Ian North

Ian North started as a punk with NY band Milk'n'Cookies, but eventually moved to London to make synth-pop. He never made it like any of the other synth-poppers, although the stripped-down version of pop he produced was rather catchy.

Illogico

Dadaistic no-wave jazzy punk from Italy - Rome, 1981, their original name was Illogical Sound, released some material on tape.

Implog

ImpLOG is one of No-Wave’s less known projects, formed by Don Christensen, who was a member of the Contortions, James Chance’s band. Although largely unknown, ImpLOG showcase the perfect wrong-funk weirdness that was extremely popular amongst the no-wavers.

Industrials

Not much is known about this Dutch band and their claim to fame is that in 1980 they were played by John Peel. They were doing a bit of the stop-start rhythmic-quirkiness Devo-esque thing, but also more space-synthie Ultravox-y songs about planets and stuff.

Inflatable Boy Clams

An obscure (yet sometimes quoted) all-girl-band from San Francisco that was short-lived but with a very distinct vision. The Inflatable Boy Clams’ total refusal for harmony and bizarre sense of humour make them one of the most truly anarchic outfits of the early 80s.

LOS INICIADOS

Brilliant performance art and minimal synth combinations band from Spain, in the style of Der Plan and other performative synth bands of the time. Their two albums are minimal synth masterpieces.

In Namen Des Volkes

One of the many aliases for minimal synth artist Matthias Schuster who was also a member of Geisterfahrer, Bal Pare, Jeanette und das Land Z, as well as releasing stuff under his normal name.

Instant Music

Little information can be found about this Munich outfit, which released a rather sought-after 10” single in 1980. Wonderful DIY-tape-school minimal electronics but with a dancy edge, this is something close to the various projects of Tom Dokoupil.

Interior

The amount of DIY bands that were interested in making fun of disco – while at the same time having a love relationship with it – was very high in the early 80s. Interior’s “Bizarre Disco” is another example. In reality, it is a minimal-synth oddity, nothing funky about it.

The Invertebrates

Excellent experimental-pop band that claims to fit under the Panidiomatic genre (the tendency to cross and fuse different genres both from song to song and within individual tunes) or psycholytic pop or Gnostic Gospel… Concept-pop fun!

ipnotico tango

Ipnotico Tango was one of the bands that appeared on the sampler of strange new wave music by Italian Records in 1981. Italian Records from Bologna were arguably the most interesting post-punk italian label of the time. Little info can be found on the band itself.

The Irritators

Extremely obscure free-form new wave by a band that only released one 7" single, but appeared in LA's legendary New Wave Theatre tv show.

‪I.U.D.

One-single-only brilliant girl duet, that showcases wonderfully some of the musical tensions of the time. Side A is a sax-meets-minimal-synth weirdness, side B is a shouty girl punk cut.

Ixna

What a brilliant idea: making records in Esperanto language! Of course some post-punk kids would think of that. This is them, sadly only releasing one single 7” record.