***Angular Records (UK) are proud to announce the release of Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol.1—a new seventeen-track compilation put together by New York's Wierd Records founder PIETER SCHOOLWERTH and Angular’s JOE DANIEL. The album chronicles the secret underground cult genres of cold wave and minimal wave, which mostly originated from continental Europe between the years 1981-1985. Active largely in small towns and isolated, non-metropolitan areas of France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and The Netherlands, the first wave of minimal electronic groups functioned at the time as a raw, aggressive, affirmative antidote to the superficial excesses of commercial new wave. Using analog synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines the 'minimal synth' artists successfully combined the sounds of the German electronic bands of the ‘60s and ‘70s (Amon Duul, Neu, Faust, Can) with the seminal early industrial bands largely active in the UK (Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Cabaret Voltaire) to produce a new form of electropop that went on to be crucially influential on European and American pop and dance music of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s (Italo, New Beat, EBM). Features songs that have only been available up to now on ultra rare 7-inhces, lost radio sessions and cassette tapes, as well as never before seen photos and extensive sleeve notes about the genre. Received an 8.2 rating from Pitchfork.
