Born in Windsor, but brought up in Canada, Richie Hawtin was heavily influenced in his teens by the house sound of Detroit. He started DJing in 1987 and founded the influential dance label Plus 8 in 1990, recording his own take on deep house and techno under the names Plastikman and F.U.S.E. (Future Underground Subsonic Experiments). Updating the classic Detroit sound, Hawtin's best early work is probably his 1993 debut 'Dimension Intrusion' which mixes the harder club sounds with chill-out material more suited to 'home listening', as he calls it. The same year also saw the debut of Plastikman with the 'Spastik' single, a track that showcased Hawtin's love of the Roland 303 'acid' sound. After numerous releases under the F.U.S.E. and Plastikman names, Hawtin finally relased an album under his own name in 1999, 'Decks, EFX & 909', and continues to issue albums on the Mute offshoot Novamute.
