minimal synth
Traxx @ Knekelhuis, Doka (Amsterdam) 04.04.2014
:Codes – All The Tragic Heroines [FIR006]
After 10 years of existence, numerous live gigs and great contributions to various compilations (on such labels as Kommando 6, Enfant Terrible, La Forme Lente and Pneu to name a few), :codes has become such an evident part of the minimal synth / cold wave revival that it is hard to believe this is only their first album. Featuring Chris behind the machines and Najah (of Dolina) at the vocals, the French/Belgian duo crafts delicate synth jewels, dark as velvet and cold as ice.
Seacrypt – Seekers [FIR007]
Musumeci – Untitled (Traxx edit) [MNQ050]
Musumeci tapes reissue, with their brutal body music plus, similar to DAF, CHBB and Liaisons Dangereuses, was one of the most acclaimed in the Mannequin Records 2013 productions. Traxx, the Chicago-based head of Nation Records, redesigned a raw live version of ‘Tag Fur Tag’ with what he described as a ‘hugly-tape Kode’
Mick Wills @ These Guys, Trouw (Amsterdam) 14.03.2014
Streetwalker – Ooze [DIAG008]
Diagonal Records drop a slow-burning, psychedelic killer from Elon Katz and Beau Wanzer’s Streetwalker, backed with a powerful Silent Servant remix.
Lassigue Bendthaus – Matter [DE060LP]
Lassigue Bendthaus is the electro-industrial project of Uwe Schmidt aka Atom or Seor Coconut from Germany. Uwe Schmidt began making music in the early 1980s, first playing drums, then switching to programming a drum computer after he had heard a Linn Drum on the radio. In 1986 he co-founded the cassette label N.G. Medien, on which his first musical work under the name Lassigue Bendthaus, ”The Engineer’s Love”, was released. Soon after, he started to work on what would become his first official record release, the album ”Matter”. The recordings and production began in 1986 and took almost 4 years, until the album finally came out in 1991 on the German Parade Amoureuse label. Musically somewhere between late ”Industrial” and ”Electronic Body Music”, yet already anticipating ”Acid” and ”Techno”, this production managed to cause quite a stir, due to its advanced production techniques. Songs pay strong homage to Kraftwerk, approaching the early industrial dance scene with a softer sequential approach than most of his contemporaries. ”Matter” is a hermetic reflection about the relationship between perception, nature, science, technology and labor. This reissue comprises the entire 1991 ”Matter” LP, as well a bonus 7” record containing 2 tracks never before released on vinyl.
Soma Holiday – Shake Your Molecules EP [MW052]
Minimal Wave presents a remastered reissue of Soma Holiday‘s cult classic, Shake Your Molecules. Soma Holiday was a Franco-American duo consisting of Jean-Marc Vallod (FR) and Jane Honicker (US), based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn back in the early 1980s. They recorded “Shake Your Molecules” along with “Too Many People” and “Art Dimension” in 1984. With the help of Eric Dufaure, they had their 12” released on Cachalot Records in the US, and later a further pressing was made by Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L’Acier in France. That quintessential NYC electro / hop hop sound infused with the French New Wave sensibility is what ended up making “Shake Your Molecules” such a unique dance floor hit. This release includes the original “Shake Your Molecules” mix, the unreleased dub version and two other unreleased outtakes of “Too Many People” and “Art Dimension”, all from their 1984 studio recordings at Unique Recording Studios.
Crash Course in Science – Signals From Pier Thirteen [DE059]
Crash Course in Science are a post punk band that formed in 1979 in Philadelphia.The band members, Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago and Michael Zodorozny, met while attending art school. They began to experiment with crude electronics and off-beat writing. CCIS avoids conventional instrumentation by using toy instruments and kitchen appliances to augment the distorted guitar, drums and synthesized beats. Their first single, Cakes in the Home was released in 1979 and their 4-song 12” EP ”Signals From Pier Thirteen” in 1981. Pier 13 was an abandoned coal-loading pier along the Delaware River near where CCIS rehearsed. The band went there often and was inspired by the huge silent machinery, shapes, shadows, ghosts and debris. The songs ‘Cardboard Lamb’ and ‘Flying Turns’ quickly became club favorites during the early 80’s. This EP’s raw, percussive sound influenced both techno and industrial music in later years. CCIS feel a strong connection to Throbbing Gristle, although they consider themselves as working in a parallel universe rather than being influenced by them. Crash Course in Science go above and beyond what is considered ‘New Wave’ in attitude and sound.
Skitungen – Ofrivilliga Rorelser [KAFTEN004]
Icy science courtesy of Towlie Von Der Rauchen’s burgeoning Kaften imprint: translating to ‘involuntary movements’, “Ofrivilliga Rorelser” lives up to its name with an angular groove, static analogue dynamics and an uncompromising distorted punk-funk vocal. Guaranteed to have you jittering and jerking in all manner of robotic fashions, it dances to the rawest, most visceral of classic electro heartbeats. Facit’s remix pushes us a little deeper into the 80s with a poignant air of new romance.
Intergalactic Gary @ BSMNT (Zagreb) 21.02.2014
Mick Wills @ Club Eden (Bucharest) 06.12.2013
Os Ovni – Let’s Leave Reality [SC002]
“‘Let’s Leave Reality,” the debut LP from Florida’s intergalactic synth duo, Os Ovni. Let’s Leave Reality features eight tracks of experimental electronic pop lost in time and space. The psychedelic harmonies and colliding layers of synths paint a vision of a future that isn’t so much bleak as it is paranoid. Hyper-paced drum machines buzz under the shimmering structure of the synths. Logan and Omebi’s vocals stir in perfect harmony glazed with lost celluloid inspired visions.
VA – Electroconvulsive Therapy Volume 2 – Fuzz Dance [MR033]
Medical Records presents two exclusive releases. Compilation of very rare and sought after A + B sides of 3 Italo Disco iconic 12″ singles that were originally released on the legendary Fuzz Dance label (a sublabel of Materiali Sonori). The first single needs no introduction to lovers of disco. Trophy “Slow Flight” (vocal + instrumental versions) was released in 1982. A very hard-hitting percussive track with very interesting production that is quite gritty yet smooth with it’s vocoded vocals and synth melodies. The second single which is probably the most rare is Zed “Plastic Love” vocal + instrumental versions that were released in 1983. Sultry female vocals and pulsing electro sequences make these two versions absolutely essential. Clocking in at the third position on both sides are the vocal and instrumental versions of “Hesitation” by Mya & The Mirror which is a production by Alexander Robotnick (Maurizio Dami) with female vocals. Also included as bonus tracks at the end of side A and B are Mon Bijou’s “Just a Lover” and Naif Orchestra’s “Check Out Five”.
Traxx @ Rewire Festival (The Hague) 09.11.2013
Helena Hauff – Groove Podcast 26
Optimo – Dark Was The Night [EFCD011]
While JD Twitch & JG Wilkes aka Optimo are undoubtedly men-for-all-seasons musically, as anyone who’s seen them in action behind the decks will attest, they’re often at their best when creating a mood, delving deep into their bulging record collections to showcase sludgy curiosities, dark electronics and intoxicating oddities. Pleasingly, it’s this side of their multiple personalities that’s explored on Dark Was The Night, their sixth commercially available mix CD. Predictably, it’s a doozy, effortlessly joining the dots between the moody deep acid house of QX-1’s “I Won’t Hurt You”, the pulsating industrial rhythms of Carter Tutti, the icy melodies and snowy rhythms of Recondite’s “Cleric”, and the paranoid dubstep of Kode 9 and Space Ape.
Silent Servant – Holiday Mix December 2013
Deathday – No Future [MNQ046]
Deathday (formerly Deathday Party) is a Los Angeles based Experimental Post-punk band, formed in Santa Ana, California in 2008 by brothers Alex Guilln and Giovanni Guilln. While the title-track is an unreleased one, instead ”Dropped Into Obscurity” was already included in the Downwards compilation ”Click Heels” alongside with Tropic Of Cancer, Silent Servant, The KVB. On the B side Mannequin asked to the synth-master Legowelt to remix “After Dark”. Seldom has the post-punk revival seemed as urgent as with Deathday, who match their guitar driven dirges with esoteric industrial soundscapes and tape manipulation. Their music is often as bleak as it is violent, with low end cacophony bludgeoning the listener into submission. Lyrically, Deathday often invoke the violent culture hidden beneath the media, as well as explore the crippling aftershocks of isolation and the mysticism of the occult.
The Hipodrome Of Music 