cold wave
Tropic of Cancer – Restless Idylls [BLACKESTLP005]
Restless Idylls is the first full length album from Tropic of Cancer, the solo project of Los Angeles-based Camella Lobo. Lobo debuted in 2009 with ‘The Dull Age’/’Victims’, a 10” single on Downwards and the first of three collaborations with Juan Mendez (Silent Servant). Two years later came a second Downwards release (‘Be Brave’, remixed by Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H. Kirk), followed soon after by The Sorrow Of Two Blooms on Blackest Ever Black – the label’s third release and one if its most cherished. Since then there have been 12” releases on Mannequin, Sleeperhold Publications, Ghostly International (a Part Times Punks Sessions live split with HTRK) and a limited edition compilation, The End of All Things, compiling singles and unreleased recordings. Restless Idylls marks ToC’s return to BEB and consists of eight new recordings written in Los Angeles, with additional production from Karl O’Connor (Regis) in New York and London. Its themes? The usual: romance, devotion, pain and helplessness. Mixed up mortals struggling against the brute mechanics of fate, and proving unequal to the task. A forced retreat into private, precious idylls of longing, faith, mystery, even misery. The urgent motorik of lead single ‘More Alone’ is perhaps a misleading foretaste of the full-length, which is more lush, languid and extravagantly despondent than previous TOC material. Troubled hymns from an empty room, in a drowned world. A sensual and sepulchral psychedelia.
Factory Floor – Factory Floor [DFA2392]
The band drop their highly anticipated album debut on NYC post-punk stalwart DFA. Tracks from both of their singles appear alongside a slew previously unheard synth-wave / EBM gems. A vivid snapshot of a progressive band, still in the ascendant, smashing through yet another ceiling.
DJ soFa – Postwave & Krautpunk for Radio raasHHour Jerusalem
Popsimonova – Popsimonova [ET027/GOOILAND009]
Popsimonova is the new upcoming queen of cold electro (wave) … her tracks are cold but with lots of energy… intelligent constructed tracks to make you move but also to makeyou take a step back and let the music work on you in different ways… this is what they call electro beyond the former Iron Curtain…and this is what we move to on any good electro party…
Tevo Howard – Nature of Love Mix
Intergalactic Gary – Les Yeux Orange #012
Polyphonic Size – Earlier / Later LP [MW045]
Minimal Wave present an LP of selections from the prolific Belgian synthpop band Polyphonic Size. Headed by Roger-Marc Vande Voorde, Polyphonic Size formed in 1979. The Earlier / Later LP are remastered selections, curated mainly from Polyphonic Size’s early output as a band, from when they formed in 1979 to when they began working with JJ Burnel in 1980. The tracks on side A represent their early period and were recorded between 1979-1980 and the side B tracks, recorded between 1980-1983, are representative of how their sound evolved whilst working with a producer.
The Actor – Unreal Personality [MW044]
The Actor is a well known but simultaneously quite obscure minimal wave project that emerged from the Dutch home taping scene of the early 1980s. The duo was formed by Marcel Reimer (vocals, keyboards) and Sander Horsthuis (keyboards) in Breda, The Netherlands in late 1981. The track featured on this flexi-disc, ‘Unreal Personality’, is the opening track of ‘Exploded View’ and the archetypical The Actor song, with lyrics directly referring to the band’s name. The song was recorded during the summer of 1982. The equipment they used was the Korg MS-20, Crumar Performer, Casio VL-Tone, and Soundmaster SR-88 drum machine.
Five Times Of Dust – The Dadacomputer [MWQSMP046]
The NY Minimal Wave label present a limited edition reissue of The Dadacomputer cassettes. The Dadacomputer was the first incarnation of what would later become Five Times Of Dust. It was the result of a collaboration between Robert Lawrence and Mark Phillips who came together during the summer of 1981 living between Bristol and Cardiff, UK. They collaborated by sending tapes back and forth through the mail and also worked together in their respective home studios. Later that year, they self-released The Dadacomputer on both MAP tapes and Quick Stab.
Alessandro Parisi Live @ Loch (Zürich) 13.04.2013
Alessandro Parisi – Draconia [LXRC012]
New album on Lux Rec. Alessandro Parisi recorded this album just with a Roland TR-707 and a Roland JX-3P. The heritage from his home in the northeast of Italy is clearly present in the music of Parisi. Back in the late seventies and early eighties Pordenone was an industrial city with a vivid underground post punk and wave scene. Cold weather electronics. Fog and darkness surrounds the place to this day and deeply pervades this record: the history of a city called Draconia. Who will do wrong shall not be forgiven.
In Trance 95 – Shapes In A New Geometry [MW043]
Minimal Wave announce the release of a cassette of new music by Greek legends In Trance 95. After last year’s successful Cities Of Steel And Neon album release, In Trance 95 came together once again and have been working diligently in the studio on all kinds of new material. Aside from their recent raved about shows in Europe, this cassette is a taste of what they have been up to at Airdawn Studio in Athens, Greece. Quite dark, industrial and sometimes experimental (with glimpses of smokey dance floor atmosphere), these tracks are stark, heavy and cold.
Sandra Plays Electronics – Her Needs [MW042]
Minimal Wave label presents a 7” release of primitive D.I.Y. electronics by Sandra Plays Electronics, a project founded by Karl O’Connor (Regis) whilst he was a teenager living in Birmingham, England in the 1980s. O’Connor, mostly known for his pioneering work in the techno field (as Regis, Sandwell District, British Murder Boys, Ugandan Methods and various other entities) as well as his Downwards label, began playing and recording his own music when he was 16 years old. He collaborated with friends performing in short-lived bands such as Family Sex and also recorded on his own as Sandra Plays Electronics. He was heavily influenced by D.A.F., Liaisons Dangereuses, Cabaret Voltaire and Soft Cell, to name a few and would eventually collaborate with Robert Görl and also Chrislo Haas in the late 90s. The tracks we are presenting here are two versions of the same song, Her Needs, both recorded in Birmingham, England. The first was recorded in 1988 during soundcheck at the College of Food And Domestic Arts and the second was recorded in 1999 (from the Man Has Responsibilities session) at the Ice House. Pressed on heavy weight 70 gram ultra clear vinyl, the 7” is housed in a matte double sided printed foldover sleeve. Limited to 999 hand-numbered copies.
Streetwalker – Future Fusion [CITI007]
Chicago duo Streetwalker, comprised of molecular biologist Beau Wanzer and electronic music aesthete Elon Katz, wrote their debut album ‘Future Fusion’ over the course of two years. Through endless experimentation and analog improvisation, they have constructed an entirely new sound showcasing vibrant hand-played synthesizer, vulnerable vocals, and serpentine drum lines. Streetwalker’s distinct song structures are characterized as much by restraint, timing, and subtle shift as by the cyclic abandon of the loop.
NCW & Piss – Golden Lands EP [VIVOD002]
Second 12″ from Ali Renault’s limited boutique imprint, Vivod. Featuring the talents of NCW, this is moody, downbeat synth music.
Umberto – Confrontations [NNF270LP]
Halloween is early this year……fantasy soundtracking returns with his third official full-length, two years after the badass psychodrama of Prophecy of the Black Widow. What instantly distinguishes this new album from the previous two is its ominous, slow-burn compositional model, building its evil temple brick by brick, basking in the tension of each new chiming, Carpenteresque synth line or monkish doom Om for multiple measures before stirring the next substance into the cauldron. This elegant sense of patience gives the tracks a more oozing, operatic aura; these confrontations aren’t hostile showdowns in the woods but the creeping dread of alien-nation body snatchers infiltrating the populace. Death comes slipping.
L.A.S.’s Crime – Disphoria 1985-1989 LP [MNQ025]
L.A.S.’s Crime (the initials stand for “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”, a famous short novel by Oscar Wilde) is an electronic band from Siena founded in 1984 by Sandro Marchetti (vocals, synthesizer, programming) and Maria Elena Brogi (vocals, synthesizers). With a music sometimes soft, sometimes melancholic, but always fully electronic the duo from 85 to 89 L.A.S.’s Crime produced 5 demo tapes (Five Lies ’85, Anomaly ’87, Inanitas ’87, Electa ’88, Korobi ’89) and a studio album (Abyss 43) registered at Sound City studio of Florence, but remained unreleased for label close. Today, thank to the italian label “Mannequin”, 13 selected songs can have finally a new life on vinyl, giving to the listener a small piece of 80’s remained intact.
SURVIVE – Survive LP [MNQ026]
Mannequin presents an 8 track LP from full-analog-synth quartet S U R V I V E aka Adam Jones, Kyle Dixon, Mark Donica and Michael Stein, considered as one of Austin’s (TX, US) most important live electronic mainstays.
Tropic Of Cancer – Permissions Of Love [MNQ023]
Brand new 12” from Tropic of Cancer, one the most important realities in the modern post-punk and darkwave scene. The band consists of Camella Lobo and John Juan Mendez. Though Tropic Of Cancer’s sound has been called gothic, cold wave and drone pop, the band’s take on their influences is anything but nostalgic. Lobo and Mendez have managed to imbue their own elusive gaze and craft a strangely beautiful and intoxicating sound in the wake of their predecessors. The three tracks on this new 12” take us gently by the hand into a slowed-down opium dream – it’s like watching the desert from the same stark corners where Lyciastood many years ago. This EP gathers the primal thrust of their bleak Post-Punk (think about Cultural Decay shaking hands with Section 25 in their psychedelic/buddhist years) and Minimal Wave aesthetics with this entirely new dimension in the music of TOC – heartfelt and deep. Cold waves have never been so warm.
