Ssleeping desiresS – Home Demos - July / Aug 2010 CD-r

...And now for something much more recent! The first time I saw San Francisco-based Ssleeping Desiress, they opened up for Sixteens at a small bar in the Mission District about 3 years ago. I had listened to a couple of their songs on their myspace page prior to attending, and my interest was piqued. There were no other bands doing such a straight-ahead synth sound in San Francisco at the time.

The band took the stage - two guys I had never seen before in the often insular city - and with a couple synths, a drum machine, and a live snare drum they barreled through a 20-minute set of vintage-sounding darkwave. The duo would alternate between synths, vocal, and drum duties; the live drum fills added a bit of a visceral and organic dimension to the barrage of electronics. They sounded spot-on.

While the band has gone through a few lineup changes since that time, Ssleeping Desiress has essentially remained the brainchild of Gabriel Ramos, who is now the sole member. This CD (limited to a scant 25 copies) is the only physical legacy of their earlier lineups, released in 2010 when Ramos was joined by Mona Martinez on vocals and percussion. The male and female vocals with gritty electronics recalls bands like Ronin, early Xeno and Oaklander, and even Nine Circles.

For a demo CD, the release is quite strong. While several tracks indeed have a bit of a rough "demo" quality, most of the them, including Tunnel, Passage, This Age, and Sleepwave (which I shared on the first Commercial Music compilation) are excellent.

The band has a few songs on various compilations - most notably the second Circuit D'Actes compilation . They also will have the fourth release on the excellent Flexiwave label in the coming months. Most of the songs on this disc are no longer part of the band's repertoire, but Ramos was happy to let me share them. Ssleeping Desiress is certainly a gem in the electronic underground, and it's great to hear these early sketches that run along the boundaries between minimal synth, coldwave, and electro.

Ssleeping Desiress: Home Demos - July / Aug 2010 CD-r

2010, Self-released

1 Tunnel

2 Crown Of Flames

3 Bird's Eye View

4 Sleepwave

5 Entrance

6 Passage

7 This Age

8 Rose Hill

Click here to listen!

The Drops: Fatal Fall 7”

Well, after a brief hiatus during which I travelled through Turkey and Greece (buying records along the way, of course) I still have a few records to share. I bought this gem in Greece and while I realized after ripping it that it has already been shared, it was only shared on a Greek music blog and deserves as much recognition as possible.
The Drops were from the port town of Piraeus, a little to the south of Athens. They formed in 1990 and released this in 1995. Their style of darkwave was very stripped down and minimal, sounding like In Trance 95 playing Cure songs. The B side, A Beautiful Night, is a particularly amazing midtempo track with an emphasis on a simple but solid drumbeat. I played it at the Weird party in New York a week ago and several people asked who it was – always a great way to gauge if a song is a keeper in one’s DJ arsenal. It’s amazing that a record this earnestly and authentically post-punk sounding came from 1995. Perhaps the 90s are the last vestige of unknown and blogworthy darkwave music?

The Drops: Fatal Fall 7”

1995, Wipe Out! Records

A1 Fatal Fall

B1 A Beautiful Night

Click here to listen to this record

Soft Moon!!!

Okay, if I have to pick one record from 2010 that I've listened to the most in the past year (or at least for the past few months), it is the seltitled effort San Francisco's The Soft Moon. Although I may be biased since the members are friends of mine, the record is truly SOLID. The 8.1 on Pitchfork is well-deserved. Dark, fuzzed vocals and shrieks, subdued electronics, loads of dissonance, and pounding drums make this the perfect 3-way interstection of goth, minimal synth, and Krautrock.

They are making their NYC debut this Wednesday at the weekly Wierd party (which I'll be DJing alongside Frankie Teardrop and Soft Moon member/SF record nerd Justin). It is HIGHLY recommended. In the meantime, check out a couple of their songs below:

\]

SF Minimal Wave cover story!

By pure coincidence, a mere couple weeks after my last posts of SF Bay Area minimal wave and post punk records, the venerable San Francisco weekly newspaper SF Bay Guardian is featuring a cover story on the emerging Bay Area underground synth scene! It's a really good article, touching all bases of the genre; the author interviewed Josh from Dark Entries Records, Veronika from Minimal Wave, and others. He touches upon bands old and new, forgotten and fledgling, and even mentions this blog! Check out the article here. If you live in SF, come out to Nachtmusik at the Knockout on Mission & Valencia next Wednesday, where my girlfriend and I will be guest DJing!
And now, on with a new little batch of records...

Distant Thunder: Shelter LP + Unreleased & demo tracks

One of the most obscure and forgotten LPs (that seemingly NOBODY knows about) is this 10-track oddity from Distant Thunder. Self-released in 1985 on Last Records, this record by this one-man band almost seems like a gothic vanity pressing. Completely amateur, with programmed drums, stabs of synths, dissonent and atonal electronics, and repetitive guitars and vocals, it seems like Mark Wenning, the man behind Distant Thunder, bought a few cheapo instruments and said "I'm going to write and record an album this week".
I don't mean that disparagingly, though. The combination of all the above elements ensures that this album is unlike anything I have ever heard before. Repetitive, off-key, tribal, droney, lo-fi, dark, simplistic, and completely endearing, this is a strange lost classic. In reality, many of these songs were written over the period of a few years (although he did indeed initially utilize a Mattel toy drum machine, which he used in conjunction with an Apple IIe for the basslines). He recorded a second album, which was unfortunately never released. You can visit his Distant Thunder website here , which includes a bio and downloads of his unreleased second album (which I have also included here for your convenience!) I also included a couple pre-album demo tracks as well (songs that use the toy drum machine) for good measure. He sold about 300 copies of this album, but I still occasionally see it offered for pretty cheap prices online, so this isn't very hard to track down. For now.

Distant Thunder: Shelter LP
1985, Last Records
A1 Cost/Benefit Analysis
A2 Simon Says
A3 Too
A4 Promised Land
A5 It
B1 Nouns and Verbs
B2 Smart Birds
B3 Show and Tell
B4 Modern Medicine
B5 Who

Click here to download "Shelter"

Click here to download the unlreased album "Impulse" and the demo tracks

Defuser: Music for a Comic Book Video LP

This is officially the weirdest album that I have uploaded. This is the virtually unknown self-released follow-up to Defuser's first 7", the classic World Suicide b/w Freeze Please. They were from Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from SF. A wonderfully-presented LP, this comes in a gatefold sleeve that is laid out as a comic book. Each panel of the comic represents one song on the album.

The entire album is a concept album about a one-off concert by a fictional band called Lyres & Theeves. Except it's not as simple as that. At all. I could say it's primarily industrial, but it goes from electro to spoken word to industrial to sax skronkery to minimal electronic to experimental noise to an advertisement the band made for a local business chosen at random from the white pages to traditional Finnish folk music to darkwave to industrial again. Extremely subversive, very dark, very silly, very irreverent, very political, very punk, very art-damaged, this concept album is unlike anything - ANYTHING! - that I have ever heard before.

Defuser: Music for a Comic Book Video - The Lyres & Theeves Concert LP

1985, Mutiny Records

A1 Charlie, Hector & Betty Arrive at the Concert

A2 Li'l Otis

A3 And Welcome to the Show

A4 Prefessor Zeus and the Barking Elephant

A5 Politically Correct

A6 Bouquet of Weeds

A7 Woman in Bondage

A8 Love Song For You, Darling

A9 The Mob Has Come to Life

A10 Free Advertisement

A11 Seven Judys

A12 Nonexistant Song (intermission)

B1 Steel Dick

B2 Screaming Mad

B3 Little Bird

B4 Sax Hell

B5 Destroy What You Don't Understand

B6 Ladies' Tea Party Jazz

B7 Just Want to Be Your Friend

B8 Pocket

B9 Covered in Vines

Click here to download this record!

Kan Kan!

As before, I also want to bring to peoples' attention an old post that may have been forgotten, neglected, or simply not discovered yet by the legions of newcomers to the music blog world. This week, I suggest going to the wonderful Phoenix Hairpins blog (which, in along with the Mutant Sounds blog, was my inspiration to begin ripping and posting my own records) and download everything that Curious Guy has posted in the past three-and-a-half years... starting with the complete discography of Kan Kan, the brainchild of one Patrick Dineen. From the humble minimalist post punk beginnings of his self-released debut 7" to the two later 12"s, his three records are pure darkwave perfection, full of synths and pianos and somber vocals.

MY SIN: Beyond Good and Evil EP + Chains 7"

Well, I figured that if I'm going to post a rare SF female-fronted darkwave EP with tortured religious overtones, I may as well post the male equivalent! This is the 12" EP from one-man San Francisco band My Sin, self-released on Endless Music, as well as his debut (I think) 7", called Chains. The 7" has one song (You End Up Swimming) that is on the 12", so I've only included the exclusive track.
My Sin were pretty productive, releasing several cassettes (at least one of which had an accompanying book) and eventually a CD in the early 90s. My Sin is a mix of darkwave, deathrock, and synthpop on these releases. Using only bass, synths, and drums (no guitars, apparently), this one-man band created some dark, gloomy, angry, and lyrically quite bitter music. He starts with excellent covers of the Stones (Moonlight Mile) and the Stooges (I Need Somebody) on one side of the 12", and all other songs are his own. If you like your darkwave and deathrock infused with a good deal of melodrama, download this one! And if you have any of his other releases (cassettes or CDs), I would love to hear them!

My Sin: Beyond Good and Evil + Chains 7"
198? + 1984, Endless Records
A1 Moonlight Mile
A2 I Need Somebody
B1 You End Up Swimming
B2 Hayloft
+Chains


Click here to download these records!

V/A: VIVA LOS ANGELES LP

As a bit of a follow-up to Phoenix Hairpins' post of the Viva Los Angeles Part II, here is the first volume of this two-art series. It features a load of great underground Los Angeles bands (and comes with a huge, beautiful booklet with full artist bios... in Italian!).
The music here skews toward the dark and experimental side of the LA scene; my favorite are probably the Randall Kennedy and Reconstruction tracks (one of which also appeared on one of the Terra Incognita compilations on Auxilio De Cientos) - they are dark and full of keyboards, with both sung and spoken word vocals. Bay of Pigs contribute two of their typical darkwave-meets-bagpipes songs (seriously!), Carl Stone contributes an electro-acoustic track, and Savage Republic are probably the most well-known, still active today (in fact, I recently saw them perform as a live soundtrack to an experimental 1970 Spanish film - one of my favorite shows of 2009!).
Anyway, this is a truly recommended record. I did not include the booklet with this rip (I don't have a scanner), but I suppose I can take photos of each page if people are interested.
V/A: Viva Los Angeles LP
1986, Viva Records
A1 17 Pygmies - Chameleon
A2 Randall Kennedy And Reconstruction - A Rise From The Ruins
A3 Randall Kennedy And Reconstruction - Never Ending Night
A4 Randall Kennedy And Reconstruction - Heroin
A5 Carl Stone - Jang
B1 Bay Of Pigs - It's All Over
B2 Drowning Pool - Festival Of Healing
B3 Savage Republic - Exodus
B4 Savage Republic - Spice Fields
B5 Bay Of Pigs / Koichi Nagai - Prologue

Click here to download the record!

WOG: Selftitled LP

Here is the only release by a mysterious Los Angeles duo called Wog. This duo consisted of Aret Madilian, a Turkish immigrant who had a bit of recording experience in 1983 with a self-released new wave 12", and his friend Ari Excel. They formed this band in late 1983 and named themselves after the Stranglers song "I Feel Like a Wog".
Madilian was on synths/vocals/drum programming and Excel played bass and sang lead vocals. Highly influenced by post punk bands like The Cure, Joy Division, the Stranglers, early OMD, Magazine and Wire, they slowly began to gain popularity in Los Angeles. 1985 was a big year, when one of their demo tracks was played by Richard Blade on KROQ, and they were voted "best unsigned band in LA" by listeners of the venerable station. Throughout the next three years, they continued to write songs but did not release anything until this album, on the tiny LA-based Clandestine Operations label. Despite distribution in both the US and Europe, the LP was pretty much completely unnoticed, and only a handful were sold. The band broke up shortly thereafter in 1989.
I can find no info on what became of Ari; Aret took a hiaitus from recording before eventually moving to northern France and forming the goth/darkwave band Deleyaman (whose site has a great bio of Madilian, from which I got most of this info).
Musically, they play darkwave that sounds like a mix of The Cure, Joy Division, and are even a bit reminiscent of the Juju mLP that I shared last year (which, if you have not heard yet, is HIGHLY recommended!). The repetitious and often hypnotic mix of pianos, synths, bass, and somber vocals give this release a great rainy-day appeal.

Wog: Wog LP
1988, Claudestine Operations
A1 Morale
A2 Guts
A3 I Had A Notion
A4 Moment Of Betrayal
B1 Divine Rave-up
B2 Les Anges
B3 Businessmen In Love
B4 Dialectic

Click here to download this record!

THE PHONES: Two Hearts, Two Heads LP

There are some LPs that don't impress me too much upon first listen, but eventually grow on me the more I listen to them. This debut album by Dutch post-punk band The Phones is such an album. The first time I heard it, I thought it was good, but there weren't any tracks that stood out too much. Still, there was something there - something about the album made me listen to it again. And then again. And now, after many, many listens, I have no idea how I was not immediately in love with this album. It's a perfect combination of jagged guitars, dark synths and organs, powerful and perfect vocals, loud drums, and simple, repetitive basslines; an excellent mix of new wave, darkwave, pop, and electronic; a great blend of many influences, from fellow Dutch post-punkers Mecano to Joy Division to Television to Modern English to the Thomas Leer/Robert Rental LP. The A side is a bit spotty at times, but has the excellent instrumental minimal electronic song "*" (yes, that's the full name); the B side is solid throughout. THe final two songs, Cities and Comme L'Amour, are both masterpieces in my opinion. These are songs that would would be lauded and raved about by hipsters and indie journalists as the next big post-punk revival band if they were released today - they have aged perfectly. The synths and bouncy chorus in Cities and its long instrumental outro, and the abrubt start-stop-start-stop of the beginning of Comme L'Amour, have driven me to listen to these songs dozens of times. Not only is this self-released album a lost classic, but the packaging is great - it comes in an oversized quadrilateral sleeve, with a hand-cut dust jacket (which has a stamp that says "hand cut" on it, to authenticate the DIY-ness of it, I suppose). This is an album that deeply rewards repeated listens. And even if I'm the only one who loves the album, I still want to share it, as it is exactly the type of album that I created this blog to share.

The Phones: Two Hearts, Two Heads LP
1982, self-released
A1 Change
A2 The Lizard's Show
A3 Silly
A4 *
A5 Heroin, My Love, My Heroine Love
B1 Emotional Language 4:28
B2 VIP 4:22
B3 Cities 4:37
B4 Comme L'Amour

Click here to download this album!

Red Violet Red (pre-ELEVEN POND!) 12"

To start out 2010, here is a special treat, courtesy of Lesypersound in Spain. He discovered that there is a heretofore unknown pre-Eleven Pond 12" from Jeff Gallea (the songwriter/synth player of Eleven Pond)! It was exciting for me when I found the Pond 12" I posted a while back, so I know how great a discovery this must have been for him! Here is a great summary from him:

-----

These last weeks I'm reorganizing my collection thanks to the great database that is DISCOGS, they still lack many records to upload and I go collaborating in what I can going up some. In this work I added a 12" record that was in my collection from many many years called RED VIOLET RED (before ELEVEN POND LP was known or had it in my collection). Let us notice the sound was similar to ELEVEN POND, same cover type made by hand, limited and numbered, fact in US and suddenly I saw that the cover was signed by J. Gallea !!!!!!!?????, quickly came me to mind Jeff's Gallea of ELEVEN POND!!! then I checked the correspondence address that leave in the back-sleeve and was exact to the one that leave in the inner-sleeve of ELEVEN POND's record ....... and... bingo!!! I understood that RED VIOLET RED was a kind pre-ELEVEN POND release. Jeff Gallea made this record with other musicians not on later ELEVEN POND record but the sound is really similar and it advances the sound that will have the later record without a doubt. This was very touching for my and I wanted to share that information with you and with the other collectors!!!

-----

Now, don't be discouraged by Candy Cane. It... has NOT aged well. The B side, 12 Miles of Sky, is a dark synth-wave masterpiece that is just as good as the best Eleven Pond tracks! This presumably) concludes the Eleven Pond-related stuff we'll be hearing (until Jeff finally decides to finally release the album's worth of unreleased stuff he has). Hopefully this will tide you over... happy 2010!

Red Violet Red 12"1985
Game Hen Records
A: Candy Cane
B: 12 Miles of Sky

Click here to download this record!

Martin Human: Upside Down and Backwards 7"

Unknown minimal synth records abound, even in this digital age in which it seems everything has been shared. Here is a virtually unknown gem that I have only seen twice: A 7" from a San Francisco solo synth artist with the perfectly new wave name Martin Human. I don't know if he ever released anything else, or was ever in any other groups - it would be nice to know! This 7" is a self-released record on his Human Release label. The music is just programmed drums and very simple, minimal electronics and vocals - a very bare-bones approach to synthpop. The A side is good, but the B side, Rocks and Caves, is even better, with a quick pace, echoing vocal cries that sound like they were indeed recorded among the rocks and caves, and synthetic percussion overload at times. This one is sure to be on at least a couple wantlists.

Here is a mini email interview I did with Joseph from Martin Human:

I have a ton of other stuff that I recorded and mixed on my 1/2" 8 track in my bedroom that no one except friends have heard. It was kind of all over the map stylistically but mostly soundtrack kind of material. I have never really stopped making music to this day. Martin had quite a bit of interest from Elektra/Asylum at the time but they wouldn't move forward with me until I had a band together that could tour to support a release which I never got around to. The motivation and interest for me was to be in the studio constantly making new stuff as opposed to playing the same songs over and over live.

Q: Did you play live, and if so, were there any similar bands that you played with in the area?
A: Martin never played live but I did with a number of other bay area bands.

Q: What was the SF synthpop scene like at the time - was there a lot of support for the music?
A: I used to get a lot of radio play from "The Quake" KQAK (later became Live 105) which supported a lot of local music at the time, as well as most of the local college stations. I sort of did my thing in a vacuum back then and didn't really know many other synth artists at the time. I was so young I couldn't even get into most of the clubs. KROQ in SoCal also had the single in rotation for a few weeks in addition to lots of college stations all over the country (I have a list somewhere).

Q: What equipment did you use?
A: All the synth sounds on the single were made with a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet 600. The drum box was an EMU Drumulator. It was recorded and mixed at Russian Hill Recording, SF in studio B on a Neotek console and an MCI 2" 24 track.

Q: And how many copies did you press?
A: 1000 were pressed. I sold about 200 and gave away about that many.


Martin Human: Upside Down and Backwards 7"
1984, Human Release
A: Upside Down and Backwards
B: Rocks and Caves

Download this record here!

Barbi and the Kens: Mini LP

This is perhaps the first and only 7" to be called a "mini LP". This is the only release by Barbi and the Kens (aside from another 7" with only two of the four songs found here). It was
released on Bobby Orlando's "O" Records. The record starts with an irreverent new wave number, Pay My Bills, followed by the bratty, punky Uptown Downtown Cruising. More similar quirky new wave starts off side two with Just a Gigolo. These three songs sound like a mix of early B-52s and Blondie - weird, silly, fun, and highly infectious, with male and female vocals. The final song, Steppin Stone (yes, a cover of the song made famous by The Monkees), is pure danceable minimalist electronic bliss - totally repetitive (think DAF or Robert Gorl, but less industrial and more electro), with thumping synthesized drums and basslines, and completely monotone female vocals. To me, it is the standout track (but even without that song, this 7" is quite solid!).

Barbi & the Kens: Mini-LP

1980, "O" Records

A1 Pay My Bills

A2 Uptown Downtown Cruising

B1 Just A Gigolo

B2 I´m Not Your Stepping Stone

Download the record here!

Persons Unknown: Addiction 7"

Here is a mysterious 7" from a UK band called Persons Unknown. I have seen this 7" only a handful of times before, and thought I would share it and help make at least a couple of the persons more, well... known. This was somewhat of a side project of Missing Presumed Dead, whose LPs and 7" were posted on Mutant Sounds a while back. Peter-Paul Hartnett, singer of the early incarnation of MPD, is the singer on this 7", and sometime MPD member/contributor Sam Dodson wrote the music. The music is not completely unlike Missing Presumed Dead, although it is much more straight-ahead synth-heavy post punk. I believe this is the only 7" Persons Unknown ever recorded, and it only features one song (but two mixes of that song). This will appeal to fans of minimal wave, post punk, and synthpop, and will hopefully get the respect it deserves.

Persons Unknown: Addiction 7"
1981, self-released
A Addiction
B Addiction (version)


Click here to download this record!

GT MODELL: Selftitled mLP

I can't believe it, but it's been 2 years and 100 posts since I first started this blog. How time flies and life changes! But at least music remains constant. This week, I have 3 very different records, starting with this one: the selftitled mini-LP from Dutch minimal synth duo GT Modell. Not a lot of info can be found about these guys, not the least reason for which is because they only go by "G" and "T". Both members sang and played synths and rhythmbox, as well as handclaps and razorblades (?). This sometimes veers into sort of poppy territory, but overally it's quite good. Side one is studio recordings, and side two are all live songs (but excellent soundboard quality). I don't think these guys ever released anything else.

GT Modell: Selftitled mLP
1983, Modulation Records
A1 - We Won't Let You Down
A2 - A Name
B1 - Turn On The Lights
B2 - Children Of The Future
B3 - We Are The Pioneers
B4 - Don't Close Your Eyes

Click here to download this mLP!

Fred A & Le Travo: Works 1 mLP

This record is actually sort of a request by my girlfriend, who is unfortunately several hundred miles away for another month. I told her that I found this LP over the past weekend, and I ripped it after she said she was very interested in hearing it. I normally don't mix my private life with my public blog, but I figured that since she can't possibly be the only one who will enjoy this excellent album, I would share it!
Without further delay, let me introduce this record - it is a pretty rare split mini-LP from two wonderful Belgian bands, Fred A and Le Travo. It was released in 1984 on the Himalaya label (the same label as the Noh Mask LP I posted earlier in the year), and is one of the more obscure releases on the label. Fred A is very dark minimal wave with synths, sparse drum machines, piano, and somber singing. It actually reminds me quite a bit of the Esquisses LP that Phoenix Hairpins shared several years back. Fred is better known as Fred Angst, one of the two core members of minimalist/postpunk/avant garde band Aroma Di Amore. As good as Fred A is, Le Travo are the stars here, though - they contribute some amazing synth-heavy coldwave songs similar to Weimar Gesang or Opera Multi Steel. This is one of the only two or three records they made an appearance on. This is highly recommended - download this one immediately (you have my permission even if you're NOT my girlfriend)!

Fred A & Le Travo: Works 1 mLP
1984, Himalaya Records
A1 Fred A - De Donkere Dans (4:16)
A2 Fred A - November (4:30)
A3 Fred A. - Blauw Blauw (4:00)
B1 Lè Travo - Caterwaul (4:57)
B2 Lè Travo - Glow Of Gnome (5:13)
B3 Lè Travo - Chiaroscuro (2:45)


Click here to download this record!

Q - Cine De Miedo EP & Justine - Amor Acuatico EP

It seems like Spain is terribly underrated when it comes to synthpop and new wave music. I mean, El Aviador Dro is great; Diseno Corbusier is good, but more experimental, and Cetu Javu have a Spanish-sounding name but are actually from Germany, so they don't count. But there ARE gems out there, as evidenced by these
great rarities by Q (also known as Grupo Q) and Justine. And while these two groups share the same primary songwriter, Fernando Carmona, and released records on the same private label (Panoleta Records) and basically sound the same (except Justine has female vocals), they do a great job at lending some true legitamacy to Spain's ostensibly lacking synthpop/minimal synth legacy. Just one listen to Q's synthpop perfection of "Nada Nos Parara" or Justine's slightly dark and Neon-esque Amor Acuatico or ridiculously catchy and fun (if slightly cheesy at times) E.E.U.U.R.S.S. will confirm that these
releases deserve some true respect.

Q: Cine De Miedo EP
1984, Panoleta Records
A1 Cine De Miedo (3:50)
A2 Nada Nos Parará (2:18)
B1 Déjame Ahora Dormir (4:56)
B2 Muñeca Cibernética (4:07)

Download the Q EP here!

Justine: Amor Acuatico EP
1986, Panoleta Records
A1 Amor Acuático (3:48)
A2 Hipnotismo (4:52)
B1 Hoy Me Sobrevienen Cosas Extrañas (3:07)
B2 E.E.U.U.R.S.S. (4:19)

Download the Justine EP here!

Paul Nova: Trees Without Leaves LP, Fantasy & Feeling 12", Julie Ann 7"

Since it's been a while since I posted, and since this may be my only post for June, I'll include a nice "bonus" upload here. I think that a lot of people are very curious about this mysterious UK solo act, after seeing his stuff fetch hundreds on eBay. I know I was, and finally got these songs from a very generous member of minimal-wave.org. As one-half of the underground synth duo Bizarre Unit, Paul Nova was making minimal electro-pop for his entire short career. His later singles (especially Fantasy and Feeling) had a more commercial synthpop sound, but were still excellent releases. This is basically his entire discography (he had a 7" with Famous Boys/Trees Without Leaves, but both those songs appear on his LP.) If anybody has the Bizarre Unit stuff to share, I would be very happy!

Paul Nova: Julie Ann 7"
1982, Echibit One Records
A Julie-Ann
B Video Age

Paul Nova: Trees Without Leaves LP
1984, Exhibit One Records
A1 Lovers In Paris
A2 You Could Be Good
A3 Home Sweet Home
A4 Trees Without Leaves
B1 You Are
B2 Famous Boys
B3 Love You Madly
B4 Broken Rose

Paul Nova: Fantasy and Feeling 12" EP
1985, Exhibit One Records
A1 Fantasy
A2 Letter Of Love
B1 The Feeling
B2 Summer Breeze

Download everything here!

MC²: Selftitled LP

It seems like there is an endless supply of German new wave bands. There was a huge
underground tape culture, and many blogs (most notably Mutant Sounds) have posted countless
NDW tapes and private releases. Personally, it's a genre that's hit-or-miss. There's almost always an element of silliness and quikiness in German new wave. Some releases are quirky and fun, and sometimes the silliness is detrimental, to the point of just being stupid.
Fortunately, this album falls square in the former - almost every song is a bouncy classic, with loads and loads of synths, choppy guitars, and German vocals that I can't understand. This is up there with Palais Schaumburg, Croox, Malaria!, Zero Zero, 1.Futurologischer Congress and others who combined their silliness with a bit of gloom and loads of straight- ahead electro-pop.

MC²: Selftitled LP

1982, Gulp Records

A1 Stadt Aus Stahl

A2 Gen-X

A3 Keimfrei

A4 E = MC²

A5 Kleine Königinnen

B1 007

B2 Erde

B3 Ufos

B4 Schutzlos

B5 Du Willst Nur Mich

Click here to download this album!