'Minimal Wave Tapes 2' Digs Deep in Electro Archives
New York electronic music entrepreneur Veronica Vasicka is on a one-woman mission to spread the minimal-synth gospel. Digging deep into the underground archives of the '80s enclave where synth-pop, coldwave, and electro intersect, she has endeavored to bring these sounds into the present in as many ways as possible. She hosts the Minimal Wave show on East Village Radio, DJs at high-profile venues with an awe-inspiring array of vinyl rarities, and reissues lost classics via her own Minimal Wave label. Now, with the assistance of Peanut Butter Wolf and his Stone's Throw label, she's brought together a global roster of synth-slathered collector's items on The Minimal Wave Tapes Vol. 2 compilation — as the title implies, it's the second such collection she's curated.
The album is occupied mainly by cuts from the first half of the '80s, the golden period for artists who created small-scale analog synth masterpieces with modest means that often border on the lo-fi, though all the tunes have been lovingly remastered from the original tapes. MW2 takes a worldwide perspective, with an artist roster that includes Philippe Laurent (France), Subject (Belgium), Ruins (Italy), Felix Kubin (Germany), In Aeternam Vale (France), and much more. The album is due out on February 27, but you can catch a Soundcloud sneak peek of Philippe Laurent's "Distortion" in the meantime.
