(From texts available at www.mille-plateaux.com)

Music label based in Frankfurt, Germany and affiliated with the Force-Inc label. With the name inspired on the work by the postmodern philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's book that dealt with the political, social and real relations of power which are examined very detailed by means of concrete examples of different eras. The essence of this absolutely practice oriented excursion: The rhizomatic structure (organized after the model of very heterogeneous root network) is always to be preferred the hierarchical one. Every known form of society sooner or later automatically develops new relations of power which discipline the free will of development of the individual. Only in the rhizomatic structure of society, it is possible for the individual to emancipate himself from all restraints and institutions.

The rhizome was also the central principle in Mille Plateaux once that, for instance, many of the artists released are not doing so exclusively in this label and freely develop their activities elsewhere. Every release is a targeted strategy out of the label policy; the artist deals with certain theoretical views and so puts his authorship into the service of a self-production of the label. However, within the rhizome, he has the possibility to build his own structure (e.g. another artist identity, another/new label, another pool of artists) by social contacts which again stands in exchange with others.

Since it's start in the early 90s, the label has released several editions by alva.noto, Vladislav Delay, Kid606, SND, Pluramon, Oval, Terre Thaemlitz, Frank Bretschneider, Robert Babicz, Neina, Stewart Walker, Curd Duca, Ultrared and others...

Incomplete release list:
MP001, Various, Modulation & Transformation 1
MP004, Age, The Orion Years
MP005, RIC, Distance
MP006, Khan, Sweet Pink Lemonade
MP007, GEN, Time Square
MP008, Christian Vogel, Beginning To Understand
MP010, GEN, Rolleiflex Weltron
MP012, GEN, Electronic Desert
MP013, Oval, 94Diskont
MP015, Various, Modulation & Transformation 1
MP016, Steel, Steel
MP017, Microstoria, Init Ding
MP019, Various, Electric Ladyland 1
MP020, Restgerausche, 1h 1m
MP022, Various, In Memoriam Gilles Deleuze
MP024, Various, Electric Ladyland 2
MP025, Microstoria, snd
MP026, Pluramon, Pick Up Canyon
MP027, Christian Vogel, Specific Momentic
MP028, Sidewinder, Colonized
MP029, Various, Electric Ladyland 3
MP031, Curd Duca, Switched On Wagner
MP032, GAS, GAS
MP034, Terre Thaemlitz, Die Roboter Rubato
MP035, Thomas Koner, Teimo/Permafrost
MP037, Microstoria, Reprovisers
MP038, Arno Peters, Aeroson
MP039, Various, Electric Ladyland 4
MP040, Restgerausche, Restgerausche Vol. 2
MP041, Various, Trashindustrialsamplecoregouchbeat
MP042, Porter Ricks, Porter Ricks
MP043, Various, Modulation & Transformation 3
MP044, Terre Thaemlitz, Means From An End
MP045, GAS, Zauberberg
MP046, Terre Thaemlitz, Means From An End rmx
MP047, Curd Duca, Elevator
MP048, Various, Electric Ladyland 5
MP050, 4E, 4E 4ME 4YOU
MP051, Pluramon, Render Bandits
MP052, Steel, Audio-Cynicism
MP053, Terre Thaemlitz + Jane Dowe, Institutional Collaborative
MP054, Kouhei Matsunaga, Upside Down
MP055, Various, Electric Ladyland 6
MP056, Hanayo In Panacea, Hanayo In Panacea
MP057, Robert Babic, Momente
MP058, Terre Thaemlitz, Love For Sale
MP060, Sturm, Sturm
MP061, Various, Modulation & Transformation 4
MP062, Ultra Red, Second Nature
MP064, Crank, Wanton Phenomena
MP065, GAS, Koenigsforst
MP066, Curd Duca, Elevator 2
MP067, Sturm, Die Glocken von Sturm
MP068, Thomas P. Heckmann, Raum
MP069, SND, Make SND Cassette
MP070, Frank Bretschneider, Rand
MP071, Terre Thaemlitz, Replicas Rubato
MP072, Neina, Formed Verse
MP073, Autopoieses, La vie a noir
MP074, Sturm, Sturmgesten
MP075, Crank, Heftibag
MP076, Pluramon, Formant (remixes)
MP077, Autopoieses, La vie a noir Remixes
MP078, Ultrared, Structural Adjustments
MP079, Various, Clicks & Cuts 2CD
MP080, Vladislav Delay, Entain
MP081, Ihan, Iota
MP082, alva.noto, prototypes
MP083, GAS, Pop
MP084, Curd Duca, Elevator 3
MP085, Ekkehard Ehlers, Betrieb
MP086, Stewart Walker, Granular Synthesis
MP087, Neina, Subconsciousness
MP088, M2, Sinecore
MP089, Robert Babicz, Desert
MP090, Geeez ‘N’ Gosh, My Life With Jesus
MP091, Pluramon, Bit Sand Riders
MP092, SND, stdio
MP093, Kid606, ps I love you
MP094, Terre Thaemlitz, Interstices
MP095, Vladislav Delay, Anima
MP096, Frank Bretschneider, Curve
MP097, Andreas Tilliander, Ljud
MP098, Various, Clicks & Cuts 2
MP099, Dan Abrams, Stream
MP101, Kid606, ps you love me
MP102, alva.noto, transform

Ça va sans dire, rhizome can't be the "essence" or "center" of anything because it's by definition a network without centers. As A Thousand Plateaus itself says, you can never posit any dualism, not even rhizome vs arborscence -- every tree has its rhizomatic effluences, every rhizome its arborescent tendencies.

I realize this entry is about "Mille Plateaux" the record label and the book needs an entry of its own, under its english title. But the indeterminacy of the political content of deleuzian thought bears repeating every time artists try to appropriate it. Even in his posthumous video interview, the "Abecedaire", Deleuze reaffirms belonging to the "gauche" but proceeds to disavow ideas such as revolution, majority rule and on and on. "Of course all revolutions fail, was there ever anyone who really thought otherwise", says him in an involuntary burkean echo. At the end of the Gauche segment, he ends up sounding borderline libertarian. Rhizome isn't the only thing to grok about ATP; of major importance are stratification, Bodies without Organs, ritornello. What's more, it's at its most overtly political -- the "Treatise on Nomadology" -- that ATP can be read alternatively as a defense of wild-west chaotic markets if you want to force it that way.

I think the most concise distillation of what Deleuze did say about politics is in the "Abecedaire", the aforementioned posthumous interview. Speaking of joy, Deleuze echoes Nietzche saying it's the realization of potentials (puissances), and goes on to say that il n'y a pas des puissances méchantes -- there's no such thing as evil or mean-spirited potentials; a destructive hurricane is filled with joy in the realization of its potential. Power (pouvoir), on the other hand, is the ability to interfere with the realization of other people's potentials -- and thus dictators and hurricanes carry sad joy.

My own general impression from Difference and repetition, three different editions of ATP (portuguese translation, Brian Massumi english, original french) and the "Abecedaire" is that Gilles is admittedly and unabashedly bourgeois, and the political problem really is that not everyone enjoys the minimal income security to have time and energy to think and produce philosophical concepts, art, science. This is emphatically not the Deleuze-as-a-continuation-of-Foucault I keep seeing in art circles.

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