difference between coldwave and darkwave?

[jesusfaggotchrist]

What is it because I have no idea

[ironfistofthesun]

Ok as far as I know

cold wave would be Joy division influenced gloomy electronics. Drawing influences from Ballard, dystopian novels , classic si-fi, romance etc..skinny men from london singing in a French accent and short hair

Dark wave ...more of a goth influence..more rock..more makeup and bigger hair.

[post-morten]

Coldwave was also a term coined for a particular branch of north american electronic music, with a colder and more sterile feel than your average ebm band, and these groups were also more prone on using guitar samples. If you were reading the rec.music.industrial usenet newsgroup during the 90s, (american) people were raving about it a lot. Most of these groups are hardly remembered anymore... there would be acts like Acumen, Chemlab, Hate Dept, Diatribe, Cubanate, Hanzel und Gretyl, 16 Volt. Some would stretch it and claim that bigger names such as Ministry, NIN, or even Godflesh could be lumped in under coldwave. But I am by no means an expert... answering this thread brought back memories from my early years as an internet user.

[Ritual]

The term cold wave was used for the French post-punk/darkwave acts during the 80s. So, you could say cold wave = French darkwave. Nowadays it's used a lot more losely for anything that resembles darkwave, minimal wave, post-punk or even some harder electronic music with a "retro" sound. I didn't know about it being used for North American harder electronic acts during the 90s, but then again...  in the US all sorts of synth music is labelled as industrial, so I shouldn't be surprised. Apparently, and I didn't know this either, the term was first coined by the British music press in the late 70s, relating to Kraftwerk and some UK post-punk bands, but it didn't stick.

[E.D.K.W.A.R.]

  Yes this has always been my understanding as well, that "coldwave" was a regional-specific term to french postpunk and synth bands from the early 80s with a very cold, minimal and sterile sound...can't really think of any example off of the top of my head but I had a compilation cd of French bands titled "SO YOUNG BUT SO COLD" or something like that, really good comp with a wide variety of styles and only a couple shitty tracks, the best one being "EUROMAN" by J.J. BURNELL of Stanglers fame...As far as darkwave goes, i was told early on by a faggy goth friend that it was more or less a blanket-term for all dark postpunk/synth/goth/wave inspired music, but i would assume of the more electronically-driven variety...

[totalblack]

Cold Wave as mentioned yes means French region specific dark synthpop\goth\postpunk\minimal electronics ... stuff like Martin Dupont, Norma Loy, Moderne, Mathematiques Modernes, Kas Product, Ruth, Deux, etc

Darkwave is music that sounds basically the same, but from different areas. Both of these were terms coined after the fact by music journalists. Darkwave also can be used to describe a much wider umbrella of sounds.

Also as mentioned the "So Young But So Cold" compilation is a really solid and good introduction to this style of music.

[Ritual]

French label Infrastition has reissued most of the important cold wave acts, so their discography is a pretty good resource.

[Cementimental]

http://www.lightwave3d.com/

http://www.hotwavephuket.com

[tiny_tove]

Haircuts

[ironfistofthesun]

http://youtu.be/uCpCz8Rkuk0


A great Swiss cold wave band...good 2 cd re issue still available. One of my jewels in cd racks.
http://www.discogs.com/mittageisen-1981-1986-Remastered/release/1638779

[Brad]

Coldwave was also a term coined for a particular branch of north american electronic music, with a colder and more sterile feel than your average ebm band, and these groups were also more prone on using guitar samples. If you were reading the rec.music.industrial usenet newsgroup during the 90s, (american) people were raving about it a lot. Most of these groups are hardly remembered anymore... there would be acts like Acumen, Chemlab, Hate Dept, Diatribe, Cubanate, Hanzel und Gretyl, 16 Volt. Some would stretch it and claim that bigger names such as Ministry, NIN, or even Godflesh could be lumped in under coldwave. But I am by no means an expert... answering this thread brought back memories from my early years as an internet user.

A lot of those bands still exist. There's a new festival in Chicago called Cold Waves devoted to this kind of music, started in 2012 as a memorial to one of the Acumen guys.

2012 lineup: Chemlab, Cocks Members (ex-Revolting Cocks), Acumen Nation, 16 Volt, Damage Manual, The Final Cut, The Clay People, Hate Dept., Iron Lung Corp, Go Fight!/Die Warzau, Czar, I:Scintilla, Cyanotic

2013 lineup: Prong, Iron Lung Corp, 16 Volt, Skrew, Hate Dept., Evil Mothers, Plague Bringer, Cocks Members, Douglas J. McCarthy, Die Warzau, Acucrack, The Clay People, En Esch w/ Promonium Jesters, Bile

[jesusfaggotchrist]

checking out Chemlab, pretty good stuff. I notice a lot of EBM purists hate the sound of guitars in industrial but hey to each their own, right?

[jadderly]

I don't think I ever though "coldwave" was that "industrial rock" sounding stuff, but then I was never a part of that whole scene during the 1990s.

My perception of cold wave is that it is the minimal synth stuff from the 80s that is sort of like a more gothy, stripped down version of post-punk. I'd put the album NOWA ALEKSANDRIA by SIEKERA into that category, as a good example, along with other 80s stuff mentioned above.

"Darkwave" is a term that has been thrown around a lot, not sure what it means anymore. I'm guessing that the original meaning meant something like "dark new wave" music from the 80s, but during the 90s, Projekt Records referred to their distro catalog thing as "Darkwave" and used the term to apply to everything to ethereal/ambient goth music, neoclassical synth-orchestra stuff, to reissued stuff from the 80s.