Social Climbers - Social Climbers (1981)

Got a non sequitur from New York's No Wave scene for you guys today. The more ardent followers of this blog might recognize this band's song "Hello Texas" as being featured on the first volume of Homework. Really bizarre and tangential lyrics and singing with some thick synths and other fun instruments that come together to form a formless meandering mess of an album. I of course mean that in a good way, out of the mess comes this impressionistic variegated psuedo-drone a-la A.R. Kane or The Fall. Very unique and overlooked album from the scene.

Back to when I was a teenager
Lusting for life I'd see you in those magazine

Your scrawny body laid out on some cheesy rug
In some slimy studio in Midtown Manhattan

S.M. Nurse - S/T (1986)

S.M. Nurse are a band defined by their marginality. Crafting tunes that are simultaneously dense and dancey, these Dutch composites combine the hilarity of sampling professionals Negativland with the sound of a typical European minimal wave banger. It’s their marginality though- not belonging to any one genre, inhabiting the fringes and testing the limits of many different DIY and punky sounds which merits their listenability. By 1983 when the content of this cassette was performed, one might have thought that the functionality and allure of synth pop/minimal wave had fully run its course. Namely, that the highest highs had been reached, often in the form of singles by Euro weirdos who put out one mercurial release only to disband. But one only need to listen to lead singer Annekke Stempher’s repetitive, cocky, and digital (evoking Laurie Anderson’s definition- on again, off again) vocals, Jos Jak’s grainy, strung out, and paranoidally funky guitar tone, and Menko Konigs’ interlocked electronics to feel the bliss of their sound. The sampling is impeccable, not just telling sonic narratives, but providing lyrical narratives as well, done no better on the song “That’s The Body”, where a voice asks over and over “Did anyone touch you here, or here? Or here? Or here? Or here?” while Stempher and Jok lay down a dissonant funk.

Dare to die

Dare to die

Oh dare to die with me tonight!

Los Iniciados - La Marca de Anubis (1982)

More minimal wave!!! This album from Spanish band Los Iniciados offers a really interesting and hazy atmosphere. That atmosphere, in combination with the often frantic vocals offers a really great experience. Highly recommended album.

Le marca de Anubis
Aké pahré shemú

Χωρίς Περιδέραιο - Χορός για μουσική (1985)

Awesome minimal wave album from Greece. Filled with barrages of blissful synth rhythms for your listening pleasure. Really great listen if youre exploring synth music.

Ιιηκ

Dome - Dome (1980)

Wonderful English post-punk band born from the ashes of Wire. When the group went on hiatus in 1980 Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis formed Dome. I kind of prefer Dome to Wire, Dome aren't really as lively but they have such a great texture and atmosphere. The whole album is very mellow for the most part, pretty minimal in fact. It's a great listen

All I could do was whistle
All I could do was whistle

Monoton - Monotonprodukt 07 (1982)

Monoton as certainly an interesting group, formed in 1979 in good ol' Austria, whose music scene always seems to get slept on because most people are too busy idolizing Germany. Anyway the group makes some very chilling minimal synth. They offer such a textured sound and create such a spooky soundscape for being so repetitive. The album reminds me almost of a more minimal 20 Jazz Funk Greats, the two certainly have the same sinister atmosphere to them. It's just a great, hypnotic record, that needs to be heard to be understood, the album was so ahead of it's time, and it's definitely worth a listen if you ask me.

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