Minimal Wave Records

Reviews

While the genre known as Minim­al Wave (the re­surg­ence of focus on an­alogue syn­thesiz­er art­ists from the 1980’s) has been spur­red along by re­newed in­terest in those in­stru­ments by a new genera­tion of li­sten­ers and art­ists, the prin­ci­ple im­petus has been pro­vided by a han­d­ful of labels that have re­leased, and con­tinue to re­lease, what where once con­sidered lost or for­gott­en re­cord­ings.
One such curator with a mas­ter­ful ab­il­ity to fer­ret out the most satis­fy­ing of these rarit­ies is DJ Veronica Vasic­ka. As a New York City electronic music hipst­er gone the way of his­torian­/archiv­ist in an at­tempt to chronic­le what was even then a frag­mented un­derground, she has by some sort of Post Modern de­fault be­come an im­pres­sive electronic music story her­self. After just six years her aptly named label Minim­al Wave has re­leased over 30 vinyl pro­jects pre­serv­ing an il­lusive and sec­retive genre with an im­pecc­able sense of taste.
Con­tinu­ing her label’s nar­rative, the latest vari­ous art­ists com­pila­tion “The Hidd­en Tapes” fea­tures ob­scure but cer­tain­ly noteworthy art­ists from 1979-1985. Op­en­ing up with a strong dose of ar­peggia­tion and an­themic female voc­als from Danish band SS-Say, the re­cord moves ac­ross side “A” with the up tempo New Wave-ish “Beli-Dekolte” (mean­ing “white cleavage” in Ser­bian) by Os­karova Fobija who at the time were from what was then Yugos­lavia. Next up is Dan­ton’s Voice with “I Hear The Bells,” es­pecial­ly in­terest­ing be­cause it sounds like a long lost Ab­solute Body Con­trol or Klinik demo. It being Be­lgian is no sur­pr­ise. Japanese rhy­thmic noise art­ists Sym­pat­hy Nerv­ous fol­low with “Polaroid” an un­re­al hy­pnotic groove that fea­tures a clever­ly tri­ggered or looped vocod­er. And fin­al­ly the pièce de résis­tance for side “A” and quite pos­sib­ly the best track on the LP Pas De Deux’s “Car­dioc­leptomanie,” which original­ly ap­peared on a flexi-disc in­cluded in Vinyl Magazine (pro­noun­ced vee-nil) May 1983. It is a “less is more” sum com­posed of drum mac­hine wood blocks and bon­gos, a few tasty minim­al synth lines, and an over­lay of re­petitive female voc­als that touch a Kraf­werkian har­monic nerve.
Side “B” opens up with in­dustri­al sequenc­er vehic­le “The Com­put­er Bank” by Robert Lawr­ence and Mark Phil­lips. Teeter­ing on the edges of ex­periment­al and “Warm Leat­heret­te” in­spired work its re­petitive dis­sonant sam­ples and whis­pered voc­als pro­vide plen­ty of hook. In the second track two sequenc­ers (and their os­cillators), a beat box, and some an­alogue str­ings are used as in­gredients in “Kaleidecon” by The Fast Set. This psyc­hedelic in­strument­al is a cunn­ing ex­erc­ise in man­ipulat­ing over­lays of rich minim­al sounds. Up third is French trio Re­ser­ve with “De­stina­tion Pour L’In­connu,” their minim­al an­sw­er to Visage’s “Fade To Grey” com­plete with ac­cout­re­ment that in­clude Ultravox-like sequenc­ing, French lan­guage spok­en female voc­als, and vocod­er. A rich, lush, and well pro­duced ac­complish­ment. The fourth song on Side “B” con­tinues the New Roman­tic fun with Kym Amps “You Don’t Know My Name.” Lyrical­ly walk­ing the line bet­ween long­ing from afar and stalk­ing it is a dark syn­thpop treasure. And clos­ing out the disc col­laborat­ing art­ists Un­ovidu­al and Tara Cross serve up “Micro­phone Con­nec­tion.” The out of key dis­har­monics and stran­ge but com­pell­ing in­terplay bet­ween musicians pro­vides a fitt­ing ec­lectic an­yth­ing goes stamp on this com­pila­tion.
Vasic­ka has done a stel­lar job de­liver­ing an­oth­er es­senti­al in­stall­ment in her mis­s­ion to bring for­ward the early story of Minim­al Wave. “The Hidd­en Tapes” will no doubt attract col­lec­tors and en­thusiasts in droves as it forks over many very good and equal­ly very rare if not im­pos­sible to find tracks in a be­autiful­ly de­sig­ned pac­kage that goes the extra mile to em­phas­ize the im­por­tance of this work. High­ly re­com­mended.
Mark Lane - Electrogard­en - 2011