minimal synth
UV PØP – No Songs Tomorrow [MNQ028/SBR3009]
Mannequin and Sacred Bones are honoured to join their forces to offer you one of the best UK New Wave reissues from the 80’s. UV PØP were an early post-punk group from the South Yorkshire region of England. Their sound was regionally bleak and they used staccato, angular guitars lines, with vocals ranged from spoken repeated mantras to whispered and shouted political poetics. ‘In the 1980s there was nothing to smile about. The person whom some called wrongly the iron lady brought vengeful spiteful selfishness and a narrow-minded out- look into all our lives. The sound of UV PØP has always been a sophisticated blend of sadness; with morose North Country sense and a humorous confrontational sensibility. UV PØP were as certain as anybody there was a strong possibility there might not be anything left with which to make a tomorrow…
Twilight Ritual – The Factory Scream [OS018]
Twilight Ritual was/is the main project by Geert Coppens and Peter Bonne. During the early eighties they were involved in many other bands including Autumn and The Linear Movement, but Twilight Ritual is by far the most inspired project. The spirit of the band lingers on beneath the work of Autumn through A Split Second. The work of Twilight Ritual is diverse, yet consise. Their pioneering album Rituals inspired other musicians and became an underground cult classic in the minimal synth genre. “The Factory Scream” is a compilation of varied works recorded during 1984 and 1986.
White Car – Everyday Grace [HIT015]
Hippos In Tanks’ carefully assembled roster, White Car are the label’s darkest, sexiest operators. Hailing from the Pilsen neighbourhood in Chicago, their debut album ‘Everyday Grace’ channels that Eurotic undercurrent of Techno/Wave/drug music which has fuelled the city’s subterranean scene since the earliest days. Like an hallucinatory audio version of the scramble suits in A Scanner Darkly, their chimeric, cyberdelic fantasia assimilates elements of 30 years + of debonaire, thrusting automatik funk, from DAF to NIN to CTI, to ’80s Bowie, Prince and way beyond, refracting each glint until it becomes an amorphous nebula of digital info masking an ice-cool, thermo-controlled interior. The stuttered vocal of central figure Elon Katz expounds ideas of bodiless cybernetic sex and binary sensuality, melding his urging physicality into a virtual matrix of jagged, shoulder-jerking rhythms and writhing synthlines saturated in bacchanalian dissonance.
Kinder Aus Asbest – Artificial Seasons
Old school minimalsynth, nostalgic but with a glimpse of the future from Swedish band Kinder Aus Asbest.
Mick Wills @ Golden Pudel (Hamburg, DE) 21.01.2012
Trevor Jackson – Metal Dance: Industrial/Post Punk/EBM: Classics & Rarities 80-88 [STRUT091LP]
The latest Strut Records release shines more light on the clanking, far-sighted world of the 1980s’ most revolutionary genres – namely industrial, post-punk and EBM. This time Trevor Jackson is at the helm. His two-disc selection touches on many different strands, from bleak synthesizer jams and crunchy punk-funk to twisted industrial disco, mutant electrofunk and almighty percussive workouts.
Mick Wills – Boom Bar Podcast #21
VA – Danza Meccanica Vol. 2 Italian Synth Wave 1981-1987 [MNQ022]
Mannequin announce the second volume of the much acclaimed italian New Wave Italian compilation. “Danza Meccanica” is the latest, unmissable chapter in the story of Italian post punk – the less traditionally rock branch. It outlines the approach taken by ten more or less unknown groups who all deserve rediscovery and to be remembered alongside luckier outfits. Ten tracks that spell out the manifesto of a scene fascinated by electronic innovation.
Intergalactic Gary – MiX-Mas Special Mix
Wherenext? Audio Quarterly 1
Newclear Waves live @ The Dark Side Of The Moog 07.12.2011
Mick Wills @ Easy Bar (St. Petersburg) 29.06.2011
Frank Alpine – Frank Alpine [VR0026LP]
Erupting from the seamy neon-lit wasteland of Los Angeles, California – Frank Alpine’s self-titled debut offers a darker, sleazier view of the current cold-wave resurgence. In fact this disc might have more in common with the shuddersome compositions of Chris & Cosey than it does with the contemporary Brooklyn indie set. There’s a no-wave grit to Alpine’s pained squeals, and over double-time electrical beats he eulogizes a city in decline. It’s hardly even ‘cold’ at all – the sound of Frank Alpine is soaked in sweat, booze and the remnants of a night out you’d rather forget.
VA – Circuit d’Actes [LFL003] FREE DOWNLOAD
A collection of 4 synth-pop, minimal wave, darkwave tracks released in 2010 on Le Forme Lente, now available for free download on their soundcloud and bandcamp pages.
DJ TLR – Talking Shopcast 13
Veronica Vasicka – Minimal Wave Label Mix For UO
Leda – Welcome To Joyland [369.004]
Re-press of a secret masterpiece by Peter Baumann (under the alias Hacoon Mail) and Hans Brandeis. Music that lies somewhere between Space Disco and Minimal Wave. Beautiful synth structures with Leda’s mesmerizing vocals on top.
Momentform – Hartzine Mixtape
Momentform – Momentform [WT007]
Wt Records takes another expected turn by releasing a mini LP of new wave tracks from Momentform. The first track, ‘Momentform is Fake,’ spans the gap between new wave and house with 707 rhythmic patterns and raw, unedited bass lines. ‘Selected Works’ with its melancholic vocals and juno arpeggio has a way of finding its way into your brain and staying there. 6 tracks of excellent melodies and melancholy angst make this a great record for listening from start to finish.
