At the head of every organization, family, or crew, there is a leader, a patriarch, or don. These heads tend to be outspoken yet observant, opinionated yet flexible, and always in possession of a certain charisma to hold the family together. True to form, at the top of the Contexterrior Media Family stands Jay Haze. Holding reign over the Tuning Spork, Contexterrior, Junion, Tuning Spork Family Affair, Future Dub, and Textone labels as well as Contexterrior Bookings. Jay has built a family of labels, musicians, artists, bookers, business associates, legions of fans, and perhaps most importantly, homies. In minimal business since 1999, when minimal meant something completely different and was relegated to record store back shelves, Jay has presided over an amazing period of growth in minimal electronic music as well as that of his own career as a producer, DJ and business owner. To date, during this uphill battle of getting minimal to the masses, Jay and "Da Family" put forward a mountain of work comprising 88 EP's, 5 albums, and the Tsunami Relief compilation which raised $50,000 for an orphanage in Indonesia, featuring many of the same artists presented on "The Minimal Grind."
At the current position of this journey sits this 2 CD mix compilation, made up of 47 tracks spanning the outer limits of electronic funk while keeping it in the family. With Jay's 2 ½ hour monument paying homage to the bass drum (among other things), "The Minimal Grind" gives the careful listener an insider's glimpse at the minimal business from deep inside its sparse urban Berlin heart. From the dark smoky stench of a Sunday after party that's been incubating for 20 hours, to the big industrial clubs and everything in between, the music that fuels the non-stop Berlin reveller is presented here: from the big thump jack to the spaced-out digital freak funk. In Berlin, where a decent party can be found on almost any day of the week, its all just part of the "Minimal Grind". Welcome to 'Da Family'.