Thomas Brinkmann ‎– Anna / Beate

The ONLY album I have ever seen that actually used a razor blade to cut into the vinyl and use it as part of the music. This is Minimal Techno at it's more elaborate and innovative.

The first record in Thomas Brinkmanns 'female' series and maybe the most radical minimalistic of them, before the term became a trend. The four tracks consists of not more than record surface noise, a dry thud of a bassdrum and atmospheric background noises. Only "beate 2" has some sort of a melodic riff.
This was initially received as too dry and 'academic', and got lumped in within the glitchy, arty field of click and cuts music at the time. Although there are some referencs to the musique concrete school of sound art, this record should be judged within the framework of techno and house music, though (and was supposedly planned to be released on Wolfgang Voigt's groundbreaking, but anti-"intelligent techno", techno label Profan Records).

The deliberate scratches on the record are clearly visible making this a truely "audiovisual" piece of art (and a legitimate reason to avoid experiencing this in a purely digital format). And remember: Scratches on this record only makes it better!