Minimal Wave Records

Hello:

I’ve completed a project for a web zine I’ve been writing since 1997, and since this is THE minimal wave resource I wanted to share it with anyone who might like it.

I’m 47 and have been a fan of electronic, new wave and punk music since the mid 70s. In the late 70s - early 80s I heard a lot of what’s now known as minimal wave in dance clubs and on college radio stations. I had some of it but most was a mystery. The internet opened up a huge archive of this material, which I happily found and worked through for a collection I decided to call Analog CyberPunk (before I knew people were calling it minimal wave and such).

Analog CyberPunk is a collection of underground electronic new wave & punk songs that existed then as examples of a style and not its own genre per say. It’s what I remember it being before new wave lost its underground status and became new romance, top 40 pop and a series of disco variants.

The link is below and the compilations are free for download. There’s daily download limits so I apologize if it’s hit when you get there. I’m adding follow-up comps every two weeks until I run out of songs I think are worthy of sharing.

Emerson
oldpunks.com

Link To Analog CyberPunk:

http://www.oldpunks.com/Analog CyberPunk Page 1.html

Judging by the stuff I know, I need to download all of these… Great stuff, you must have put in a lot of work here!

This should be in the “danceable dark synth” or whatsit thread too.

Hey Emerson!  Been a fan of the web site for a few years now, checking in off an on.  Like you I was drawn to both the punk and electronic scenes in the early 80s and still love both genres, sometimes finding it hard to justify one scene or the other to friends who only like a certain style of music.

Thanks for posting these comps, I’m glad I don’t have to download the individual tracks.

Thanks so much for these comps, still kinda new to M-wave so good to have some comps to help me out.

Thanks

I hope people get some use out of the comps I’m doing. There’s much more to come on a bi-weekly basis. These comps aren’t minimal wave per say, as I started compiling songs and had a clear idea in my mind of what it was before I knew there was anything called Minimal Wave. These songs are electronic new wave and punk as I remember them starting in the 70s, with strong melodies and filled with strange bleeps and tones.

Nice to hear them regardless of what they’re technically classified under, lots of good stuff in here.

Am I the only one seeing this what it is? Illegal distribution of music… there are things from my label / artists from my label in here of which I was never asked for if okay for me to be part of this… and I see many things from labels and artists I know of which I am sure that were also never asked if okay…

Sory to spoil the fun but this is how I look at it…

Besides that I do not see the difference with the Flexi-pop compilations (which are also illegal by the way )

[quote author=“M”]Am I the only one seeing this what it is? Illegal distribution of music… there are things from my label / artists from my label in here of which I was never asked for if okay for me to be part of this… and I see many things from labels and artists I know of which I am sure that were also never asked if okay…

Sory to spoil the fun but this is how I look at it…

Besides that I do not see the difference with the Flexi-pop compilations (which are also illegal by the way )

Hmm while I see what you’re getting at and sympathize with your view, it seems that as a label owner you would have bigger worries than someone making a compilation with a few of your artists on it. After all, it’s one track each by bands, not entire albums, this is very much so a form of promotion…
not trying to bait you or anything, just sharing an idea.

I, as an artist, am happy with every listener who heard my music and liked it.
I wouldn’t find it natural if every person asked me “is it okay to listen to your music?” What?? Hell no for every asshole who asks!
Neither do i care where they got it, from one of my friends, from a label, or from the internet. Neither would i care 25 years since, when i’m an old granpa.

Let the artists speak for themselves.

[quote author=“ton”][quote author=“jdmandible”]
Hmm while I see what you’re getting at and sympathize with your view, it seems that as a label owner you would have bigger worries than someone making a compilation with a few of your artists on it. After all, it’s one track each by bands, not entire albums, this is very much so a form of promotion…
not trying to bait you or anything, just sharing an idea.

I don’t think you have a strong case here.
My question to you is:
Do you respect the artists and did you ask permission to publish these tracks ?
And if not, why not ?
That someone should have “bigger worries” is not your concern.
We as label owners can choose our own way of promoting.
We did not ask you and you certainly did not ask us to use music that is not yours.

Ton

I didn’t make them so I can’t speak on behalf of the person that I did, I’m just a guy getting into this music and found these comps helpful to point me in the right direction of stuff I wanted to buy.

[quote author=“jdmandible”][quote author=“ton”][quote author=“jdmandible”]
Hmm while I see what you’re getting at and sympathize with your view, it seems that as a label owner you would have bigger worries than someone making a compilation with a few of your artists on it. After all, it’s one track each by bands, not entire albums, this is very much so a form of promotion…
not trying to bait you or anything, just sharing an idea.

I don’t think you have a strong case here.
My question to you is:
Do you respect the artists and did you ask permission to publish these tracks ?
And if not, why not ?
That someone should have “bigger worries” is not your concern.
We as label owners can choose our own way of promoting.
We did not ask you and you certainly did not ask us to use music that is not yours.

Ton

I didn’t make them so I can’t speak on behalf of the person that I did, I’m just a guy getting into this music and found these comps helpful to point me in the right direction of stuff I wanted to buy.

I can understand what you are trying to say jdmandible. Most minimal is so obscure and rare, that it is next to impossible to obtain them and with the ridiculously high prices that some of these releases fetch on Ebay… but when these tracks and albums are still available it becomes a totally different matter. Than there is absolutely no excuse to not buy them.

I am all for artists rights, but Ton, isn’t it true that these illegals made it possible for you to establish that there were/are potentially enough people interested in buying Ensemble Pittoresque and Störung rereleases 25 years after the originals had become sold out?
It is a double edged blade.

Saw quite a lot of this fake @BIM: http://www.discogs.com/release/1396308

I didn’t buy it, but I got tempted. I guess we all are at times. These blogs offer an opportunity to listen to music that I would be totally unaware of otherwise. Lots of times it makes me interested enough to buy it, only to find it is is virtually impossible to find. Patience, patience…..

reprise

I will reprise and expand the same words that i used in the other topic, as i think they are even more important now that i decided to start a mailorder.

With my blog, i just want to promote culture, and in this case, musical culture. This is what i do anyway in my job as journalist, reviewing famous or unknown albums, doing interviews to Vince Clarke or to Humour Malade, just to say 2 estreme positions.

The same focus i want to keep also with the mailorder, i wanted to start something concrete here in Italy to promote our dear labels that we love and we jump from the chair everytime we see a new release, i wanted to test with my hands/money/time if there’s really a possibility for these labels also here in Italy, if the persons want to buy after the listening, if they are ‘real’ or ‘fake’. As i expected…some are real…some are fake…but i think that nobody will never say a word against the fact that THANKS TO the Flexi and Complex compilations, the rippers on slsk/blogs, a lot of these bands can now live a second life. In fact another point that i would like to clarify is that for me is very important to NOT RIP the things that r still available to buy (in stock) from the Labels we all like. They do a great and difficoult job, with a small quantity of copies, they simply have to survive to print other things.

In the ripping there are at least 2 negative effects. First, The ripping is increasing day by day the prices of records .. 5 / 6 years ago bands as the Factory or Schleimer K, just to do two examples, where not so “famous” as now, and it was possible to buy them for a normal price, in fact i did in the past, buying for a kind of nothing records that now r is nearly impossible even to find. And of course somebody is winning a lot of money on the old records, just checking the Ebay auction prices and searching the names on their local shop/sellers. Second, a new generation of so called ‘experts’ is born. They just download some data files from internet (that we call mp3) and they think they know all about music, not even buying the records when are out, not supporting the good labels as Annalogue, Minimal Wave, Clogsontronics, Brouillard Definitif and the others. For me this is simply crazy.

a new generation of so called ‘experts’ is born. They just download some data files from internet (that we call mp3) and they think they know all about music,

I completely agree with you.

Ton got the essence of this right when he wrote:

“Do you respect the artists/labels and did you ask permission to publish these tracks ? And if not, why not ?”

I did not see an answer to this…

And also… I know very well how to promote my artists… I do not need ILLEGAL releases / downloads to “help” me… thank you but I am not interested in this “service”...

[quote author=“M”]Ton got the essence of this right when he wrote:

“Do you respect the artists/labels and did you ask permission to publish these tracks ? And if not, why not ?”

I did not see an answer to this…

And also… I know very well how to promote my artists… I do not need ILLEGAL releases / downloads to “help” me… thank you but I am not interested in this “service”...

There’s no answer as until 2-3 years ago it was simply impossible to find infos and contacts of these bands on internet, now there’s the myspace or whatever and is easier but dont forget that all started when there was a DESERT of infos about them.

How many persons know The Actor and Ende Shneafliet before to download them from Soulseek or blogs? You should be more realist M., maybe NOW you dont need anymore of this ‘service’ but you can’t spite in the dish where all the labels are eating in…

if these bands are now famous, is thanks to somebody that ripped them and shared again their music after 20 or more years

[quote author=“peter_m”][quote author=“M”]Ton got the essence of this right when he wrote:

“Do you respect the artists/labels and did you ask permission to publish these tracks ? And if not, why not ?”

I did not see an answer to this…

And also… I know very well how to promote my artists… I do not need ILLEGAL releases / downloads to “help” me… thank you but I am not interested in this “service”...

There’s no answer as until 2-3 years ago it was simply impossible to find infos and contacts of these bands on internet, now there’s the myspace or whatever and is easier but dont forget that all started when there was a DESERT of infos about them.

How many persons know The Actor and Ende Shneafliet before to download them from Soulseek or blogs? You should be more realist M., maybe NOW you dont need anymore of this ‘service’ but you can’t spite in the dish where all the labels are eating in…

if these bands are now famous, is thanks to somebody that ripped them and shared again their music after 20 or more years

that is nonsense… you now want to twist things to make illegal distribution sound as okay… I do not care to release “known” bands… I release totaly unknown contemporary artists and also obscure 80’s stuff nobody even in the “download scene” never heard of (Hero Wouters for example)...

sorry… you should get real and stop talking things straight that aren’t and can never be straight…

if I understand you well you don’t care about small independent records label putting lots of money and time in releasing limited edition vinyls? You prefer low quality sound in the form of 1 and 0’s instead? Funny world…

What I am talking about here and protest against is the distribution of music labels suchs as my own have released and are put out there on internet for free… either individual tracks or complete albums… My protest is more then normal I think…

For example… recently I got an order from somebody who wrote my with his blog url in the messafe… I checked before answering and I saw a complete LP I released for download on his blog… I asked him politely to remove it… no answer of course… This sort of actions is more then rude and killing the spirit of labels such as mine… and now here you want to defend such people??!! Give me a break!