Minimal Wave Records

Reissues of obscure ‘80s acts may be common in 2019, but this certainly wasn’t the case 14 years ago, when Veronica Vasicka launched Minimal Wave with a timeless single from Oppenheimer Analysis. The lifelong New Yorker’s role in reviving the minimal synth sound came about naturally. She played ‘80s obscurities she found at record fairs and in cut-out bins on her weekly East Village Radio show. When enough people asked how they could get these records, she tracked down the artists and assembled beautiful vinyl reissues.

Vasicka retains an uncanny ability to unearth and revive little-known gems—last year Minimal Wave put out its most exhaustive reissue yet, a five-LP box from French cold wave band Martin Dupont. But much of her recent work has dealt in the present. Minimal Wave sub-label Cititrax has released inspired new music from the likes of Streetwalker, An-i and Marie Davidson. Fittingly, Vasicka’s own lost tapes have also been rescued from obscurity. Last year, she released her excellent solo debut, In Silhouette, on Downwards. The music was sourced from a cache of material Vasicka recorded casually in the early 2000s. Much of it remains unheard, but as she says in the interview below, all in due time.

For her RA podcast, Vasicka brings the elemental minimal wave sound—minimal synth, industrial, EBM, cold and new wave—into easy conversation with club sounds of the present.

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