Minimal Wave Records

I’ve been buying loads of so called “mimal synth"and am most fond of the songs that have heavy synths/drum machines/vocoders and are more uptempo and danceable.  A few examples of what I like and am looking for more of would be:
  Organ-  “Organ” & “Kärpästen juhla” (The Feast of Flies)
  Marge & the Marvellous “Distant Dance”
  Circuit 7 “Video Boys”
  Polyphonic Size “Le Rabatteur Des Sectes”
  Liaisons Dangereuses (most everything)
Stuff along these lines.  If anyone knows of some more dark yet danceable late 70’s/80’s minimal synth/wave tracks I’d love to hear about them.  Thanks so much.

hmm,
where to start??

it would depend of course on what you define as “dark” - but to name three, the “Top voted albums” pictured left on this page are all classics - in case they change, they are A Blaze Colour, Informatics and Paul Nova.

Twilight Ritual and related (autumn/ Linear Movement) spring to mind, Nine Circles, Van Kaye & Ignit… Car Crash Set “Outsider”... OTO “Anyway”...

Honestly, the easiest thing for you to do is go on slsk and get the Flexipop collection - Tribute to flexipop, Return of Flexipop or None Night of Flexipop, you may know of them already? 26 cd’s, you’ll like at least half of the tracks.

Keep us informed what you find!

Thanks for the reply.  I do actually have the Informatics-Accident in Paradise and like it a lot.  Haven’t heard the others yet. 

I guess the term dark is kinda vague since most minimal synth is some somewhat “dark” or melancholy.  I’ve heard quite a bit but not all the Flexipops and definitely like several songs from those comps. 

I guess I like the uptempo heavy arpeggio synth bassline type sound.  Organ-“organ” or something like Robert Gorl’s “Eckhardt’s Party” would be a close example to what I’m trying to describe.

hm, dark/uptempo/danceable…

then you might like these tracks too:

NO MORE - in a white room
THE WAKE - patrol
DIE FORM - autolyse / masochist
ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO - moscu esta helado
MATTHIAS SCHUSTER - umarmung
IM NAMEN DES VOLKES - hamburg reeperbahn

and check out the Nacht’Raum LP… it has some killer stuff!

the first two 1000 Ohm! I think she understood and A.G.N.E.S. - that must be what you’re talking about surely?

That’s getting close.  I have A.g.n.e.s. and really like that one as well.  I guess I haven’t heard the other 1000 Ohm and will definitely check it out.

Thanks for the list Claudia101 I dont’ think I’ve heard any of those before and will start trying to find them.  Thanks so much for the info and your time.

[quote author=“Zarahemla”]Thanks for the reply.  I do actually have the Informatics-Accident in Paradise and like it a lot.  Haven’t heard the others yet. 

I guess the term dark is kinda vague since most minimal synth is some somewhat “dark” or melancholy.  I’ve heard quite a bit but not all the Flexipops and definitely like several songs from those comps. 

I guess I like the uptempo heavy arpeggio synth bassline type sound.  Organ-“organ” or something like Robert Gorl’s “Eckhardt’s Party” would be a close example to what I’m trying to describe.

Dark/up tempo dance .. hmmmm. I’ll try some U.S. songs, first.

U.S.A. Dark/New Wave/Electronic songs…

Hysterica Passio - Grey Over Life *very upsetting lyrics*
Iron Curtain - The Condos *melancholy*
Voice Farm - Lost Adults
Tone Set - Waiting For Oatmeal *great dark song*
Berlin - Pleasure Victim
Cybotron - The Line
Dark White - Call Of The Wild
Shannon - Give Me Tonight *intense but not coldwave*
Red Flag - Give Me Your Hand
November Group - We Dance / I Live Alone
Necropolis Of Love - The Tunnel
Ministry - Revenge
League Of Nations - Fade
Jon Saint James - The Girl Who Seduced The World *Catchy but not dark*
Gleaming Spires - Watch Your Blood Beat *ehhh?*
For Against - Daylight *danceable punk*
Faith No More - As The Worm Turns
Experimental Products - Sweet Rejection
Dementia Precox - Untitled As Of Yet

I hope this list helps someone out there!!

Thanks for all the recommendations so far. 
I listened to the Im Namen Des Volkes- hamburg reeperbahn online and that is what I’m talking about.  Tough synth bassline and menacing vocals.

Thanks for your list too JoakTree. I’ve heard a few of those and will look up the rest.

Thanks all.

About everything by Absolute Body control, Deux, IKO, cosmic overdose, The Actor! some songs by Drinking Electricity (f.i. news peak), Crash Course ...Basking Sharks!

And speaking of Survival records, there’s a lot of good stuff there: Richard Bone, Faith Global, Play, Thirteen At Midnight, Hard Corps, Analysis, Limit, even some of Tik & Tok or Eddie & Sunshine’s releases! Just go to discogs, type in Survival and take a screen dump is my advice. Some of those items are even quite cheap.

They’re a few years later, of course, but do you have the early stuff from Nitzer ebb?

Ahaaa! I knew you were going to like it
Try their track “Weisses Rauschen” too - you’ll find it on their myspace-page!

I have to stand by reactorlgtn, for this kind of minimalistic electrowave you’ll have to check out early Nitzer Ebb stuff for sure!

I heard Hysterica Passio Grey Over Life recently before starting this post and definitely love it.  Now if I can only find a copy for sale.

I also have 2 Deux 7” records and really like that sound.

MY WORLD LIST

Here’s the worlds dark and/or moody “minimal and new wave”.
A work in progress…
:D
Australia
Pseudo Echo - His Eyes
Real Life - Openhearted
Spencer Spencer - We Never Get To Talk
The Metronomes - The World Is My Oyster

Austria
Kon-G-nial - Ich Suche Deine Liebe

Belgium
A Blaze Colour - Dark Trees Beyond
Autumn - Behind You
Kuruki - Crocodile Tears
Parade Ground - Riddle In The Staned Glass Windows
Polyphonic Size - RDA - RFA (Dans Les Gares)
Sic - Cover Girls Smile
Snowy Red - Sinking Down / Never Alive / Madman / I’m Allright (Short Version)
Twilight Ritual - I Never Called You A Dream
Vita Noctis - Expose
Walter Christian Rothe - Take Off / Robot

Canada
Handful Of Snowdrops - Scariest Notion
Moev - Madhatter
Rational Youth - Ring The Bells

Denmark
Martin Hall - An Overture / Free-Force Structure / Imagine Focus (these are a MUST)
Moral - Lady Happiness

Finland
Belaboris - Monsteribaari

France
Bernard Szajner - The Convention
Die Form - Re-Search
End Of Data - Follow Me & So / Dans Votre Monde / Venice
Fall Of Saigon - Blue Eyes
Kas Product - Never Come Back
Martin Dupont - Just Because
Mary Moor - Pretty Day
Moderne - Indicatif / Vers L’Est / Switch On Bach
Norma Loy - Romance
Pavillon 7B - Black Generation “very dark”
Performance - Ideal Présent
Ruth - Polaroid-Roman-Photo
Soma Holiday - Too many People
Tanit - Night Knight

Germany
Alu - Ich Mag Mich / Fies Sein / Alles Klar Gefangen

Greece
Alive She Died - Collapse (1984) / Radio Hero (1985) / Last Day Of Schools / Cry For The Colours Of Love
Vangelis - Blade Runner (End Titles)

Netherlands
Clan Of Xymox - Call It Weird / Shame / Scum
Cloud Nine - Fraction Of A Second / Wordporridge
Ende Shneafliet - Communication / Scientific Werewolves / Session Zeitgeist
Ensemble Pittoresque - Astral Awareness
Flue - Fancy Free / Some-Times
Minny Pops - Time / Tracking / Blue Roses / Vital
Nine Circles - Twinkling Stars / The Rose

Italy
Aus Decline - She Gave Me Algedy
Central Unit - Saturday Nite
Lisfrank - Night Calling
Monuments - Herz von Samt / Ice Age
N.O.I.A - Korowa Milk Bar
Neon - Lobotomy / Dark Age
Victrola - Maritime Tatami / A Game Of Despair
Weimar Gesang - Held Inside Again

Japan
Phew - Signal / P-adic

Norway
Boxbury Beat - Never Along With You
Downers - Two Bicylcles In The Summertime
Russisk Disko - El Salvador
The Horsemen - Mr. Sunrise
Trobjoern Groenning - Anarki

Poland
Dom Mody - Deszcz Slów

Spain
Arte Moderno - Ninette En New York
Aviador Dro - Ondina
Vocoder - Radio

Sweden
18e Oktober - En Gömd Tid (Källar Ver) / Stömavbrott
Adolphson & Falk - Mr. Jones Maskin / Stockholmsserenad
Arvid Tuba - Seasons Are Sitting On Chairs / Barbro I Bostasdkön
Ausgang Verboten - Consumer / Joy & Erase
Baard - Life In A Goldfish Bowl
DC-Pöbeln - Bettan Står I Baren

U.K.
Aerial FX - So Hard / Out Of The Window / Hold Me / Instant Feeling
Shoc Corridor - Travelling By Hand
A Popular History Of Signs - Crowds
B-Movie - My Ship Of Dreams / Remembrance Day / Nowhere Girl (Extended)
Bruce Gilbert - Epitaph For Henran Brenlar
Camera Obscura - Vincent Van Gogh / Scarlet Vixen
Caroline K. - Tracking With Close-ups
Circuit 7 - Video Boys / The Force
Das Kabinette - The Cabinet
Eurythmics - Ministry Of Love
Indians In Moscow - Lovesong / Singing In French
Inertia - The Screen
Kim Wilde - Take Me Tonight / Cambodia / Shoot To Disable
The Modern Art - Still Life / Barriers
Modern Eon - Euthenics
Naked Lunch - Breathe
Nocturnal Emissions - Never Give Up / Don’t Believe It’s Over
Oppenheimer Analysis - Behind The Shades / The Devil’s Dancers
Planning By Numbers - Lighting Strikes / Kinetic
Section 25 - Looking From A Hilltop / Program For Light / Dirty Disco II
Schleimer K. - Women
SA 55 - Love Is Blind
Shoc Corridor - Travelling By Hand
Soft Cell - Youth / Where Was Your Heart? / Torch / ....So (7” Mix) / Metro MRX / Discipline
Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short
Sub Muris - Open Doors
Synthetic Dreams - Obsessions
Talk Talk - Today / Hate / Another Word
Testcard F. - If Only If It Wasn’t / Unfamiliar Room
The Fallout Club - Wonderlust / Dream Soldiers / Pedestrian Walkway
The Human League - Crow And A Baby / Being Boiled
This Mortal Coil - Sixteen Days
Those Attractive Magnets - Nightlife
Transparent Illusion - Demented / Is There Hope?
Ultravox - Visions In Blue / We Came To Dance / Serenade
UV Pop - No Songs Tomorrow / Portrait (Extended)
Visage - Fade To Grey / Whispers / In The Year 2525
V-Sor X - Prey Room / The Glance / Scref / Arctic Desert
Yazoo - Don’t Go

—————still working on it…

What? Nothing from Norway??

ho no you don’t:

3rd Man - Oral Pleasure, Blå Natt on va flexi “Son of a Kitsch”
Bel Canto - White-Out Conditions LP, Birds of Passage LP
Beranek - Sound of Danger LP
Bern Balders - The Alter-Ego Effect 7
Blue Mathue - Perfect Pictures 12
Boxbury Beat - Never Along With You 7
Clockwork Orange - Sensation Boys 7
Downers - December Rain 7
El - Et Hvilested 7
Fra Lippo Lippi - Now and Forever 7”, anything on Uniton
Thorbjørn Grønning - Europa 7
Det Gylne Triangel - Maskindans 7
Holy Toy - Perfect Day 12, Meeting II 12, Fjøse 12 (some say Fjøse is a band, but they are wrong, it’s Holy Toy, although it doesn’t say on the cover)
Svart Klovn - Knust Knekt 7
Thanasis Zlatanos - Nekropolis (although he’s Greek, the LP was released and recorded in Norway so that counts as a Norwegian release, dunnit?)

:D

:oops: posted twice.

[quote author=“reactorlgtn”]What? Nothing from Norway??

ho no you don’t:

3rd Man - Oral Pleasure, Blå Natt on va flexi “Son of a Kitsch”
Bel Canto - White-Out Conditions LP, Birds of Passage LP
Beranek - Sound of Danger LP
Bern Balders - The Alter-Ego Effect 7
Blue Mathue - Perfect Pictures 12
Boxbury Beat - Never Along With You 7
Clockwork Orange - Sensation Boys 7
Downers - December Rain 7
El - Et Hvilested 7
Fra Lippo Lippi - Now and Forever 7”, anything on Uniton
Thorbjørn Grønning - Europa 7
Det Gylne Triangel - Maskindans 7
Holy Toy - Perfect Day 12, Meeting II 12, Fjøse 12 (some say Fjøse is a band, but they are wrong, it’s Holy Toy, although it doesn’t say on the cover)
Svart Klovn - Knust Knekt 7
Thanasis Zlatanos - Nekropolis (although he’s Greek, the LP was released and recorded in Norway so that counts as a Norwegian release, dunnit?)

:D

Good list, and no I haven’t forgot norway, lol. I will have Norway and Sweden soon…
I dread working on UK and Germany., which will have a long list of
haunting tunes.