Minimal Wave Records

[quote author=“reactorlgtn”]
Actually, I thought of something On-Topic here as well: The NDW. If you listen to any bunch of NDW, say a dozen records, you’ll find half of them good or great, and half, well, not. But forgive my foreign ears: Try as I might I can’t guess which ones made it and which ones didn’t! Some of the obscurities I have heard, are as good as the hits or better - within the same genres! I mean, it’s not that I only like “underground” ndw or something like that, I hear would-be hits that were not hits. Paso Doble “Computerliebe (Die Module Spielen Verrückt)” being a case in point, that should have been huge, no?

Oh, and what price REK 1? That single should have been top 10, with the LP selling sufficiently to fetching about €8 now…

I hope I got that figure right, maybe I should recount?  8)

Now Paso Doble actually was a hit, very much unlike the fantastic “Computer haben Herzschmerz” by REK.

OK, to get the ball rolling:

Bal Paré
Tommi Stumpff
Stahlnetz
..

I would say SILVIA over Tommi Stumpff most def!
Ami Marie, how this didnt became HUGE just baffles me, did sell in solid quantities though
Aloa?

http://www.ndw-wiki.org

OK, given that this is a “baby thread” of pop bands with mass appeal, I had hoped it would be obvious that it was rather referring to the cream of the crop that could have made it a lot bigger (at least in Germany).

Of course the sheer number of NDW release alone is an explanation why so many great bands failed…..

I agree on Silvia. A great album with at least two tracks that could have made it big had they been released on 7” and given proper promotion. Especially “Ich bin nicht die”.

Tommi Stumpff did quite well in the later EBM scene I believe. “13 Minuten Massaker” comes to mind, but in 1982 “Zu spät Ihr Scheißer” was way ahead of its time heralding much of what was later called EBM. it might be me, but “Ich will gewinnen” has a very belgian sound if you forget the german lyrics.

The Tanzdiele had some very good tunes on the one LP.

SILVIA indeed!
“Das Ende vom Traum” should have been a huge NDW-hit back then!!

I think I got just the band for this thread:

Die Monopols.

If you like Ideal, now these are your guys.

Which however, is also my biggest reproach: in 1983, even Ideal themselves had realised they sound dreadful and had stopped to inflict their low-fi sound on the masses.

Still, I think Die Monopols sound better than Ideal when trying to sound like Ideal on this album, and the songs that don’t are of course my favourites.

When it comes to commercial failure, only the less than fantastic First up/Traumfrau seem to have made it to an official 7”. The LP I happen to own is a test press and the only time I saw it on the net, it was advertised as a test press as well.

And now I’m open to accusations that I’m using this forum just to increase the value of this rarity.  :wink: