Marquis de Sade - Back To Cruelty

In a recent interview with The Quietus Wierd’s Pieter Schoolwerth talks about the origins of Coldwave. He explains…

“Coldwave was a guitar-driven form of ‘Wave Music’ that was early on quite informed by the icy razor blade guitar sound and high-end heavy drumtracking of the legendary producer Martin Hannett who created Manchester’s Factory Records sound. In 1978 the first great French group in this tradition, Marquis de Sade, released their debut album and two years later journalists trying to describe their sound came up with ‘La Vague Froide’”

La Vague Froide translates directly as The Cold Wave. And Martin Hannett is responsible for many beautiful things, like ‘11 O’clock Tick Tock’ by U2, their second single and a great track, to my ears not unlike La Vague Froide.

U2 met Hannett when he was recording Joy Division, and (this is great trivia!) they were actually present in the studio when ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ was being recorded, presumably looking on in silence wondering whether to bother carrying on. Thank god they did! <3 u Bono