Plastikman – Musik, 30 years on

The 30th Anniversary edition of Plastikman’s Musik, the ground-breaking second studio album by Richie Hawtin as Plastikman, has been announced for release on NovaMute on 6 December 2024.

The album, originally released via NovaMute / Plus 8, followed 1993’s Sheet One and propelled Hawtin into new levels of international success. On its initial release, in Nov 1994, Hawtin was central to a burgeoning underground scene in Detroit, and the album, which expands on his unique and innovative minimal techno world, was launched with Plastikman’s first ever live performance in Aug 1994 – at the derelict Packard Plant in Detroit, in a room encased in black plastic sheets.

Before the full album hit the shelves, ‘Plastique’ (later described by Q as “… the flipside to Hawtin’s early singles, all ticking percussion, feline acid tweaks and cushioned sub bass”), set the stage for a more dance floor friendly album, albeit one with an unsettling and sinister side.

Musik, which featured tracks such as ‘Freek’, ‘Kriket’ (which Raf Simons used earlier this year in the Prada Men Spring/Summer 2025 show), ‘Fuk’ and ‘Marbles’, was soon heard by a much wider audience.  Plastikman live appearances at Glastonbury, Tribal Gathering and a headline slot at Megadog followed soon after, prompting NME to declare Plastikman to be “Fiercer than Orbital, funkier than the Prodigy and more insatiably danceable than anything else on the bill”.

The album, described by The Guardian as “music as you’ve never heard it before” and by The Wire, who made it one of their Albums of the Year, as “… a masterpiece”, defined a moment in techno that still echoes today.

Now, 30 years later, to mark its anniversary, the album has been remastered from the original tapes, reminding us why Plastikman is a name that still resonates and that the album’s intensity – on and off the dance floor – has lost none of its potency in the intervening years.

Manufactured with environmentally conscious packaging, pressed on bio-vinyl.

Pre-order Musik (30th Anniversary Edition) 

Plastikman Musik vinyl tracklisting (cat # NOMU37VLP)
A1 Konception
A2 Plastique
B1 Kriket
B2 FUK
B3 Outbak
C1 Ethnik
C2 Plasmatik
C3 Goo
D1 Marbles
D2 Lasttrak

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