Album Reviews

Album Review: Various Artists – Cold Waves And Minimal Electronics Vol 1 (Angular)

By | Published on Wednesday 10 February 2010

It’s telling how high the fever for all things early 80s has reached when even Ministry Of Sound release a new wavey synth-pop ‘dance’ compilation. As respectable as the tracklist of their ‘Electronic 80s’ album is, if you want something a bit more interesting and less likely to be filled with songs you know and have heard and loved a million times already, then this is it.

Comprising mainly cult European music from the period 81-85 (ie the best part of the decade, before Live Aid ruined everything), ‘CWAME’ is not just an alternate look at how cheap synths and the (post-) punk ethic made that period such a thrilling era for music, but also a lesson in how a load of French, German, Belgian and Italian acts made their own electronic pop history, creating the sub-genres of Italo-disco and EBM in the process.

With seventeen different artists appearing you could expect the quality control to vary, but there’s no duff tracks (only the shrill ‘Babylon’ by The Vyllies grates a little) and a lot of very good ones indeed. Angular’s Joe Daniel and Pieter Schoolwerth have done an exemplary job in curating this selection (especially given so many of the tracks are rare and were previously thought lost), making it simply essential listening for anyone with a love of electronic pop. MS

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