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BB 040LTD-LP
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By 1969 at the latest, Dieter Moebius was synonymous with the avant-garde electronic music scene in Germany. He and Hans-Joachim Roedelius formed Cluster, a seminal electronic/ambient duo, whilst Moebius was also a member of the so-called Krautrock supergroup Harmonia (with Michael Rother and Roedelius), as well as collaborating on various other projects with the likes of Brian Eno and Mani Neumeier from Guru Guru. Somehow, it took Moebius until 1983 to release his own solo debut album, Tonspuren. Tonspuren is an album of minimalisms, miniatures and stringent form, ten consistently concise and precise pieces. Moebius develops tonal variations out of minimalistic, rhythmic, harmonic basic tracks, sometimes coming close to tangible melodies. Yet this is exactly the point at which he purposely steers clear of electronic pop criteria. Nevertheless, Tonspuren is a pop album, its radically stripped-down contents replenished with harmonious elements of prevalent popular music. Echoes of Cluster notwithstanding, the music of Tonspuren is a separate entity altogether. Moebius seems to be avoiding improvisation as the devil keeps his distance from holy water. Each piece is thoughtfully composed, as Moebius crafts his miniatures layer by layer. Spontaneous inaccuracies have no place here, noise escapades are nipped in the bud. Baroque, folklore and frivolity are not admitted into the studio when the red light is on. Thanks to Tonspuren, the keen listener now has the opportunity of direct comparison in his appraisal of the solo albums of Dieter Moebius, Hans Joachim Roedelius and Michael Rother. What role did each of the Harmonia triumvirate play in creating the style of the supergroup? Tonspuren thus represents a vital piece of the Harmonia puzzle. Limited Anniversary Edition: hand numbered, limited edition white vinyl, 500 copies available.
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BB 037LTD-LP
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In 1983, Dieter Moebius (Cluster) and legendary producer Conny Plank teamed up for the third time, resulting in the Zero Set project. On this occasion, they were backed up by one of the best drummers on the German rock scene: Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru. Moebius had got to know and admire him as the live drummer for Harmonia (Moebius, Roedelius, Rother) and during the recording sessions for their second album (De Luxe). Conny Plank, usually more of a background figure as producer, takes an equal share of the limelight alongside the musicians. His supermodern studio is brought into play like an instrument in its own right; Plank explores the full range of audio editing, pushing recording techniques to the limit to achieve maximum brilliance and plasticity. Neumeier uses all of his many years of experience as a drummer, demonstrating the precision and stamina of a drum machine, just infinitely livelier and more inventive. And finally, to Moebius. Always one of the patriarchs of German electronic music, a creator of the most bizarre sound happenings, yet never sounding forced or arbitrary. On the contrary, he consistently worked within the context of the tracks themselves and their relationship to each other. The music on Zero Set flows both smoothly and energetically. No single idea is overplayed, none of the tracks hits the ten-minute mark. Aural and musical structures are concentrated to the point of askesis, yet there is no mistaking just how much the musicians are relishing playing together -- these are the two very different, yet defining characteristics of the album. Moebius, Neumeier and Plank are unsentimental in their use of technology, exploiting it as an effective tool in pursuit of their musical vision. Three musicians at the top of their game and far too smart to allow their efforts to drift into psychedelic meanderings. Limited Anniversary Edition: hand numbered, limited edition white vinyl, 500 copies available.
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BB 438CD
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The avant-garde Kraut ensemble Supersempfft laid the foundation for their techno-tropical pop music in 1979 with their debut album Roboterwerke. In 1981, they followed up with the album Metaluna, which is now being honored through a re-release on Bureau B. The group, consisting of Dieter Kolb, Franz Knüttel, and Franz Aumüller, fused global influences, experimental sonic landscapes, and surreal lyrics into a unique sonic cosmos. Metaluna stands out with its meandering sequences, unconventional rhythms, and psychedelic songwriting that remains groundbreaking even decades later. After their first album, Kolb and Aumüller's love of reggae and dub took them on a transatlantic trip to Trinidad and Tobago under the false assumption that all the islands stepped to the Jamaican style. Any momentary disappointment was soon dispelled by the liveliness and optimism of calypso and soca, and a life affirming experience at carnival left them awestruck and inspired. Back home, they began work on Metaluna, a wild combination of roving sequences, tropical rhythms, squashed brass and yearning vocals which sprints, skanks and soars through ten triumphant tracks. Amid the metallic beats and interplanetary idents lurk sublime melodies and soulful motifs, psychedelic songwriting reminiscent of Barrett, Beefheart, or Brian Wilson at their best. In their dubbier moments, Supersempfft sound like Lee Perry jamming on an alien console, with wild panning and delirious FX suggesting a sound clash on a distant planet. Meanwhile the arcade exuberance, vocoder gospel and space age ballads predate the sweltering synth-pop of The Knife, Hot Chip, and Ariel Pink by a full two decades, setting a bar that their successors still fail to meet. Innovative, experimental yet still heavy on the hooks, Metaluna is both a jubilant expression of its creators' tastes and a masterclass in mercurial pop -- a success of self-expression which proves once again that the best bands play for themselves.
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BB 439CD
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"[Martin] Rev initially explored free jazz and similarly free forms of musical expression before discovering the magnetic attraction of electronic production and instrumentation, enabling him to create music in a wholly independent and autonomous environment. Using the most rudimentary equipment, he grafted the roots of rock n' roll into the process of combining effects and devices to generate electrified sounds, the likes of which had never been heard before. This music would map out the way forward not only for Suicide, but also for a fascinating solo career. Martin Rev's predilection for experimentation knew no bounds. At home, he played around with rough ideas, trying out all manner of variations and colorations. These tape recordings provide a captivating insight into his modus operandi, often representing the early stages of what would later become Suicide tracks or cuts on Rev's solo albums. Spanning the period 1973 to 1985, the recordings on The Sum of Our Wounds are much more than a collection of demos and outtakes. One has the sense of listening to a rounded album of familiar compositions, now portrayed in a completely new light. The brittle fragility of these cassette pieces reveals a deep-lying sensitivity, like a collection of wounds..." --Daniel Jahn, June 2023
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BB 439LTD-LP
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LP version. Red color vinyl. "[Martin] Rev initially explored free jazz and similarly free forms of musical expression before discovering the magnetic attraction of electronic production and instrumentation, enabling him to create music in a wholly independent and autonomous environment. Using the most rudimentary equipment, he grafted the roots of rock n' roll into the process of combining effects and devices to generate electrified sounds, the likes of which had never been heard before. This music would map out the way forward not only for Suicide, but also for a fascinating solo career. Martin Rev's predilection for experimentation knew no bounds. At home, he played around with rough ideas, trying out all manner of variations and colorations. These tape recordings provide a captivating insight into his modus operandi, often representing the early stages of what would later become Suicide tracks or cuts on Rev's solo albums. Spanning the period 1973 to 1985, the recordings on The Sum of Our Wounds are much more than a collection of demos and outtakes. One has the sense of listening to a rounded album of familiar compositions, now portrayed in a completely new light. The brittle fragility of these cassette pieces reveals a deep-lying sensitivity, like a collection of wounds..." --Daniel Jahn, June 2023
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BB 438LP
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LP version. The avant-garde Kraut ensemble Supersempfft laid the foundation for their techno-tropical pop music in 1979 with their debut album Roboterwerke. In 1981, they followed up with the album Metaluna, which is now being honored through a re-release on Bureau B. The group, consisting of Dieter Kolb, Franz Knüttel, and Franz Aumüller, fused global influences, experimental sonic landscapes, and surreal lyrics into a unique sonic cosmos. Metaluna stands out with its meandering sequences, unconventional rhythms, and psychedelic songwriting that remains groundbreaking even decades later. After their first album, Kolb and Aumüller's love of reggae and dub took them on a transatlantic trip to Trinidad and Tobago under the false assumption that all the islands stepped to the Jamaican style. Any momentary disappointment was soon dispelled by the liveliness and optimism of calypso and soca, and a life affirming experience at carnival left them awestruck and inspired. Back home, they began work on Metaluna, a wild combination of roving sequences, tropical rhythms, squashed brass and yearning vocals which sprints, skanks and soars through ten triumphant tracks. Amid the metallic beats and interplanetary idents lurk sublime melodies and soulful motifs, psychedelic songwriting reminiscent of Barrett, Beefheart, or Brian Wilson at their best. In their dubbier moments, Supersempfft sound like Lee Perry jamming on an alien console, with wild panning and delirious FX suggesting a sound clash on a distant planet. Meanwhile the arcade exuberance, vocoder gospel and space age ballads predate the sweltering synth-pop of The Knife, Hot Chip, and Ariel Pink by a full two decades, setting a bar that their successors still fail to meet. Innovative, experimental yet still heavy on the hooks, Metaluna is both a jubilant expression of its creators' tastes and a masterclass in mercurial pop -- a success of self-expression which proves once again that the best bands play for themselves.
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BB 439LP
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LP version. "[Martin] Rev initially explored free jazz and similarly free forms of musical expression before discovering the magnetic attraction of electronic production and instrumentation, enabling him to create music in a wholly independent and autonomous environment. Using the most rudimentary equipment, he grafted the roots of rock n' roll into the process of combining effects and devices to generate electrified sounds, the likes of which had never been heard before. This music would map out the way forward not only for Suicide, but also for a fascinating solo career. Martin Rev's predilection for experimentation knew no bounds. At home, he played around with rough ideas, trying out all manner of variations and colorations. These tape recordings provide a captivating insight into his modus operandi, often representing the early stages of what would later become Suicide tracks or cuts on Rev's solo albums. Spanning the period 1973 to 1985, the recordings on The Sum of Our Wounds are much more than a collection of demos and outtakes. One has the sense of listening to a rounded album of familiar compositions, now portrayed in a completely new light. The brittle fragility of these cassette pieces reveals a deep-lying sensitivity, like a collection of wounds..." --Daniel Jahn, June 2023
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BB 441CD
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With Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube, Holger Hiller presented his solo debut having left Palais Schaumburg. Originally released in 1983 on the Düsseldorf scene label Ata Tak, an international release followed in 1984 via Cherry Red Records. Combining electronic sequencer sounds and sampling fragments with unconventional lyrics its multidisciplinary approach locates it somewhere between the pop and avant-garde. Bureau B is now making the work accessible again on its 40th anniversary.
"In 1983, during the completion of this album, some ideas and views of the future changed for me. While everyone's mind was still haunted by the admonishingly gloomy vision of George Orwell's 1984, the release of the motion picture Blade Runner had a lasting effect. It depicted a world that can no longer be saved: Acid rain is pouring down derelict buildings and humanity has to confront fugitive cyborgs as a result of artificial intelligence gone wrong. The future however was not quite so clear-cut as those pictures: dystopian imaginings were also being layered with mosaic pieces of a pop history that saw itself as a source of hope, a supposed counterculture. Could this promise be fulfilled or was it simply a 'productive misunderstanding?' With the onset of digitalization, the new musical tools -- first and foremost the techniques of 'sampling' and computerized sequencing -- were enthusiastically met by me and many others, a generation of William Burroughs readers whose sensibility had been nurtured by 'cut-up' and 'automatic writing.' And so everything flowed together on this album: the esoteric heritage of various hippie and alternative movements and their expressions in 'pop,' the underlying currents of 'Modernism' and the influences of European 'neue musik.' The resulting musical pieces on the album celebrate this moment in its simultaneity, its confusion and its new confidence." --Holger Hiller
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BB 441LP
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LP version. With Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube, Holger Hiller presented his solo debut having left Palais Schaumburg. Originally released in 1983 on the Düsseldorf scene label Ata Tak, an international release followed in 1984 via Cherry Red Records. Combining electronic sequencer sounds and sampling fragments with unconventional lyrics its multidisciplinary approach locates it somewhere between the pop and avant-garde. Bureau B is now making the work accessible again on its 40th anniversary.
"In 1983, during the completion of this album, some ideas and views of the future changed for me. While everyone's mind was still haunted by the admonishingly gloomy vision of George Orwell's 1984, the release of the motion picture Blade Runner had a lasting effect. It depicted a world that can no longer be saved: Acid rain is pouring down derelict buildings and humanity has to confront fugitive cyborgs as a result of artificial intelligence gone wrong. The future however was not quite so clear-cut as those pictures: dystopian imaginings were also being layered with mosaic pieces of a pop history that saw itself as a source of hope, a supposed counterculture. Could this promise be fulfilled or was it simply a 'productive misunderstanding?' With the onset of digitalization, the new musical tools -- first and foremost the techniques of 'sampling' and computerized sequencing -- were enthusiastically met by me and many others, a generation of William Burroughs readers whose sensibility had been nurtured by 'cut-up' and 'automatic writing.' And so everything flowed together on this album: the esoteric heritage of various hippie and alternative movements and their expressions in 'pop,' the underlying currents of 'Modernism' and the influences of European 'neue musik.' The resulting musical pieces on the album celebrate this moment in its simultaneity, its confusion and its new confidence." --Holger Hiller
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BB 431CD
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Oui Bitte is the eleventh studio album by Station 17 and was recorded in Forellenhof, Nordhastedt, North Germany. In 2001, the legendary label Mute Records released the album Mikroprofessor with remixes by DJ Koze, Thomas Fehlmann, Justus Kohncke, and To Rococo Rot. In 2011, the Goldstein Variations Remixes followed, including versions by Erobique, Tobias Thomas, but also by Ada and Mense Reents. Timidly, the band began to ask their favorite producers most of whom agreed without hesitation. Soon, a top-class remix of Oui Bitte came together, with a who's who of the local electronic music landscape, and even if only the bases of the original pieces are recognizable, a completely new listening experience has been created here. It's grown into an independent work through the versatility of the participants and their expertise and can be enjoyed detached from the original material. As if by magic, a simultaneously stringent and diverse vibe has emerged that makes Oui Mixe more than just an addition to Oui Bitte. Also featuring Efdemin, Paul Frick ist mude, Pantha du Prince Sharing Lunch with Apes, and Toto Belmont Sophisti.
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BB 437CD
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Compiled by Ralf Koster, DJ and curator of Hamburg's Golden Pudel Club, Where The Rabbit Sleeps is an extensive collection of tracks by Sensorama, a project comprising Jorn Elling Wuttke and Roman Flugel. Working as a production team since the late 1980s in various guises such as Acid Jesus, Alter Ego, and Primitive Painter, the pair also founded several labels with DJ Ata and Heiko MSO (Ongaku, Klang Elektronik, Playhouse). They released their debut album as Sensorama in 1995. Their music draws on a wide range of influences which reach far beyond the generic borders of techno. Sensorama released the last of their three albums in 2001, leaving us with an extraordinary body of work which still resonates today. The new compilation Where The Rabbit Sleeps offers a deep insight into the musical world of Sensorama. It is available on CD or as a double LP with a gatefold cover, remastered by Andreas "Lupo" Lubich, with new artwork by Rike Weigert and liner notes by Charlotte Goltermann, Christoph Dallach, and Andreas Dorau.
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BB 437LP
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Double LP version. Compiled by Ralf Koster, DJ and curator of Hamburg's Golden Pudel Club, Where The Rabbit Sleeps is an extensive collection of tracks by Sensorama, a project comprising Jorn Elling Wuttke and Roman Flugel. Working as a production team since the late 1980s in various guises such as Acid Jesus, Alter Ego, and Primitive Painter, the pair also founded several labels with DJ Ata and Heiko MSO (Ongaku, Klang Elektronik, Playhouse). They released their debut album as Sensorama in 1995. Their music draws on a wide range of influences which reach far beyond the generic borders of techno. Sensorama released the last of their three albums in 2001, leaving us with an extraordinary body of work which still resonates today. The new compilation Where The Rabbit Sleeps offers a deep insight into the musical world of Sensorama. It is available on CD or as a double LP with a gatefold cover, remastered by Andreas "Lupo" Lubich, with new artwork by Rike Weigert and liner notes by Charlotte Goltermann, Christoph Dallach, and Andreas Dorau.
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BB 102LTD-LP
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There was a particular type of artist who could only have emerged in the legendary early 1970s. Few musicians fit the bill better than Conrad Schnitzler. Revolution, pop art and Fluxus created a climate which engendered unbridled artistic and social development. Radical utopias, excessive experimentation with drugs, and ruthless (in a positive way) transgression of aesthetic frontiers were characteristic of the period. The magic words were subculture, progress- positivity, and avantgardism. West Berlin, with its unique political status, was a crucible of turbulence. Founded in 1968, Zodiak was the ultimate point of convergence for subculture in West Berlin, with Conrad Schnitzler the driving force behind it. It was also here that Tangerine Dream and Kluster First met up to perform in public (the red album, Rot, was Schnitzler's first solo effort). As a member of Tangerine Dream, however, he had participated in the band's debut release Electronic Meditation some three years earlier (1970). He, Dieter Moebius, and Hans-Joachim Roedelius had also already founded Kluster, whose first album Klopfzeichen attracted a wealth of attention. On Rot, meanwhile, Schnitzler uncompromisingly pursued his very own vision of electronic music. As an acolyte of action and object artist Joseph Beuys, Schnitzler embraced the former's "extended definition of art," in which controlled randomness assumed an important role. Schnitzler actually extended the concept of music. Or to put it another way: he cared not one iota for existing rules of music, preferring to create his own or conceptualizing a certain degree of lawlessness. Improvisation grew in importance. The most exciting aspect of Schnitzler's music is not the fact that he only used synthetic sound and noise; the apparently chaotic movements of his microscopic particles of sound draw the listener into a paradoxical, yet also crystalline and vibrant artistic world. It doesn't get much more outlandish than this. Schnitzler's debut surpassed virtually every other pioneering artist of the day in terms of radicalness. Not content merely with making psychedelic soundtracks, he turned these on their head with his defiant artistic will. The rigor of his approach has never been matched. Schnitzler's inimitable cascades of sound and their transparency were, and remain, unique. Limited 50th Anniversary Edition: embossed, reverse board, hand numbered, limited edition red vinyl.
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BB 431LP
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LP version. Oui Bitte is the eleventh studio album by Station 17 and was recorded in Forellenhof, Nordhastedt, North Germany. In 2001, the legendary label Mute Records released the album Mikroprofessor with remixes by DJ Koze, Thomas Fehlmann, Justus Kohncke, and To Rococo Rot. In 2011, the Goldstein Variations Remixes followed, including versions by Erobique, Tobias Thomas, but also by Ada and Mense Reents. Timidly, the band began to ask their favorite producers most of whom agreed without hesitation. Soon, a top-class remix of Oui Bitte came together, with a who's who of the local electronic music landscape, and even if only the bases of the original pieces are recognizable, a completely new listening experience has been created here. It's grown into an independent work through the versatility of the participants and their expertise and can be enjoyed detached from the original material. As if by magic, a simultaneously stringent and diverse vibe has emerged that makes Oui Mixe more than just an addition to Oui Bitte. Also featuring Efdemin, Paul Frick ist mude, Pantha du Prince Sharing Lunch with Apes, and Toto Belmont Sophisti.
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BB 436CD
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Over the last ten years a strange mycelium was sprouting from the ground of Germany's sound topography, going widely unnoticed while creeping its way up through the corpse of the ubiquitous "neo-kraut", "diskurs-pop", and the like. This is a small underground network of artists and projects with poetic, mysterious names such as Brannten Schnüre, Baldruin, Kirschstein, Freundliche Kreisel, and Balint Brösel. Operating in the margins and intersections of folklore, experimental electronics, dreams, and nightmares, the Gespensterland LP archives and compiles their magic works for the very first time and already today it stands as a contemporary testament with an auratic presence comparable to that of Pordenone / Great Complotto.
"... For as much as these bands differ in their respective sonic approach, Gespensterland can still be considered as a cipher for a shared cosmos and a mutually found aesthetic language. It is always a similar sentiment of a slightly disconnected, shifted and delayed reality that manifests itself in Brannten Schnüre's wistful and whimsical ambient-folk loops, the evocative and rhythmic poltergeist interludes of Baldruin, the sweet and naïve C86-jangle of Balint Brösel, Kirschstein's rhenish mutant-NDW and post-kraut-romanticism and the electro-acoustic séances of Freundliche Kreisel. Think of it as a rampant yearning, a manic laughter, but mostly as a feeling of some somnambulistic thirst for adventure and journeys into the unknown, a feeling that is grounded deep inside the heart of the continent. We imagine, this is the music of a few like-minded recluses, sitting alone at night in their chambers, immersing themselves in the darkest and innermost Tibet of their own work. It's not too far-fetched either to read Gespensterland as a contribution to a specifically German response to Mark Fisher's hauntologic theories. In every track, the fancy of an abandoned future uncoils a narrative thread that has long been discontinued, a dream vision that remained unredeemed forever, now haunting the dull grey corridors of the post-historic presence. These songs glimmer and shine with moods and stories that draw their tension from the same force fields that once gave rise to Alfred Kubin's demonic visions, Hans Henny Jahnn's nightmarish 'Night of Lead' or the bizarre adventures of Baron Muenchhausen. And yet, it is not the specters of the past that are being summoned or dealt with here, but instead the quotidian, perpetually recurring disintegration of reality that lies within the close encounter with one's own unfamiliarity: 'is this my hand, or is it someone else's?'-- Margot Benetti, Walpurgis 2023
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BB 436LP
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LP version. Over the last ten years a strange mycelium was sprouting from the ground of Germany's sound topography, going widely unnoticed while creeping its way up through the corpse of the ubiquitous "neo-kraut", "diskurs-pop", and the like. This is a small underground network of artists and projects with poetic, mysterious names such as Brannten Schnüre, Baldruin, Kirschstein, Freundliche Kreisel, and Balint Brösel. Operating in the margins and intersections of folklore, experimental electronics, dreams, and nightmares, the Gespensterland LP archives and compiles their magic works for the very first time and already today it stands as a contemporary testament with an auratic presence comparable to that of Pordenone / Great Complotto.
"... For as much as these bands differ in their respective sonic approach, Gespensterland can still be considered as a cipher for a shared cosmos and a mutually found aesthetic language. It is always a similar sentiment of a slightly disconnected, shifted and delayed reality that manifests itself in Brannten Schnüre's wistful and whimsical ambient-folk loops, the evocative and rhythmic poltergeist interludes of Baldruin, the sweet and naïve C86-jangle of Balint Brösel, Kirschstein's rhenish mutant-NDW and post-kraut-romanticism and the electro-acoustic séances of Freundliche Kreisel. Think of it as a rampant yearning, a manic laughter, but mostly as a feeling of some somnambulistic thirst for adventure and journeys into the unknown, a feeling that is grounded deep inside the heart of the continent. We imagine, this is the music of a few like-minded recluses, sitting alone at night in their chambers, immersing themselves in the darkest and innermost Tibet of their own work. It's not too far-fetched either to read Gespensterland as a contribution to a specifically German response to Mark Fisher's hauntologic theories. In every track, the fancy of an abandoned future uncoils a narrative thread that has long been discontinued, a dream vision that remained unredeemed forever, now haunting the dull grey corridors of the post-historic presence. These songs glimmer and shine with moods and stories that draw their tension from the same force fields that once gave rise to Alfred Kubin's demonic visions, Hans Henny Jahnn's nightmarish 'Night of Lead' or the bizarre adventures of Baron Muenchhausen. And yet, it is not the specters of the past that are being summoned or dealt with here, but instead the quotidian, perpetually recurring disintegration of reality that lies within the close encounter with one's own unfamiliarity: 'is this my hand, or is it someone else's?'-- Margot Benetti, Walpurgis 2023
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BB 434CD
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All the herbs have been smoked. Datashock deliver a new album: Geltungsbereich Universum. Their second for Bureau B and the eighth in a career as an internationally active collective of musicians which has spanned two decades (so far). Space is the place, as the moonstruck sparrows sing from the rooftops, or is the Earth the most beautiful place in the universe? Some say yes, others no. Datashock say nothing at all.
"Twenty years and counting, and yet here they are, as shoulder-shruggingly nonchalant as ever, in the environs of pop culture, where (seeing) the wood for the trees means the world. What's going down, what's not? What the heck! Is this still krautrock, is it space rock or experimental music? What's the difference? Does it even matter? What's important is that something is happening. This much we know. And now something else has happened. A new Datashock release: Geltungsbereich Universum. Of course, it couldn't be any other way. Why set themselves limits? That has never been a concern for them. Even if, in all likelihood, they don't make it into space, at least not this year, they have been most places and always stick to their own thing. Which is what, exactly? That's for others to decide. The critique? This is your captain speaking, ... your captain is dead. Use your ears. Listen closely and take your time to discover the musical spheres -- the infinite worlds -- of Datashock. For card-carrying space travelers only!" --Holger Adam
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BB 434LP
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LP version. All the herbs have been smoked. Datashock deliver a new album: Geltungsbereich Universum. Their second for Bureau B and the eighth in a career as an internationally active collective of musicians which has spanned two decades (so far). Space is the place, as the moonstruck sparrows sing from the rooftops, or is the Earth the most beautiful place in the universe? Some say yes, others no. Datashock say nothing at all.
"Twenty years and counting, and yet here they are, as shoulder-shruggingly nonchalant as ever, in the environs of pop culture, where (seeing) the wood for the trees means the world. What's going down, what's not? What the heck! Is this still krautrock, is it space rock or experimental music? What's the difference? Does it even matter? What's important is that something is happening. This much we know. And now something else has happened. A new Datashock release: Geltungsbereich Universum. Of course, it couldn't be any other way. Why set themselves limits? That has never been a concern for them. Even if, in all likelihood, they don't make it into space, at least not this year, they have been most places and always stick to their own thing. Which is what, exactly? That's for others to decide. The critique? This is your captain speaking, ... your captain is dead. Use your ears. Listen closely and take your time to discover the musical spheres -- the infinite worlds -- of Datashock. For card-carrying space travelers only!" --Holger Adam
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BB 435CD
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Klar!80: a label with no program This compilation represents an initial -- and long overdue -- foray into the years 1980-82, when Klar!80 was a cassette label, paired with a shop of the same name in Düsseldorf. Founded by Rainer Rabowski, Klar!80 released 18 cassettes of varying length and a box set containing three 12" vinyl EPs which fetch handsome prices among collectors nowadays. The Klar!80 - Ein Kassettenlabel aus Düsseldorf 1980-1982 collection reaches even further back in time than the Sammlung: Düsseldorfer Kassettenmusik 1982-1989 (BB 236CD/LP, 2017) collection, similarly curated by Stefan Schneider, which focused on the mid-1980s Düsseldorf cassette scene. It captures the brief period between the end of punk and the looming capitalization and digitalization of so many aspects of life.
"Spontaneity and understatement characterized the brief creative period of Klar!80, which lasted from April 1980 until October 1982 . . . The DIY ethos of punk saw the emergence of a new type of producer: an instrumentalist, arranger, author, publisher, manufacturer and retailer all in one. Cassettes pre-empted the influence of personal computers to the extent that they enabled a single person to cover multiple steps in the production process which had hitherto been the remit of specialists. The musicians who release their works on Klar!80 are, at once, distinctly individual spirits and yet related, familiar and yet unfamiliar, like-minded and yet, and yet not... the personal is mixed with adjacent art. New forms of collaboration are explored, sometimes lasting only as long as a single recording session: from a band to a project. So it was that Klar!80 introduced the early experiments of Christo Haas and Beate Bartel, performing here as CHBB, to the world. Before long, they would enter the international dance charts with their pulsating sequencer sounds as Liaisons Dangereuses. Eva Gössling imported no wave from New York to Düsseldorf, grafting electronic and motoric elements into the sound. Strafe für Rebellion, who opened the record with a sculptural sonic collage, would later release numerous albums on the prestigious Touch label in London. Today, the Aachener Strasse shop in the Bilk district of Düsseldorf survives in a few Polaroid pictures and video recordings made by Agi Yuzuru and Mamoru Shibuya, two journalists visiting from Osaka. The label shut down in October 1982 and, in the years that followed, the original cassettes, master tapes and artwork were either given away or misplaced. The recordings you can listen to here have been gleaned from private collections of well-preserved cassettes, painstakingly restored and digitalized..." --Rainer Rabowski and Stefan Schneider, Düsseldorf March 2023
Features Strafe für Rebellion, Roter Stern Belgrad, Und Piloten, Europa, Ralph & Ernie, Xao Seffcheque und der Rest, Rara, Axel & Ralph, Eraserhead, P.Projekta / G.Ranzz, CHBB, and BLÄSSE.
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BB 435LP
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LP version. Klar!80: a label with no program This compilation represents an initial -- and long overdue -- foray into the years 1980-82, when Klar!80 was a cassette label, paired with a shop of the same name in Düsseldorf. Founded by Rainer Rabowski, Klar!80 released 18 cassettes of varying length and a box set containing three 12" vinyl EPs which fetch handsome prices among collectors nowadays. The Klar!80 - Ein Kassettenlabel aus Düsseldorf 1980-1982 collection reaches even further back in time than the Sammlung: Düsseldorfer Kassettenmusik 1982-1989 (BB 236CD/LP, 2017) collection, similarly curated by Stefan Schneider, which focused on the mid-1980s Düsseldorf cassette scene. It captures the brief period between the end of punk and the looming capitalization and digitalization of so many aspects of life.
"Spontaneity and understatement characterized the brief creative period of Klar!80, which lasted from April 1980 until October 1982 . . . The DIY ethos of punk saw the emergence of a new type of producer: an instrumentalist, arranger, author, publisher, manufacturer and retailer all in one. Cassettes pre-empted the influence of personal computers to the extent that they enabled a single person to cover multiple steps in the production process which had hitherto been the remit of specialists. The musicians who release their works on Klar!80 are, at once, distinctly individual spirits and yet related, familiar and yet unfamiliar, like-minded and yet, and yet not... the personal is mixed with adjacent art. New forms of collaboration are explored, sometimes lasting only as long as a single recording session: from a band to a project. So it was that Klar!80 introduced the early experiments of Christo Haas and Beate Bartel, performing here as CHBB, to the world. Before long, they would enter the international dance charts with their pulsating sequencer sounds as Liaisons Dangereuses. Eva Gössling imported no wave from New York to Düsseldorf, grafting electronic and motoric elements into the sound. Strafe für Rebellion, who opened the record with a sculptural sonic collage, would later release numerous albums on the prestigious Touch label in London. Today, the Aachener Strasse shop in the Bilk district of Düsseldorf survives in a few Polaroid pictures and video recordings made by Agi Yuzuru and Mamoru Shibuya, two journalists visiting from Osaka. The label shut down in October 1982 and, in the years that followed, the original cassettes, master tapes and artwork were either given away or misplaced. The recordings you can listen to here have been gleaned from private collections of well-preserved cassettes, painstakingly restored and digitalized..." --Rainer Rabowski and Stefan Schneider, Düsseldorf March 2023
Features Strafe für Rebellion, Roter Stern Belgrad, Und Piloten, Europa, Ralph & Ernie, Xao Seffcheque und der Rest, Rara, Axel & Ralph, Eraserhead, P.Projekta / G.Ranzz, CHBB, and BLÄSSE.
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BB 433CD
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With Attack Time by sound tinkerer Zeus B. Held, Bureau B is re-releasing one of the most exciting records of the original experimental kraut-pop period. After various stints, including prog band Birth Control and underground dance tipple Gina X Performance, he also put out a string of solo releases. Attack Time, originally released on Aladin in 1981, gave Zeus B. Held the opportunity to experiment sonically outside the mainstream and subversively undermine the hegemonic MTV sound of the early 1980s. Unfortunately, the album was a commercial failure at the time. So, it's all the nicer that it's now being brought out into the world again with all its supposed contradictions between enraptured new wave, cosmic electronics and weird rock grooves.
"Zeus B. Held's origin story begins behind the keyboards of progressive powerhouse Birth Control, a six-year stint which saw his technique toughened in the crucible of hundreds of all night performances. After a brief pause in Paris to session for those space-age cyborgs Rockets, he came back to Köln in '78 and swapped commune living for a spot in the city. Soon he was picking up session work at the local Sound Experience studio and indulging his electronic obsession on a couple of solo LPs, Zeus' Amusement and Europium. In league with like-minded studio owner Martin Hömberg and art scene savant Gina Kikoine, Zeus took his new sound even further with a trio of icy electropop LPs as Gina X Performance. Their combination of queer culture, disco rhythms, and synthesizer sleaze captured the underground dancefloor, influencing Human League and Martin Gore, and making a splash at Arista, who were looking for someone to handle production duties on Fashion's sophomore album. Relocating to London in '82, Zeus spent a decade behind the desk for the likes of John Foxx, Dead Or Alive, and Pete Wylie, cementing his position among the pantheon of studio greats, where he's remained ever since . . . Recorded in '80 and '81 after the third GXP album wrapped, Attack Time is Zeus on the loose in Sound Experience, spending late nights alone learning how to play the studio as an instrument. Pre-MIDI and prior to the sampling revolution of the Fairlight, the ten tracks are awash with analogue techniques -- snip tapes and Revox time dilation, the pulsing PPG modular, groan tubes and eerie collages from the studio dustbin..." --Patrick Ryder
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BB 432LP
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LP version. "Taking inspiration from deep in the mediaeval mists of times long past, CV Vision comes riding over the hills like a knight to the rescue, and his new album Im Tal Der Stutzer is packed full of galloping drums, feudal prog riffs and poetic lyrics harking back to a golden age. You might've caught CV Vision in Berlin, either on stage or behind the mixer at some of his favorite clubs like Arkaoda, Heiners or O Tannenbaum. He could be accompanied by synths, or drum kit, or even full band -- channeling his love of Bo Hansson and Claude Larson, or Soft Machine and Picchio dal Pozzo. Always heavy on the backbeat, the songs awash with heady synths and expansive psych inversions. For this record, CV Vision recruited two wayfaring collaborators in the form of songwriter and musician Martha Rose, and drummer Uno Bruniusson. They started the project at the dawn of the Covid outbreak, and it quickly became a coping mechanism against the lockdown. During those months of uncertainty, the collaboration blossomed into a sanctuary of psychedelic prog, acid folk, and warped feudal weirdness, a refuge built on layered synth lines and reel-to-reel delays. Im Tal Der Stutzer invites you into its kaleidoscopic reality from the get-go -- from the pulsating swing of 'Die Frommen Wanderer' and frenetic synth arpeggios of 'Die Nachricht Schneller als der Wind', to the misty-eyed folk of 'Lichtermond'. The whole record is punctuated with field recordings of ironmongers and cowherds and campfires, adding to the theatre. It's a testament to the wide-ranging world that CV Vision has created, that he can at once invoke the 'Hildebrandslied' while sounding like a library record that DJ Shadow might've sampled. In CV Vision verse, it all makes perfect sense." --Max Cole
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BB 433LP
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LP version. With Attack Time by sound tinkerer Zeus B. Held, Bureau B is re-releasing one of the most exciting records of the original experimental kraut-pop period. After various stints, including prog band Birth Control and underground dance tipple Gina X Performance, he also put out a string of solo releases. Attack Time, originally released on Aladin in 1981, gave Zeus B. Held the opportunity to experiment sonically outside the mainstream and subversively undermine the hegemonic MTV sound of the early 1980s. Unfortunately, the album was a commercial failure at the time. So, it's all the nicer that it's now being brought out into the world again with all its supposed contradictions between enraptured new wave, cosmic electronics and weird rock grooves.
"Zeus B. Held's origin story begins behind the keyboards of progressive powerhouse Birth Control, a six-year stint which saw his technique toughened in the crucible of hundreds of all night performances. After a brief pause in Paris to session for those space-age cyborgs Rockets, he came back to Köln in '78 and swapped commune living for a spot in the city. Soon he was picking up session work at the local Sound Experience studio and indulging his electronic obsession on a couple of solo LPs, Zeus' Amusement and Europium. In league with like-minded studio owner Martin Hömberg and art scene savant Gina Kikoine, Zeus took his new sound even further with a trio of icy electropop LPs as Gina X Performance. Their combination of queer culture, disco rhythms, and synthesizer sleaze captured the underground dancefloor, influencing Human League and Martin Gore, and making a splash at Arista, who were looking for someone to handle production duties on Fashion's sophomore album. Relocating to London in '82, Zeus spent a decade behind the desk for the likes of John Foxx, Dead Or Alive, and Pete Wylie, cementing his position among the pantheon of studio greats, where he's remained ever since . . . Recorded in '80 and '81 after the third GXP album wrapped, Attack Time is Zeus on the loose in Sound Experience, spending late nights alone learning how to play the studio as an instrument. Pre-MIDI and prior to the sampling revolution of the Fairlight, the ten tracks are awash with analogue techniques -- snip tapes and Revox time dilation, the pulsing PPG modular, groan tubes and eerie collages from the studio dustbin..." --Patrick Ryder
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BB 414LP
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Double LP version. With synthesizers, rhythm computers, and human metronomes turned to a gallop, these electronic innovators set modernity to a motorik beat, and Bureau B's second trip into Silberland cuts right to the thrust of the genre. The set begins with the propulsive opener from Harald Grosskopf's 1986 LP Oceanheart, in which pristine sequences play in counterpoint atop a mechanical kick, hurtling forward until the rest of the kit catches up. Live drums take center stage for Cluster's feverish "Prothese" and the time travelling "Elektroklang" by Conrad Schnitzler. You offer astral ascension on "Son Of A True Star", weaving proggy square waves and pulsating arps around an irresistible shuffle from mysterious percussionist Lhan Gopal (Grosskopf in disguise), before the optimistic "Für Dich" fuses classic kosmische chords with Thomas Dinger's pummeling beat. Asmus Tietchens's detuned keys and drum machine samba are imbued with a punk spirit shared by Moebius Plank Neumeier's discordant jazz-tanz jam "Search Zero". "Beat For Ikutaro", plucked from a mid-80s demo tape by Camouflage keyboardist Heiko Maile, swerves into icy electroid territories. The cassette energy continues with the mechanized boogie of Lapre's "Flokati", a funkier take on the style in wonderful contrast with Adelbert Von Deyen's breakneck, straight shooting "Time Machine", a massively motorik night drive. Günter Schickert takes you inside the fuel pump on the weird and watery "Puls", while the charmingly disruptive Faust complete the pitstop via the blasted blues of "Juggernaut". Moebius & Plank return sans Neumeier for the deep and dubby "Feedback 66", all murmured vocals and surging pedals powered by a seismic bassline from Holger Czukay. You move through the airy tones of Roedelius and arrive at the high-tension electronics of Serge Blenner's "Phonique". Moebius & Beerbohm's "Subito" follows in a flurry of tribal drumming, guttural distortion and corrosive drone, a synthesized translation of punk spirit which mellows into the soft-focus serenade of Tyndall's "Wolkenlos", a thrilling contradiction of pastoral motifs and breathless tempo. Pyrolator's 1981 creation "180°" maintains the lightening pace, lurching forward in bursts of chaotic drum programming and sampler abuse, sending you spinning out into the strange beauty of Die Partei's "Guten Morgen In Köln". Enmeshing fragments of musique concrète and yearning guitar with throbbing sequences and a rigid rhythm grid, the duo signpost a melodic destination finally delivered by Streetmark keyboardist Dorothea Raukes under her Deutsche Wertabeit alias. A fitting finale, "Auf Engelsflügeln" radiates human warmth and cosmic wonder, serving electronic emotion from start to finish.
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CD
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BB 414CD
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With synthesizers, rhythm computers, and human metronomes turned to a gallop, these electronic innovators set modernity to a motorik beat, and Bureau B's second trip into Silberland cuts right to the thrust of the genre. The set begins with the propulsive opener from Harald Grosskopf's 1986 LP Oceanheart, in which pristine sequences play in counterpoint atop a mechanical kick, hurtling forward until the rest of the kit catches up. Live drums take center stage for Cluster's feverish "Prothese" and the time travelling "Elektroklang" by Conrad Schnitzler. You offer astral ascension on "Son Of A True Star", weaving proggy square waves and pulsating arps around an irresistible shuffle from mysterious percussionist Lhan Gopal (Grosskopf in disguise), before the optimistic "Für Dich" fuses classic kosmische chords with Thomas Dinger's pummeling beat. Asmus Tietchens's detuned keys and drum machine samba are imbued with a punk spirit shared by Moebius Plank Neumeier's discordant jazz-tanz jam "Search Zero". "Beat For Ikutaro", plucked from a mid-80s demo tape by Camouflage keyboardist Heiko Maile, swerves into icy electroid territories. The cassette energy continues with the mechanized boogie of Lapre's "Flokati", a funkier take on the style in wonderful contrast with Adelbert Von Deyen's breakneck, straight shooting "Time Machine", a massively motorik night drive. Günter Schickert takes you inside the fuel pump on the weird and watery "Puls", while the charmingly disruptive Faust complete the pitstop via the blasted blues of "Juggernaut". Moebius & Plank return sans Neumeier for the deep and dubby "Feedback 66", all murmured vocals and surging pedals powered by a seismic bassline from Holger Czukay. You move through the airy tones of Roedelius and arrive at the high-tension electronics of Serge Blenner's "Phonique". Moebius & Beerbohm's "Subito" follows in a flurry of tribal drumming, guttural distortion and corrosive drone, a synthesized translation of punk spirit which mellows into the soft-focus serenade of Tyndall's "Wolkenlos", a thrilling contradiction of pastoral motifs and breathless tempo. Pyrolator's 1981 creation "180°" maintains the lightening pace, lurching forward in bursts of chaotic drum programming and sampler abuse, sending you spinning out into the strange beauty of Die Partei's "Guten Morgen In Köln". Enmeshing fragments of musique concrète and yearning guitar with throbbing sequences and a rigid rhythm grid, the duo signpost a melodic destination finally delivered by Streetmark keyboardist Dorothea Raukes under her Deutsche Wertabeit alias. A fitting finale, "Auf Engelsflügeln" radiates human warmth and cosmic wonder, serving electronic emotion from start to finish.
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