16: RUINS
FIRE
(CGD 12″, 1984)

Ruins were an electro-wave duo from Italy. They were arty and experimental and definitely not interested in joining the mainstream. They were interested in multimedia and had a strong visual aesthetic via their album art, videos and projections. This track ‘Fire’ is super powerful. It’s where Italo meets Minimal Wave. I often play it out, and people go nuts. It has a great energy and beautiful production. This video is a must-see if you want to grasp the full effect of the song.

17:  EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTS
PROTOTYPE
(SHORT CIRCUIT LP, 1982)

I met Michael Gross when I took a trip to Philadelphia several years ago to conduct an interview. He was living with Dale from Crash Course In Science and he still had a studio full of synths. It felt like not much had changed since they were making minimal synth music in the early 80s. This album is a prototype of this kind of music. It was self-produced and self-released. It’s one of the most sought-after records and relics of minimal synth from the US. ‘Sweet Rejection’ is a wonderful track, with beautiful soaring synth melodies and cool mysterious vocals. Actually, every song on this record is moving; all chugging, arpeggiated synth lines and New Wave vocals. These guys played shows where they resided at the time: Claymont, Delaware and were pretty known in the underground scene during their time there. Later they went on to release ‘Glowing In The Dark’, another true masterpiece, but this time more in the Italo vein.

18: CIRCUIT 7
‘VIDEO BOYS’
(RAPP / MICRO RECORDS 7″, 1984)

Circuit 7 was the “legend and myth” created by Martyn Good and Andy Partington. They formed in the UK in 1981 and released a couple singles including their ‘hit’ ‘Video Boys’ on their own Micro Records label in 1984. ‘Video Boys’, ‘Modern Story’ and ‘Beat Tonight’ are all brilliant minimal wave / synth-punk tracks with male vocals featuring the Juno 60, SH09, Wasp synth and CR8000 amongst others. They also had some electric guitar and sax thrown in for good measure. I usually cringe at sax but it totally works here. Their song structures are pretty straightforward with some upbeat catchy pop punk elements. Blasting ‘Video Boys’ makes some people want to throw things across the room – powerful! Their original singles still remain ultra-rare and are highly sought-after.

19: A BLAZE COLOUR
‘AGAINST THE DARK TREES BEYOND’
(SELF-RELEASED MC, 1981)

A Blaze Colour is Ludo Camberlain aka Carl S Johansen and Bart Azijn from Belgium. This is definitely one of the best Belgian Minimal Wave bands. Actually, I would die to reissue it but these guys don’t seem interested in revisiting the past. Against The Dark Trees Beyond came out in 1982, and was recorded on a Teac 3300 2-track recorder. The opening track is a chaotic number called ‘Means To An End’. It starts out innocently with some Casio rhythm sounds and vocals, and then builds up for about two minutes in the same fashion until kicks in full force with a fierce drum machine. Not only is this a great track, it’s a perfect example of successfully working within the confines of using only a few pieces of gear. My next favorite track, and I must’ve listened to it 1000 times now, is ‘Or Lie Again’. It’s more like a melancholy minimal synth lullaby.

20: STEREO
SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT
(MINIMAL WAVE LP, 1982)

Somewhere in the Night is a collection of recordings circa 1982-’85, from France’s Stereo (Bernie Adam and Thierry Noritop). They remained quite a mystery until several years ago. The opening and ‘hit’ track ‘Somewhere In The Night’ has a majestic, science fiction soundtrack vibe, with great vocoder vocals and Vangelis-style keyboards. The other ‘hit’,’No More’ – a song that had been haunting me for years – is straight up early New Wave. I had heard it out in some downtown clubs when I was in High School and always wondered what it was. These songs are very well produced and could even have entered the mainstream alongside OMD and Depeche Mode in 1982. The painting on the cover is fantastic: an alien playing records in outer space, featuring the caricatures of the Stereo guys’ faces on the bottom.

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