Executive produced by Tiga, ‘Consumed In Key’ finds Richie Hawtin & Chilly Gonzales working on a re-imagination of Hawtin’s 1998 album.
Plastikman’s 1998 album Consumed is getting a new look with a project called Consumed in Key. Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) has teamed up with Chilly Gonzales to reinvent the album in a new way. There is a third party involved, Tiga, who helped connect Gonzales with Hawtin and serves as the executive producer on the project.
The story goes back to the 20-year anniversary of Consumed, which was released in 2018. Shortly after the 20-year anniversary re-issue was released, Gonzales heard the album and thought it would be interesting to work with. He started making some demos and sent them to Tiga.
As described in a press release, the new version “would be one composer instinctively reacting to – and finding space within – another composer’s already completed work” and “not a remix.” Once Gonzales had the go-ahead to do a full rework of the album, Hawtin came in to mix the work.
After hearing ‘Consumed’ for the first time shortly after the album’s 20th anniversary, Chilly felt that the record’s loose use of melody and negative space threatened his musical sensibility. Furthermore, the album’s unique timing structure and flow fueled his curiosity and pushed him towards an idea of composing accompanying piano pieces (counterparts) for each of the tracks. It would not be a remix. It would be one composer instinctively reacting to – and finding space within – another composer’s already completed work. As an experiment, Chilly completed a series of demos and later mentioned it to his friend Tiga, the Turbo Recordings label boss, who as a Plastikman and ‘Consumed’ fan urged Chilly to continue and suggested that he reach out to Hawtin.
As Tiga was also a friend of Hawtin, he intuitively stepped in as the conduit between both artists and became a sounding board of ideas, helping to translate the thought processes of two artists coming from distinctly different worlds. They all agreed that Chilly should continue recording his solitaire interpretations and then once finished, Hawtin would come on board to mix the new combined work. This allowed each artist their own space within the project, more of a sonic conversation between them than a conventional collaboration.
Consumed in Key will be available digitally and as a deluxe triple vinyl LP on April 1st, 2022. The artwork is a reinterpretation of the original album’s, flipped to black and white and with the cutout size transposed to the dimensions of a piano key. The vinyl and packaging were made with recycled materials.
You can pre-order/buy ‘Consumed in Key’ HERE