The Drops: Fatal Fall 7”

Well, after a brief hiatus during which I travelled through Turkey and Greece (buying records along the way, of course) I still have a few records to share. I bought this gem in Greece and while I realized after ripping it that it has already been shared, it was only shared on a Greek music blog and deserves as much recognition as possible.
The Drops were from the port town of Piraeus, a little to the south of Athens. They formed in 1990 and released this in 1995. Their style of darkwave was very stripped down and minimal, sounding like In Trance 95 playing Cure songs. The B side, A Beautiful Night, is a particularly amazing midtempo track with an emphasis on a simple but solid drumbeat. I played it at the Weird party in New York a week ago and several people asked who it was – always a great way to gauge if a song is a keeper in one’s DJ arsenal. It’s amazing that a record this earnestly and authentically post-punk sounding came from 1995. Perhaps the 90s are the last vestige of unknown and blogworthy darkwave music?

The Drops: Fatal Fall 7”

1995, Wipe Out! Records

A1 Fatal Fall

B1 A Beautiful Night

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EYES OF GOD: East of Eden EP

Here is a pretty much unknown San Francisco darkwave EP from a band called Eyes of God. I can't really find any info on these guys, since the silkscreend sleeve has absolutely no info, and the label doesn't really help either. I think this was released with a different cover which MIGHT have more info, but it's been years since I've seen that version, so that really doesn't help here! Dark keyboards, ethereal female vocals, dark forceful basslines, and jagged guitars make this a great record. The band REALLY plays up the religious imagery (look at the song titles... and the band's name), and it seems as if the singer has SOMETHING weighing on her soul that she wants to confess throughout all three songs. The religious motif in the lyrics works well, though. I have no idea if this band recorded anything else. They self-released this 12" recorded/mastered at the Sonic Arts Recording facility, which seems to have recorded a good half of the self-released SF darkwave and minimal synth (Martin Human, Junk 57, and loads of others).

Eyes of God: East of Eden EP
1985, Conceptual Records
A1 East of Eden
B1 Garden of Sin
B2 Sin Twist


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MC²: Selftitled LP

It seems like there is an endless supply of German new wave bands. There was a huge
underground tape culture, and many blogs (most notably Mutant Sounds) have posted countless
NDW tapes and private releases. Personally, it's a genre that's hit-or-miss. There's almost always an element of silliness and quikiness in German new wave. Some releases are quirky and fun, and sometimes the silliness is detrimental, to the point of just being stupid.
Fortunately, this album falls square in the former - almost every song is a bouncy classic, with loads and loads of synths, choppy guitars, and German vocals that I can't understand. This is up there with Palais Schaumburg, Croox, Malaria!, Zero Zero, 1.Futurologischer Congress and others who combined their silliness with a bit of gloom and loads of straight- ahead electro-pop.

MC²: Selftitled LP

1982, Gulp Records

A1 Stadt Aus Stahl

A2 Gen-X

A3 Keimfrei

A4 E = MC²

A5 Kleine Königinnen

B1 007

B2 Erde

B3 Ufos

B4 Schutzlos

B5 Du Willst Nur Mich

Click here to download this album!