In recent years Stones Throw appear to have been making conscious efforts to broaden their output. The space funk of Dam-Funk and the life affirming soul throwback Mayer Hawthorne, for example, are a world apart from the Bay Area hip hop with which the label made their name. Even so, on the surface, a compilation album of a trans-continental, wilfully underground electro movement of the late 1970s/early 1980s still seems, on the surface, a fairly radical departure. Yet not only are Stones Throw releasing The Minimal Wave Tapes, but label owner Peanut Butter Wolf helped compile the album with Veronica Vasicka of Minimal Wave. You see, Minimal Wave, as well as being the name given to the movement, is also the name of the label dedicated to unearthing the rare recordings, most of which were released only on limited edition tapes (ask your parents) or vinyl by the artists themselves. This treasure hunt would obviously have been exciting for such a proponent of crate digging as PBW, and goes someway to explaining his involvement.

A cursory listen to standouts such as the glitchy Belgian synths of Linear Movement's 'Way Out Of Living' is all it takes for Stones Throw's involvement to make perfect sense; its dark disco sound underpinned by the kind of rolling electro bassline so beloved of early hip hop producers. Add in the downtempo take on a Brooklyn block party that is Tara Cross's 'Tempus Fugit', and this begins to resemble a slightly twisted, but largely fitting addition to Stones Throw.

Yet initial listens suggest that most of the Minimal Wave movement were a largely disparate bunch both in location and sound. The metallic industrial sounds of Philadelphia's Crash Course In Science see, to have little in common with the moody female vocals of Bene Gesserit or the slightly camp analogue bass and spoken word vocal of Ohama's 'My Time'.

But repeated listening reveals a strong DIY ethic to the movement that crossed location (America to Spain via Canada and, er, Jersey) and style, and lends the whole thing a scratchy punk quality: Das Ding's 'Reassurance Ritual' is slightly unsettling electro in a similar vein to Death in Vegas's 'Hands Around My Throat', while 'Game and Performance' (by French act Deux) is unbelievably Kraftwerk, yet both are distinctly and uniquely lo fi takes on a genre. Minimal Wave Tapes: Vol 1 is, essentially, mostly very good, with acts and styles you are unlikely to have ever heard of. It is also, occasionally, head scractchingly odd. In other words, just another day for Stones Throw.