Medio Mutante – Eadem Mutata Resurgo [MR019]

March 19, 2013October 19, 2015 hipodromealbum, electro, medical records llc, medio mutante, minimal synth, synth pop, synth waveLeave a comment

Medical Records present it’s first “modern” release showcasing a full LP compilation of material by American minimal synth band Medio Mutante. The band’s sound is also a mutation of their 1980’s influences, using vintage analog synthesizers and drum machines in creative and unexpected ways. Drawing influence from such acts as El Aviador Dro, Absolute Body Control, Front 242, Duotronic Synterror, Oviformia SCI, Yukihiro Takahashi, Medio Mutante integrated it’s childhood love of late 80s/early 90s Hip Hop, Latin Freestyle, and New Wave into a hybrid concoction that is truly unique. This full LP is composed of the band’s long out of print 6 song limited EP from 2007, their limited 7″ from 2009, and 4 previously unreleased tracks.

The KVB – Immaterial Visions [CITI008]

February 18, 2013July 19, 2023 hipodromealbum, cititrax, kat day, minimal synth, minimal wave records, nicholas wood, shoegaze, the kvbLeave a comment

Cititrax present a new release by the UK duo known as The KVB via our sublabel Cititrax. Combining shoegaze guitars, minimal synth melodies, hypnotic drum machine rhythms and reverb drenched vocals, The KVB was first formed in 2010 as the solo project of Klaus Von Barrel. He was later joined by his girlfriend Kat Day, who added synthesizers and abstract visual elements. Their sound can be described as dark, layered, complex and moody – an icy atmosphere juxtaposed by the warmth of distorted guitars.

Fall Of Saigon – Untitled EP [DE038]

February 18, 2013June 29, 2019 hipodromedark entries records, fall of saigon, florence berthon, minimal synth, pascal comelade, post punk, re-release, reissue, synth wave, thierry denLeave a comment

Dark Entires Records is honored to re-issue the debut EP by Fall Of Saigon. The band was born in 1981 when Florence Berthon (Vocals), Pascal Comelade (Organ, Synthesizer) and Thierry Den (Guitar, Vocals) met at a concert in Montpellier, France. They chose to the name the project Fall Of Saigon after a song by UK post-punk act This Heat. They self-released their debut EP in 1983 citing Nico & The Velvet Underground, Suicide and James Joyce as influences. The 6 songs on the EP were recorded in two stages. “She Leaves Me All Alone” and “On The Beach At Fontana” were sung by Thierry and recorded at Pascal’s home on a Revox 2-track in one shot. The four songs sung by Florence – “Visions”, “Blue Eyes”, “So Long” and “The Swimmer” – were recorded and mixed at the Montpellier Languedoc Video Animation Center by Jean Alain Sidi on two ReVox A77 reel to reels and a small mixer. On “Visions,” “Blue Eyes” and “So Long,” the group employed a drum machine that could only play four or five rhythms with a single slider to increase or decrease the tempo. The songs were minimal: verse, chorus, no bridge, no intro. Built on a simple spine, they create a feeling of space with just a voice and an organ or synthesizer melody. Full of class and inventiveness, Fall Of Saigon are often compared to Young Marble Giants due to the fragile, ephemeral quality of the songs.

Mick Wills @ Schwingen Der Freiheit (Nuertingen) 31.12.2012

February 7, 2013November 4, 2013 hipodromechicago house, mick wills, minimal synth, schwingen der freiheitLeave a comment

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Ceramic Hello – The Absence Of A Canary [SUCTION024]

December 12, 2012June 28, 2022 hipodromealbum, ceramic hello, minimal synth, reissue, suction records, synth pop, synth waveLeave a comment

Reissue of Ceramic Hello’s seminal 1981 LP, ”The Absence of a Canary.” A long-time cult favourite among fans of obscure ’80s synthpop, this LP remains highly sought-after by ”minimal synth” vinyl collectors.

Altres – Archives LP [DE033]

December 12, 2012July 17, 2024 hipodromealbum, altres, brian hutton, dark entries records, electro, jeremy bryning, joseph donnelly, kevin l. guthrie, maurice richardson, mike nelson, minimal synth, synth waveLeave a comment

Altres are a band from Dundee, Scotland who originally formed in 1983. They were playing mostly instrumental, improvised electronic music at a time when very few bands, if any, were making this type of music in the UK. The Altres’ initial line-up was Jeremy Bryning (synths), Joseph Donnelly (synths), Kevin L. Guthrie (synths, sequencer, drum machine), Brian Hutton (synths, sequencer, vocoder), Mike Nelson (guitar) and Maurice Richardson (synths, sequencer, polysynth, drum machine). Most Altres compositions begin with a sequence and a drum pattern. These wrap around arpeggiated synth pulses, and are accompanied by shrill feedback. Instruments used on the recordings include Casio MT40 Moog Prodigy, EDP Wasp, Roland SH-101, Casio VL-Tone, Korg MS20, MS50, SQ10 Poly-61, Ibanez guitar and vocoder. All of the instruments are fed through various effects and echo units. Everything is played and recorded live – there are no overdubs.

Mick Wills – Pinkman Podcast 01

December 3, 2012November 24, 2023 hipodromechicago house, italo-disco, mick wills, minimal synth, pinkman records, podcastLeave a comment

Track artwork

Mick Wills @ Jackboxx, Merkker Kulturlokal (Baden) 10.11.2012

L.A.S.’s Crime – Disphoria 1985-1989 LP [MNQ025]

October 29, 2012June 26, 2019 hipodromealbum, cold wave, electro, l.a.s.’s crime, mannequin records, maria elena brogi, minimal synth, sandro marchettiLeave a comment

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.

Sympathy Nervous – Plastic Love [MW039]

October 29, 2012July 19, 2023 hipodromealbum, electro, minimal synth, minimal wave records, sympathy nervous, yosihumi niinumaLeave a comment

Sympathy Nervous is the project of Japanese artist Yosihumi Niinuma. Influenced by both classical and Krautrock, he began recording in 1979, and released several records on the highly coveted Vanity label. He continued to record and self-release much of his work throughout the 80s and 90s. His sound is intelligent and probably the most unique minimal synth to come out of Japan. Exploring dystopian themes, his music is well balanced and beautifully recorded. The Plastic Love album features songs Yosihumi Niinuma recorded between 1979-1980. These were originally recorded as studio demos and have never been released until now. Stylistically, these particular songs range from proto-techno tracks like “Anatawa Suguni” (1980) to post-punk ones like “Untitled 1” (1979) to a pure synthpop masterpiece from 1980 called “Butoubyou No Syounen” featuring his wife on vocals.

Deux – Golden Dreams [MW040]

October 29, 2012June 29, 2019 hipodromedeux, electro, minimal synth, minimal wave records, synth waveLeave a comment

A new 12” EP by the lovely French synthwave duo known as Deux on Minimal Wave. Gérard Pelletier and Cati Tete formed Deux shortly after meeting in Lyon in 1981. Their music can be described as minimal synth with stripped down rhythm compositions and suitably cold duets. A perfect blend of archetypal Kraftwerkian pop and French synth, these set of songs comprise their later years (1985) and stylistically sound like classic house combined with the romance of New Wave. This EP features previously unreleased newly remastered studio and demo tracks.

Newclear Waves live @ The Dark Side Of The Moog (Barcelona) 12.08.2012

October 26, 2012November 27, 2020 hipodromeacid, alessandro adriani, electro, live act, minimal synth, moog club, newclear waves, the dark side of the moogLeave a comment

Track artwork

Silent Servant – FACT mix 349

October 11, 2012November 4, 2013 hipodromedark wave, FACT, juan mendez, minimal synth, podcast, silent servant, synth popLeave a comment

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Ohama – The Potato Farm Tapes [MW038]

October 11, 2012November 6, 2012 hipodromealbum, minimal synth, minimal wave records, ohama, synth popLeave a comment

Minimal Wave presents an album by Canadian musician Tona Ohama. Ohama was first featured on The Found Tapes compilation (2007) with “T.V.” and then on The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume 1 (2010) with “My Time (Demo)” and most recently on The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume 2 (2012) with “The Drum”, which was also selected and edited by J. Rocc. The Potato Farm Tapes is an album of his early output, featuring some songs from his first cassette entitled Midnite News (1982) and other rare tracks that only have only appeared on compilations thus far.

Sam Rosenthal – Tanzmusik LP [MNQ029]

October 11, 2012July 17, 2019 hipodromealbum, dark wave, electro, mannequin records, minimal synth, reissue, sam rosenthal, synth popLeave a comment

Reissue of one of the top minimal synth Holy Grails out of there. ”Tanzmusik” is the first LP from Sam Rosenthal, boss of the historic Projekt Records label and mind of one of the most influential dark wave acts coming out of the US, Black Tape For A Blue Girl. Originally released in March 1985 and completely recorded at home on a four-track TEAC-2340 with a super minimal setup (Korg Poly 61, Realistic Moog, Boss Dr-110 and some effects), the vinyl release was limited to 250 copies. The album continues in the “electronic mood-music” tradition established by Sam on the Projekt Electronic Amerika cassettes, with the added intriques of the drum-computer, exploring the realms of electronic music. Its signature combination of gothic, ethereal, ambient and neo-classical elements has explored existential themes of loves lost and passions yet to come.

Linea Aspera – Linea Aspera LP [DE031]

September 29, 2012July 1, 2019 hipodromealbum, alison lewis, dark entries records, electro, linea aspera, minimal synth, ryan ambridge, synth popLeave a comment

Dark Entries is proud to present the debut album of contemporary British band Linea Aspera. Linea Aspera is the London duo of Ryan Ambridge (Synths/Programming) and Alison Lewis (Vocals/Synths). They began the project in November 2011, technically drawing inspiration from electronic music from the early 1980s. For their debut album they utilized small, simple analog synthesizer set up: Roland SH-09, Roland Juno 6, Vermona DRM MKiii, Korg Poly 800 and Analogue Solutions Semblance. Linea Aspera’s sound includes clear influences from early electronic body music, classic synth-pop and, in some instances, industrial and noise. Lyrically the band incorporates the sciences of osteology, neuroscience, and anthropology weaving a new medical language around themes of desire, despair and renewal. Linea Aspera serve up an icebox of dark doom riding on Alison’s powerful vocals with a soft but sharp touch.

Lives of Angels – Elevator to Eden LP [DE032]

September 17, 2012July 17, 2024 hipodromealbum, dark entries records, gerald o’connell, lives of angels, minimal synth, new wave, post punk, synth popLeave a comment

Dark Entires is honored to reissue the long out of print debut album “Elevator to Eden” by Lives of Angels. Lives of Angels was the brainchild of Gerald O’Connell from London, England. In 1974 he worked at CBS studios mastering recordings from tape to disc. By 1977 he joined his first band Mystery Plane, led by school mate Mark Harvey and later joined by his soon-to-be wife Catherine. Gerald branched off in 1980 forming Lives of Angels as an outlet for his own compositions. He recorded, produced and played all of the instruments on “Elevator to Eden” between 1981 and 1983, using a primitive set up of drum machines, one keyboard, guitar and a tape echo. Influenced by the Krautrock sounds of Neu! and Amon Duul II as well as US psychedelic rock, Lives of Angles crafted their own unique post-punk sound. “Elevator to Eden” was originally released in 1983 on cassette by Color Tape Records, the label started by Gary Ramon of Modern Art. Then in 1986 Fire Records remixed and re-released the album on vinyl but the band was not happy with the mixes. This reissue features the original 4-track cassette mixes of “Elevator To Eden” on vinyl for the first time ever. The LP includes 9 songs featured on the original Color Tapes release. All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley directly from the original master tapes.

Felix Kubin – Teenage Tapes [MW037]

September 17, 2012July 19, 2023 hipodromealbum, electro, felix kubin, minimal synth, minimal wave records, synth waveLeave a comment

Minimal Wave is proud to present Teenage Tapes, an LP of selections from the early tape archives of Felix Kubin. Six of the twelve tracks on this album have never been released before. The recordings span his adolescent years, when he was between 11 and 15 years old. He actually began playing music at 8 years old, when he studied piano, organ, and glockenspiel. In 1980, he acquired a Korg MS-20 synthesizer and his recordings took off from there. He began experimenting and recording a variety of tracks, adding his own bizarre lyrics to them. Although Alfred Hilsberg of the notorious ZickZack label (Palais Schaumburg, Die Toedliche Doris, Einstuerzende Neubauten) had planned to release Felix Kubin’s early music in 1985, it took another 20 years until the French label SKIPP and the German label A-Musik put out a selection of tracks for the first time. These days, Felix Kubin is still very active, recording new music, writing and producing radio plays and running his label Gagarin Records.

VA – The Minimal Wave Tapes: J Rocc Edits Vol 2 [STH2295]

September 2, 2012September 13, 2021 hipodromedeux, edits, electro, felix kubin, j rocc, mark lane, minimal synth, ohama, stones throwLeave a comment

J ROCC/FELIX KUBIN/OHAMA/MARK LANE/DEUX - The Minimal Wave Tapes: J Rocc Edits Vol 2

J Rocc steps up for the second and final installment of his Minimal Wave Tapes Edits, once again appearing on weighty vinyl and offering solitude for those DJs out there whose attempts to drop the likes of Ohama and Deux are frustrated by the inherent lack of quantized drum programming. J Rocc’s edit of Felix Kubin’s “Japan Japan” is a case in point, originally featuring on the recent second volume of The Minimal Wave Tapes, the rolling 4×4 electro groove that filled the opening bars soon mutated rhythmically into bastard vocoder pop. J Rocc wisely extends this opening loop before switching into the madness and then smoothing back into that groove. From here, J Rocc adds some extra weight to the titular elements of Ohama’s “The Drum”, teases out the inner uneasy primal techno workings of “Who’s Really Listening?” from Mark Lane and f*cks about with Deux’s “Game & Performance” brilliantly.

Bonjour Tristesse – On Not Knowing Who We Are [LFL006]

September 2, 2012June 29, 2019 hipodromealbum, bonjour tristesse, la forme lente, le furet, minimal synth, new wave, synth popLeave a comment

Bonjour Tristesse with the debut album on La Forme Lente.

Borghesia – Clones [DE028]

August 9, 2012January 31, 2019 hipodromealbum, aldo ivancic, borghesia, dario seraval, dark entries records, electro, minimal synthLeave a comment

Borghesia is an electronic music group, founded in 1982 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The band was formed by four members of alternative theatrical group Theatre FV-112/15: Dario Seraval, Aldo Ivancic, Neven Korda and Zemira Alajbegovic. They established FV Video to self-publish their video projects and FV Založba – the first independent record label in ex-Yugoslavia. Aldo and Dario took care of songwriting, production and recording while Zemira and Neven handled the visuals. In the late 80s the band signed to PIAS and went on to release a string of successful albums and played world-wide tours. “Clones” was Borghesia’s second album, self-released on cassette only in 1984. The band borrowed synthesizers (Roland SH-101, Casio VL-1, Korg Polysix) and a Roland 808 drum machine from friends. Every song was played live – no overdubs – and recorded to a cassette deck over a few nights at their club Disco FV during 1983-1984. All of the songs are instrumental and feature various cutting edge techniques for 1983. Hypnotic, proto-techno and acid rhythms and synth lines. Music on the A Side of the LP is faster and club oriented while the B Side offers a drugged out soundtrack to get lost in. All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley directly from the original master tape.