Nope. Minimal Wave isn’t the buzz band that happen to be making this weeks internet rounds. In fact, Minimal Wave isn’t a band at all. It’s a genre, albeit one named posthumously. Also known as Coldwave, it refers to a relatively small collection of musical output, originating in France in the late 70’s and spreading throughout Europe, North America and Japan in the early 80’s, spurred on by the French New Wave initially. Most songs rely predominantly on some extremely raw sounding analog synths and drum machines, propped up by some otherworldly, oblique vocals.
On the whole, it can be a pretty hit and miss genre due to it’s experimentation, and to make matters worse, songs are often incredibly difficult to track down as most of the bands from the movement released a 7 inch and then disappeared into obscurity before anyone really knew what was happening.
Now the good news. Things are looking up, and Minimal Wave is seeing somewhat of a revival. Already this year there’s been a couple of good introductory Minimal Wave mixtapes put out that offer a collection of some of the best songs from the movement. The first collection is called The Minimal Wave Tapes Vol I, and it’s a pretty decent introduction.
To get an idea of what I’m talking about, take a listen to the track below. It’s by a French boy-girl duo called Deux, and the songs called “Game and Performance”. Listen for the unique pronunciation of the word “performance”. It’s great. The chorus is pretty swell too. But, as always, it’s the icy synths and the primitive drum machine that take center stage here.
