Although they weren't as critically derided as their sometimes labelmates Crispy Ambulance, Amsterdam's MINNY POPS were still often dismissed as one of Factory Records' Benelux aberrations during their chequered career spanning roughly 1979-85.
However, "Sparks In A Dark Room", the band's second album (and their last as a going concern) from spring 1982 sounds like a real lost electro/synth classic from a time when minimal synth-pop crossovers were rightly lauded as being pioneering.
The history of MINNY POPS - based around the creative nucleus of vocalist/lyricist Wally van Middendorp and keyboard/ synth player Wim Dekker - is too convoluted to go into here (the album's sleevenotes tell their story in detail), but suffice it to say that by late '81 when these songs were laid down, they'd lucked on their short-lived 'classic' line-up, with Wally and Wim augmented by bassist Pieter Mulder and drummer Orpheus Roovers.
MINNY POPS' previous incarnations had usually featured a regular guitarist, but the lack of six-string input throughout the album is actually a positive factor, as the pulsing, motorik rhythm section set up hypnotic grooves for Wally and Wim to work around. Indeed, nagging outings like the introductory "Mountain," "Dream" and "Trance" suggest the band were plugging into a Dutch equivalent of the grid that powered the finest Krautrockers from NEU! to DAF.
Admittedly, Wally's heavily accented voice was/ is something of a bone of contention in some quarters, but this reviewer has become quite enamoured of his dark, but engaging delivery, and while you can't always follow his lyrical drift, this only adds to the air of mystery perpetrated by tracks like "Crack" ("this is a new religion...for people with no imagination") or the superbly evocative "Black Eye."
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"Sparks In A Dark Room" is now bumped up to an impressive 74 minutes with the addition of a generous 11 extra tracks. Wonderfully, there are a further clutch of goodies to gorge on here, not least both sides of the Factory Benelux single "Time"/ "Lights" from spring '82 and the four tracks recorded for the "Werktitels" 12"EP by Minny Pops' spin-off unit SMALTS, featuring Dekker, Mulder and new drummer Ruben Ootes. These four instrumental outings are fascinating minimal manoeuvres in their own right.
Far from being laughable Continental figures of fun, MINNY POPS actually established a firm identity as purveyors of fine, hypnotic Euro trance-pop. "Sparks In A Dark Room" is a lost classic of a kind, so let's pull back the curtains and throw some light on it at last.
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