Minimal Wave Records

Hi,

pardon me if this has already been covered here, but recently I’ve been thinking about assembling a list of minimal/synth movie soundtracks.

Given the “underground” nature of most of the artists in the early 80s, and considering that making movies normally is big bucks business, it’s not that surprising that you’ll have to look long and hard for such stuff..

One that immediately comes to mind is KALT WIE EIS on germany’s “Reflektor” label (http://www.discogs.com/release/560845).

The movie is a story about juvenile delinquency, full of sex & violence. It is starring Dave Balko, singer of german punk band “Tempo”.
On the soundtrack, you’ll find a fair share of punk stuff (Tempo, MDK), but mostly new wave and obscure synth pop (BEA, Christopher Laird) and even an electronic soundscape by seminal Krautrocker Klaus Schulze.
And what’s best, there is a lot of true “underground” stuff to be found here. There’s an alternative version of Malaria’s squatter hymn “Kämpfen und Siegen” (even better than the take on their first 12” on Marat) and a legendary exclusive solo casio piece by Einstürzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld (“Skorbut”). Most appealing to minimal synth fans will propably be the exclusive track “Dependence” by P1E (of “49 second romance” fame) and the excellent “Romantik Adieu”, an alternative version of the A side of Thomas Voburka’s self-released first 7” (Schwabe/Voburka: Mono 45 UPM), but played more “cold wave” style here with dissonant sax honking, IMHO more worthwile than the original “pure synth” version).
In the movie itself, there are even more “underground wave” artists to be heard, like Thorax Wach, but they unfortunately didn’t make it to the soundtrack album…

Anybody got tips for other minimal OST albums/singles/cassettes & would like to review them here? Feel free..

I’ve got a few others upcoming that are more obscure, so stay tuned during the next weeks. (As the KALT WIE EIS album is quite famous and not very hard to find, it won’t make sense to post soundclips here. For the more obscure stuff, I’ll try to include some exemplary audio pieces, if this is okay with the forum rules.)

How about “Me and My Rhythm Box” in Liquid Sky from 1982?
 
I don’t think it’s actually on the soundtrack (I don’t even think a soundtrack was made), but it’s definitely minimal synth.

LIQUID SKY & more…

yeah, that’s exactly the kind of stuff I was thinking about…

According to discogs, there were several releases of the complete score of LIQUID SKY (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Slava+Tsukerman); unfortunately, they seem to be quite expensive…

I don’t have any of those releases myself, but I’ve got the song from the youtube clip, as it luckily was comped on an early-80s horror/scifi OST collection album on the swiss/french Milan label (http://www.discogs.com/release/1064781). The disk also featured excerpts form other cool 80s electronic scores, like Howard Shore’s VIDEODROME, Dick Maas’ THE LIFT, Lo Duca’s EVIL DEAD and some more. And for minimal synth lovers, there’s also the title theme of DIE SCHWARZE SPINNE by Carlos Peron. This is one of the earliest projects Peron did after he left Yello in 1984. Milan also released the complete score to the movie as an album. IMHO, it’s not up to “Impersonator” (which was put out by german minimal cult label “Konkurrenz” in 1981 and is still Peron’s finest moment), but it’s definitely much better than most of the fetish stuff Carlos Peron did later on.
One track, “Der Komtur Hans von Stoffeln”, even spawned a New Beat/early techno version by Thorsten Fenslau (under the moniker “Ideas 4 Imitators”!!) in 1990. The remastered CD releases of DIE SCHWARZE SPINNE sadly delete the original version in favor of that remix…

If there’s interest, I can post a rip of the original version here… and just keep ‘em coming!

How about the opening tune of ZOMBI 2, Lucio Fulci’s horror classic?

ahhhh, liquid sky, this might be the movie i saw on cable,
when i was about 16 years old, some years back…
i didnt watch much , i changed it. looked like a sluggish porn.
or like new wave for the planet MARS.
i havent really given the movie a real view,
but for some reason it still looks stupid. Seems in love with itself…
and it’s not all that. here’s SPLASH/LIQUID SKY review by,

siskel and ebert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfq5_M5LWhI&

I dunno about minimal., but there’s no shortage of electronic music in horror films of the 80s…

Phenomena - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mk6EjlATp4

Halloween III - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RORUWLxcmAg
...in this clip. looks like a ‘‘Kraftwerk’’ getting smashed.
I saw this part of the movie when i was 7-10 years old?, and wondered what is this great music??? but the movie is scary. possible my first ever love with electronic music.’ john carpenter music mmm.
Assult on precinct 13 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b23x6ruDiic

Nightmare on Elm St. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adgp0v_mfTk
I dunno if im supposed to be scared, or if im supposed to DANCE.

Christine - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I98L5imvTh4
Great sounds here.

LONG PART OF THE FILM - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEJ9zUPTPQk

Hardware - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyY_iX9UCE8
Industrial SCI-FI… music/movie.  8)

I saw lots of crazy sh*t when i was a kid.
No wonder scary movies sent me in panics, sometimes.

the Spanish OST LP “El Pecado Original” features two tracks each from El Aviador Dro, El Humano Mecano and Los Negativos, all exclusive to this LP and all well worth a listen.

And Rheingold’s “R” features music from the film Der Fan, which is as great as anything Rheingold did.

There was a Norwegian film “X”, which has some music by Holy Toy, but I don’t remember if it had exclusive music or just played their records in the background.

[quote author=“goutroy”]How about “Me and My Rhythm Box” in Liquid Sky from 1982?
 
I don’t think it’s actually on the soundtrack (I don’t even think a soundtrack was made), but it’s definitely minimal synth.

The Soundtrack was out on Varese Sarabande back in 83

http://darksynthesia.blogspot.com/2008/05/liquid-sky-ost.html

Cerrone

[quote author=“Cerrone”][quote author=“goutroy”]How about “Me and My Rhythm Box” in Liquid Sky from 1982?
 
I don’t think it’s actually on the soundtrack (I don’t even think a soundtrack was made), but it’s definitely minimal synth.

The Soundtrack was out on Varese Sarabande back in 83

http://darksynthesia.blogspot.com/2008/05/liquid-sky-ost.html

Cerrone

The track “Me and My Rhythm Box” is also on the lp.

Check this audio,
 
from the amazing Italian horror film Tenebre by Dario Argento
originally released,  

Midnight Express - Giorgio Moroder
Assault on precinct 13 -John carpenter

[quote author=“maschinenmusik”]Midnight Express - Giorgio Moroder
Assault on precinct 13 -John carpenter

Yeah, both of these are great.  8)

How about getting murdered while listening to ‘‘Pseudo Echo (His Eyes)”,

from Fri. the 13th 5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g74X9EtVO9A&

Saw this when I was a kid, had no idea I’d be listening to the same song and band years later… my ears went up… when I heard “His Eyes”, nowadays, was familiar, took me 2 mins to remember when/where I heard it before. Ahhh! The girls got (Berlin) Terri Nunn’s hairstyle.  8)

SURF NAZIS MUST DIE <1983>
Trailer :  http://de.video.yahoo.com/watch/2510689/6785523
Info : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094077/

great trash from the 80ies

[quote author=“Cerrone”][quote author=“goutroy”]How about “Me and My Rhythm Box” in Liquid Sky from 1982?
 
I don’t think it’s actually on the soundtrack (I don’t even think a soundtrack was made), but it’s definitely minimal synth.

The Soundtrack was out on Varese Sarabande back in 83

http://darksynthesia.blogspot.com/2008/05/liquid-sky-ost.html

Cerrone

Thanks so much for the link! I’m downloading the soundtrack right now.

For sure mostly of you know from GLEITZEIT - “Ich Komme Aus Der DDR”.
This track appeared in the movie “Nuklearvison” which was co-directed by the singer, too.
But you can hear it also in the German movie “Kehraus” in the scene (but only an instrumental part) where a young man is preparing himself for the carneval as a cowboy.
If you don’t know this song you can dwnld it here to get an idea of it (but please note it’s NOT the same version from the vinyl but very similar, ok)

Another one from the makers of SURF NAZIS ... (TROMA) is the new movie THE YETI
(trailer here ) containing very minimal synths :wink: