Richie Hawtin is a British-Canadian electronic musician and DJ from Banbury, Canada. He is associated with electronic, minimal techno and techno, and becomes known for a long career in Detroit techno, particularly from the second wave of the early 1990s.

Career

Hawtin starts out DJing in Detroit clubs at 17, working with an early style that combines house and techno. He drops out of the University of Windsor, where he studies film, and goes on to build a career around DJing, label work and recordings under multiple names. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner.

He becomes especially closely identified with minimal techno from the mid-1990s. His 1996 Concept 1 series of monthly 12-inch singles explores this sound alongside the work of Robert Hood and other producers. His M_nus label also follows this direction, and he later helps develop the careers of artists including Magda, Gaiser, Heartthrob and Troy Pierce while based in Berlin.

Aliases and projects

Hawtin records under a large number of aliases, including Plastikman, F.U.S.E., Concept 1, Forcept 1, Circuit Breaker, Robotman, Chrome, Spark, Xenon, R.H.X., Jack Master, Richard Michaels and UP!. He is particularly known for Plastikman and F.U.S.E. Under F.U.S.E., he releases the debut album Dimension Intrusion in 1993 as part of Warp's Artificial Intelligence series. Under Plastikman, he releases the single “Spastik” and the album Sheet One in 1993, and later continues with a series of albums and a live show that tours for the next decade.

He also records and performs in several group projects, including States of Mind, Spawn, Final Exposure, 0733, Hard Trax, Cybersonik, The Hard Brothers and Just For Fun. These collaborations include work with John Acquaviva, Fred Giannelli, Daniel Bell, Joey Beltram, Mundo Muzique and Holger Wick. He also works in Narod Niki and Two Guys In The Basement.

Labels and releases

In May 1990, Hawtin and John Acquaviva found Plus 8 Records Ltd., named after the pitch adjust function on their turntable. The label releases Hawtin's own music as F.U.S.E. and also issues material by artists such as Speedy J and Kenny Larkin. In 1998, he launches M_nus Records, and he later opens a label in Berlin centred on that imprint. Other labels associated with him include Definitive Recordings, IntelliNET and D-Records.

His later releases include the Decks, EFX & 909 mix album series, beginning in 1999 with a set that combines 38 tracks using effects and drum machines. He and Pete Namlook also make the From Within album series, blending minimal techno and ambient. He releases the box set Arkives 1993 - 2010 in 2011, collecting Plastikman material alongside a new mix set and unreleased tracks. In 2014, he issues EX under Plastikman, and in 2015 he releases From My Mind To Yours to mark the 25-year anniversary of Plus 8.

Live work and collaborations

Hawtin presents ENTER. at Space in Ibiza from 2012. He also works on a range of cross-disciplinary projects: with choreographer Enzo Cosimi on “9.20” for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in 2006, with Anish Kapoor on an installation at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2011, with Loco Dice and Ean Golden on the CNTRL: Beyond EDM university tour in 2012, with his brother Matthew Hawtin on Contained at Art Basel in 2013, and with Andreas Gursky for the Not Abstract II exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in New York in 2016. He also unveils Plastikman 1.5 at Time Warp in Mannheim in 2010 and performs as Plastikman at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2013.

Other work

In 2015, Hawtin receives an honorary doctorate in music technology from the University of Huddersfield. In 2016, he launches PLAYdifferently and releases the MODEL 1 mixer, co-designed with Andy Rigby-Jones. He also opens the sake bar Sake 36 in Berlin in 2020 and manages his sake brand Enter Sake in a way he compares to running a record label.