Minny Pops – Secret Stories

With all due respect for minimal wave of Minny Pops 'early) callibre and especially LTM's enormous amount of good will to save gems like this from vinyl obscurity, this 'mini' retrospective of odds and tricks however noble the cause, is not entirely enjoyable experience.

Of course, the disc includes their seminal (and by all means their finest) collection of tiny 7" singles - 'Dolphin's Spurt' + other ex-Factory goodies of the time, but some of the pieces seem more like leftovers, the group not knowing what to do with it - or even better (or worse) some pieces are just too obvious of other people's influences, sounding nothing like 'Minny Pops' themselves - after all their name is adapted from the same drum machine's trademark they used at first, but which fades away as the CD spins further into this retrospective.

Pieces like 'West Desert Shore', 'Palm Beach', 'She Said Go Go Go' and 'Back Home' are among fine examples of progress but also mark Minny Pops desperately trying to be either Luxuria or He Said... Even more ambitious piano pieces like 'Vreemde Dagen, Vreemde Nachten' and 'Left Behind' sound confusingly enough like Tuxedomoon singing in Dutch, but literally, without Minny Pops' attempt to use such, potentially interenting juice and explore it themselves.