Minimal Wave Records

The Misz for­med in Gent, Be­lgium in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries De­kock­er at a time when they had both just re­located from the co­unt­ry. They lived on the same street and col­laborated free­ly with the li­mited equip­ment they had, which al­ways cen­tered around the Fos­tex 250 4-track tape re­cord­er. They used an un­known mono­phonic syn­thesiz­er, casio syn­ths, roland drum mac­hines, hand drums and guitars through ef­fects ped­als, im­provis­ing with their voices and often in­cluded friends for ad­dition­al voices and sounds. They cap­tured these DIY sonic ex­peri­ments and some­times re­leased them on cas­sette (It Ain’t all Gar­bage, 1984 - Eddy Merckz, 1985 - Violen­de and Love, 1987) in very li­mited edi­tions of 100-200. They were also in­cluded on numer­ous cas­sette com­pila­tions throug­hout the 1980s on labels like Mad In Be­lgium, The Cas­sette Fac­to­ry, 3RIO Tapes, Minimart pro­duc­tion, Frac­tion Studio, Cauc­hy Pro­duc­tions, Home Pro­duct, R.R. pro­ducts, ZNS Tapes, and Body Re­cords. They de­scribed them­selves as young, im­ma­ture and a bit stran­ge yet total­ly bold and fear­less. They sang about what sur­roun­ded them from world politics and en­viron­ment­al cat­astrop­hes to love and lust.
Jan and Dries ended their joint care­er in 1988. Until today, they both are still pas­sionate about music and in­vol­ved in vari­ous pro­jects. In 2017, Jan Van den Broekes solo album “11000 Dreams” was re­leased, cap­tur­ing more than 30 years and also con­tain­ing, along with his work as Ab­sent Music and June11, two tracks by The Misz.