It’s a recognised truth that constraint breeds creativity. What we may lack in assets or necessities, we usually make up for in resourcefulness. Art, for the most part, adheres to this rule too. Some of the most radical collectives have scored their mark on history not through cultural and social immunity but through oppression and coercion. And yet there’s a dualism at play here. While art movements and micro scenes prosper out of their own limitations, both political and financial restraints can forcibly lead to their demise, or worse, erasure from their critics’ shared memories.

This was quite nearly the fate for cold wave; a movement so ambitious in scope yet so alien and uncharted in its public esteem. Had it not been for the efforts of revisionist labels such as New York’s Minimal Wave, Angular Recordings, Wierd Records and Ghostly International, who resuscitated the genre back to life in the early to mid 2000s, the genre may have been condemned to obscurity.

Cold wave (or coldwave)’s origins bloom from the imminent death of punk’s first wave of artists between 1976 and 1978. The collective sound was controlled yet ‘colder’ than that of their snotty predecessors – punk, with a depressive groove. The development of home-based modular synthesisers, while primitive in their functionality, added another dimension to what was, for the better part of a decade, guitar-led music. These prototypical acts consumed Europe from the late 70s and throughout the 80s. During this period France, Belgium, and Poland were overcome with synth-driven punk steered by gnarling bass lines and wayward vocals. Many bands claimed their barbed dancefloor punk as native to the harsh environments they lived in and in return frequently opposed singing in any other language than their own. But cold wave also signified a shared ideology; less guitar work, more analogue experimentation, militant rhythm sections and, above all else, a vehemently do-it-yourself attitude.

Most artistic endeavours were short-lived either due to a lack of funds or a lack of interest. What was left of the scene has been cryptically chronicled in grainy photographs, nondescript foreign bios and a pantheon of forgotten self-released cassettes, hand-numbered 7” and granular music videos. However, aided by a string of compilations and sampler discs paying homage to this bygone era in the early 21st century, cold wave, dark wave, minimal synth and all of its repressed sub-genres has experienced something of a second wind. Today, a great swathe of cold wave acts have reformed, owing to this renewed interest from a younger generation. Allow yourself to become acquainted with a movement that didn’t get the chance it originally deserved and trace the below artists’ influence on future genres such as EBM, electronica, house and techno.