Richie Hawtin's first full-length (and only) FUSE album. Cover artwork by Matthew Hawtin. "Detroit 1990: From a self-destructive city comes a haunting futuristic soundtrack. Collages of inter-active grooves spewed forth by machines and men, cyber-active, abstract dance rhythms, spoken by samplers with a human touch. Even in it's North American spiritual home, Techno has never been readily accepted, never acknowledged as the important musical advance that the rest of the world appreciated it as and when Detroit's original legion of tech no messengers headed overseas to spin their gospel to Europe, enticed by more receptive audiences, the Seventh City was left without a monarchy to bear it's crown. Richie Hawting and John Acquaviva, two friends from across the river in Canada had been regularly crossing the short distance to Detroit to visit the clubs that these techno legends - namely Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson - had been playing at. Richie realized this gaping hole could not be allowed to exist and thus set about installing himself as one of the city's residnt Techno DJ's at a club called The Shelter. In 1990, armed with his combination of DJ'ing experience, the inspiration derived from the previous Detroit musicians and armfuls of bedroom demo tapes, the pair, also realising the back-seat that the distinguished Detroit record labels like Transmat, Metroplex , and KMS were taking, decided to set up their own label as further means of keeping the Detroit faith intact. Thus +8 Records was born. It's aim: to release pure, earnest Techno music. But the Canadian pair needed an identity, after all, how many technospotters could familiarise with Winsor? The message on the records made it clear, this was 'The Future Sound of Detroit.' Throughout 1990/91 when piano anthems, quickly disappearing white labels, and throw-away rave-pop began to make an impressionable appearance, the meaning of Techno became distorted and abused. The influential dance labels that had been established in the late 80's either lowered their heads, preferring not to release material that may get lost in the mountains of hype, or became trapped in the fast-buck-beats, losing grasp of the ideals that had launched them in the first place. Just like in the days of Trasmat, NU Groove, and Metroplex, +8 gave techno enthusiasts a label in which they could purchase without even breaking into it's shrink-wrapping. With each +8 release devotees knew that quality came without question, and here was a label that truly represented Detroit in the nineties, a label with minimal sampling but maximum inventiveness. Tracks like Cypersonik's 'Technarchy' (Hawtin/Acquaviva and friend Dan Bell), a record which subsequently gave Belgium it's cue to unleash a thousand records emblazoned wtih thick synth signals, came pressed up alongside thermionic blazes like 'Melody 928. V2' and spacey sub-stations like Speedy J's 'Evolution.' In techno speak, they say its the spaces in between that count. It was the1991 compilation 'From Our Minds To Yours,' that gave away many clues to previously untapped ears. Thirteen tracks which opened doors and thought that relayed messages through their common denomiator Roland communicators. It also began to bring to attention the FUSE pseudonym that Richie Hawtin had begun to use for his solo projects. Richie has already released one FUSE single, the electromagnetic 'Approach & Identitfy' EP, four tracks of experimental illusions aimed at loading information into the cerebral brainwaves and transferring them into complex body beats. Now stamped with a new sloganeering acronym 'Futuristic Underground Subsonic Experiments,' 'From Our Minds To Yours' included two further FUSE out of mind and body experiences. The influence of acid has never left Hawtin and if anybody is remotely responsible for the resurgence of the Roland TB303 and the surreal sounds it releases then surely +8 and Hawtin along with fellow Detroiters, the often fear-inducing Underground Resistance, must share much of the blame. Richie has often taken the 303 to a new dimension, either recreating liquid scopes, slowed down into a sea to electro bubbles, as demonstrated on 'Slac.' or 'Substance Abuse,' a technofloor dominator in 1991, or 'Circuit Breaker,' another of his other outlets for ruthless ideas, released on +8's harder dance subsidary, Probe, set up to deal in well weighted chunks of industrial slanted Techno. Misuse machines? Richie manages to make them moan, groan and explode in your head. 'Dimension Intrusion' is an impressive array of sub-world disturbances and discreet musical mechanics. But these are no jejune rave tunes, these are timeless pieces of abstract dance that can be placed on file, called up in years to come still bearing the same effect as on their initial impact. As Richie will tell you himself, 'Techno is from the gut and full of emothion.' In reality Techno has no regionally identifiable factors, Techno is a gospel shared gloabally, hence Warp's interacting here with +8, a musical communication beamed across continents, shared with similar minds. Considering their output, the majestic quality of the music, Hawtin's and +8's profile ha been strictly contained to the techno underworld and in reality this is where they truly belong. Their releases will never chart, they are aimed at appreciative, receptive ears and mightly sales sheets do not count for imagination and true musical emotion. Perhaps they are best left that way, to be discovered slowly through connections like this one. Research through their back catalogue reveals a forcefield of intrigue, of singular sonic detonations linked through a common law. From then on retrace the steps of the musicians that they too have discovered and given vital vinyl space too, people like Daniel Bell and Jochem Paap, aka Speedy J. In the meantime, plug in 'Dimension Intrusion' and blow a few fuses." --Sherman, NME, April 1993