i stopped using this forum because (a) there is not a lot of news about new releases being posted here anymore, which is the main reason i visited, & (B) your (obscure) presence had become so domineering and depressing… i’ve come back to find that this really hasn’t changed, so i guess i have no reason to come back
i’m leaving 1 last response
Jason, You are going to tell me Roger of TV Set/Bakterielle Infektion, and Rhona of Genetic Music are key figures of the minimal synth scene. Those are two people I have never dealt with or ever learned about a minimal synth band from. To me the most important people relative to minimal synth are the collectors (herve, nils, joerg, jens(sweden), jens(germany), ulf, oystein, dimitris, nick, and all the other collectors). They are the ones that collect the records, and uncover unknown bands. They are the reason any of these bands are currently being played or released at all.
i didn’t say that they invented the scene or are directly responsible for most peoples’ discovery of these bands, but yes they are key figures… Genetic was 1 of the first labels to really pursue the idea of reissuing minimal synth as well as releasing new artists making music in this style. they did it several years before anyone could’ve imagined that this would become some sort of trendy / hyped up genre… and they continue to do it. i’m sure if you went to some of the earliest minimal synth parties in Germany, you would find them at many of them, and probably BI played many of them too, and at the time BI was probably one of the only bands playing music that would be suitable for a minimal synth party
Anyway, I’m obviously not a fan of techno music, and I know a lot of techno/electroclash people such as yourself are hip to minimal synth because of all the reissues. Seeing as that is the case it does make sense if your goal is to cater your releases to the techno crowd to put out a remix record.
funny that you think you know something about me - i guess you read my biography on discogs or something? i’m 38 and i’ve been heavily into wave since i was about 15 years old, in the late 80s. i searched hard for as many synth records as i could find during the late 80s, looking through the International Discography of the New Wave for any records that sounded like they were synth/wave - records like Vice Versa and Polyphonic Size were circled, but i searched and searched and you just couldn’t find these records in the shops here in Toronto. and most definitely there was no one to talk to who could tell you about these records. i remember asking record store clerks if they could recommend anything that sounded like Fad Gadget, and they would sneer at me like i was asking about Menudo.
so yes, i am “hip” to a lot of these bands now because of reissues, or because of finding out about them later in life through people like Roger and Rhona, and of course now through the internet, blogs, etc… same as you… or what, am i wrong? are you 45 and you’ve been part of the DIY cassette trading scene since ‘81? (with your cocky attitude, i would be shocked to learn that you are over 30)
so i’m a “techno/electroclash person” you say? i’m actually a long-time devoted fan and creator of analog synthesizer music, and i enjoy it in several shapes and forms… in 1997 i released synthesizer music and people called me an IDM or electro artist, then in 2002 people called me an electroclash artist, now sometimes people even refer to me as a minimal synth artist - i am none of these things exactly, it is all meaningless, so i don’t know where you get off calling me some kind of “electroclash person” and presuming that i’m some kind of johnny-come-lately when it comes to my love of “minimal synth” music (not even a genre of music, as we all know).... i love a lot of minimal synth music because it is full of great analog synthesizer and drum machine sounds… but i could say the same thing about some of the big hit synthpop records (Yaz “Upstairs at Erics” is my all time fav record), or some records that are called electroclash (ADULT. for example) or techno/electro (Aphex Twin, Locust, Panasonic, Drexciya, etc etc etc)