Probably the best known of Richie Hawtin's production aliases, the Plastikman project helped push the minimal aesthetic of techno to relative popularity in the early-mid 1990s, largely on the back of the drum machine track "Spastik", but also via the sound of a modified Roland TB-303.
Plastikman is the main recording identity for Windsor, Ontario, Canada's Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman, Fuse, Circuit Breaker, from within to name a few). since his debut as states of mind and fuse in 1990 to the launch of Plastikman in 1992, his sound has developed through early connotations of acidic techno and extreme levels of energy (1993's 'Spastik') to sonic experiments in futuristic-rhythms and off-world ambience (1998's 'Consumed' LP). More minimal approaches were evident through his year long 12-record project 'Concept 1' from 1996. His recording attention is matched head-on by his groundbreaking DJ performances, which incorporate turntables, effects processors and additional instruments (the 909 Drum Machine and Roland SH-101 Synthesizer). His world-renown enhanced DJ set-up of decks, efx & 909 has kept pushing the boundaries of what a DJ can do by increasing the potential of creativity through once again, technology.
Richard (Richie) Hawtin (born June 4, 1970, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England) is a English-Canadian electronic musician and internationally-touring DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s. Hawtin is best known for his haunting, minimal works under the alias Plastikman, a moniker he continued to use into the mid-2000s.
Hawtin is also known for DJing intelligent, minimal techno sets making use of high-tech electronics such as drum machines and digital mixing equipment. With fellow second-waver John Acquaviva he founded and still runs the Plus 8 record label in May 1990, and in 1998 he launched Minus, primarily for his own projects.