Founded the Plus 8 Records Ltd., M_nus, Probe and Concept techno labels.

Canadian (British born) producer, label boss & DJ. Although mainly influenced by Detroit techno, Hawtin developed his own style ranging from harder noisy techno to deep minimal abstract acid, particularly under his best-known alias Plastikman. Was involved in the development of the Final Scratch digital DJ technology and has continued to use new technology as it becomes available.

Richie Hawtin’s name has become synonymous with techno. As co-founder of Plus 8 records alongside John Aquaviva (which later spawned Probe and Definitive), founder of Minus Records and the ultra minimal Concept series, the man behind F.U.S.E., Circuit Breaker, one third of Cybersonik and most notably Plastikman he has pushed the boundaries of electronic music and DJing in to the future whilst continuously evolving with the technology around him. Currently based in Berlin, Hawtin’s DJ schedule remains as hectic as ever and his commitment to pushing technological boundaries has seen him pioneer new software such as Final Scratch, Ableton Live and develop a new ‘Control’ DJ mixer with Allen & Heath. Indeed it could be said that if anyone today were living the futuristic lifestyle envisaged by Kraftwerk’s Man Machine it would most likely be Richie Hawtin.

Hawtin began as a DJ skipping over the border from his native Windsor, Ontario to DJ at places like The Shelter and then hang out till dawn at The Music Institute in Detroit. Heavily influenced by the Detroit techno scene the young Hawtin was inspired to set up a studio in the basement of his parents house and it was from this studio that he spawned the first Plus 8 releases which ranged from bleep techno and classic Detroit hardcore through to blissed out house music.

From the early 90’s Hawtin's DJ career really started to take off with bookings all over Europe and the world. However, not one to turn his back on his roots, Hawtin began to develop his own parties in Detroit and the surrounding areas such as Jak and Spastik. His F.U.S.E. alias had already spawned the massive acid techno monster ‘Substance Abuse’ and album ‘Dimension Intrusion’ (Warp 1992) but his debut album under the name of Plastikman for the Novamute in 1993, ‘Sheet One’ and later single ‘Spastik’ were something of a revelation. With rampant drum assaults violently fed through and looped back via filter after filter the sounds of Hawtin were completely alien and revolutionary. Not infused with the lush orchestration of fellow Detroit contemporaries, Hawtin stood alone battering listeners with incessant polyrhythmic drum patterns and a rigid agenda of militant minimalism born out of his love of mid 80’s European electronic music. Original as much as revolutionary, Hawtin had arrived.

His second Plastikman album ‘Muzik’ (Novamute 1994) cemented his reputation as a minimal conceptualist par excellence whilst his remixes of La Funk Mob, X-Press 2 and Robotman’s ‘Do Da Doo’ showed his acid house/TB-303 dance floor spirit still in full flow. Hawtin was also making leaps and bounds as a DJ and by the time of his momentous Glastonbury appearance in 1995, an event that saw 20,000 crammed into the dance tent to experience an appearance still regarded by many as a defining moment in dance culture, he was beginning to incorporate further technology into the DJ format. Drum machines and effects units were then later added to his weaponry to produce DJ sets that went far beyond the segueing of beat into beat. Hawtin had struck upon a unique approach, one that was to define his style and lead to a crop of imitators.

After over zealous immigration officials banned him from the States for 1 year in 1995, Hawtin cocooned himself into his Windsor surroundings and developed his time driven Concept series that was to see a new 12 released per month over the course of a year. Slow and dub laden, the sound was one of introspection with emphasis on detail and a pre-cursor of where Hawtin was going next. In 1998 Hawtin released the third Plastikman album ‘Consumed’, crammed with deep moods and inescapable locked grooves, the album was lush and warm, marking a new phase in Hawtin’s development. The end of 1998 saw Hawtin release Artifakts (BC), an album that marked the end of a musical trilogy that had started with Sheet One and Musik.