Fans of techno, and even those simply intrigued by its android beats and cool emotional palette, needn’t fear repeating history due to any absence of learning. Monolake (aka Robert Henke), one of the founders of techno’s most remote schools — the willfully barren zone known as minimal techno — has been posting ancient artifacts for free download at his website, monolake.de. Well, ancient by popular-music standards. The latest such artifact, “Index II,” is a revised mix of “Index,” a 12″ he released in the Pleistocene era of 1996. As Henke says in his brief write-up, “If you have no turntable, never mind, here it comes via the magic internet.”
“Index 2” has the slowly fading drum patterns and the caffeinated, pixelated percussion that characterized his more danceable efforts; what distinguishes the nearly 12-minute track from other (un-minimal) techno is the relative absence of frippery: no diva-esque vocal, no flesh on the bone, no billowy synths. Just beats.
Per the Monolake website’s rules, there’s no direct link in this post to the MP3; just head to the URL link above to locate the file. Monolake posts a new free file each month, so grab this one before the calendar bumps us to August.