Minny Pops

Often stern, sometimes humorous, occasionally both simultaneously, Dutch post-punk experimentalists Minny Pops formed in Amsterdam in 1978. They produced their documented debut the next season on Plurex, a label controlled by music group vocalist Wally Truck Middendorp. The three-track 7″ one included “Kojak,” which Truck Middendorp impersonated Telly Savalas’ Television personality of the same name with lines like “In the event that you earn more income, you make fewer close friends.” DRASTIC ACTIONS, Extreme Movement, the band’s debut record, followed afterwards in the entire year, and provided more lean, mechanised sketches and abrasive sound diversions. Following a couple of gigs to get Joy Division as well as the release of the live EP, Minny Pops became a member of the Manufacturer roster and, during 1981 and 1982, bounced between Manufacturer correct and Factory’s supplementary Benelux department. A re-recording of “Dolphin’s Spurt,” made by Martin Hannett and built by Chris Nagle, made an appearance in 1981, as the fairly slicker record Sparks within a Dark Area came the next year. Two even more albums, Poste Restante and 4th Flooring, had been released on Plurex and Primary before the band’s 1985 dissolution. The music group, still led by Vehicle Middendorp, reconvened in 2012 for a number of gigs, and a solitary recorded by lover Tim Burgess (from the Charlatans). Archival produces and reissues from the band’s ’70s and ’80s result made an appearance on LTM and Manufacturing plant Benelux.