full length debut “zu hause 2”[thn014] which revealed just how poignant and intelligent the dubhouse aesthetic could be if done right. in fact, “zu hause 2” was so well received that it spawned two sequential albums of remixes/variations with “zu hause 2 remixes”[thn017] and “zu hause 2 variationen” [thn018]. a triple dose of thinner’s dubhouse/dubtech core sound came by way dolby’s “midnight ep“ [thn015], danny kreutzfeldt’s “protolith ep“ [thn016], and nulleins‘ “freeway ep” [thn020]. falter added his take on the increasingly popular “intelligent dub” style to the thinner roster with the “taumelflug ep” [thn021]. this fruitful second year came to an exciting conclusion with two exceptional releases: digitalis provided their own personal take on ambient-tinged dubhouse with the affecting “sin:ergy ep” [thn022] which demonstrated just how atmospheric this style can be, and selffish’s “eenas lp” [thn023] was the first thinner long-player that could be regarded as “easy-listening” with its effective union of minimal elements of intelligent dub and loungy, downtempo harmonies and beats. the year concluded with the release of “re; core 2cd” [thn024] in which several thinner all-stars provided some atmospheric reinterpretation and reconstructions of tracks from danny kreutzfeldt’s autoplate release “furtherspace ep” and his “protolith ep” [thn016].

2003
tour canada
in march the thinner team was invited by epsilonlab and syndroma to play some shows in montreal/quebec city, which became a success by gathering people to listen to a labels sound although no physical presence of any record carriers in any shop. the positive feedback clearly showed evidence that the netlabel format has potential. back home we released a 500ltd. compilation vinyl record featuring prolific thinner artists benfay, marko fürstenberg, nulleins and neurotron. although the record sold out quite quickly, no money was returned from the distributor fine audio, which was liquidated shortly after. due to this unforeseenable circumstances, the vinyl plans came to an unfortunate halt. however, the netlabel didn’t take noteworthy harm.

joerg schuster animated flash artwork

roland fiege mastering

the year 2003 proved even more productive with just one shy of two dozen albums put online. it began with a hefty punch of floor-shaking club sounds from pete larsen. his “berlin calling ep” [thn025] gave four tracks of floor-shaking, funk-infused dubhouse that did a nice job of reflecting the upbeat mood of thinner after having received positive reviews from its critics. toning the mood down slightly, benfay made his third appearance on thinner. in contrast to the hard techhouse sounds of his “nitron ep”, the “bergflanke ep” [thn026] leaned towards the lighter, smoother sounds of minimal house. continuing this trend of mellower sounds, christian block’s young american” [thn027] full length was the aural expression of his philosophical musings on beginning a new life in a new country. minimal, deep, and romantic dub is a quick summary of the music on this album. niels jensen brought back some heavy techno beats on his “77”long-player only to be followed by the jazzy, minimal house sounds of kazoo’s “palermo beats ep”. the canadian invasion resulted in the “montrealers” release [thn030] and after that a beautiful set of moving, but calm, dubtech by marko fürstenberg (surphase/dolby) with his “option ep” [thn031].

mid-2003 saw the release of two important albums: ditalverein’s sequel to “zu hause 2” with his lp “internal course” [thn033] containing ten tracks of electronic dubhouse and minimal techno including some effectively whispered vocals albeit slightly grayer and a little colder than it’s predecessor. curse’s (mike hansen)“wet springtime sessions ep”[thn034] showered the listener with one of the label’s best examples of how minimal house, moody dub, and gentle techno beats can be blended into a verdant, liquid whole. breitbannt and and.id (andreas dimitradis) then gave us their respective interpretations of dubtech and dubhouse on the short releases “back from exile ep”[thn035] and “after five ep”[thn036]. joerg schuster broke away, at least temporarily, from the heavy dub influences by appearing this time under the moniker of lufth. “tendenzen ep” can be described as four soundscapes of downy, lush electronica. this one has a very warm, organic feel with its fragmented melodies, subtle beats, and intermittent episodes of glitch.

next martin juhls brought his krill.minima guise to thinner by way of the six-track "zwischen zwei und einer sekunde" album [thn038] with his striking approach to ambient-dub. probably the most ambient sounding of all of the thinner releases, the liner notes say that the album “is about the idea of mixing warmness, emotions and pop-appeal with exotic and experimental sounds, modern soundhack, clicking rhythms and ambient constructions.” late summer saw the release of the fittingly titled “silent season dub” [thn039]. beautifully smooth and unruffled tracks of atmospheric dub, melodic structures, and ambient textures were the essence of this compilation which was described in the liner notes as “electronic landscape painting of dreamy origin.”

the last quarter of 2003 saw thinner put a total of eight more albums online beginning with the clubby dubtech of surphase (marko fürstenberg) and rktic (ronny pries) on the “norddeutsch ep”[thn040] and the detroit-sounding dubtech of chronolux (dave ellesmere) on his “the manila context ep” [thn041]. eloi brunelle followed with a funky version of techhouse on “montr é al night grooves ep” [thn042]. for a change of style, jean-patrice remillard’s (pheek) “tabisuru kokoro ep”[thn043] revisited some smooth minimal house [thn043], and mateo murphy seduced us with some montr é al-tinged minimal dubhouse on “the rising ep”[thn044]. dick richards explored a notably more experimental version of minimal dubhouse on his “costa daurada ep” [thn045].

the year ended with two exceptional releases. danny kreutzfeldt brought his sectorchestra project to thinner with the “fault n’roll ep”[thn046] and delved into some clickhouse variations that almost defy categorization. a mixture of swinging club sounds and some laidback listening atmospheres are sure to puzzle the listener. marko f ü rstenberg’s “gesamtlaufzeit”[thn047] provided a long-player of emotional dubhouse in which each track provided an aural response to the circumstances experienced having lived in various locales.

2004
2004 saw the most successful year of Thinner so far with a repeated tour in Canada with the royal highlight having Dennis desantis and Paul Keeley performing together with Luomo in Detroit in front of a super receptive crowd. During that period, Thinner counted over 50’000 visitors a month.

The Thinner catalog expanded further in 2004 with twenty more releases. Paul Keeley initiated the new year with some warm house sounds. The “Sussex Blue EP”[THN048] contained four tracks of atmospheric “midnight deephouse lullabies”. It’s successor, the Bair/Box “Boxing/Unboxing EP” [THN049], let solid microhouse funk and grooves take the forefront.

To commemorate its 50 th release after 2 ½ years of existence, Thinner released its anniversary compilation “I Like to Listen”. Several previous Thinner artists, along with some new talents, celebrated by providing thirteen tracks of dub-influenced minimal house/techno sounds in the finest Thinner tradition. Thinner’s first, what one might called “philosophical” release, came in the form of full length by Jean-Sébastien Roux. Composing as deluge, “Departure in Affection and New Noise” [THN051], is directly linked to the poems of Jean Arthur Rimbaud, and explored the sound region falling somewhere between minimal dubhouse and ambient soundscapes.

Next Paul Keeley and Dennis desantis joined forces to merge their individual interpretations of modern house for the “Transatlantic Nightclub EP” [THN052]. Their combined efforts rewarded the listener with some clean-sounding and innovative house variations that are jazzy, moody, and melodic. Holger Flinsch’s “The Watcher and the Tower” [THN053] took us back to some solid dubtech with one track of dreamy atmospheric dub and three beat-filled, minimal groovers. After several EP and compilation appearances, Benfay gave Thinner its first LP of split styles by way of “One Touch Button Music“ [THN054]. Six tracks of brisk minimal house followed by six tracks of relaxing ambient-lounge. Continuing the ambient-lounge approach Andrew Eiguis returns as Selffish with “Ena”[THN055]. Here dubhouse, lounge, and ambient met in a conjoined dance of electronic diversity.

Some “dreamy melodic Detroit techhouse” came out of Brian Kage’s “Eight Ways EP” [THN056] which was themed around the idea of change with each song representing some important path taken during life’s travels. The microhouse genre made another strong showing under Jason Corder’s guidance with the release of “Microcosmos” [THN057]. Built of percussive sounds derived from field recordings, electronic manipulation, and ethereal synthesized sounds, the album is full of intricate beat structures and glitchy textures reflecting the power inherent in the microscopic pieces of life. Mikkel Metal’s (Mikkel Meldgaard) “Cassini Pieces MLP” [THN058] gave us four homogenous slices of electronic dub.

An important example of a new approach to the new minimalism of the time came by way of “Pastels 1-4”[THN059]. Theodor Zox took some of the best elements from the deeper end of house and techno and produced a clean EP of minimal house full of harmony, rhythm, and texture. Subdued minimal clickhouse gives a quick summary of the general sound behind the “Skyddsnisch EP”[THN061] by Johan Skugge. T-Polar (Gary Spence) managed to take some 80’s funk influences and merge them with contemporary deep house and minimal house to create his “Tonal Soul EP“ [THN062]. Jeff Bennett, a key player in the dubhouse movement at the time, contributed a unique amalgam of dub and driving techhouse sounds via the “Lowdown EP” [THN063]. Swat Squad (Oliver Henares) expressed the Barcelonan view of minimal funk n’grooves with his “Lunatica EP”[THN064].

The last quarter of 2004 ended on a especially strong note with three important releases. Holger Flinsch made his sophomore appearance with some robust dubtech on the four-tracker “Discovery EP” [THN065]. Vladislav Delay’s very difficult to categorize “Demo(n) Cuts EP” [THN066] somehow manages to blend soft atmospherics, fragmented beats, and intelligent dub into a coherent album of coarse ambience. The year would not be complete with out the appearance of Digitalverein. While his debut Thinner album “Zu Hause 2”ventured more into dub territory, “Changes” [THN067] took a more minimal path and was softer, more organic, and even showed some clear pop influences. More conceptual, personal, and coherent than it’s predecessor, the individual songs on “Changes” are defined by “immediate conversions between emotion and feeling” and are “shaped out of the psyche.”

2005
Structural problems due to changing life situations of core members are the main reason for the little amount of releases compared to former years. During summer Sebastian met Ole Schulte (Veer), a media designer from Frankfurt. As Sebastian considered terminating Thinner due to burnout and missing perspectives Ole introduced his network of web development coders and a process began of entirely re-developing Thinner under the premise of presenting a Netlabel that is “ready for the future” with introducing profitable methods.

While the quantity of releases made in available in 2005 nearly halved, the high quality stood firm. Benfay and Alice Mackay continued down the minimal pathway with their inspiring three-tracker “Lighthouse EP”[THN068] in which the phrase “minimal poetic vocal-house” catches its genre quite well. Extending this corridor of minimalism was another creation by Jean-Sébastien Roux working under his deluge moniker. Definitely beyond pop, “The Metapop LP” [THN069] went down a more playful, less ambient path than his 2004 release. The clubby songs on “The Metapop LP” contained more accessible, outward sounds when compared to “Departure in Affection and New Noise”.

THN070 “Crossways 3LP” was appropriately subtitled “The Landmark Compilation”. Initially scheduled to be a follow-up to 2003’s “Silent Season Dub” featuring a blend of ambient and minimal dub, “Crossways” proved to a little more experimental than anticipated and ended up being more of a milestone survey of contemporary minimal electronic music of the time.

Lomov (Axel Bergk) found his way into the Thinner roster with an earful of melancholic ambient dub by way of the “Mounting Stags EP” [THN071]. Veer (Ole Schulte) furthered this trend in minimalism with the release of the atmospheric dubtech “Where Nothing Ever Happened” [THN072]. Taking a detour from the string of minimal releases, Timm Kawohl produced six moving Detroit techno plus deep house tracks for his “Cascades” release [THN073].

Symbolic of a major change in life and marking his move from Detroit to San Francisco, Christian Bloch’s second release on Thinner was the autobiographical “New Age” [THB075] which continued “ the minimalistic soulful style ”that his “Young American” album had initiated in 2003. Exploring more in the way of minimal environments, Jean-Patrice Remillard aka Pheek gave us several variable tracks of deep dubtech on “Consortium” [THN076]. “Red Machine” [THN077] is something of an enigma. T-Polar keeps the essence of minimal techno and house styles intact but clearly manages to go beyond those influences. One thing for sure is that vocal elements, funky beats, and melodies became more important to the overall sound.

Dub maestro Marko Fürstenberg appears for the fifth time with his EP “Classics” following the excellent 2003 “Gesamtlaufzeit” LP. While the former emphasizes dubhouse sounds, “Classics” is styled more towards (as the title suggests) traditional German techdub with rolling beats that make it quite suitable for the dance floor and dubby pads that give a little atmosphere. The Swiss duo Digitalis (Roger Stucki, Nicolas Keliner) presented their first Thinner full-length “Zeitraum”(“Space of Time“) [THN079] after contributing remixes and compilation tracks besides their 2002 EP “Sin:Ergy”. The album is an association of various atmospheres - relaxed ambient, experimental soundscapes, and dance. Returning to the more minimal direction established earlier, Bern’s (Laurent Bernoville) “Just Married” [THN080] traverses a very delicate path of minimalism. Muted bass drums, swirling clicks, light pads, relaxed dubs, whispered voices, and gently evolving rhythms are the ingredients of this release. The year closed with the return of Sectorchestra and “No Morchestra” [THN081] whose title cryptically suggested the demise of this Danny Kreutzfeldt project. Sectororchestra has been described as producing “abstract atmospheric house constructions” and “chilly mechanic clickhouse.“ “No Morchestra” is no exception to this characterization, and it’s dually suited for secluded late night listening sessions at home or the public dance floors of clubs.

2006
The year 2006 was a very busy one viewn from the background, as lots of thinking, evaluating, designing and testing went into the new website.

As this retrospective is being written, the final days of 2006 are here. Nine more virtual albums were added to the Thinner release roster during this time period. Thinner‘s 82 nd release“Thinner & Epsilonlab - Silence is Presence”, is the accompanying audio soundtrack to a DVD that came about by way of the collaborative efforts between Thinner and the Canadian Epsilonlab netlabel. The currently available online version contains only three of the original tracks whose overall sounds were defined as being “dub-inspired, ambient, rhythmic, tech-house, electro and occasionally hypnotic or spellbinding.” This was followed by a remarkable piece of minimalism that came in the form of the Alta Infidelidad release “Cactus Y Volcanes” [THN083]. A review in the U.S.-based online magazine DISQUIET described it as “minimal techno constructed from broken beats” and “gently percolating” and also mused as to whether or not it would accepted by the Thinner fan base (it was). The liner notes confirm this impression saying that “the arrangements are fragile, volatile and less than ever appear to obey linearity as a flux of jammed ideas, shortly shifted sound explosions and rhythmic displacements.” Nulleins (Markus Dolic), whose “Cyclism EP” appeared back in 2001, brought a new full-length release of varied electronic dub on the interestingly titled “Seven Spaces” [THN084]. The seven dub pieces offered here alternate between smoothly flowing atmospheric dub and classic dubtech. Ronny Kraak and Nico Wawersig from Das Kraftfuttermischwerk gave the Thinner audience thirteen tracks of mellow melodies, plush electronica, downbeat dubs, and romantic ambience with the long-player “Eingang Nach Draußen”[THN0085].

stefan biermann brought his first solo release to thinner as gate zero. “radio over board” [thn086] was assigned the subtitle “environmental music”. this hard to classify album is for sure one for the lounge-listening environment - very atmospheric with minimal percussive elements and given an organic quality with the utilization of piano and guitar samples. unit 21 (stanislav vdovin) brought thinner one of the finest most recent examples of the intelligent dub sound on “september - october” [thn087]. sampling from old pop and jazz vinyl records, the distinctive noises of static, pops, hisses, and crackle are mixed with the sampled sounds to produce an album brimming with fragile dub and ambient atmospheres. not letting us forget the sounds that initially inspired thinner‘s creation, ben businovski’s “simulacraic wonderland” [thn088] joined detroit techno with dub-influences to create a very urban-sounding album of dubtech. t-polar’s “procession” provided another example of his version of electronic funk with this very live-sounding ep. embodying a beautiful approach to melodic-lyrical minimalism, philipp weigl closed out the year 2006 with the poetic musings of “monsters” [thn090]. constructed of whispered lyrics born of dreams and memories coupled with melancholic electronic melodies that compliment the lyrics, “monsters” is one of thinner’s more reflective releases being thematically centered on the meaning and interpretation of dreams.

december 2006
sebastian redenz / larry johnson