Minimal deep tech

What it tastes like

Minimal deep tech (often shortened to mdt or sometimes deep tech) emerged in the 2010s UK house scene — Hot Since 82, Solardo, Toman, Patrick Topping — as a response to the maximalism of EDM. Where big room threw everything at the wall, mdt left almost everything off the wall. A typical track has a kick, a hi-hat, a single bassline, a chord stab, and one vocal chop, and that’s it for seven minutes. It became the dominant warm-up sound at clubs like fabric and Sankeys.

A bar in and you’ve got it: a steady kick at 122–126 BPM, almost nothing else for the first 90 seconds, then a chopped vocal phrase (“yeah”, “ooh”, “make it go”) arrives and that’s the song. The discipline is what makes it work — the genre teaches producers what to leave out.

The chord moves

Minimal deep tech barely uses chords. When it does, they’re single sustained m7s (no 9ths, no extensions) that hint at harmonic context without committing. A typical chord move is i–v–i over 16 bars — barely a movement at all.

The harmony is suggestion, not statement. The vocal sample carries any real melodic content. Use --chord minor7 --voicing closed --pattern pulse and let almost nothing happen.

The groove

4-on-the-floor kick at 122–126 BPM with a bouncy offbeat bass — the bass plays on the “and” of every beat, ducking under the kick. Open hat on the offbeats, closed hat on 16ths but very low in the mix. Clap on 2 and 4 with short reverb tail (snappier than house’s longer plate reverb).

The vocal chop pattern is the entire song. A 1-bar phrase (“yeah, alright”), pitched and gated, repeating with subtle filter movement. That’s the hook. That’s all you get.

The sounds

• Bass: warm sub + mid bass on the offbeats. Saturated. Sidechained hard to the kick. Played mono.
• Chord stab: short Rhodes-style m7 stab on offbeats, sometimes only present in the chorus.
• Kick: punchy 909 derivative, EQ’d for clubs (not headphones). Tight transient.
• Vocal chop: 1-bar phrase from a soul/disco sample, pitched and repeated. Filter modulation across the bar.
• Hats: open on the offbeat, closed on 16ths, mixed low. Subtle stereo width.
• FX: white noise risers (very brief). Reverse cymbal at section boundaries.

Production tells

Want it modern? Cleaner low end, tighter sidechain, more space. The 2024 mdt sound is even more minimal than 2017 — fewer elements, more silence.

Want it 2017-Solardo-vintage? Slightly more drum layers (extra percussion shaker, ride bell). Wider stereo on the chord stab. Master at -8 LUFS for club punch.

python jamburgr.py --key "A minor" --style minimal_deep_tech --progression i,i,v,i --pattern pulse --output-mode pack --out ./jams/minimal-deep-tech