BUREAU B - Forced Exposure

$103.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/5/2021

A band's fame can be measured in the sum of myths, legends and stories which are conjured up in their wake. In which case, Faust have been playing in the Champions League for quite some time. Few bands have been as innovative, influential or as irrepressible as Faust -- the way they revolutionized the history of music in the space of just four years puts them right up there with The Velvet Underground. What began in a Hamburg (Sternschanze) bunker in 1970 would send shockwaves around the world. Here's how Stephen Morris (Joy Division/New Order) remembers it: "The first krautrock record which made a lasting impression on me was the debut album by Faust. The transparent disc looked spectacular and the music was mind-blowing, not songs as such, it was something absolutely unique, the polar opposite of everything the Rolling Stones, Beatles and the like were doing. It was right up my street." (Dallach/Future Sounds) This box is the first virtually complete collection of Faust works from the years 1971-1974. In addition to the debut album referenced by Morris, it includes the 1972 album So Far, the legendary 1973 Virgin UK release The Faust Tapes, Faust IV and, for the first time ever, the mythical, so-called "Munich album" Punkt, which Faust recorded at Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studios in 1974. For one reason or another, this last album never saw the light of day -- until now. The bonus albums Momentaufnahme I and Momentaufnahme II also feature unreleased material, simultaneously affording us a fascinating glimpse of Faust's creativity in their Wümme studio phase. Two 7-inch singles round off the Faust 1971-1974 compendium: "Lieber Herr Deutschland" is the demo recording they sent to Polydor in 1971, remarkably triggering a contract offer from the label who had something of a conservative reputation at the time. The track later resurfaced as the B-side to their single "Baby", a song which had been rejected by the aforementioned label. The second 7-inch single in the box is a rerelease of So Far, the first Faust single on Polydor, originally issued in 1972. It is by no means overstating the case to assert that Faust created and christened a genre (the name would prove emotive) in one fell swoop (track one on Faust IV). Even 50 years (or perhaps all the more so) after they took their first musical steps in a bunker near Hamburg's Sternschanze station, Faust still sound revolutionary, timeless, irrepressible and, above all, unique. Mastered from the original tapes.

$175.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/5/2021

Seven LPs + two 7" box set version. A band's fame can be measured in the sum of myths, legends and stories which are conjured up in their wake. In which case, Faust have been playing in the Champions League for quite some time. Few bands have been as innovative, influential or as irrepressible as Faust -- the way they revolutionized the history of music in the space of just four years puts them right up there with The Velvet Underground. What began in a Hamburg (Sternschanze) bunker in 1970 would send shockwaves around the world. Here's how Stephen Morris (Joy Division/New Order) remembers it: "The first krautrock record which made a lasting impression on me was the debut album by Faust. The transparent disc looked spectacular and the music was mind-blowing, not songs as such, it was something absolutely unique, the polar opposite of everything the Rolling Stones, Beatles and the like were doing. It was right up my street." (Dallach/Future Sounds) This box is the first virtually complete collection of Faust works from the years 1971-1974. In addition to the debut album referenced by Morris, it includes the 1972 album So Far, the legendary 1973 Virgin UK release The Faust Tapes, Faust IV and, for the first time ever, the mythical, so-called "Munich album" Punkt, which Faust recorded at Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studios in 1974. For one reason or another, this last album never saw the light of day -- until now. The bonus albums Momentaufnahme I and Momentaufnahme II also feature unreleased material, simultaneously affording us a fascinating glimpse of Faust's creativity in their Wümme studio phase. Two 7-inch singles round off the Faust 1971-1974 compendium: "Lieber Herr Deutschland" is the demo recording they sent to Polydor in 1971, remarkably triggering a contract offer from the label who had something of a conservative reputation at the time. The track later resurfaced as the B-side to their single "Baby", a song which had been rejected by the aforementioned label. The second 7-inch single in the box is a rerelease of So Far, the first Faust single on Polydor, originally issued in 1972. It is by no means overstating the case to assert that Faust created and christened a genre (the name would prove emotive) in one fell swoop (track one on Faust IV). Even 50 years (or perhaps all the more so) after they took their first musical steps in a bunker near Hamburg's Sternschanze station, Faust still sound revolutionary, timeless, irrepressible and, above all, unique. Mastered from the original tapes.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "Outer-national dance discourses, that strive for no country and obey to no flag: when Düsseldorf based producer, Stefan Schwander creates music as Harmonious Thelonious, highly percussive rhythms, dissonances and melodic twists tango chatoyant virtuosic. Since 2008 he releases music, that unites Detroit techno districts, widescreen minimalistic structures and African rhythm patterns into a wide dynamic scale. All eight musical objects collected on Instrumentals! document a chapter in Harmonious Thelonious's work, that left the noisy background drones behind in favor for a signature sound full of echoes of ancient rituals and ecstatic ceremonies. Eight growing outlaw music studies crammed with living, deeply haunting entities. They all came to life in different cities like Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, London or Paris, first published on labels like Asafa, Disk, The Trilogy Tapes, or Versatile. United under one roof, they unfold their magical groove symbolism, notable hypnotic harmony and agitating rhythm archetypes in a total overpowering coalition. Tunes like 'Beiläufige Muziek' or 'Yusuf' embark with a new breed of psychic leftfield Motor City techno, perfect for an electric drive on a multicultural utopian future highway. In contrast, tracks like 'Abel', 'Ayranman', 'Apakapa', or 'Halb Ding' perform tricky snake dances enlarged with Ghanaian highlife tones, Senegalese guitar folk and manic serpentine Moroccan flute wizardry. Intense buzzing voodoo music, driven by swinging bass pulses, sequencing looniness, moving up somewhere on a polyrhythmic horizon between Occident and Orient, end-to-end danceable, thoroughly transcending space and time." --Michael Leuffen

$16.50 IN STOCK

Drummer, percussionist, producer, radio journalist and DJ, Niklas Wandt's musical path can be traced back to his childhood, signposted by jazz and psychedelia. He has presented WDR 3's Jazz & World programme for a number of years, whilst a growing interest in electronic music has seen him perform live and record albums with bands like Oracles and Stabil Elite. He has even carved a niche as a DJ in the environs of the Düsseldorfer Salon des Amateurs. In 2018, Niklas Wandt and Wolf Müller released the highly acclaimed Instrumental Musik Von Der Mitte Der World album (Growing Bin Records). Wandt also founded the synth-pop project Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge with Joshua Gottmanns. Further solo and collaborative works followed in 2019 and 2020. Now, Niklas Wandt is about to release a quite astounding album under his own name on Bureau B. The full scope of influences gathered and absorbed over the years coalesce on Solar Müsli -- all the pieces of the puzzle fall effortlessly into place. This is not formalism at work, but an exhilarating, freely flowing album which started out as an exercise in improvised percussion and developed into a multidimensional journey, at times both introverted and ebullient. Mere genre tags go out of the window. At certain moments, the listeners will find themselves stopping dead, transfixed in wonderment, before the ride resumes.

Niklas Wandt on Solar Müsli: "As for so many of us, March of last year brought an abrupt end to a hectic schedule. The previous year, I'd spent more time on the road than at home, what with touring and radio productions . . . Deceleration, simplification, an intense thirst of the senses to focus on such fundamental phenomena once again. It was also a year full of tension and conflicts, some conscious but mostly unconscious, in a far livelier dreamworld than before -- all of which can be found in the first two tracks. A 'complete night' traces an arc from the beginning to the end, a communal journey, a liberating, vivacious experience -- all in associative lyrical collages, naturally, which cannot readily be framed in any specific form..."

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. The new album by electronica producer Ulrich Schnauss and the Engineers guitarist Mark Peters Destiny Waiving is released via Bureau B. Hailing from Kiel in North Germany, it's now 20 years since the electronica prodigy Ulrich Schnauss released his debut album. His second, A Strangely Isolated Place cemented his reputation as both a pioneer and an artist who routinely creates inspirational music that is adored by many. As a full-time member of Tangerine Dream since 2014, his lifelong passion for their work inspired a creative resurgence for the band, resulting in their most successful new album for over 30 years, 2017's Quantum Gate. Liverpool born guitarist (and founder of the dream pop outfit Engineers) Mark Peters shared a similar musical path, exploring ambient textures and effect laden songwriting via a series of blissful albums for the band. In 2017 he released his first solo album, Innerland which was enthusiastically received by BBC6 music and later included in Rough Trade's top ten best albums of 2018. Destiny Waiving completes a collaborative trilogy that began with 2011's Underrated Silence (BB 094CD/LP) and followed by 2013's Tomorrow Is Another Day (BB 148CD/LP) (Schnauss also became a full-time member of Engineers at this time). Initial sessions began at Ulrich's East London home studio in early 2017 and final mixes were completed there in late 2020. Despite its extended conception, most tracks were completed during 2017, in part informed by improvisational sets in London, Dublin and St James' Church in Birmingham. Despite these exercises in exploration, Destiny Waiving is perhaps the most focused and concise collection of all three releases. Ranging in tone from precognitive foreboding to soaring optimism, the album delicately hones a particular atmosphere that is unmistakable in their work. While track titles such as "The Supposed Middle Class" acutely display a concern for society at large, compositions and performances reveal a great deal more light and shade. This inherent balance is a key facet of the duo's chemistry, signposted by the titles of "Chiaroscuro" and "Clair-Obscur" and the shifting moods within the tracks. For every rushing, upward sweep ("Hindsight Is 20/20", "Circular Time"), contemplative countering is evident in tracks such as "Words Can Be Dismissed" and "So Far", "The Moment".

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Drummer, percussionist, producer, radio journalist and DJ, Niklas Wandt's musical path can be traced back to his childhood, signposted by jazz and psychedelia. He has presented WDR 3's Jazz & World programme for a number of years, whilst a growing interest in electronic music has seen him perform live and record albums with bands like Oracles and Stabil Elite. He has even carved a niche as a DJ in the environs of the Düsseldorfer Salon des Amateurs. In 2018, Niklas Wandt and Wolf Müller released the highly acclaimed Instrumental Musik Von Der Mitte Der World album (Growing Bin Records). Wandt also founded the synth-pop project Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge with Joshua Gottmanns. Further solo and collaborative works followed in 2019 and 2020. Now, Niklas Wandt is about to release a quite astounding album under his own name on Bureau B. The full scope of influences gathered and absorbed over the years coalesce on Solar Müsli -- all the pieces of the puzzle fall effortlessly into place. This is not formalism at work, but an exhilarating, freely flowing album which started out as an exercise in improvised percussion and developed into a multidimensional journey, at times both introverted and ebullient. Mere genre tags go out of the window. At certain moments, the listeners will find themselves stopping dead, transfixed in wonderment, before the ride resumes.

Niklas Wandt on Solar Müsli: "As for so many of us, March of last year brought an abrupt end to a hectic schedule. The previous year, I'd spent more time on the road than at home, what with touring and radio productions . . . Deceleration, simplification, an intense thirst of the senses to focus on such fundamental phenomena once again. It was also a year full of tension and conflicts, some conscious but mostly unconscious, in a far livelier dreamworld than before -- all of which can be found in the first two tracks. A 'complete night' traces an arc from the beginning to the end, a communal journey, a liberating, vivacious experience -- all in associative lyrical collages, naturally, which cannot readily be framed in any specific form..."

$16.50 IN STOCK

The new album by electronica producer Ulrich Schnauss and the Engineers guitarist Mark Peters Destiny Waiving is released via Bureau B. Hailing from Kiel in North Germany, it's now 20 years since the electronica prodigy Ulrich Schnauss released his debut album. His second, A Strangely Isolated Place cemented his reputation as both a pioneer and an artist who routinely creates inspirational music that is adored by many. As a full-time member of Tangerine Dream since 2014, his lifelong passion for their work inspired a creative resurgence for the band, resulting in their most successful new album for over 30 years, 2017's Quantum Gate. Liverpool born guitarist (and founder of the dream pop outfit Engineers) Mark Peters shared a similar musical path, exploring ambient textures and effect laden songwriting via a series of blissful albums for the band. In 2017 he released his first solo album, Innerland which was enthusiastically received by BBC6 music and later included in Rough Trade's top ten best albums of 2018. Destiny Waiving completes a collaborative trilogy that began with 2011's Underrated Silence (BB 094CD/LP) and followed by 2013's Tomorrow Is Another Day (BB 148CD/LP) (Schnauss also became a full-time member of Engineers at this time). Initial sessions began at Ulrich's East London home studio in early 2017 and final mixes were completed there in late 2020. Despite its extended conception, most tracks were completed during 2017, in part informed by improvisational sets in London, Dublin and St James' Church in Birmingham. Despite these exercises in exploration, Destiny Waiving is perhaps the most focused and concise collection of all three releases. Ranging in tone from precognitive foreboding to soaring optimism, the album delicately hones a particular atmosphere that is unmistakable in their work. While track titles such as "The Supposed Middle Class" acutely display a concern for society at large, compositions and performances reveal a great deal more light and shade. This inherent balance is a key facet of the duo's chemistry, signposted by the titles of "Chiaroscuro" and "Clair-Obscur" and the shifting moods within the tracks. For every rushing, upward sweep ("Hindsight Is 20/20", "Circular Time"), contemplative countering is evident in tracks such as "Words Can Be Dismissed" and "So Far", "The Moment".

$20.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

Double CD version. The limited double-CD includes alternate versions with added live drums by the Von Spar drummer Jan-Philiip Janzen. The new album by electronica producer Ulrich Schnauss and the Engineers guitarist Mark Peters Destiny Waiving is released via Bureau B. Hailing from Kiel in North Germany, it's now 20 years since the electronica prodigy Ulrich Schnauss released his debut album. His second, A Strangely Isolated Place cemented his reputation as both a pioneer and an artist who routinely creates inspirational music that is adored by many. As a full-time member of Tangerine Dream since 2014, his lifelong passion for their work inspired a creative resurgence for the band, resulting in their most successful new album for over 30 years, 2017's Quantum Gate. Liverpool born guitarist (and founder of the dream pop outfit Engineers) Mark Peters shared a similar musical path, exploring ambient textures and effect laden songwriting via a series of blissful albums for the band. In 2017 he released his first solo album, Innerland which was enthusiastically received by BBC6 music and later included in Rough Trade's top ten best albums of 2018. Destiny Waiving completes a collaborative trilogy that began with 2011's Underrated Silence (BB 094CD/LP) and followed by 2013's Tomorrow Is Another Day (BB 148CD/LP) (Schnauss also became a full-time member of Engineers at this time). Initial sessions began at Ulrich's East London home studio in early 2017 and final mixes were completed there in late 2020. Despite its extended conception, most tracks were completed during 2017, in part informed by improvisational sets in London, Dublin and St James' Church in Birmingham. Despite these exercises in exploration, Destiny Waiving is perhaps the most focused and concise collection of all three releases. Ranging in tone from precognitive foreboding to soaring optimism, the album delicately hones a particular atmosphere that is unmistakable in their work. While track titles such as "The Supposed Middle Class" acutely display a concern for society at large, compositions and performances reveal a great deal more light and shade. This inherent balance is a key facet of the duo's chemistry, signposted by the titles of "Chiaroscuro" and "Clair-Obscur" and the shifting moods within the tracks. For every rushing, upward sweep ("Hindsight Is 20/20", "Circular Time"), contemplative countering is evident in tracks such as "Words Can Be Dismissed" and "So Far", "The Moment".

$16.50 IN STOCK

"Outer-national dance discourses, that strive for no country and obey to no flag: when Düsseldorf based producer, Stefan Schwander creates music as Harmonious Thelonious, highly percussive rhythms, dissonances and melodic twists tango chatoyant virtuosic. Since 2008 he releases music, that unites Detroit techno districts, widescreen minimalistic structures and African rhythm patterns into a wide dynamic scale. All eight musical objects collected on Instrumentals! document a chapter in Harmonious Thelonious's work, that left the noisy background drones behind in favor for a signature sound full of echoes of ancient rituals and ecstatic ceremonies. Eight growing outlaw music studies crammed with living, deeply haunting entities. They all came to life in different cities like Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, London or Paris, first published on labels like Asafa, Disk, The Trilogy Tapes, or Versatile. United under one roof, they unfold their magical groove symbolism, notable hypnotic harmony and agitating rhythm archetypes in a total overpowering coalition. Tunes like 'Beiläufige Muziek' or 'Yusuf' embark with a new breed of psychic leftfield Motor City techno, perfect for an electric drive on a multicultural utopian future highway. In contrast, tracks like 'Abel', 'Ayranman', 'Apakapa', or 'Halb Ding' perform tricky snake dances enlarged with Ghanaian highlife tones, Senegalese guitar folk and manic serpentine Moroccan flute wizardry. Intense buzzing voodoo music, driven by swinging bass pulses, sequencing looniness, moving up somewhere on a polyrhythmic horizon between Occident and Orient, end-to-end danceable, thoroughly transcending space and time." --Michael Leuffen

$16.50 IN STOCK

"Hamburg's post-kraut-electro trio Love-Songs and Ulf Schütte (Datashock, Phantom Horse, Little Whirls) have formed a group named Love-Songs & U. Schütte for the duration of one long-playing record. This body of work bears the modest title [Spannende Musik] -- an attribution which sounds not in the least bit pejorative to those with no skin in the game: 'Yes, it really is exciting music!' The adjective pinned to the music may go deeper: 'spannend' can also express tension, in this case not to convey a mood or a tense thriller, but in a physical sense. The musical foursome's nocturnal world tour begins (and ends?) in a shamanistic factory hall with no clocks. Rigorous polyrhythms are accentuated by dexterously frayed edges. Radio wave rituals are revealed by flickering fluorescent lamps, a tribalistic screw box is in danger of falling from a conveyor belt. The dualism of minimalistic asceticism and long-distance free improvisations create that selfsame tension which lends the spacious music of Tony Conrad, Joshua Abrams or the kosmische, yet earthed music of Pulse Emitter et al, such an original voice and atmosphere. One must search far and wide to find space and movement interlock so seamlessly through such meticulous layering and barely perceptible shifts in order to maintain the tension alluded to earlier. The purely descriptive titles of the individual tracks, lifted from annotations of music in film sub-titles, lead us further astray than we might have first thought -- which brings us back to the actual meaning of tension and what it is capable of evoking on a semantic and aesthetic level, something which contemporary music painfully lacks: a certain unreliability." --Rasmus Engler

$22.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a very special release: Kiosque Of Arrows 2 is Detlef Weinrich's (aka Tolouse Low Trax) first compilation for Bureau B. Echoing the spirit of the legendary samplers found on Les Disques Du Crépuscule or Made To Measure, this hybrid journal not only collates unusual pieces of music -- rare and undiscovered pearls from the experimental underground of the early 1980s through to contemporary unreleased recordings -- it also represents a reflective collage of cut-ups, observations and memories in the never-ending search for inexplicable beauty. Eleven tracks of unique pop fusions meander through states of casualness, a nocturnal thirst for adventure, and the intense yearnings of hot, sultry afternoons with an uneven and brittle quality. It all helps to pinpoint Tolouse Low Trax as artist and curator in the grander scheme of things, whilst evoking the spirit of countless nights at the Düsseldorfer Salon des Amateurs. Features Macromassa, The Stupid Set, DsorDNE, Techno Twins, Venus in Furs, Javier Segura, Bassæ, Lydia Tomkiw, Iueke & Lippie, Kaoru Hirose, and Viola Renea.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "Hamburg's post-kraut-electro trio Love-Songs and Ulf Schütte (Datashock, Phantom Horse, Little Whirls) have formed a group named Love-Songs & U. Schütte for the duration of one long-playing record. This body of work bears the modest title [Spannende Musik] -- an attribution which sounds not in the least bit pejorative to those with no skin in the game: 'Yes, it really is exciting music!' The adjective pinned to the music may go deeper: 'spannend' can also express tension, in this case not to convey a mood or a tense thriller, but in a physical sense. The musical foursome's nocturnal world tour begins (and ends?) in a shamanistic factory hall with no clocks. Rigorous polyrhythms are accentuated by dexterously frayed edges. Radio wave rituals are revealed by flickering fluorescent lamps, a tribalistic screw box is in danger of falling from a conveyor belt. The dualism of minimalistic asceticism and long-distance free improvisations create that selfsame tension which lends the spacious music of Tony Conrad, Joshua Abrams or the kosmische, yet earthed music of Pulse Emitter et al, such an original voice and atmosphere. One must search far and wide to find space and movement interlock so seamlessly through such meticulous layering and barely perceptible shifts in order to maintain the tension alluded to earlier. The purely descriptive titles of the individual tracks, lifted from annotations of music in film sub-titles, lead us further astray than we might have first thought -- which brings us back to the actual meaning of tension and what it is capable of evoking on a semantic and aesthetic level, something which contemporary music painfully lacks: a certain unreliability." --Rasmus Engler

$22.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Spring is Thomas Klein's fourth Sølyst release on Bureau B, gleaned from material spanning the past three years. The time he has spent with these pieces has been time well spent. In revisiting them, he has posed new questions, rearranged and reworked some elements, dismissed or discarded others. The process of reappraisal has seen certain passages expanded upon, others pared away or refined. In the beginning, a sequencer and a sequence; rumbling along, not too fast, deeper tones and minor keys. Swathed in drum patterns and percussion, a mesh of metal and the occasional, unannounced crash of drums, as on the shimmering "Flex" or "Hold". Echoes and echo chambers, phasers and flangers used as glue: Spring, the (S)piral, a flexible, coiled spring, stretched, bent, twisted to fit the signal flow. Isolated sounds and vertical planes are added to the hypnotic, rhythmic framework, melodies are revealed on a nano level in transitions between nuanced layers and allusions. With all these elements in play, Klein creates a cinematic atmosphere for the big or the small screen, heavily laden in subliminal darkness, more spectral than aggressively threatening. A sense of foreboding, perhaps -- or the nervous excitement of seeing a storm gather on the horizon as one eagerly awaits the spectacle of thunder and lightning. Photophobic dancers, tar on their shoes, flashes of light, monochrome is our only color. Spring is the soundtrack to a night such as this, plotting its course through to the late morning: take "Sheroes" and play it between Martin Rev and Chris & Cosey, take "Atlas" and play it, if you will, after Tolouse Low Trax. And before the doors reopen, take "Spiral". The most seductive moments in all of these pieces are those in which Klein lets go of functionality, unleashes the groove and the space opens up, wider and wider, floating atmospherically into the late hours of the morning. Spring slots into the genealogy of the three preceding albums -- Sølyst (2011), Lead (2013), The Steam Age (2016). Not that there is anything wrong with that, and yet Spring reveals Klein at his most confident, opening up his field of vision to explore the margins of the structure he established on Sølyst. Each track on Spring hints at a fresh start. This is where Sølyst truly begins.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Die Fische's Eine Nacht in Cairo, originally released 1986. Die Fische from Ratingen pressed their 1986 album Eine Nacht in Cairo in a small private edition. Long considered a forgotten treasure of the German post-punk underground, it has more recently been discovered all over again by new listeners as one or two cuts, such as "Fire Of Love" and "Conversation Of Everyday-Lovers", have broken through the topsoil into the vast reaches of the internet. Nowadays, collectors over the world search for precious copies of the Eine Nacht in Cairo album, a wonderfully rapturous album, somewhere between leftfield synth-pop and post-punk. Die Fische were founded by Bernd Oprach and Peter Walgenbach back in 1982. During the course of various sessions in the new, openly experimental Ratingen music scene, they got to know drummer Arnd Willert, who soon became a fully-fledged member of the band. The gravitational pull of the Düsseldorf scene and groups like Der Plan grew stronger around this time, with Ratinger Hof at its center. As punk, new wave and early, experimental NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) orbited around the trio, they decided to renegotiate their own trajectory, creating music far removed from traditional forms. Their approach to recording (including the use of a Walkman) the electronic equipment they had assembled, such as sequencers, synthesizers (for guitar sounds too) and drum machines opened up new sonic horizons. Compared to today's digital technology, however, the means at their disposal were rather limited. Instead of holding them back, this actually set the tone for creative improvisation. Allied to Dadaist elements, the early works are strikingly uncompromising. Ten tracks featured on the 1983 cassette which represented the self-released debut by Die Fische. The band played a host of shows throughout Germany from 1982 onwards, many of them in the Düsseldorf region. The subsequent album, Eine Nacht in Cairo, sounds altogether more structured and mature. This time around, the line-up was augmented by the vocalist Patrick, bassist and co-lodger Konrad Mathieu and an additional session drummer, Gigi Sessenhausen. The band members continued to work in numerous other projects, with fluctuations and new formations in shifting constellations very much in the spirit of the age. Die Fische can be seen as a band who were energized by the current of musical optimism in the early 1980s. Many treasures disappeared all too quickly.

$35.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/1/2021

Double LP version. Do not adjust your sets. Take a step back from the tracking. This is the sound of Germany's musical youth let loose on cheap synths and pawnshop guitars. A record of a disparate scene of squat pop-stars, art school upstarts and committed non-musicians who redefined German music in the first half of the 1980s. By the dawn of the new decade, punk had burnt out in a frenzy of feedback, reshaping the musical landscape before burrowing back into the underground for a period of reinvention. But the scorched earth it left behind proved to be fertile soil, nurturing a new movement grass-rooting through Germany's major cities. For the first time the country had its own youth culture, spilling out of the squats of Hamburg and West Berlin, occupying the art scene in Düsseldorf and Köln and congregating around independent record shops stocked with angsty import 7"s. Empowered by punk's DIY spirit, these kids valued conviction over competence, opting to ignore the industry and make music for themselves, sung in their own language. Even the cats we now call krautrock, revolutionary though they were, mostly sang in English, adopting the lingua franca of rock n' roll as a shorthand for authenticity for a native crowd who wouldn't have it any other way. This new scene rejected the expected, celebrating freedom of expression above all else. Armed with unconventional instruments, newly affordable electronics and rudimentary recording gear, they worked from the ground up, building basic rhythms and simple melodies into mutant grooves and following their imagination wherever it took them. The result was a genre fluid wave of fusion pop pulled from funk, punk, jazz and reggae; united in attitude rather than aesthetic. Lyrically, the groups explored the serious and silly, embracing the irreverence of dadaism to deliberately displease the earnest alternatives of the older generation. Features Der Plan, Die Partei, P!OFF?, Palais Schaumburg, Dunkelziffer, Populäre Mechanik, Andreas Dorau (Die Doraus & Die Marinas), Pyrolator, Träneninvasion, Deutsche Wertarbeit, Asmus Tietchens, Die Fische, Conrad Schnitzler, Carambolage, Xao Seffcheque, Foyer des Arts, Die Zimmermänner, Östro 430, Die Radierer, and Holger Hiller.

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/1/2021

Do not adjust your sets. Take a step back from the tracking. This is the sound of Germany's musical youth let loose on cheap synths and pawnshop guitars. A record of a disparate scene of squat pop-stars, art school upstarts and committed non-musicians who redefined German music in the first half of the 1980s. By the dawn of the new decade, punk had burnt out in a frenzy of feedback, reshaping the musical landscape before burrowing back into the underground for a period of reinvention. But the scorched earth it left behind proved to be fertile soil, nurturing a new movement grass-rooting through Germany's major cities. For the first time the country had its own youth culture, spilling out of the squats of Hamburg and West Berlin, occupying the art scene in Düsseldorf and Köln and congregating around independent record shops stocked with angsty import 7"s. Empowered by punk's DIY spirit, these kids valued conviction over competence, opting to ignore the industry and make music for themselves, sung in their own language. Even the cats we now call krautrock, revolutionary though they were, mostly sang in English, adopting the lingua franca of rock n' roll as a shorthand for authenticity for a native crowd who wouldn't have it any other way. This new scene rejected the expected, celebrating freedom of expression above all else. Armed with unconventional instruments, newly affordable electronics and rudimentary recording gear, they worked from the ground up, building basic rhythms and simple melodies into mutant grooves and following their imagination wherever it took them. The result was a genre fluid wave of fusion pop pulled from funk, punk, jazz and reggae; united in attitude rather than aesthetic. Lyrically, the groups explored the serious and silly, embracing the irreverence of dadaism to deliberately displease the earnest alternatives of the older generation. Features Der Plan, Die Partei, P!OFF?, Palais Schaumburg, Dunkelziffer, Populäre Mechanik, Andreas Dorau (Die Doraus & Die Marinas), Pyrolator, Träneninvasion, Deutsche Wertarbeit, Asmus Tietchens, Die Fische, Conrad Schnitzler, Carambolage, Xao Seffcheque, Foyer des Arts, Die Zimmermänner, Östro 430, Die Radierer, and Holger Hiller.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Die Fische's Eine Nacht in Cairo, originally released 1986. Die Fische from Ratingen pressed their 1986 album Eine Nacht in Cairo in a small private edition. Long considered a forgotten treasure of the German post-punk underground, it has more recently been discovered all over again by new listeners as one or two cuts, such as "Fire Of Love" and "Conversation Of Everyday-Lovers", have broken through the topsoil into the vast reaches of the internet. Nowadays, collectors over the world search for precious copies of the Eine Nacht in Cairo album, a wonderfully rapturous album, somewhere between leftfield synth-pop and post-punk. Die Fische were founded by Bernd Oprach and Peter Walgenbach back in 1982. During the course of various sessions in the new, openly experimental Ratingen music scene, they got to know drummer Arnd Willert, who soon became a fully-fledged member of the band. The gravitational pull of the Düsseldorf scene and groups like Der Plan grew stronger around this time, with Ratinger Hof at its center. As punk, new wave and early, experimental NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) orbited around the trio, they decided to renegotiate their own trajectory, creating music far removed from traditional forms. Their approach to recording (including the use of a Walkman) the electronic equipment they had assembled, such as sequencers, synthesizers (for guitar sounds too) and drum machines opened up new sonic horizons. Compared to today's digital technology, however, the means at their disposal were rather limited. Instead of holding them back, this actually set the tone for creative improvisation. Allied to Dadaist elements, the early works are strikingly uncompromising. Ten tracks featured on the 1983 cassette which represented the self-released debut by Die Fische. The band played a host of shows throughout Germany from 1982 onwards, many of them in the Düsseldorf region. The subsequent album, Eine Nacht in Cairo, sounds altogether more structured and mature. This time around, the line-up was augmented by the vocalist Patrick, bassist and co-lodger Konrad Mathieu and an additional session drummer, Gigi Sessenhausen. The band members continued to work in numerous other projects, with fluctuations and new formations in shifting constellations very much in the spirit of the age. Die Fische can be seen as a band who were energized by the current of musical optimism in the early 1980s. Many treasures disappeared all too quickly.

$22.50 IN STOCK

LP version. "... Taking a radical approach to sound, style and group dynamics, this loose collective of musicians and artists blazed an experimental trail through the '80s, offering an alternative vision of German pop fit for a decade of constant change. Emerging in the wake of Can's late seventies supernova, Dunkelziffer became the center of gravity for a new era of creativity in Köln. Embracing the stylistic freedom of this fresh start alongside the time and space offered by their residency in the Palazzo Schoko, their jam sessions, often including associates from the Food Band, Phantom Band and Catalans Dream Band as well as anyone passing through, soon segued into a (slightly) more formal ensemble, though free-thinking and free movement remained central ideologies . . . On their 1983 debut, Colours And Soul, Dunkelziffer offered an hour-long odyssey through the fringes of the pop landscape, creating a kaleidoscopic journey through sun-kissed skank, coastal funk, demented drum circles and tachycardic new wave. Appearing from the chaos of an outboard explosion, opener 'Kedema' lays the foundations for the seductive strangeness which follows, rewiring a lilting dub rhythm with skewed synth tones and curious percussion as late-Can man Rebop Kwaku Baah's unique vocals form a lopsided melody. Island undulations give way to angular excitations on 'Bleib Night So Lang Im Schatten Stehn', a propulsive piece of new wave alive with Wolfgang Schubert's skronking horns and some poised female vocals. From there the group bask in the light of their own miracle, surrendered to the seven-minute groove of 'This is How You Came', a sublime psychedelic blend of hypnotic bass, frazzled guitars and jazz-rock interludes. 'Keine Python' signposts the way to Babylon by autobahn before tribal electronic trio 'Dark Number', 'Stil Der Neuen Zeit' and 'Zufall In Der Wirklichkeit' take us to the midpoint in a polyrhythmic trance. 'S.O. 36' opens the B-side with an overload of adrenaline as a lurching AKAI-ready half time transforms into the fast-paced motorik stomp of a jazz-punk freakout. The dancefloor friendly 'Strom' follows, embracing a similar strain of sticky industrial funk as Unknown Cases' anthemic 'Masimba Bele', while 'Free' leads us back into the light, riding the thermals over a sparkling shoreline as the cannabis psychosis gives way to the purest reggae high. The playful 'Colours And Soul' serves some hip and horizontal DIY-dub on the B4, beachballs splashing into the surf before interlude 'Arche Noah' nudges into the highlife heat beat of 'Don't Ask Me'. Finally it falls to 'Beside The Light' to close out the set, a hazy piece of ecstatic pop equally informed by each of the diverse influences which came before..." --Patrick Ryder

$16.50 IN STOCK

Spring is Thomas Klein's fourth Sølyst release on Bureau B, gleaned from material spanning the past three years. The time he has spent with these pieces has been time well spent. In revisiting them, he has posed new questions, rearranged and reworked some elements, dismissed or discarded others. The process of reappraisal has seen certain passages expanded upon, others pared away or refined. In the beginning, a sequencer and a sequence; rumbling along, not too fast, deeper tones and minor keys. Swathed in drum patterns and percussion, a mesh of metal and the occasional, unannounced crash of drums, as on the shimmering "Flex" or "Hold". Echoes and echo chambers, phasers and flangers used as glue: Spring, the (S)piral, a flexible, coiled spring, stretched, bent, twisted to fit the signal flow. Isolated sounds and vertical planes are added to the hypnotic, rhythmic framework, melodies are revealed on a nano level in transitions between nuanced layers and allusions. With all these elements in play, Klein creates a cinematic atmosphere for the big or the small screen, heavily laden in subliminal darkness, more spectral than aggressively threatening. A sense of foreboding, perhaps -- or the nervous excitement of seeing a storm gather on the horizon as one eagerly awaits the spectacle of thunder and lightning. Photophobic dancers, tar on their shoes, flashes of light, monochrome is our only color. Spring is the soundtrack to a night such as this, plotting its course through to the late morning: take "Sheroes" and play it between Martin Rev and Chris & Cosey, take "Atlas" and play it, if you will, after Tolouse Low Trax. And before the doors reopen, take "Spiral". The most seductive moments in all of these pieces are those in which Klein lets go of functionality, unleashes the groove and the space opens up, wider and wider, floating atmospherically into the late hours of the morning. Spring slots into the genealogy of the three preceding albums -- Sølyst (2011), Lead (2013), The Steam Age (2016). Not that there is anything wrong with that, and yet Spring reveals Klein at his most confident, opening up his field of vision to explore the margins of the structure he established on Sølyst. Each track on Spring hints at a fresh start. This is where Sølyst truly begins.

$16.50 IN STOCK

"... Taking a radical approach to sound, style and group dynamics, this loose collective of musicians and artists blazed an experimental trail through the '80s, offering an alternative vision of German pop fit for a decade of constant change. Emerging in the wake of Can's late seventies supernova, Dunkelziffer became the center of gravity for a new era of creativity in Köln. Embracing the stylistic freedom of this fresh start alongside the time and space offered by their residency in the Palazzo Schoko, their jam sessions, often including associates from the Food Band, Phantom Band and Catalans Dream Band as well as anyone passing through, soon segued into a (slightly) more formal ensemble, though free-thinking and free movement remained central ideologies . . . On their 1983 debut, Colours And Soul, Dunkelziffer offered an hour-long odyssey through the fringes of the pop landscape, creating a kaleidoscopic journey through sun-kissed skank, coastal funk, demented drum circles and tachycardic new wave. Appearing from the chaos of an outboard explosion, opener 'Kedema' lays the foundations for the seductive strangeness which follows, rewiring a lilting dub rhythm with skewed synth tones and curious percussion as late-Can man Rebop Kwaku Baah's unique vocals form a lopsided melody. Island undulations give way to angular excitations on 'Bleib Night So Lang Im Schatten Stehn', a propulsive piece of new wave alive with Wolfgang Schubert's skronking horns and some poised female vocals. From there the group bask in the light of their own miracle, surrendered to the seven-minute groove of 'This is How You Came', a sublime psychedelic blend of hypnotic bass, frazzled guitars and jazz-rock interludes. 'Keine Python' signposts the way to Babylon by autobahn before tribal electronic trio 'Dark Number', 'Stil Der Neuen Zeit' and 'Zufall In Der Wirklichkeit' take us to the midpoint in a polyrhythmic trance. 'S.O. 36' opens the B-side with an overload of adrenaline as a lurching AKAI-ready half time transforms into the fast-paced motorik stomp of a jazz-punk freakout. The dancefloor friendly 'Strom' follows, embracing a similar strain of sticky industrial funk as Unknown Cases' anthemic 'Masimba Bele', while 'Free' leads us back into the light, riding the thermals over a sparkling shoreline as the cannabis psychosis gives way to the purest reggae high. The playful 'Colours And Soul' serves some hip and horizontal DIY-dub on the B4, beachballs splashing into the surf before interlude 'Arche Noah' nudges into the highlife heat beat of 'Don't Ask Me'. Finally it falls to 'Beside The Light' to close out the set, a hazy piece of ecstatic pop equally informed by each of the diverse influences which came before..." --Patrick Ryder

$16.50 IN STOCK

"Barely pausing for breath after 1983's Colours And Soul, Dunkelziffer delivered In The Night the following year, their revolving line-up prompting an evolving sound. Though the playful elements of their debut remained through a trio of sun-blushed dubbers, the album also housed the ensemble's most dense, intense and serious tracks to date. The core septet of Zerlett, Linke, Krachten, Von Senger, Keul, Gelba and Schubert returned as well as the new bassist Rike Gratt, each in their own flow state on this seven track LP. But it was all change behind the mic for In The Night, as Coco Claus and Josefa Martens moved on, while Rebop Kwaku Baah, whose deep and rhythmic vocals decorated most of their debut, had sadly passed away while on tour with Jimmy Cliff the previous year. Luckily a perfect reinforcement was waiting in the wings, and the unmistakable Damo Suzuki led the charge with Helmut Zerlett taking double duties on backing vocals. The loose-limbed reggae of 'Watch On My Head' offers the warmest of welcomes on the A1, a swaying bassline underpinning breezy woodwind and synthetic fanfares with Suzuki's treated vocals forming the final instrumental layer. Things take a jazzier turn on 'Sunday Morning', in which cascading harps and glistening arps clearing the way for a snaking rhythm piano to take the lead . . . Shifting through the gears as we approach the midpoint, Dunkelziffer drop into 'Retrospection', thirteen whole minutes of pulsating and powerful psych-rock retooled for the new wave era. Leaving the fuzzbox back in Haight-Ashbury, the group layer chorus-drenched guitars and bright keyboards into a sky-scraping groove. Yelped mantras and untamed horns add a new found intensity balanced by the limber bassline and nuanced percussion which steals the spotlight during the final quarter. The B-side brings a moment of breezy beachfront cool via 'Q', a sun-kissed stroll from Methaniac fusion into ska-tinged art rock before plunging headfirst into the abrasive psychobilly of '(Do Watch What You Can) Prof.', a sub three-minute headfuck of atonal horns, off kilter percussion and overlapping vocals from Suzuki and Zerlett. Invigorated after that short sharp shock, the group lay a love song on us, the sweet nothings of 'I See Your Smile' bobbing on a Caribbean tide. Pure, playful and hard to resist, this moment of pop perfection was the ideal candidate for the album's single. There's room for one more mood swing as we reach the finale, closing cut 'Oriental Cafe' upping the intensity to deliver ten minutes of tribal percussion and Eastern influence in the same vein as 'Still Der Neuen Zeit' on their debut." --Patrick Ryder

$22.50 IN STOCK

LP version. "Barely pausing for breath after 1983's Colours And Soul, Dunkelziffer delivered In The Night the following year, their revolving line-up prompting an evolving sound. Though the playful elements of their debut remained through a trio of sun-blushed dubbers, the album also housed the ensemble's most dense, intense and serious tracks to date. The core septet of Zerlett, Linke, Krachten, Von Senger, Keul, Gelba and Schubert returned as well as the new bassist Rike Gratt, each in their own flow state on this seven track LP. But it was all change behind the mic for In The Night, as Coco Claus and Josefa Martens moved on, while Rebop Kwaku Baah, whose deep and rhythmic vocals decorated most of their debut, had sadly passed away while on tour with Jimmy Cliff the previous year. Luckily a perfect reinforcement was waiting in the wings, and the unmistakable Damo Suzuki led the charge with Helmut Zerlett taking double duties on backing vocals. The loose-limbed reggae of 'Watch On My Head' offers the warmest of welcomes on the A1, a swaying bassline underpinning breezy woodwind and synthetic fanfares with Suzuki's treated vocals forming the final instrumental layer. Things take a jazzier turn on 'Sunday Morning', in which cascading harps and glistening arps clearing the way for a snaking rhythm piano to take the lead . . . Shifting through the gears as we approach the midpoint, Dunkelziffer drop into 'Retrospection', thirteen whole minutes of pulsating and powerful psych-rock retooled for the new wave era. Leaving the fuzzbox back in Haight-Ashbury, the group layer chorus-drenched guitars and bright keyboards into a sky-scraping groove. Yelped mantras and untamed horns add a new found intensity balanced by the limber bassline and nuanced percussion which steals the spotlight during the final quarter. The B-side brings a moment of breezy beachfront cool via 'Q', a sun-kissed stroll from Methaniac fusion into ska-tinged art rock before plunging headfirst into the abrasive psychobilly of '(Do Watch What You Can) Prof.', a sub three-minute headfuck of atonal horns, off kilter percussion and overlapping vocals from Suzuki and Zerlett. Invigorated after that short sharp shock, the group lay a love song on us, the sweet nothings of 'I See Your Smile' bobbing on a Caribbean tide. Pure, playful and hard to resist, this moment of pop perfection was the ideal candidate for the album's single. There's room for one more mood swing as we reach the finale, closing cut 'Oriental Cafe' upping the intensity to deliver ten minutes of tribal percussion and Eastern influence in the same vein as 'Still Der Neuen Zeit' on their debut." --Patrick Ryder

$16.50 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a very special release: Kiosque Of Arrows 2 is Detlef Weinrich's (aka Tolouse Low Trax) first compilation for Bureau B. Echoing the spirit of the legendary samplers found on Les Disques Du Crépuscule or Made To Measure, this hybrid journal not only collates unusual pieces of music -- rare and undiscovered pearls from the experimental underground of the early 1980s through to contemporary unreleased recordings -- it also represents a reflective collage of cut-ups, observations and memories in the never-ending search for inexplicable beauty. Eleven tracks of unique pop fusions meander through states of casualness, a nocturnal thirst for adventure, and the intense yearnings of hot, sultry afternoons with an uneven and brittle quality. It all helps to pinpoint Tolouse Low Trax as artist and curator in the grander scheme of things, whilst evoking the spirit of countless nights at the Düsseldorfer Salon des Amateurs. Features Macromassa, The Stupid Set, DsorDNE, Techno Twins, Venus in Furs, Javier Segura, Bassæ, Lydia Tomkiw, Iueke & Lippie, Kaoru Hirose, and Viola Renea.

$23.50 IN STOCK

For the 40th anniversary of this influential album from Hamburg-based band Palais Schaumburg Bureau B are releasing a limited LP version: 500 copies, numbered, red vinyl, and with printed inner sleeve including all lyrics in German and English. In 1980, two students met at the Hamburg Art Academy: Thomas Fehlmann, who appreciated art and music and wanted to connect them, and the musician Holger Hiller, who had escaped the fractious Hamburg alternative scene, preferring the art school's Conservatory of Music. The spirit of the early New German Wave blew through the country, the first independent labels vied for innovative artists, and the West German post-punk scene began to take shape. Hiller and Fehlmann brought in FM Einheit (from the band Abwärts) on drums and the Californian Chris Lunch on bass. But only shortly after the first single, with Timo Blunck's bass riffs and the adept drumming of Ralf Hertwig, did the band establish its classic lineup. Palais Schaumburg played numerous gigs in this lineup and recorded a second single ("Telefon") --then on the indie label Zick Zack. The recording of the album was enhanced by the British producer David Cunningham (Flying Lizards). Soon the music giant Phonogram came along waving a contract. Though it was predictable that the album would not exactly be a commercial success, its special position in German pop music soon became clear. The attention the album received was considerable, given the "awkwardness" of the music. Even abroad, the qualities of the quartet did not go amiss, especially in the Netherlands and Great Britain. These days, alongside to the central works of the famous krautrock bands, it is one of the most sought-after albums of German avant-garde music internationally. A printed English translation of the lyrics perhaps contributed to album's high profile abroad, as certainly did the appearance of the band: with shaved-up necks, side partings and traditional German jackets, Palais Schaumburg took a stance against the clothing habits of the punks on the one hand, and the peace movement on the other, toying provocatively with supposedly Ur-Germanic symbols and meanings. The intention was not merely to be acoustically "different".

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "The beginnings of Camouflage represent a personal voyage of discovery in so many ways. Ideas, compositions, arrangements, sound and not least the technical question of the recording process -- this was all completely new ground for me. Getting to grips with songwriting and studio engineering without any form of training or professional guidance involves a great deal of trial and error and, above all, plenty of time. Any spare minutes I had were spent with our synthesizers and recording equipment. Every demo, every attempt to imitate the sound of a favorite record or device rang true to the mantra of 'learning by doing' ... equipment with no memory function (please do not touch!), the constant humming of cheap wires and cables (soldering is a must-have skill!), rotten-sounding cassettes (which had been recorded over several times, of course), a healthy degree of overconfidence (who needs a Fairlight CMI?) or the frequently unpredictable vagaries of analog technology on a home studio budget -- there were many lessons to be learned. Most of the tracks on this album were recorded with a basic stereo (2-track) cassette recorder. The studio set-up looked more or less like this: a drum computer (no MIDI) and a sequencer were connected to each other and synchronized rhythmically. I crafted melodic sequences and rhythms and usually transposed them to the desired pitch manually, using the keyboards. Other live instruments were played over the top. Then everything, the sum of all the sound sources, was put together in a kind of 'live recording' with the aid of a mixing desk. Just a single mistake would mean having to start all over again. Reconfiguring many of the sounds once the controls had already been adjusted was a painstaking process. I ended up with heaps of cassettes, often featuring seemingly endless versions and variations of the same track . . . State of the art studio technology and audio restoration algorithms helped me to get these tracks back into listenable shape. Sifting through the archive and unearthing long-forgotten song ideas can create a retrograde vibe . . . I had fun with all of it and I hope that the tracks selected will whet the appetite of fresh listeners to explore the early phase of my electronic music and the bizarre sonic worlds I inhabited." --Heiko Maile, December 2020