Yesterday my radiator broke. My room was fucking freezing. It was even colder outside. To celebrate this sorry state of affairs I embarked upon a journey into the world of Cold Wave, armed only with a scarf, a sweater and Spotify. Cold Wave was something I only had the vaguest notions of before yesterday, but I liked the sound of it- a largely French (and occasionally Belgian) take on post-punk, gothic rock and other such 70s and 80s music. Inspired in particular by the likes of Joy Division and the production of Martin Hannet, the music sounds familiar, but with a distinct Gallic twist- like all the best things.
Whilst exploring the chilly world of Cold Wave, I also came across a compilation of 80s European minimal wave synth-pop, The Minimal Wave Tapes, which was amazing. Similar in many ways to the Cold Wave bands, the tracks combined Kraftwerk, Joy Division and Gang of Four in various measures. I was struck by the similarities between many of the bands on the compilation and bands that are now pretty hot (see what i did there?). The vocals and synths of Games & Performance by Deux reminded me of The Teenagers (although less sordid and a lot better), and DasDing's Reassurance Ritual was spookily similar to Cold Cave. In reviews of these modern bands, comparisons are often made to the likes of New Order, which are completely understandable, but there so many other bands out there who remain ignored and unknown, but deserve a listen.
My personal highlight from The Minimal Wave Tapes was coincidentally a band more associated with the French Cold Wave, a track called Just Because by Martin Dupont.
Also worth checking out the DasDing song, and if you like that, listen to the whole compilation over at Spotify.
No comments:
Post a Comment