Sheet One cover

Sheet One

Released

Its title and early packaging designed to mimic a sheet of LSD tabs (so effective that legend has it one fan in the US was arrested for possession for owning it) were both clear hints at the synapse- scrambling possibilities of the music within Richie Hawtin’s 1993 debut as Plastikman. Hawtin has said he made the record to be played at sunrise at the point clubbers were “melting into the floor” and time has done nothing to diminish the album’s potency. Recorded in just 48 hours, Sheet One bucked against the prevailing Chicago-influenced sounds of the time and created a world that felt both trippy and fluid, yet minimalist and raw, due in no small part to Hawtin’s masterful manipulation of the Roland TB-303. A landmark release repressed and reissued in 2023 (this time in a less law-baiting, environmentally-friendly sleeve), three decades on the likes of “Plasticity”’s hypnotic oscillations still dazzle while the sparse techno thump of “Helikopter” and “Gak” sound like they could been recorded yesterday.

Chris Catchpole

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