Minimal Wave Records

Bonjour,

As the title suggests this post is about a genre which doesn’t get quite as much love as the other kids.

Now it’s easy to say who is to blame if its figureheads include the likes of Sabrina, Danuta and Max-Him.  :wink:

These days, the common minimal synth lover already has to share a couple of bands with the Italo community, e.g. Kirlian Camera, Hard Corps, Rational Youth, Stereo (I hear there’s going to be a re-release, BTW), Experimental Products to name a few.

From the looks of it, for instance Decadance - On and On seems to have made it into a number of colletions (including mine), I just wondered what you guys think could be more collectable Italo coming from “our” angle.

To get things going, here’s some more I like:

- Sensitive - Driving
- Proxima - Living in another world
- Future State - Future State
- Digital Emotion - Go Go Yellow Screen

And Spartak, thanks again for the two CDs :wink:

well I wouldnt call experimental products italo, although glowing in the dark has that same dancefloor orientation.
Basically italo is a local brand of new romantics optimised for the dj, hence the “disco” moniker.
The crappy englitalo lyrics were no goal in itself but it sure is half the pleasure nowadays 8)

The disco mix show from a few weeks ago on ME+ gives a good point of departure with a lot of the CBS classix. But i think true italoheads are better served on another forum…

oh and speaking of decadance, i recently discovered i had an extra copy. So offers (trade) are welcome!

Well, I wasn’t really trying to say that those bands collected by both communities are Italo bands.

As a matter of fact, I’d rather say they’re pop music minus large-scale success.  8)

And of course Italoheads are generally served better on other forums, because they embrace the entire gerne.

But as it gets rather blurry on the edges, I think there’s a spot for “Italo for minimal synth lovers” on this forum.

Just like Italo lovers might have a “suspiciously dark stuff that somewhat sounds like Italo” thread on theirs.  :wink:

i very much agree with the assessments of italo as a regional new romantic genre, and as pop music without the large scale success - which makes it more or less the same as many of the synth subgenres beloved by this forum…
a few crossover tracks of the top of my head:

‘lectric workers - the garden (very mysterious sounding, with strange, inscrutable lyrics about lesbianism?)
ghecko - firelight (recently reissued by flexx, great production)
de de mo - cause i need you, cause i love you (crucial italo-wave. someone needs to reissue this…*ahem*...)
kazino - binary (slow and moody track, ignore the very cheesy a-side)
zed - plastic love (on maurizio dami’s excellent fuzz dance label, very much on the wave tip)
blackway - new life (minimal, strange production, weird vox, super cool track..)
avida (great maurizio dami wave project, reissued on creme organization a few years ago)
crazy gang LP (but particularly ‘every sunday’ - a crucial track for fans of claudio simoneti and vocoders)
viven vee - blue disease (produced by simonetti, again dark, vocoders, good female vox. vivien vee’s ‘higher’ is also great)
ruins - “fire” (aggro-italo. other ruins material is worth checking out as well)
diana est (all tracks by her, esp. ‘le louvre’ and ‘tenax’)
peter richard - walking in the neon (but the whole peter richard lp is very good, as well)
REM - computer communication (on the very cool xanadu label. stripped down electro-feeling track)
wanexa - man from colors (an old i-f staple, but an incredibly beautiful, very dark piece…)
n.o.i.a (most of their tracks have some minimal/wave crossover appeal, aside from the obvious lp on ersatz)
amin peck (great band, very minimal production, occasionally dark and weirdly out of tune.)

there’s tons more out there, tho…and sensitive ‘driving’ and decadance ‘on and on’ are definitley great suggestions…although ‘driving’ commands near iron curtain-like prices. might be another good one to reissue…errr…
sensitive’s other tracks, ‘don’t stop’ and ‘give me’ are cool as well, though not nearly as dark and minimal.

and of course, things like east wall, kirlian camera, neon, pankow, victrola, monuments, etc, that are sort of situated between italo, electro, and wave, and im sure everyone here is already familiar with.
there also are plenty of french, canadian, german, and US hi-nrg and synth disco tunes that may be of interest to some fans of minimal electronics, but that’s maybe for another thread…

Triangle—“Shine/Mr. Pive” 12”

http://www.discogs.com/release/1450403

This release might appeal to some of you here.

great post to introduce yourself teachu2die…welcome to the forum!

some other suggestions that would surely sit well with the minimal synth poppers:
some bizarre - don’t be afraid
camomilla - queen of the night
rose - magic carrillon
fockewulf 190 - gitano (with fantastic dark vocals)
m&g - when i let you down / boogie tonight
mirage - woman
bwh - stop
casco - cybernetic love
sun la shan - catch and basically everything from the superradio label
boris parker - thinkin of you
cellophane - gimme love & music colours
brand image - are you loving?
felli - diamond in the night

not really a fan of diana est myself btw!

Chrisma/Krisma anyone?

Certainly they are an essential part of Italian new wave, having sailed the same Italo waters as Kirlian Camera did in the mid 80’s. 
The albums “Nothing To Do With The Dog”, “Chinese Restaurant”, Clandestine Anticipation”, “Hibernation” ( has a somewhat poppy krautrock approach) and “Iceberg” are worth a listen.

@ spartak -
i’m SOS on cbs we’ve spoken before in the past. thanks for the nice welcome! i’ve lurked the forums here for years, figured i might as well post something on this, uh… hungover and lazy afternoon…
good suggestions, too. boris parker is great…as well as all of the franco scopinich/superradio productions…venise ‘playboy’ and sun la shan ‘rose from tokyo’ should go over very well with minimal synth folk…

and how dare you not love diana est! how can you deny the power of those dance moves! and that haircut!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siIZkLso9S8

a few more suggestions, perhaps for the slightly more serious italo fan:
meek rabbit - sweet heart in england
steve doesn’t drive - woman and car
gee rampley - radio style
steel mind - bad passion/boss man
clay pedrini - new dream
danny keith - keep on music
memory control one - basic
calice - sadomaso club/shaking romance
raggio di luna - commanchero
topo and roby - under the ice

@ aircrashbureau -
chrisma are great! the first 2 lp’s especially. definitely some very krauty motorik stuff on both of those.
the rockets are another good italian rock/wave band…although they are more on the post-prog tip, or something…

@teachu2die
welcome as well - 3 years, that’s quite some time to make a post.  8)

Zed - that’s another one on many minimal want lists for sure.

Strange song, really, going back and forth between Siouxie-esque gloom and happier moments. And talking price tags, just like Driving definitely rather “collectable” than “affordable” Italo. If it is Italo indeed and not a minimal synth record that happened to be released in Italy.  :wink:

i suppose ‘plastic love’ might very well not be an italian production, despite the label’s country of origin - hadn’t occurred to me! i had forgotten zwischenfall released on fuzz dance as well…
it is indeed a strange song..those smooth, jazzy chords that pop in unexpectedly…

cool to have you around finally shawn!

Zed are J.K.Eller & J.P. Enten. Doesnt sound very italian either
Zed never did it for me though, like IKO. A tad too generic & ‘plastic’...

i agree on IKO, definitely too plastic, post-kraftwerkian robo-fetish stuff. not bad, but not worth the hype for sure….zed is redeemed by the heavy dramatic vox for me…but again, certainly not worth the price tag…

As I mentioned the re-release of Stereo, well it turns out it will be on Minimal Wave - congrats Snowy, you got a big one there!  :D

Of course it’s somewhat off topic in this section - anybody wanna argue if they were an Italo band or not?  :wink:

If this thread is meant to help those of us who are interested, but don’t know much about the genre, it would be great to see some bargain bin alternatives on your lists - of course I don’t know whether you have all €400 items on those lists there, but at least a few of the more collectable stuff is listed, might be cool to know what else is on the market.

I have some of the ZYX/ Beat Box re-pressings, even on CD, which I got for a mark or three back in the nineties; there’s some great music to be had for no money as well - the first Den Harrow 12” (To Meet Me) is great, the first LP of Scotch, “Evolution” has some gorgeous tracks on it - in fact, “Losing in time” is one of my all-time favourite songs. I was a big fan of Koto in the eighties too…

So, you can listen to italo AND pay the rent, right?

Sparty and Teachu, what does €20 get me? Or better stil, €5? How can I get a BAG of 12” singles with good synth-led 80s dance music (and if it’s not all completely cheezy, then all the better)?

Cheers.

stereo definitely were not an italo band! they were french!

@reactorign:
actually, a good portion of the records that both spartak and i listed should definitely be available for under 20 euro (and quite a few are repressed, if that doesn’t put you in too much of an ethical quandary ).
i could definitely recommend going to super radio ( http://www.superradiorecords.com/ ) and picking up a bunch of the backcatalog - franco has a lot of stock from the 80’s for sale, mostly for 20eu each, definitely amazing records! (many of these tracks were also compiled on an LP that radius records put out a year or two ago, which would be an even cheaper introduction to the label)
and if you enjoy things like den harrow or scotch or koto (i do as well), there are TONS of budget purchases that will put a smile on your face. but at that point you’re maybe best off just going to your favorite cheap record-digging spots and purchasing anything on baby records, memory records or zyx, heh. a good general rule, too, is that almost anything on il discotto or discomagic is probably worth picking up.
i find that most of the VERY expensive italo records are ones that might not necessarily appeal as much to minimal fans - they are more in the realm of pure italo cheese (oxo’s ‘keep on living’ for instance, just sold for nearly $3000, and is a pretty silly song, or ryvon dj’s ‘i’m gonna dance’, which regularly sells for 1000+)

@teachu2die

Thanks for all the useful info. I agree on your view that there’s not necessarily a relation between the price tag and what’s inside, Oxo for instance indeed sound like a rock-solid item for the Euro 1-5.- bargain bin to me.

In other words, a situation not completely unlike the one in the minimal world. I won’t say those two words, though. 8)

Anyways, re. your answer regarding Stereo, now do they have to be Italian to be an Italo band? You mentioned their fellow countrymen Kazino yourself…I’d say Italo rather relates to a style than to a country, although most Italo bands happen to come from Italy of course.  :wink:

I frankly admit that apart from looking for some useful hints like “if you like Decadance, these following 10 bands need to go straight up your want list”, I also started this thread out of curiosity to see how the italo genre is generally perceived here and how people react to an Italo thread.

Even the headline of this forum section reads “italo” but no threads so far. Hence the somewhat provocative title.  8)