Various – The Minimal Wave Tapes Volume One

DEEPLY BEAUTIFUL, DARK & UNDERGROUND!

In the late 70s and early 80s were so musically prolific, so intense and artistic, that 30 years later we discovered precious jewels.

When the word Underground had a deep meaning, real and wide, if the word art was worth more than money, were the times when the artistic value were superimposed to anything, where there was an ethical person stance of fidelity to oneself, where everything was more complicated and accessible at the same time, where creative freedom is found everywhere it was very hard times, indeed, and contradictory, but actually very funny, when someone wanted to express something as through personal art, performances, poetry, visual montages, costume and attitude.

Innovation was the only rule set, maybe in my personal opinion is a very romantic vision of that time, but it was definitely a time much more interesting, innovative than the current (just talking about music) without going into other themes.

This spectacular work could not come from another place but from New York, under the tutelage of Veronica Vasicka and great record collection, but some issues present here, many had only just been released on vinyl and tape format, with the collaboration of Stones Throw Records founder Peanut Butter Wolf, courageously edited this great and spectacular work, a record worthy of taste and explore, which leaves us with an endless hunger for more and more and more...

Of course I agree, things must change and it would be unfair to say no more interesting things have happened in 10, 20, 30 years later, clear that if, many things have happened, and we have fun broadly, what happens is that my romance and attachment to that time are very deep, but really what I miss most of that time was that everything had a touch ARTY, in resume this album never let you down (although not even know the origins) and in this excellent work will find unknown gems that will blow your mind. Amazing! It's a good start to dive in filled in the remains of a beautiful dark age.

Compilation of well known hits from our beloved genre, here presented under the artificial term Minimal Wave. But it is understood, that is not so easy to find the one-and-only genre term as back then there seemed to be none as well. Anyway, this is all simply about electropop (or synthpop, though this term has a more commercial touch) from the first decade of the 80’s when electronic instruments like synthesisers, drum machines, tape delays or vocoders were analogue and got into a price range that was affordable for the average person. People started to experiment and recorded their own music in their own small recording “studios” (often their bedrooms) – do-it-yourself was the motto of the day, definitely adapted from the earlier punk movement. Small editions were issued on cassettes or vinyls. The majority didn’t make it any further, unfortunately, described as being too synthetic, cold and lacking emotion, and, of course, not being commercial enough. Eventually the music was ed only by a select few, through who the music lived on by vivid exchange of copied tapes, swapped vinyls, and later via digital formats. Already earlier compilations like “Zwischenfall – From the 80’s to the 90’s”, the brilliant Banshee CD series or the “Reminiscent” box as well as ‘CD-R bootleg’ series like Flexi-Pop took care of not letting this unknown music become totally forgotten. So this compilation is nothing new not all (for those already having been into it) and in no way the “first official” as claimed on the sleeve, but most probably can reach new listeners from other genres. Probably we don’t need ten volumes in this series, but it’s a great compilation for easy entry and convenient playback at your next synth party. So there’s really classic tracks on here ranging from 1980 to 1986 focusing on bands from Europe and North America, namely: LINEAR MOVEMENT, CRASH COURSE IN SCIENCE, OPPENHEIMER ANALYSIS, MARK LANE, TARA CROSS, TURQUOISE DAYS, BENE GESSERIT, ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO, DAS DING, MARTIN DUPONT, DEUX, SOMNAMBULIST, OHAMA, and DAS KABINETTE. Due to renewed interest a good amount of bands from back then have reformed to record again and play live shows. This music is anything but dead.