inner nerd » Minimal Wave

Party Time: Saturday Robot Party @ The Idle Hour (Baltimore, MD)

beaker — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:52:53 +0000

VIGR is in the house. 4+ hour rare vinyl set. Need I say more? Hope to see you there! I’ll try to keep track of the setlist…

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Robot Rock du Jour: Aviador Dro (1980 + 1982)

beaker — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:24:22 +0000

I don’t know why I’m on this jamón synth kick lately, but after you peep these vids, I doubt you’ll blame me!

Madrid-based Aviador Dro recorded some of the most leftfield minimal wave synth punk ever made. The following videos are from their obscure period in the early 1980s. Check those pre-acid synth lines! To top it all off, their penchant for industrially-themed costumes gave the music a whack post-apocalyptic feel. Substantially all their music in the 1980s was published on their own label, DRO. Enjoy!

El Nascimiento de la Industria (1982) off the DRO compilation “Navidades Radiactivas”

SCHEMATIC: Four more videos to up your nerd experience points…

Laser (1980) off their first 7″ release “La Chica de Plexiglas”

Nuclear, Sí (1982) off the 12″ release “Nuclear, Sí”

La Televisión Es Nutritiva (1982) off the “Alas Sobre El Mundo” LP

Selector de Frecuencias (1982) off the “Alas Sobre El Mundo” LP

Selector de Frecuencias – Live (1984) broadcast on “El Programa La Edad de Oro Visita”

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Keyser Söze Alert: R.E.M. – Computer Communication (1983)

beaker — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:37:19 +0000

No, Michael Stipe and did not dabble in Italo. Actaually, Computer Communication was the second of four releases to appear on the short-lived Xanadu label from Italy in 1983. This is a readily available and largely underrated Italo classic 12″ that you can still buy in excellent condition for around $20. They’re pretty tough to find for sale in the US, so you’ll probably have to pay international air postage from Italy if you’re dying for the track.

SCHEMATIC: Automan 11 bootleg reissue…

Beyond buying a few records to lower the per unit shipping cost or waiting for one to show up in the US, this track was reissued as a high-quality bootleg as the B-side of Automan 11 in 2005 along with Junior Byron’s Dance to the Music and Kazino’s Binary on the A-side. A NM example is currently available in the US for $10 on Discogs Marketplace.

I embedded youtube videos for all three tracks, since they’re all pretty rad. That being said, I do prefer the dub version to Junior Byron’s track, which was used to great effect on DFA label co-owner and LCD Soundstyem frontman James Murphy’s FabricLive.36 compilation.

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