About two years ago my good friend Al O’Connell (aka Alalal, who we told you about here) played me some minimal synth tracks that had an immediate and considerable effect on me. They contained analogue synths that sounded sharp and icy instead of the warm squelchy noises that a lot of people use them for; Junos instead of MS20s, backed by the most primitive drum machines and oblique otherworldly vocals.
Most of this music came from early-80s Europe, and most of the groups only recorded a few songs, released a 7″ and then split up before anyone noticed what they were doing. I like the impossible romance you can have with a band when all you’ve got is a tape with three songs on it (all in French) and a single black and white photograph.
Ever since I heard this music I’ve been trawling high and low to unearth the greatest gems of this synth sound in order to make a definitive retrospective artefact of the lost genre of music known as coldwave. With the considerable collaborative help of Pieter Schoolwerth from New York’s Wierd Records, I think we may have done it.
This mini, taster mixtape is a selection of some of the best coldwave and minimalwave out there, featuring the likes of Ruth, Deux, Hotel du Nord, Solid Space, and Absolute Body Control (who are pictured above).
Wierd Presents… Coldwaves and Minimal Electronics Vol.1 is out in February on Angular Records. You can keep up with all things coldwave at this blog, which will be lovingly updated from now until release.
Download: Angular vs. Coldwave mix Pt 1
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JOE ANGULAR
October 23rd, 2009 @ 05:27
Reader Comments
October 23rd, 2009
8:59 am
um wow not so good
October 23rd, 2009
11:56 am
Love it. Possible to get a track list?
October 29th, 2009
3:49 pm
Don’t forget Minimal Wave the record label…and her pod cast
http://www.eastvillageradio.com/shows/nowplaying.aspx?contentid=1280&showid=25878
Oh and http://www.oldpunks.com
October 30th, 2009
4:17 am
“With the considerable collaborative help of Pieter Schoolwerth from New York’s Wierd Records, I think we may have done it.”
Why are you taking credit for ‘unearthing’ this genre of Music? Why not give Veronica Vasicka the credit she is due? She has been unearthing this music since she launched her Minimal Wave label in 2005 (http://www.minimalwave.org/)
October 30th, 2009
8:14 am
I was writing about ‘unearthing’ in reference to our compilation. We’ve a great number of tracks that have been buried for over 25 years.
I am well aware of MW, The Lost Tapes was a massive inspiration and we licenced a Stereo track from Veronica for the comp.
Credit where it’s due.
October 30th, 2009
9:49 am
Great stuff.. Thanks so much. Looking forward to the LP
November 1st, 2009
9:38 am
Through statcounter I found this page and someone was nice enough to link to my web site. I have over 48 (and counting) free compilations of new wave, no wave and punk-based electronic music for anyone to download via Rapidshare.
When I started compiling I didn’t even know there was anything called Minimal Wave, Synth Punk or Cold Wave. I’m not even a fan of these genres per say since I find a lot of the songs to be weak funk and awkward disco. My compilations are songs from my teenage years and I wanted to find more of it and share them with others.
Here’s a direct link to the page:
http://oldpunks.com/Analog%20CyberPunk%20Page%201.html
Thanks!
November 6th, 2009
6:07 am
[...] support this they’ve done a rather desolate mix for Vice which you can download [...]
November 8th, 2009
1:05 pm
“Why are you taking credit for ‘unearthing’ this genre of Music? Why not give Veronica Vasicka the credit she is due? She has been unearthing this music since she launched her Minimal Wave label in 2005 (http://www.minimalwave.org/)”
AGREED. Why not just go straight to the source (Minimal Wave)? Looks like they’re trying to co-opt everything she’s done.
November 17th, 2009
5:52 am
Sounds awesome! Thanks!