Love it or hate it, no sound has dominated dance-floors worldwide – or divided followers of electronic dance music – more than minimal techno during the past few years. To its devotees, minimal arrived as the perfect antidote to the excesses of commercialised dance music and a reaction against the ridiculous build-ups and breakdowns that drive less-educated dance-floors into a frenzy.

But to its detractors, minimal is simply a bit boring: stripped back to the bare essentials of beats, bass and simple melodies, minimal would have to be the most repetitive of dance music genres, the antitheses of the progressive sounds that ruled at the turn of the millennium.

More than anyone else, the sound owes its existence to one man, English-Canadian DJ/producer Richie Hawtin. His groundbreaking record label, Minus, is the redoubtable home of minimal and counts as stable members the genre icons Loco Dice, Magda, JPLS and of course Hawtin’s alter ego, Plastikman.

The sound has a sizeable group of followers in Hong Kong, thanks mainly to the efforts of the Robot crew and various Yumla DJs, and – by the time you read this – they will have been out in all their chin-stroking glory as Japanese Minus signing AKR called through Hong Kong for a huge Chinese New Year party with his countrymen the Techriders at Pi on February 15.

The Tokyo-based AKR is a resident at the Minus_Connected event, which is held – under Hawtin’s supervision – at famed Japanese club Womb, and builds up live minimal grooves with an emphasis on loops and effects. The face of minimal and also Minus in Japan has previously shared the stage with genre heavyweights Magda and Heartthrob.

The Techriders, meanwhile, are made up of Womb executive director Sabi and visual artist Numan and for several years now have operated at the cutting edge of Tokyo’s DJ/VJ culture. They’re perhaps best known for the minimal-tech tracks Camaro and 4x4xL, which gained huge support from minimal DJs worldwide.

If you enjoyed that, or if you missed it but like the sound of it, Berliner Todd Bodine (Highgrade) is in town on Saturday March 6. He’ll be giving another masterclass in minimal techno at Space, 25/F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai.