Electro wave

Electro Wave , also known as Electronic Wave , Synth-Wave , Synth-Wave , Synthesizer-Wave and Techno-Wave , have been internationally used names since the early 1980s for performers from the New Wave environment who primarily base their songs on synthetic Basic set to music (e.g. Depeche Mode , Gary Numan , Anne Clark and Psyche ).

In terms of sound, the subgenre was supported by trend-setting synthesizers such as Moog Prodigy, Korg MS-20 , Roland Juno-60, Roland Jupiter-8, Sequential Circuits Pro 1, Oberheim OB-8, Yamaha DX7 and Casio FZ-1.

background

Being Boiled , published by the British band The Human League in 1978, is considered one of the first electro wave tracks .

The name was later transferred to bands such as The Invincible Spirit and Second Voice , which from around the mid-1980s onwards increasingly merged components typical of new waves with hard electronic sound structures, and this mélange until the mid-1990s - at times under Influence of Electronic Body Music - implement. In contrast to the pure, minimalist EBM, the focus here was on diversity and melodiousness. Peter Spilles of Project Pitchfork , one of the draft horses of the wave scene in the early 1990s, said:

“ At the moment there are a lot of things that sound pretty dry, really sterile. We try to do the opposite: melodious and yet hard, and above all with atmosphere, space! Don't want this to sound like you're projecting an image on the wall. It should come across a feeling. "

- Peter Spilles, 1990

The boundaries to the dark wave environment were often very blurred. In particular with artists like The Eternal Afflict , Deine Lakaien and the aforementioned Project Pitchfork, who had advertised their album Lam-'bras at the time as a “positive-mystical attack on Electro Wave” , overlaps with other varieties could be determined.

After numerous projects ceased their activities in the mid-1990s or underwent a fundamental change in style, the electro-wave movement is now largely regarded as extinct. Only a few groups, such as The Frozen Autumn , currently specialize in this form of music.

classification

Contrary to the vague label Synthie-Pop , which generally describes catchy, electronic pop music that emerged with the development of synthesizers, a term that established itself with Electro Wave and Synth-Wave summarized music groups that came together in the course of post-punk - and New Wave movement resorted to electronic instruments and tried to preserve the rawness and willingness to experiment of punk in their compositions (for example by using angular vocal lines).

Electro Wave is related to Electropunk and Minimal Electro , although the boundaries between the genres are fluid. At times, minimal electro was even subordinated to the electro wave environment and viewed as its early form. Since around 2004, a dozen music compilations have been published with Electro Wave and Synth-Wave in their title and cover a wide spectrum of synthesizer-based New Wave music from the 1980s.

As an alternative to Electro Wave , the term Techno Wave was used. Techno was in circulation as an umbrella term in the 1980s and generally covered electronically generated music (cf. the term “techno” in the 1980s ). There is no connection with the later Techno House movement.

Publications with key qualities

1978 The Human League - Being Boiled 1979 Gary Numan - Cars 1980 John Foxx - Burning Car 1982 Moev - Zimmerkampf 1983 Anne Clark - Changing Places 1983 Pink Industry - Who Told You, You Were Naked? 1984 Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward 1984 · Skinny Puppy - Remission 1985 Psyche - Insomnia Theater 1985 Invisible Limits - Love is a Kind of Mystery 1986 Invisible Limits - Devil Dance 1986 · Data-Bank-A - Access Denied 1986 The Invincible Spirit - Push! 1987 The Invincible Spirit - Current News 1987 Poésie Noire - Tales of Doom 1987 Batz Without Flesh - Batz Without Flesh 1989 Batz Without Flesh - A Million Bricks 1989 The Fair Sex - Demented Forms

1991 Vanishing Heat - Hallucination 1991 The Eternal Afflict - Atroci (-me) ty 1991 Your lackeys - Dark Star 1991 The Mao Tse Tung Experience - Revlover 1991 Silke Bischoff - This is the New Religion 1991 Necrophilistic Anodyne - Raping Facts 1991 Project Pitchfork - Dhyani 1992 Project Pitchfork - Lam-'bras 1992 Second Decay - La Décadence Électronique 1992 Metronic - Mystic Moods 1993 Fortification 55 - Anthropology 1993 Aurora - The Land of Harm and Appletrees 1993 Individual Industry - Templum Probus 1993 Second Voice - Approaching Luna 1996 Second Voice - DAWN - The Collection 1995 Venus Walk - Side Effect 1995 The Frozen Autumn - Pale Awakening 1996 Kitahara Disease - Reviving the Fading Light

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b} Svenjoy: Review of a 12inch maxi by the band The Invincible Spirit , New Life Soundmagazine , issue no. 45, November 1989, p. 6
2. ↑ The Michigan Daily: Album Review, October 19, 1984
3. ^ Svenjoy: Review of the maxi single "Killing Desire" by Second Decay , New Life Soundmagazine, issue 46, December 1989, p. 11
4. ↑ Technoclub.de: History of Technoclub . Flyer of the Technoclub Frankfurt (at that time still in the No Name discotheque )
5. ↑ Spex Music Magazine : The professionals for Electro Wave and Body Music. Advertisement for the Frankfurt record shop "Marion's" , issue 2/88, February 1988, p. 54
6. ↑ Glasnost Wave magazine: Interview with the former electro wave band Project Pitchfork , issue no. 24, November / December 1990, p. 22
7. ^ Zone Musikmagazin: Advertisement for the album Lam-'bras , issue 14/92, March 1992, p. 7
8. ^ Various Artists: Electro Wave
9. ^ Various Artists: Essential Electro Wave
10. ↑ Various Artists: BIPPP: French Synth-Wave 1979/85
11. ↑ Various Artists: Life in the Future: Swedish Post-Punk & Synth Wave 79-87
12. ↑ Various Artists: Danza Meccanica - Italian Synth Wave 1982 - 1987
13. ↑ Various Artists: VOD Records presents 80's Minimal.Synth.Wave
14. ↑ Various Artists: Rough Trade Shops Synth Wave 10
15. ↑ Various Artists: DMDNMIX 64 / Synth Wave
16. ↑ Various Artists: Domestic Landscape (Subterranean Synth-Wave Compilation)