Cold wave!

[The Divine One]

This might be better asked on DJHistory BUT... someone made me a CD of "cold wave" tracks and I'm curious to know more about it. Was it a "scene" or is it just an "after-the-event" genre someone made up to cover a now trendy sound?

And is that sound basically the slightly gloomy, DIY, independent, electronic, post-punk but with synthesisers flipside to successful bands like Depeche Mode and Eurythmics? Or am I way off the mark here? Who were the movers and shakers? Or is it all about one-off super-obscure recordings?

DISCUSS!

[MPFlapp]

I'd go straight over here http://www.optimo.co.uk/download.htm

Cold Wave central is in Glasgow - Twitch is yer Brain... he hasn't updated the goodies page for ages - might be the trigger to get a new mix on-line off him

Notice the classic Calvet flag is flying on the Optimo homepage...

[el sporto]

Yup, Keith is yer man for this kind of platter, loads of interesting French stuff, electronic new wave would be a more easily understood term. Not to be confused in minimal synth.

[SARGE]

[el sporto]

Try Ruth - Roman Polaroid, what I thought Optimo would sound like before I even knew what Optimo would sound like.

[emperor tomato ketchup]

I first saw the term on racks in French record shops about 10 years back, and different shops too so I think its been around for a while there.

[Ian Townsend]

Is it the same as 'Dark Wave' and has anyone heard of that?

I'm sure the owner of Spiral Records in Northampton told my girlfriend he was in a Dark Wave band and had toured Europe.

He was kind of all dressed in black with an eighties flavour about him; dyed black hair an' all that. Gothy sort of thing going on.

[benjamin hatton]

I first saw the term on racks in French record shops about 10 years back, and different shops too so I think its been around for a while there.

There was guy called Colder (from Paris I think) who did some amazing stuff on this kinda tip....really good LP of his on Trevor Jackson's Output label...

The 12" of this track was amazing (the video's fucking shit though!!)

[wickerman]

yep, dark postpunk, electronics, industrial etc

big in the synth/gothcrowd and also those who like Nurse With Wound/Legendary Pink Dots/Current 93-i want to be dangerous kind of guys

[highland cow]

"Wearing dead men's overcoats, you can't see their feet."

Michael from V-twin is well into this made up genre - want me to ask him for some tips?

[The Divine One]

Michael from V-twin is well into this made up genre - want me to ask him for some tips?

I was thinking, "eh?" - but you mean WEE Michael, not BIG Michael from V-Twin. Any tips I'd like to hear.

I guess I'm just wondering if there's such a thing as a "cold wave hit" - if someone knew nothing about northern soul you'd go "oh, you might know TAINTED LOVE". Is there a cold wave equivalent.

So, it contains minimal synths - but it ISN'T "minimal synth". Oh, so confusing...

[wickerman]

Anything by Joy Division and Section 25 perhaps? well atleast their most gloomy bits?

[The Divine One]

Anything by Joy Division and Section 25 perhaps? well atleast their most gloomy bits?

Thought it was mostly French and mostly synth, though?

[ashra]

"oh, you might know TAINTED LOVE". Is there a cold wave equivalent.

the Soft Cell version?

[Rich Hero]

Thought it was mostly French and mostly synth, though?

I always assumed that Cold Wave was a contemporary, rather than retrospective, genre. Although that may well simply be just that, an assumption. Similar to NDW but, well, colder and darker. And dark wave is a bit more gothic (as you suggest, Ian) but pretty much interchangeable as a term?

Braque is a good example of the sound, for me. Not so much 'Jeanette' but 'Clitosunic' and 'Le Petit Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe'. Have you got a tracklist for that CD?

[Rich Hero]

...I also reckon that Indoor Life fit the sound well, although they're San Franciscan rather than French...

[awesomewelles]

There was guy called Colder (from Paris I think) who did some amazing stuff on this kinda tip....really good LP of his on Trevor Jackson's Output label...

The 12" of this track was amazing (the video's fucking shit though!!)

Ahh, yes this track was on a cd a girl i was once -involved- with made me.
It also features The Creepers' cover of 'Baby's on fire', which I remember enjoying.

[MPFlapp]

I think it is more a period of time as opposed to a nationality...

Frank over at http://www.vinyl-on-demand.com/index.php - does quite a lot of re-issues - quite a bit of the stuff in Keith's Mix

Did any one mention Telephone - French band...? I'd add them in to pot... possibly - Die Tödliche Doris...

There is a nice DVD of the cold wave atmosphere (of sorts) called "Berlin Super 80" - super 8 films and music from the era on crippled dick...

I don't even think the term existed at the time - Twitch, DJ Hell and the Kompackt Records bloke have probably played out a lot of this stuff - they might even have mixes...

Not really up to date now I bought a pipe and slippers

[awesomewelles]

Did any one mention Telephone - French band...? I'd add them in to pot... possibly - Die Tödliche Doris...

I think i have a telephone lp somewhere. I think it's their debut from the late 70s. would that be the same band?. i remember it being dreadful actually.

[MPFlapp]

I think i have a telephone lp somewhere. I think it's their debut from the late 70s. would that be the same band?. i remember it being dreadful actually.

I suspect they are a bit of a selected tracks band...

Just read the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldwave_(France) - bit which re-directs to Dark Wave... maybe it is regional after all

I'll get me slippers...

[ashra]

Just read the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldwave_(France) - bit which re-directs to Dark Wave... maybe it is regional after all.

My God the 1990s paragraph reads like my most stomach churning musical nightmare

[The Divine One]

Thanks for all the pointers guys. Listening to the Optimo mix right now. Should have realised the answers were right under my nose all along...

[Plainstone]

Aquarius and Other Music were carrying a CD comp or two of this stuff a fe months ago. Might be worth doing a key word search on their sites and see if you get any soundclips.

Pipe and slippers eh, John? More of the former than the latter I take it

[ashra]

http://www.tigersushi.com/site/TSI/TSRCD005.htm

Does this count as French coldwave at all? It's rather good.

I really like some of the clunky late 70s synth stuff they get reissued at Flexx but the vocals ruin it for me 100% of the time

[BigTone]

This might be better asked on DJHistory BUT... someone made me a CD of "cold wave" tracks and I'm curious to know more about it.

Any self-respecting "coldwave" CD should include some stuff byTrisomie 21.

Well worth checking out, including some of the more recent remix efforts.....

Hours of it on Spotify if you want to dig deeper.

[MPFlapp]

More of the former than the latter I take it

Em.. well... I'm getting on a bit... cough, cough...

Although there is a Sunday double header in London in June...

Throbbing Gristle in the afternoon followed by the Master Musicians of Joujouka and Ornette Coleman in the evening... with the usual suspects -

I can feel a bit of "Horn Pipe" action in the air that day... after all we have to cross the river to get from one show to the other

[Plainstone]

... after we have to cross the river to get from one show to the other

On a Moroccan magic(k) carpet, no doubt