Malaria! - Emotion (1982)

Excellent German coldwave from an all-female group that never really got their due. I've had a number of time-consuming projects over the past few days so I really don't have the energy to do a proper write-up at the moment. But this is what I'm listening to right now, and it's really, really good.

Track listing:

1. Geld - Money

2. Leidenschaft - Passion

3. Eifersucht - Jealousy

4. Einsam - Lonesome

5. Macht - Power

6. Tod - Death

7. Mensch

8. Slave

9. Traum - Dream

10. Gewissen

And then she jumped on the table, peeing and yelling "I am Jesus Christ and I baptize you all in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!"

Also listen to:

Fad Gadget - Fireside Favourites (1980)

Oppenheimer Analysis - New Mexico (1982)

Twilight Ritual - The Ritual (1982)

Belgian minimal/coldwave. Spooky synths, electronic drums, and intermittent vocals that can only be described as "exactly what you'd expect, in a good way."

Track listing:
1. Splintered Images of Oz
2. Surrounded
3. Webb-Men
4. They Are We
5. Ever Changes
6. Fading Me
7. A Chrome Entrance
8. Elegy
9. Up to Now
10. Filters of Density

I am here // I am not

Also listen to:

Snowy Red -
The Right to Die (1982)

Minimal Man -
Sex with God (1985)

Snowy Red - The Right to Die (1982)

What's up y'all? What's been going on? Me? Pretty much just been kickin' it around the crib. Here's some sinister Belgian minimal wave/synth pop that you could maybe throw on to try and stave off the boredom/creeping anxiety.

Track listing:
1. Euroshima (Wardance)
2. Nowhere
3. I'm Hurt
4. Never Alive
5. Relax
6. Opium
7. Lies in Your Eyes
8. Madman
9. The Right to Die

How funny are those explosions

Also listen to:

Fad Gadget -
Fireside Favourites (1980)

Oppenheimer Analysis -
New Mexico (1982)

Static Movement - Visionary Landscapes (1999)

Related:
The Frozen Autumn - Fragments of Memories (1997)

Static Movement are the same male-female duo that makes up The Frozen Autumn, and aside from Arianna taking over vocal duties on more tracks, they sound more-or-less exactly the same -- like a more ethereal, goth-y New Order, essentially.

Track listing:
1. Outside the Line
2. There's No Time to Recall (Vector Synthex Mix)
3. Into Your Arms
4. She Was on the Stairs
5. Nouvelle Vague
6. The First Experiment
7. Radio Station
8. Visionary Landscapes
9. The Waveshaper
10. The Structure of Heart

Vertical movements through trapdoors

More along these lines:

Fad Gadget -
Fireside Favourites (1980)

John Foxx -
Metamatic (1980)

The Frozen Autumn - Fragments of Memories (1997)

Heartbroken, synth-driven gothic melodrama perfection. Some songs are on the more ethereal side of darkwave, while others sound like New Order minus any semblance of hope.

Track listing:
1. The Echo of My Lies
2. There's No Time to Recall
3. Dusk Is Like a Dagger
4. Winter (Reprise)
5. Don't Cry for Me (Version)
6. Chimney's Song
7. Painted Girls
8. Fragments of Memories
9. I'm Coming from Nowhere
10. The Forgotten Frontier

A severed hand

If you like this, listen to:

Deine Lakaien -
Deine Lakaien (1986)

Oneiroid Psychosis -
Fantasies About Illness (1996)

Minimal Man - Sex with God (1985)

Phenomenal, creepy minimal/coldwave. Grim, echoing vocals over sparse drum loops, eerie, layered synths, and warped, crystalline guitars, to hypnotizing, if disconcerting effect.

Track listing:
1. He/She
2. Touch
3. I Can See
4. Sex Teacher
5. A Better World
6. To Hold You
7. Sheet Show
8. Cheap Motel
9. Fuck Me

No defense

You would probably also enjoy:

Oppenheimer Analysis -
New Mexico (1982)

Herman Kopp -
Pop (1983)

Fad Gadget - Fireside Favourites (1980)

Dark, pissed-off English synth pop with a distinctly political bent. Angular, jerky grooves aired out by hovering synths, and vocals that range from unfeeling, robotic singing to visceral, unhinged shouts to a sarcastic croon.

Track listing:
1. Pedestrian
2. State of the Nation
3. Salt Lake City Sunday
4. Coitus Interruptus
5. Fireside Favourite
6. Newsreel
7. Insecticide
8. The Box
9. Arch of the Aorta

Your head was on my shoulder
Now I'm kissing a skull

If you like this, try:

Second Layer - Flesh as Property
(1979) + State of Emergency (1981)

John Foxx -
Metamatic (1980)

Oppenheimer Analysis - New Mexico (1982)

Truly phenomenal English synthpop/minimal wave. Really, some of the best of its kind. I know nothing about this band, but I know that thousands of today's hipsters wish they could make an album this good.

Track listing:
1. Don't Be Seen with Me
2. Scorpions
3. Radiance
4. Men in White Coats
5. Modern Wonder
6. Subterranean Desire
7. Martyr
8. The Devil's Dancers
9. New Mexico
10. Security Risk
11. Behind the Shadesw
12. Cold War

What's the use of being free?
All that's left is you and me

More like this:

Flowers -
Icehouse (1980)

Telex -
Neurovision (1980)

Martin Rev - To Live (2003)

Previously:
Martin Rev - Clouds of Glory (1985)
Suicide - A Way of Life (1988)
Martin Rev - Stigmata (2009)

Driving, synth-fueled electro-punk done as only the master can do it. Most of these songs -- with the notable exception of the totally fucked up "Shimmer" -- consist of simple loops repeating endlessly with subtle flourishes as Rev distortedly whispers and mumbles monosyllabic intonations. I played this at work yesterday and apparently an old lady angrily tried to get my co-worker to put something else on. So the question is: are you with me, or are you a cranky old lady?

Track listing:
1. To Live
2. In Your Arms
3. Black Ice
4. Gutter Rock
5. Shimmer
6. Painted
7. Places I Go
8. Lost in the Orbits
9. Jaded
10. Our Roads
11. Search for Stone
12. Water

Here in heaven

You might also like:

Tones on Tail - Pop (1984)

Chris & Cosey - Technø Primitiv (1985)

Suicide - A Way of Life (1988)

Look, I know, their first album is phenomenal, and absolutely deserves to be heralded as a classic, but why do so many people act like it's the only fucking Suicide album? Their other records are so good! A similar thing has happened to lots of bands -- first album is a groundbreaking classic, and no one fully gets down with anything they do afterwards -- but not to the degree of Suicide. Like, Psychocandy is the only JAMC record that gets accolades, but at least people acknowledge their other albums. (For the record, I love Darklands, Automatic, and Honey's Dead.)

Anyway, here's A Way of Life, which has sparse, electro-punk that's much in the same vein as their first record ("Wild in Blue", "Sufferin' in Vain"), an uneasy, girl group-style love song worthy of a David Lynch film ("Surrender"), a synth-driven re-imagining of Elvis-esque rock 'n roll ("Jukebox Baby 96") and an anthemic piece of driving almost electro-industrial ("Rain of Ruin"). And that's just the first half. Get your shit together, fans of awesome music.

Track listing:
1. Wild in Blue
2. Surrender
3. Jukebox Baby 96
4. Rain of Ruin
5. Sufferin' in Vain
6. Dominic Christ
7. Love so Lovely
8. Devastation
9. Heat Beat

My heart is a prison

Black Marble - A Different Arrangement (2012)

Debut full-length from this Brooklyn coldwave duo. Synthesizer-based post-punk tunes with new wave-y pop tendencies. Vocalist Chris Stewart sounds as if he's delivering his detached performance from the other end of a mile-long tunnel. The sonic template for each song is virtually identical -- prominent bass lines, drum machine, simple but effective synth melodies, the aforementioned ghostly vocals -- really, it's just a question of whether they use a major or minor key. But it's an indelible sound, and the songwriting is topnotch. Can't wait to see where they go from here!

Track listing:
1. Cruel Summer
2. MSQ No-Extra
3. A Great Design
4. A Different Arrangement
5. Limitations
6. UK
7. Static
8. Pretender
9. Last
10. Safe Minds
11. Unrelated

Chillywave