Richie Hawtin Poured Me Sake While Gaiser and Matador Smashed a Set

You've set foot in a makeshift sake bar. It's complete with Japanese-style decor, wood paneling, lantern lighting and bottles of Junmaishu and Junmai Gingo dotting the counter. You'd be forgiven for thinking you were suddenly transported to the Ancient Far East, but if the sight of Richie Hawtin pouring you a sake shot doesn't return you to reality then there may be no bringing you back.

This is Richie Hawtin's ENTER. experience; his vision for club nights to go above and beyond anybody's expectation of what they could find on the White Isle. To amplify the concept comes the ENTER.Sake Bar, a feature that is in my opinion the most important part of the experience.

It's half-way through a clinic by two standouts from Hawtin's Berlin-based label, Minus. Gaiser has been in command for the last 45 minutes with his signature live brand of controlled frequency, multi-sensory instrumentation and sonic finesse. I later learned that his set was filled with unreleased material. Gaiser started the Sake Bar session with an untitled track written during the recording of his upcoming LP, False Light, as something of a reset button. Although it's not part of the album, he tells me, "I never expected to do anything with it or even play it, but it felt like the right time and place to keep things light and have fun. Why not? It's always a strange and intimate feeling to hear your work for the first time on a loud system."

To the right of him, Matador readies his own complex live set-up. The crowd is completely engaged in the audio and ambience. Drinks are flowing, bodies are moving, and feet are stomping. It's not even 11 PM yet.

I had been told that Richie was known to encourage Sake Bar guest DJs to come out swinging, but Gaiser assures me that that's not entirely true. Richie spurs on the artists to read the crowd and follow the energy of the current situation, and the Sake Bar opening slot has since become a place for world-class DJs to experiment. Last year, Luciano played a rare all-vinyl set, while just a couple weeks ago, Dubfire surprised everyone with a hypnotic, ambient showcase.

I wasn't even sure that Gaiser or Matador had the word 'warm-up' in their dictionary—both are recognized for taking their music straight to the limit. Hearing both of them unload different weapons in their arsenal was a rare treat.

"I think that both of us have that capability," Matador reasons, "but I guess with myself and Gaiser, we usually come out guns blazing because there's a flow to our sets. It's impact immediately. It can then drop into deeper and more melodic stuff. Sure, I'll always start with a hard-hitting first track. That can be misinterpreted as a forceful display because the first couple of cuts tend to be powerful, driving. But every set has its peaks and troughs. The Sake Bar is a total change of pace from what we usually do."

For his part, it has been awhile since Gaiser played a set that wasn't peak time. "Conducting a live set for this type of range can be difficult when you've written for a certain energetic atmosphere and allow yourself the possibility of performing it in a different way. It's not easy to present music that should be listened to with your eyes closed to a fully packed house." Yet he's enjoying being able to perform here in a way that builds dynamically throughout, instead of maintaining apex pressure from the start.

While they possess very individual sounds, Gaiser and Matador each classify with the influential Minus style. Both are uncompromising, minimal in composition and utterly relentless in nature. In an industry where it's become so much about an artist's personality or aura, letting this method of music classify them instead has been crucial. But each remains unpredictable.

"I don't concern myself over styles or genres or what people will think about what I'm going to write. That would be counter-effective," Gaiser stresses. "What comes out of my output is a direct reflection of what I feel like doing at the moment." This is the main point he is getting at. "Letting yourself do what you do best. For me, the best ideas are those that happen naturally."

Matador himself reckons, "At the end of the day, that's what our jobs are as producers. We compose and perform music for the fans who want to hear it and like the sound that we make. Both Gaiser and I have an identifying style, yes. We are in the same realm of music, yes. But neither of us try to sound like anyone else."

Tonight must be one of those nights. Gaiser bows to applause and hands over the showcase to Matador. They embrace with an adrenalized hug that is toasted by the boisterous audience.

Matador's portion of the proceedings is kicked off with his remix of SHADED's "Gender Bender." He's a big fan of the original. "It's got some cool elements and as soon as I got the parts, I knew I wanted to tool around with them. So I got stuck in, it sort of developed naturally and I had it finished in a couple of days." It certainly gets the people moving and sets the tone for the next hour in reliable Matador fashion: dark, warped, trippy and driving.

The crowning moment comes at about the 19-minute mark as Matador's new bomb "Almost Famous" drops. While certainly not one of the hardest numbers he's produced—if anything it's got more house elements to it—it positively detonates the room. The place is going off. And little do the listeners know that it was finished literally minutes before Matador arrived at the Sake Bar.

Gaiser and Matador's ENTER.Sake performances have been a smashing success, but unlike the usual makeshift, devil-may-care approach of a DJ, these were ones that required intense preparation.

Matador explains that since the event was broadcasted, he had to be alert. "The eyes and ears of the techno world are on you. At the same time you sort of have to put that to the back of your mind and focus on the job at hand and, more importantly, the people in front of you."

This is a feeling Gaiser can relate to. "It's never easy to prepare for a set to be streamed. It's important to be able to present new material without giving away all of the new ideas. Also to present existing released music in a different way. As a live act, when you're arranging for this kind of set and you need to play something fresh, you can't just download some new tracks. You need to write all of the music yourself."

Gaiser and Matador are ENTER. mainstays for a reason, but walking into the doors of Space or the Sake Bar on a Thursday still blows their mind.

Gaiser wants me to know that "Rich's idea for the Sake Bar isn't to create a replica of a party in Japan. It's to celebrate and share Japanese culture with the world and enjoy a very special piece of the country that most people will not experience… which is real sake!"

"It's not overkill, but it is a spectacle," says Matador. "Everything from the lighting to the production is brought to the highest possible level in my eyes. It's something no one else on the island can compete with and even if I wasn't involved in ENTER., I'd still say that."

But beyond the visually striking performance and display, there's something much larger they take away from the ENTER. platform. Gaiser and Matador were already heavily established on the scene before Richie formed the venture in 2012. So as opposed to more recent up-and-comers like Julian Perez and Recondite getting the rub, ENTER. does a whole other thing for the well-known Minus veterans.

"It keeps us on our toes!" Matador stands up on his to emphasize the point. "Every year has gotten stronger and more developed. We have to progress with this. To stay fresh and write new music. To come up with new formulas for performing. We're constantly surrounded by rising new artists. Rich's roster for ENTER. is always strong and current, so spending time in different rooms ensures exposure to new ideas. ENTER. itself is ever-evolving, so we try to evolve with it."

That spirit of evolution is one Gaiser is of the same mind and conclusive about. "ENTER. is our home. There is nothing more amazing than seeing a project you worked on from the start grow into something even bigger than you could imagine."

ENTER.Sake arrives in the United States at TAO Downtown in New York on September 26 with special DJ sets by Richie Hawtin and Hito.

Gaiser is set to release False Light on Minus on November 10.

You can follow Christopher on Twitter and Instagram at: @theCMprogram