Richie Hawtin's second album, DE9 - Closer to the Edit, is currently being showcased on his never-ending world tour of everything from the hippest London clubs to the remotest Australian deserts.

It wasn't always this way, however. Born in 1970 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, Hawtin emigrated with his family at the age of nine to Windsor... Ontario. He cut his teeth in the Detroit scene, swiftly taking on his own radio show on Detroit 96.3FM before setting up Plus 8 Records with John Acquaviva.

Decks, EFX and 909, his 1999 debut LP under his own name (he is also known as Plastikman, a guise that has seen him release a further four albums), was a groundbreaking and highly acclaimed addition to the techno scene.

DE9 - Closer to the Edit goes one step further, doing away with the concept of recognisable tracks and instead stringing together over 30 different loop sequences which have at their core a never-ceasing and upbeat rhythm, the sort of thing that would keep your feet moving for hours in any club or which could be mixed into almost any DJ set, seeing that for the most part they are very short.

He does this by making use of a revolutionary Dutch DJ system called Final Scratch, which links up the ordinary two turntables and mixer to a laptop. His championing of this system, with Acquaviva, enhances Hawtin's reputation as not just a jet setting DJ but also as a musical innovator, every bit as influential, if not (yet) as well known as Paul van Dyk.

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