Blossoming out of what would eventually become a fertile San Francisco post-punk scene in the late '70s and early '80s, Minimal Man was the work of Patrick Miller, an artist who was experimenting with both sound and visual elements. Miller proved to be the only constant for the band, which would feature a rotating cast of members for the duration of its existence.
In a very similar fashion to artists like The Screamers and GEZA X, Minimal Man was a sort of bridge between the abrasive second-wave of punk, which featured artists ranging from The Germs to The Cramps, and the new wave and post-punk that would dominate the early half of the '80s. Playing what would eventually be dubbed "synthpunk," Minimal Man can actually be seen as one of the first direct influences on post-punk, along with more well-known contemporaries like Joy Division. Miller's use of tortured screams and dead-eyed spoken word passages stretched across desolate soundscapes of industrial noise and ghostly synths to create environments that could echo the madness of "Loneliness" or clearly enunciate the soul-crushing reality of love, as in "To Hold You."
Even today their influence can still be found in the lo-fi electronic noise of artists like Brooklyn's Blank Dogs.
Minimal Man - "She Was a Visitor"
Minimal Man - "To Hold You"
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