Just after the big 2000 peak of Progressive, it all started to go wrong for the genre. I knew something was up when after reading a wonderful write up of Jondi & Spesh's 'Mysteries Of The Giant Squid' on Bedrock Black. I dipped onto hooj.com to have a wee listen and, well, it appeared to be about 10 minutes of someone stirring seaweed around a bucket set to a rather weak bassdrum. This was beginning to crop up all over the shop, dull, uninteresting, murky and self-indulgient tracks. It was about this time that I started going to Fabric and abandoned Progressive for the rather more lively tech of Terry Francis.
Minimal suffers from an influx of similarly dull, murky tracks. Clicky percussion, the odd bit of reverb to highlight a percussive hit, a little bit of a bassline, no climax or direction. Several tracks all like this with what seems like the elements arranged into a mildly different order each time.
The same can be slated at the Lock Knock EP. I've heard it all before, there is barely anything to lift each track onto a plateau to shine in their own right, an ep of boredom.
If you are into minimal, and have been listening to the scene for some time, you'll know where I'm coming from with this, and its quite sad since I usually like to wax lyrical about individual elements. Its not like there is a bit of urgent pump to proceedings. Bin.
