Factory Benelux

Home News Catalogue History FBN Mailorder FBN Merch Contact Crépuscule

Minny Pops \ Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement [FBN 13 CD]

An expanded 2xCD edition of Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement, the first studio album by Dutch electronic pioneers Minny Pops, originally released on Plurex in September 1979.

Formed in Amsterdam in 1978 by vocalist Wally van Middendorp, Minny Pops took their name from the primitive Korg drum machine which propelled their austere, post-punk rhythms and provocative live performances. An early association with Factory Records in Manchester saw the band work with producer Martin Hannett, share stages with Joy Division and New Order, and become the first Dutch band to record a BBC radio session for John Peel.

Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement first appeared on Dutch label Plurex Records in September 1979. An artful, uncompromising album, the 13 track set mixes hard-edged electronica with modernist noise, sharing something in common with contemporaries Cabaret Voltaire, The Normal, Suicide and early Human League. As well as an early version of classic Factory single Dolphin's Spurt, the album also includes junk-food satire MD Mania and a cover of R.U.21 by US punk band Novak.

The 9 bonus tracks on Disc 1 include all three tracks from their debut ep Kojak, also released in 1979, as well as a 2003 remix of Dolphins Spurt by Zip and DJ Smacker. Disc 1 is completed by 12 minutes of vintage audio-visual clips featuring 5 live tracks recorded at the Amsterdam Filmakademie in 1979, playable in QuickTime format.

This expanded FBN edition also adds a bonus Disc 2 featuring a live re-interpretation of Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement recorded at Amsterdam Dansmakers on 11 March 2012, with members Wally van Middendorp, Pieter Mulder, Dennis Duchhart, Thomas Myrmel, Bart de Vrees, Jeroen Kimman and Wilbert Bulsink.

Cover art by Rob Van Middendorp.

CD tracklist:

Disc 1:

1. Springtime I
2. Minny Pops
3. Hologram
4. Total Confusion
5. Dolphins Spurt
6. Motor City
7. Springtime II
8. Monica
9. Flash Goes the Eye
10. M.D. Mania
11. R.U. 21
12. Mono
13. Muzak
14. Kojak
15. Footsteps
16. Nervous
17. Dolphins Spurt (2003 remix)
18. New Muzak (video)
19. Total Confusion (video)
20. Mono (video)
21. M.D. Mania (video)
22. Dolphin's Spurt (video)

Disc 2 (live):

1. Springtime I (live)
2. Minny Pops (live)
3. Hologram (live)
4. Total Confusion (live)
5. Dolphins Spurt (live)
6. Motor City - Springtime II (live)
7. Monica (live)
8. Flash Goes the Eye (live)
9. M.D. Mania (live)
10. R.U. 21 (live)
11. Mono (live)
12. Muzak (live)

Available on 2xCD and digital (MP3 or FLAC). Mailorder copies of the CD ordered from FBN are dispatched in a special FBN slipcase. To order CD please first select correct shipping option (UK, EU or Rest of World) and then click on Add To Cart button below cover image. Digital copies are delivered via a link sent to you by email.

Or, you can order with the option of tracked shipping from our friends at Burning Shed (click here to order)

Reviews:

"A fine album filled with the sort of contemporary, essentially 'electronic' conciousness recently witnessed on the brilliant new PiL album. Perhaps the liveliest and strangest album I've heard all year" (Sounds, 01/1980)

"One of those enjoyable albums that is at once of its time and just slightly out of it. Minny Pops here slot into more of an early Human League/Cabaret Voltaire approach of minimal melodies and murky, crumbling noises shot through with murmering keyboards" (All Music Guide, 10/2004)

"Amsterdam's forgotten art-punk era terrorists (think Residents, Flying Lizards, Cabaret Voltaire) had no shortage of interesting and provocative musical and lyrical ideas. There's also a surprising warm pop sensibility to the fractured synth-pop and funky mechanics which makes this reissue that much more in time with what's happening today. Check out the booty-moving clank of Mono for an indication that these four dudes were swept under new wave's rug and deserve far more attention and recognition" (Exclaim!, 10/2004)

"Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement was an album proper. It's terrifically engaging. After beginning with a razor-wire electronic rhythm like an agitated, minimal Suicide with a headache, Minny Pops take left turns into slow-burn grinds suggesting they were drawing from the same sonic well as early Cabaret Voltaire. Elsewhere, distorted, scratchy experiments are akin to early Tuxedomoon. When they kind-of rock, it's as if Eno's post-Roxy Music albums Here Come the Warms Jets and Another Green World were chucked in a cement mixer together. The reissue adds tracks from singles, video of a live show from 1979 and second disc recorded at a live reunion in 2012" (The Arts Desk, 10/2014)

"When DMDM was originally released it was the weirdest album by a long stretch from a Dutch band ever. Full stop. Rhythm machines, synthesizers, weird guitar playing seemingly devoid of any structure or chords, and on top Wally van Middendorp singing/speaking in his characteristic monotonous voice. And sometimes there was no voice, no song, just 'noise', such as in Springtime 1 and 2 or Hologram. Definitely not synth pop. The album was re-issued in CD in 2002 including bonus pieces of the first 7" and various quicktime movies of early concerts, and is now re-issued again by the revamped Factory Benelux label with a bonus disc of live rendition of DMDM from the 2012 concerts" (Vital, 11/2014)

"You can hear how their sound caught the attention of Tony Wilson and Martin Hannett: tracks like Minny Pops have all the lo-fi glitch of Vice Versa and Clock DVA but with the dour humour of DAF or Die Krupps, while Hologram is as unnerving now as it was then" (Classic Pop, 12/2014)

"Combo amstellodamois qui fut à l'avant-garde musicale, dés la fin des années 70, pratiquant une musique à cheval entre pop minimaliste électronique et cold wave nerveuse" (RifRaf, 12/2014)