The Actor is a well known but simultaneously quite obscure minimal wave project that emerged from the Dutch home taping scene of the early 1980s. The duo was formed by Marcel Reimer (vocals, keyboards) and Sander Horsthuis (keyboards) in Breda, The Netherlands in late 1981. Influences were DAF, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget. Guitars were no option, because the amplifiers would mar the stage. The Actor caught the attention of cult cassette label Trumpett through their powerful live act and were signed to the label in April 1982. Their first, self-produced album was released in September 1982 as Exploded View (an exploded view of a cassette tape was featured on the sleeve): ten quite simply arranged synthpop tracks that were dynamic and danceable, with lyrics sung both in English and German, relating to the modern world, fashion, dancing, fame, appearance, and self-image. The track featured on this flexi-disc, Unreal Personality, is the opening track of Exploded View and the archetypical The Actor song, with lyrics directly referring to the bands name. It has been remastered from its original analog source tape for best possible sound reproduction. Flexi printed on clear flexible vinyl with silver embossed ink, edition of 999 number-stamped copies accompanied by matte printed postcard of August 1975 by Jennifer Griffiths. - Minimal Wave.
After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.
This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).
Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.
Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.
Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
