Minimal Criminal (Brazil)

JK: Hi guys, how are you?

MC: Hey mate, this is DJ Zhyin
Responding on behalf of MINIMAL CRIMINAL.....

JK: Tell us a bit about yourself

MC: Bruno (Echoes) is 21, I’m 30 and we're located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil....Bruno doesn't really have any other "fixed" projects but he does collaborate with other people sometimes... Besides Minimal Criminal, I have an ebm/futurepop project called KAIAPHAS. Before that I played in several rock and metal bands throughout my life... The most famous one was a Norwegian black metal band called ANCIENT... I was the singer/studio drummer of this band from 95-98... I recorded 2 full-length cds, performed in 2 extensive European tours, 1 short American tour, and appeared in 3 videos with ANCIENT. In 96 I discovered goa trance .due to my ever-increasing passion for this music, in 99, i became a DJ and in 2002 I started learning how to produce electronic music on the computer....the rest is history...

JK: You guys are up and coming artists from Brazil with a more progressive/minimal slant to your music. Much of the other music coming outta Brazil is quite full on. What it like being an up and comer in a scene dominated by a different style?

MC: Well, there are good and bad aspects in being Minimal Criminal...it's bad because there are less parties for us to play and fewer people who appreciate this genre...however, we are totally different from everyone else so we stand out and that's a really good thing... more and more proggy projects are springing out of our scene but no minimal ones, as far as I know....the minimal sound is dead here, me thinks...then again, this situation might change in the future....there used to be quite a few DJs who played minimal tunes but, now, most of them play more progressive or full on styles.

JK: Can you tell us a bit about your projects? You guys perform live, right?

MC: Minimal Criminal is me and Bruno....in the beginning, in 2002, we were called Zhyin & echoes and we wanted to make dark full on as well as minimal....but later on, we chose the name minimal criminal and decided to only produce minimal and proggy tunes, since those are the styles we like best.......it took a long time before our material was good enough for releases and for live performances....nowadays, we have a good pumping live pa with live synth, percussion, and general “tomfoolery"! Soon, we will add some vocals as well...but not the bad, shitty vocals that most trance projects are adding these days...we will use vocals more as FX for upgrading the energy vibe of
our live pa....I would also like to include some throat-singing (khoomei) in our performances…let me just add that it would be cool to feature some other elements in our live sets such as female fire dancers and other kinds of performance art....but, of course, I think it will take a long time to find such performers...

JK: I’ve heard one tune Bruno produced under the “Echoes” name that is a little more night-time focused. Do you guys have any other side projects?

MC: Not really...he produced one track under the name of echoes but, that track is now in our live set ....by the way, we are focusing much more on our night sound these days.....there's far too much morning music in my opinion…

JK: Who are your favourite artists to listen to? Who inspires
you?

MC: I will speak more on behalf of myself on this one...Though
Bruno will probably agree on several of the projects mentioned here... I prefer much more the early releases from this century that came out on labels such as Iboga, Plastik Park, Leviathan, Spiral Trax, Interzone, etc... All those classic dark minimal tunes from Fabel, The Cujorius One, Tegma, Lurifax, Krumelur, Walhalla, Auricular, Micro.Dot, Rough Cuts, Smith, Tenka, Metapher, Paste, etc. Get the picture? Of course, Sensient and triplex are 2 of the absolute best acts who still produce this sound ...and are actually developing it instead of becoming more proggy. However, I do also like some of the deeper proggy stuff like Frogacult, Phoney Orphants, Antix, etc...=.as long as it still has psy elements and not 2 much "fluffiness". I'm also a big fan of the psy-tek/tech-trance sound coming from labels such as Boshke beats, Horns n'Hoofs and the like. I would also like to mention that our inspiration doesn't necessarily come just from these acts.....our focus is more to create what we feel is "real" trance music.....we do feel that a certain spiritual vibe should be present in our music as well.......on the other hand, we do like to produce some comic, "goofy" tunes sometimes.....after all, we can't be "serious" ALL the time!

JK: You’ve got 2 tracks on new Cosmic Conspiracy compilation in April and another with Krumuler on Tim Sensient’s Intelligent Manipulation Compilation last January, any other releases in store soon?

MC: That’s right, CC will release 2 of our tunes on April 22nd...the CD will be called CONTACT LENS. Also another couple on a new Brazillian label Echoes. Besides that, we have a few more tunes that should one day be released, though no contracts have been presented yet....

JK: What was it like to work with Krumuleur? Any other collaborations in the works?

MC: It was cool... He's a nice guy... We fed him lots of meat
and smoked a lot of pot together... Hence, the name "reefer and barbeque"! I started the track and established the basic concept of the tune...then, I gave it over to them so they could add riffs, FX and further arrangements. Mr. krumelur really is a wizard when it comes to psy FX... and Bruno is a bass master! After that, they gave me back the track, and then I finished the arrangement, added the samples, and did the final mix down. And yes, we plan to work with Sensient and maybe Praecox and bigwigs as well when they come here in June... that should be a great experience indeed...

JK: What’s the Brazilian scene like in general?

MC: I'm not a big fan of the Brazilian scene but I do appreciate the work of projects like Oxyd, Cicero/Monotron, Setherian, Baphomet Engine, and a few more... mostly, like u said earlier, there's LOADS of boring full on... However, I do like some dark full on stuff
and we have some DJs/acts who play this style... there's also a growing tendency towards the progressive house sound these days
as well....some of these producers definitely have skills, but, as you may have already deduced, their sound is not my cup of tea...

JK: Any other Brazilian prog/minimal artists that are notable?

MC: Besides the ones I mentioned, there is a new act called Sylosound... I haven't heard it yet but Bruno says it's good stuff...

JK: Have you travelled out of the country at all?

MC: I’ve been to several places across the u.s.a. and brazil plus
Holland, England, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Rep, Canada, Spain, morocco and Israel. I would love to go to Australia, India, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Peru, Hong Kong, Russia, Tuva, and Mongolia.
To me, travelling is one of the best things in life.

JK: What’s the best act you’ve seen live/DJ? Best party you’ve
been too?

MC: It's hard to say... I loved x-dream's performance at the
Samothraki festival. best trance party was the Universo Parallelo festival here in brazil in 2002... however, no party in the world could compare to the "burning man festival" out in the black rock desert of Nevada (USA)... that's definitely the absolute craziest party on earth! The only problem with this party is that there are no
beaches and it's super expensive...

JK: The most memorable moment in trance career?

MC: Playing live at the "progressive in drop" party in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) alongside Krumelur and Oxyd.... it was awesome!!!

JK: Any Thank yous? Thanks to our families and friends who have supported us.

MC: Thanks to you

Jesse