04: UNOVIDUAL + TARA CROSS
‘LIKE I AM, COMME JE SUIS’
(from ENTROPIES, MICRART MC, 1986)

Unovidual was the solo project of Henk Wallays from Belgium. Henk got into making electronic music by way of Peter Bonne from the Micrart Group. During his first visit to Peter’s place, Henk ‘dared’ to ask him how he actually made his music. Then while showing him and playing around with the Roland TR808 rhythm composer and a sequencer, Henk was immediately ‘sold’ and realized that listening to music and discovering new groups was not enough anymore. Peter awoke a feeling in Henk and inspired him to begin making his own music. Soon after this decision he bought his first synthesizer, drum machine and 4-track recorder.

He began collaborating with artists via mail, exchanging tapes back and forth. One of his most intense and fruitful partnerships was with with Tara Cross, an artist from Brooklyn, NY. One can honestly say that they had a incredible musical link, they had similar reactions to specific riffs. When Unovidual sent out the base tracks to Tara, “she always managed to add just those parts on it which I actually had in mind without telling her so… an incredible, enriching experience”. Tara once flew over from the US and they went into the studio aiming to finish one of Henk’s titles called ‘Finance’. After two days of studio work they came back with a rather commercial, polished version under the well-meaning influence of the technician – not bad, but a slight shift away from what they had originally planned. Arriving at the 4-track studio they made another title in less then two hours; ‘Like I Am, Comme Je Suis’ was born. This, they felt, was closer to what they had in mind. If only they’d skipped the studio and worked on the 4-track alone, they would probably have recorded a whole set of songs.

05:  BORGHESIA
LJUBAV JE HLADNIJA OD SMRTI
(FV ZALOZBA, TOTO ALLE PRESE COI DISCHI LP, 1985)

I often play this track out, because it’s so damn catchy. It’s danceable Minimal Wave with a heavily affected vocal chorus and sounds of a man screaming in pain in the background. The trebly melodic synth that comes in midway through the song is an unexpected surprise. The drum accent sounds throughout like the Mattel Synsonics toy drum machine. Borghesia were a Slovenian band who formed in Ljubljana in 1982. Their aesthetic was built around imagery that was taboo, prohibited and repressed. Check out their video and you’ll get a sample of that. ‘ON’ was recorded in 1983, and came out on the album Ljubav je hladnija od smrti (Love Is Colder Than Death) in 1985. Later, Borghesia became known as pioneers of the EBM genre.

06: 1000 OHM
‘A.G.N.E.S.’
(ACE RECORDS 7″, 1979)

1000 Ohm was Frank Van Bogaert’s New Wave project, scoring one of the biggest hits in Belgium and beyond in 1981. He formed the group when he was 18 and continued until about 1987. This song is well balanced with a driving bass synth, and pretty, melancholic melodies. This is more of a mainstream Minimal Wave track, if such a thing exists. Another standout track of theirs from 1983 is ‘I Think She Understood’. Also full of hooks, these two Belgian synth-pop songs are masterpieces.

07: IKO
’83
(MANHATTAN-FORMULA LP, 1982)

This entire album is a treasure that exemplifies Minimal Wave. The fact that it has remained relatively obscure and didn’t get much attention or distribution at the time is incredible. It came out in 1982 on a Canadian label called Manhattan-Formula. ‘Approach On Tokyo’, ‘Subway 49′ and ‘Digital Delight’ are highlights for me. Since the artists are only listed by their nicknames on the back of the album (Zao, Dax, and U-Gen), ‘83 has remained one of the mysteries of the Minimal Wave world. The simple heartfelt lyrics, combined with groundbreaking techniques in TR606 drum programming, and experimental sounds used as accents throughout the tracks, make this a unique and important record, as well as a wonderful archive of early synth music. Personal note: I made a stencil of their logo when I first got the record, and stenciled it all over many of my old t-shirts. Talk about obsessed!

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