play loud! is a Berlin-based film production company and film and music label, founded in 1997 in New York by filmmakers Dietmar Post and Lucía Palacios. Based in Berlin since 2002, Post and Palacios have received acclaim for their film work, earning comparisons to American filmmakers D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. In 2008 they received the prestigious Adolf Grimme Award. In 2009 they initiated the play loud! (live) music series, which is inspired by Alan Lomax's work as an archivist and chronicler, John Peel's BBC radio sessions, and the work of Direct Cinema pioneers, such as the Maysles Brothers, Leacock, Wildenhahn, and Pennebaker. play loud!'s intention is to create an extensive archive of interesting popular music and culture that features both the filmmakers' huge resource of unreleased filmed material and also material from other sources. In 2010, play loud! began working on their Limpe Fuchs Archive series dedicated to reissuing the work of German musician Limpe Fuchs.
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PL 135LP
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On May 28, 1969, four American musicians -- reed/wind players Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, bassist Malachi Favors, and (accompanied by his wife, singer Fontella Bass) trumpeter Lester Bowie -- boarded the ocean liner S.S. United States, bound for Le Havre, France. After landing five days later, they moved on to Paris, where they got to work. On August 22, 1970, in the waning days of their stay overseas, the group, with Bass on vocals, would record their second release for EMI's Pathé Marconi: the movie soundtrack Les Stances à Sophie. The record, an exciting, eminently listenable combination of soul, classical, and jazz strains that survives as the Art Ensemble of Chicago's most stylistically diverse album, has long been admired by a devoted cult. Its durability is largely due to the popularity of its "hit": Over the years, "Theme de Yoyo" has been covered repeatedly, essayed by acts as varied as German funk band the Boogoos (and the offshoot Deep Jazz, both featuring singer Julia Fehenbeger), British nu-jazz combo the Cinematic Orchestra, Polish jazz man Wojtek Mazolewski, Norwegian rockers Motorpsycho, French dance music artist Étienne Jaumet, and London-based remixer, Shall I Bruk It. More than half a century later, "Theme de Yoyo" and Les Stances à Sophie still bring it. Limited-edition LP reissue from play loud! Productions, supplemented with new notes by U.S. music journalist Chris Morris.
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PL 132LP
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Mona Mur, born in Hamburg, met FM Einheit, Alexander Hacke, and Mark Chung from Einstürzende Neubauten and Gode B. from Front during the punk explosion. As Mona Mur & Die Mieter they released their first 12" single Jeszcze Polska in '82, which immediately claimed the "Single of the Week" slot by London's New Musical Express. Mona Mur then lived a wild life in Paris and Berlin. In fall 1984, she formed a new Mona Mur band with FM Einheit and Alexander Hacke, joined by Flucht nach Vorn keyboardist Nikko Weidemann (today Moka Efti Orchestra), Siewert Johannsen (guitar, Stricher), and Thomas Stern (bass, Crime and the City Solution). This Mona Mur band was recorded and mixed live by Raymond "Nainz" Watts (Einstürzende Neubauten, Psychic TV, KMFDM) at his Building Site studio in Hamburg. The band played acclaimed concerts in Germany and Europe, as well as festivals, such as the renowned Pandora's Box in Rotterdam. Their manically intense live performance in guitar thunderstorms and morbid slowbeat chic and especially their seminal Brecht/Weill interpretations ("Surabaya Johnny", "Der Song von Mandelay", "Die Ballade vom Ertrunkenen Mädchen") are still cult today. The band broke up in spring of '86, and Mona Mur embarked on a solo career. The recordings, made between 1984-1986, had never been released... until now.
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PL 129LP
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The concert was filmed on June 4th, 1982 at Sartory Säle in Cologne (Germany) during the 82' "Collision Drive" tour. In 1981, Alan Vega had released his second solo LP under the title, Collison Drive. It forms part of the "play loud! (live) music series". The "play loud (live) music series" is based on three precepts: Alan Lomax's work as an archivist and chronicler, John Peel's BBC radio sessions, and the work of Direct Cinema pioneers, such as the Maysles Brothers, Leacock, Wildenhahn, Blank, and Pennebacker. play loud! aims to create an extensive archive of interesting popular music and culture that includes both material from the filmmakers' large amount of unreleased footage and material from other sources. Other artists in this series: Damo Suzuki, Lydia Lunch, Floating di Morel, Hans-Joachim Irmler, FM Einheit, Faust, Die Regierung, Limpe Fuchs, Guru Guru, Friedman + Liebezeit, Camera featuring Michael Rother and Dieter Moebius, and many more. Rockpalast (Rock Palace) is a German music television show that broadcasts live on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Rockpalast started in 1974 and continues to this day. Hundreds of rock, heavy metal and jazz bands have performed on Rockpalast. For this vinyl and DVD release play loud! has licensed the Alan Vega show from 1982. Credits: Alan Vega - vocals, harp, guitar; Mark Kuch - guitar; Sesu Coleman - drums; Larry Chaplan - bass. Remastering by Moritz Illner (duophonic). The vinyl LP comes with an eight-page booklet and a DVD, containing the entire live show (film I), which was recorded by German Public TV during Vega's 1982 'Collision Drive' tour. Also, on the DVD, the art exhibition "Alan Suicide: Collision Drive 2002" at Deitch Projects in New York (film II). It was Alan Vega's first exhibition after 18 years. Interestingly, both the Rockpalast show and the art exhibition carried the title Collision Drive. A term that maybe best describes Vega's art and music. 1982/2002/2022 DVD is NTSC, region-free.
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PL 126LP
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Tina Turner. Princess Diana. Johan Cruijff. Jesus. Abba. Spider-Man. Jerry Springer. Mormons. A brothel. Monty Python. A gay remake of Shakespeare. Anne Frank. Nothing and no-one seems to be able to escape the fangs of the musical industry. So it's no real surprise that the last woman standing, DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess, has also fallen victim to this evil fate. The album, after 2021's Explain The Food, Bitte (PL 113LP) her second release with Berlin label Play Loud! Productions, is as surprising and up-to-date as ever. Marcelle's productions come into existence quite quickly, like sketches capturing a moment. Take, for example, "The Quarantine House Party Try-Out", a bouncy track dealing with those illegal parties people organized in their own homes during the covid period. With the pandemic now hopefully over, the DJ/producer travels the world again. Marcelle deals with this in "Soups On Tour", related to a link on her website where she documents all soups she eats on the road (and in restaurants). It's this individual approach to her creative process that gives her artistic fulfillment; her DIY attitude is inherent to everything she does and is reflected in her creative process as a whole, from the music itself to how it is presented: on the sleeve of DJ Marcelle: The Musical you see her literally "dropping" a musical. The freedom she grants herself is essential, she never had the difficulty of coping with certain expectations or being stuck with a certain perceived musical (ha!) profile, because she has always been able to make sure people didn't have any anticipation of where her music (and DJ-sets) would go in the first place. So it's no real surprise that, following danceable tracks like "Voted Best DJ School (25% Off)" and weird album opener/warning "This Record Is Scratched" on side A, we get only one track on side B: the 17-minute-plus technoid stomper "Smacznego!" (Polish for "enjoy your meal"). It's a hypnotic, continually shifting track which, even when it ends after such a long time, leaves you hungry for more. The hilarious promo video of the song hopefully satisfies this appetite. So now you have DJ Marcelle also being exploited as a musical. There is one consolation, though: DJ Marcelle: The Musical happens to be the first instrumental musical in the world.
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PL 123LP
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Reissue, originally released in 1974 on Preiser Records. Gatefold sleeve. Free music is free. It is the opposite of traditional, conventional music bound by various rules or by any kind of metric, tonal, harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, social or other system, as well as music that is beholden, restricted, schooled or unfree. In short, it's the opposite of any music we've known before. In free music, every rule that's ever existed in unfree music is rejected. Likewise, all existing notions about how music should or should not be, what its purpose must or cannot be and so on. Free music comes from the unconscious, an original source from within the self. It is by placing trust in players and listeners that we liberate them. The individual's pride, fears, inhibitions and aggression resist this act of liberation. But if they yield to it, whether as a player or listener, they discover something shockingly new and unheard. They feel like they've suddenly been transported from their familiar, oppressive surroundings into a glorious flower meadow. What's happened? They've simply returned home, to the realm of ordinary wonder, and to their own soul. With happiness and gratitude, they rediscover how to connect with their soul to move, live and laugh. They also learn that they can communicate musically with anyone, perhaps even with any creature. It transpires the styles, traditions, conventions and languages which were developed to enable communication are actually great impediments to it. Having decided to discard them, communication immediately becomes freer. Until now, there have been very few players who comprehend free music in a profound sense and who are able to create it. But it's likely that their numbers will quickly grow, and free music will soon become widespread. There's a clear need for it. Artists include: Limpe Fuchs, Paul Fuchs, Friedrich Gulda featuring Albert Mangelsdorff, Barre Phillips, Munir Bashir, Gerhard Herrmann, Leszek Zadlo, Ursula Anders.
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PL 122CD
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The historic Buchla 100 series modular synthesizer was built by Don Buchla in California in early 1960s. An instrument intended for electronic music performance that together with the Moog Modular is one of the most important synthesizers in the history of electronic music. One of the few still fully functional Buchla 100 Synthesizer can be found at the Ernst Krenek Institut in Krems, Austria. During an artist-in residency program, Mario Verandi explored the endless sound possibilities of this rare and extraordinary instrument. The result is his Eight Pieces for the Buchla 100 Series, a journey into experimental minimal electronic music. Mario Verandi is an Argentinean-born composer, musician and producer living in Berlin. With an extensive artistic career, Mario Verandis works are wide-ranging and include electroacoustic and experimental music, music in modern classical and ambient style, live electronic performances as well as sound installations and music for dance, radio and theater. He has also collaborated with several musicians and visual artists. He has performed in several prestigious European festivals including Märzmusik (Berlin), Multiphonies GRM (Paris) and Donaueschinger Musiktage. His works have been awarded in the Prix Ars Electronica Awards (Linz), European Bell Days Composition Prize (ZKM, Karlsruhe), Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition (France), Stockholm Electronic Art Awards (Sweden) and is included in the Essex Collection of Latin American Art.
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PL 113LP
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DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess is that rare combination of things: fearless, innovative, playful, independent, unpredictable and with a great sense of humor. The singular producer and DJ from Amsterdam lives in that rare league of artists who are out there, doing their own thing, continually pushing the boundaries of electronic music and having a great time in doing so as well. Her third album in just over two years is as versatile as ever. Steelpan (!) dancehall goes hand in hand with off the wall techno and weird avant garde. The album contains a surprising collaboration with Michael Vincent Waller, a modern classical composer/pianist from New York: "The Orphan Serenade" is Marcelle's most personal, sensitive track to date. As always, her track titles are a joy in themselves ("The Vegans Are Backstage", "Hum Hum Hum", "Technicians Leaving The Club"). The album is covid-19 proof: Marcelle wears a face mask on the sleeve. Join Marcelle in her unique musical universe. And try to explain her the food, please.
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PL 118EP
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The protest song is back. The Dr. Drexler Project operates from the Southern German town of Augsburg, birthplace of Bertolt Brecht. The collective's sound is modernized post-punk. Rhythms for the dancefloor. Snarling bass, chiseled beats, sharp-edged guitars and gritty lyrics that give voice to angry times.
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PL 109CD
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Mona Mur, vocalist of her own class, songwriter, music producer, '80s survivor. Together with Alexander Hacke, FM Einheit, Mark Chung (all of Einstürzende Neubauten) and organ virtuoso Nikko Weidemann (Moka Efti Orchestra) responsible for underground hits such as "Snake", "120 Tage", or "Eintagsfliegen". She first graced the music scene with the 12" Jeszcze Polska (Supermax, 1982) which immediately claimed London's NME's "Single of the Week" slot: "Her weapons are a passionately bloody voice and a gift for multiligual puns she applies to acerbic commentaries." At the time Mur lived a wild life in Hamburg, Paris and Berlin which shaped her unique and uncompromising musical persona. A violent sound of darkest shades and concerts in manic intensity and morbid slowbeat-chic were foundation stones for her cult image until today. Mona Mur is also a composer and sound designer, her music and soundscapes are to be found in movies like Gegen die Wand and video games such as Kane & Lynch2: Dog Days. In summer 1987, Mona Mur met legendary Stranglers musicians JJ Burnel and Dave Greenfield on their compound in beautiful and enchanted East-Anglia to create her first full album Mona Mur. The synth pop pearl with Dave Greenfield's signature and unique keyboard arpeggios and Burnel's brutal and elegant bass lines strongly influencing the production sound was released 1988 by RCA and was celebrated by filmmakers Monika Treut and Elfi Mikesch in their movie Die Jungfrauenmaschine -- which contains a MM live performance of the song "Ritz". The official "Ritz" video was shot by Eduard Oleschak in Vienna on Heldenplatz and Hofburg and in Palais Saurau in the city of Graz, Austria. The album also features a special re-recording of "Surabaya Johnny" using tracks by FM Einheit, Alex Hacke, Nikko Weidemann, Thomas Stern and Siewert Johannsen (the second Mona Mur band line-up) with additional drum tracks by Dave Larcombe. Remastered by En Esch (KMFDM, Pigface), comes in a new running order with a special version of "Jealous" and a bonus track, "Venus 2020", featured as credits's song of the upcoming Monika Treut movie Genderation (2021). CD version includes comes with Mona Mur & Die Mieter EP Jeszcze Polska (1982).
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PL 109LP
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LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Mona Mur, vocalist of her own class, songwriter, music producer, '80s survivor. Together with Alexander Hacke, FM Einheit, Mark Chung (all of Einstürzende Neubauten) and organ virtuoso Nikko Weidemann (Moka Efti Orchestra) responsible for underground hits such as "Snake", "120 Tage", or "Eintagsfliegen". She first graced the music scene with the 12" Jeszcze Polska (Supermax, 1982) which immediately claimed London's NME's "Single of the Week" slot: "Her weapons are a passionately bloody voice and a gift for multiligual puns she applies to acerbic commentaries." At the time Mur lived a wild life in Hamburg, Paris and Berlin which shaped her unique and uncompromising musical persona. A violent sound of darkest shades and concerts in manic intensity and morbid slowbeat-chic were foundation stones for her cult image until today. Mona Mur is also a composer and sound designer, her music and soundscapes are to be found in movies like Gegen die Wand and video games such as Kane & Lynch2: Dog Days. In summer 1987, Mona Mur met legendary Stranglers musicians JJ Burnel and Dave Greenfield on their compound in beautiful and enchanted East-Anglia to create her first full album Mona Mur. The synth pop pearl with Dave Greenfield's signature and unique keyboard arpeggios and Burnel's brutal and elegant bass lines strongly influencing the production sound was released 1988 by RCA and was celebrated by filmmakers Monika Treut and Elfi Mikesch in their movie Die Jungfrauenmaschine -- which contains a MM live performance of the song "Ritz". The official "Ritz" video was shot by Eduard Oleschak in Vienna on Heldenplatz and Hofburg and in Palais Saurau in the city of Graz, Austria. The album also features a special re-recording of "Surabaya Johnny" using tracks by FM Einheit, Alex Hacke, Nikko Weidemann, Thomas Stern and Siewert Johannsen (the second Mona Mur band line-up) with additional drum tracks by Dave Larcombe. Remastered by En Esch (KMFDM, Pigface), comes in a new running order with a special version of "Jealous" and a bonus track, "Venus 2020", featured as credits's song of the upcoming Monika Treut movie Genderation (2021).
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PL 107LP
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In other places, the New German Wave was already over by 1982. In the countryside they were always a bit behind. Particularly in the south-west of Germany, where the quiet university town of Tübingen sits like a Disney version of a German province. The late 1970s were synonymous with a left-leaning alternative scene, and it was in this climate that a bunch of renegades met. Two things united them: antipathy towards their fellow students and a desire for musical renewal. To give (post) punk meaningful direction and to present to the public the already nostalgic (perhaps only retroactively constructed) idea of pop as an agent of permanent cultural revolution, they needed bands whose confrontational performances could stir up and split student gatherings. That's what Attraktiv & Preiswert did, fronted by Ralf van Daale. The Hesselbach Family was founded by Gottfried, Axel, Claude, Frank, and Klaus Hesselbach, with Handke Hesselbach joining later. The name, taken from a TV series about a Hessian family business, placed them somewhere between wishful thinking (Ramones) and reality (the provincial backwaters). Compared to most projects, where everyone was involved in three (one group and two side projects), the Hesselbachs were a band in the old-fashioned sense. Their playing was tight, which was unusual for the New German Wave. Their co-conspirators had brilliant ideas (like Autofick and Zimt), but the Hesselbach Family really had the new possibilities at their fingertips. They had the groove of A Certain Ratio and Medium Medium, as well as the "broken jazz" of James Chance groups, and they shamelessly adopted the manifesto pop of British DIY bands and the Scottish "Postcard sound". They were even quicker than others to integrate "Zitatpop", the further development of the revolution that was underway and still largely not understood in Germany. For a long time, no one realized that it was the legacy of a scene that was small, but highly motivated in terms of content. It represents those who, between 1979 and 1983, wanted to recreate the big and exciting pop world in the sleepy regions around Stuttgart, for fun but with the necessary seriousness. German post-punk was traditionally averse to theory. It is only now, when they sound as they should have done, that you realize that the Hesselbach Family were the Talking Heads in this completely unlikely constellation. Photos and liner notes by Frank Apunkt Schneider. Remastered by Moritz Illner.
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PL 103LP
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Official holidays played a role in the short but tumultuous life of the East Berlin improv-punk band Klick & Aus, beginning with Walpurgis Night in 1983 when two members of the band met for the first time: Sala Seil, saxophonist, singer and dancer, and Tohm di Roes, poet, drummer and singer. In the summer the duo was joined by bassist ToRo Klick, who had been crafting rhythms with Thom di Roes since 1982. Still nameless, the trio opened an exhibition by artist W.A. Scheffler at the private gallery "rot-grün" in Berlin's Sredzkistraße, a team of producers grouped around the brothers Erhard and Mario Monden. The noise-laden performance heralded the birth of a new band: Klick & Aus, using the bassist's surname to create a militant multilayered association. Their live debut lasted all of 15 minutes. Later performances were similarly burlesque to grotesque. New faces had also joined, including the poet Florian Günther, who soon left again, as well as Klick's wife Evolinum on fanfare and violin. Rounding out the eccentric combo in classic style was singer Pjotr Schwert, a scientist whose dream GDR "day job" was as the night porter on a railroad sleeping car. As Orwellian 1984 neared its end Tohm di Roes roamed Alexanderplatz recording the sounds of the local Christmas Market. These snippets became interludes between the songs on the cassette album AIDS delikat. Recorded with underground producer Thorsten Philipp at his studio in Berlin's Mahlsdorf district, the album melded loud shamanic chants with song structures and archaic sampling. Klick & Aus played an amalgamation of proto-punk and post-punk influenced by acts from both East and West including Galloping Coroners, Captain Beefheart, and Cabaret Voltaire. The Klick & Aus sound breathed restlessness and petulance, like a company of soldiers always simmering for battle, but refusing to march in step. Klick & Aus convened a celebration of the untamed and ecstatic, and put infantile masculinity firmly in its place. Klick & Aus wanted a high-quality production, so the band members spent their own money to avoid using the expensive lo-fi blank cassettes from the officially sanctioned ORWO company. A shortened vinyl version of the tape has been compiled for Tapetopia 003. Edition of 500.
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PL 100LP
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About this record and how Limpe and Paul Fuchs got together with Friedrich Gulda: In 1968, the Austrian classical and jazz pianist Friedrich Gulda organized the First International Music Forum of Ossiachersee with the theme "Improvisation in Music -- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow". During the third edition of the festival, Gulda got to know the band Anima Sound and was fascinated by their "absolute free music", which they played on home-made instruments. Anima Sound was Limpe and Paul Fuchs, who had already released two albums in 1971, Stürmischer Himmel (Stormy Heaven) on Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's OHR label and the self-released Musik für Alle. Musik für Alle developed during a 4,000-kilometer tour throughout Europe when the band and their two children hitched a handmade mobile home and stage to an old Hanomag tractor, bringing their anarchic, uncompromising improvisations to an impromptu public, free of charge. German documentary filmmaker Helga Tiedemann captured part of the tour for the film Mit 20 km/h durch Europa. Gulda and Anima Sound often toured together throughout the '70s and the band became regulars at Gulda's festivals of free music. In 1972, they released the simply titled LP Anima. In 1973, Tiedemann captured one of the shows, and the film Gruppe Anima in Salzburg. The International Music Forum of Ossiachersee ended in 1974. In the same year, Gulda and Limpe and Paul Fuchs went on tour with some of their festival musicians and recorded the double-LP It's Up To You. Gulda and partner Ursula Anders's festival in Ossiach attracted top-class guests, including among others Pink Floyd, Weather Report, Tangerine Dream, and many great jazz and world music musicians. The follow-up festival, Tage Freier Musik (Days of Free Music) at Castle Moosham in the Lungau region of Salzburg, Austria in 1976 again offered a high-class bill. A year later in 1977, the guests were Don Cherry and Moki, The Revolutionary Ensemble, Günther Rabl, Makaya Ntshoko, among others, and Anima Sound with Limpe and Paul Fuchs. The recordings here were made during the 1977 festival and have been restored and are released for the first time ever. The music critic Baldur Brockhoff wrote for Süddeutsche Zeitung about the Anima Sound concert: "Paul and Limpe Fuchs played superbly. As archaic as the instruments may seem (sand shovel, circular saw, hand-knitted crumhorn, sheet metal), as simple as the musical patterns and structures are, far from all virtuosity, the two have meanwhile found a complete harmony in making music together. The most beautiful thing about this music is probably the unfamiliar; no role model is used here."
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PL 099LP
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Floating Di Morel is a band from Berlin (Germany). The band was founded in 1994 by Sabine Blödorn (ex-Young Scamps) and Kai Drewitz (ex-P.L.O.). Other temporary band members have been Martin Osti, Thorsten Neu, and Ulf Goretzki. Summer Has Become Cold is the eighth release (six albums and two 7-inches) by Floating Di Morel, the fourth LP on the Berlin label Play Loud! Productions.
"Reckon this might be my favourite album of the year so far -- 'Omu' is certainly my favourite track. Summer Has Become Cold is the new one from Floating Di Morel, the long-running northern German band centered around Sabine Blodorn and Kai Drewitz. It picks up where their 2018 split with Ulf/FDM left off, with terse drum-machine loops and dubwise walking basslines providing the backdrop for the duo's icily laconic vocal interplay and minimal, plasmic guitar. Can't quite put my finger on it, there's something really unusual and beguiling about the way the tracks are arranged and mixed: ultra-criss, stripped-back, machinic, but at the same time diffuse, smeared, on the cusp of dissolve... All I can really say is that fans of Bobby Would, Nico + The Faktion, The Phantom Payn, Jac Berrocal etc need it and need it bad." --Low Company
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PL 098CD
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A vibrant soundtrack to the Cockney Jewish experience, when the swinging hot dance bands were still all the rage, and the Yiddish language was spoken on the streets of Whitechapel. Feast on long forgotten 78 rpm discs that have only recently been unearthed, starring a host of recording artists united for the first time. Hear the legendary dance band figures of the era like Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra, and Lew Stone and his Monseigneur Band, to the relatively unknown Jewish specialty acts like the Johnny Franks and his Kosher Ragtimers, and Rita Marlowe, the siren of the Yiddish song. Delight in the cheeky street patter of the incomparable slapstick drummer Max Bacon rejoicing in the East Enders love affair with "Beigels", celebrate the world famous Petticoat Lane street market with not one, but two 1920s fox trots -- but also shed a tear with Leo Fuld, the remarkable Dutch Yiddish singer, whose recordings in post-war London were haunting reminders of a way of life decimated by the Holocaust. Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World is compiled by Alan Dein, the multi award winning radio documentary presenter, whose own family harks back to the major wave of immigrants fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe from the end of the 19th century. The album title is inspired by a 1920s Yiddish slogan of an East London gramophone record shop. A time when Whitechapel was a fertile breeding ground for singers, songwriters, conductors, and cantors to musicians, managers, proprietors of record shops and club owners -- and according to Dein, "their stories are now entwined with the development of the British recorded music industry. But for the first time ever, we can the discover the remarkable sounds of Jewish-themed jazz recorded in London between the 1920s and the 1950s..." The accompanying booklet designed by Will Bankhead includes a detailed essay by Dein, illustrated with rare photos and memorabilia. This release is co-compiled by Howard Williams, better known for his Japan Blues radio show on NTS, and a series of compilations spanning Moondog (The Viking of Sixth Avenue), Japanese jazz singer Maki Asakawa, and the worlds of Japanese surf rock (Takeshi Terauchi), rockabilly (Masaaki Hirao), and soul funk and disco ("Lovin' Mighty Fire"). Also features Baker and Willie with Orchestra, Stanley Laudan, Mendel and his Mishpoche Band, Maurice Winnick and his Sweet Music, The Plaza Band, Oscar Grasso and his Intimate Music, and Chaim Towber with Johnny Franks Orchestra.
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PL 098LP
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LP version. A vibrant soundtrack to the Cockney Jewish experience, when the swinging hot dance bands were still all the rage, and the Yiddish language was spoken on the streets of Whitechapel. Feast on long forgotten 78 rpm discs that have only recently been unearthed, starring a host of recording artists united for the first time. Hear the legendary dance band figures of the era like Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra, and Lew Stone and his Monseigneur Band, to the relatively unknown Jewish specialty acts like the Johnny Franks and his Kosher Ragtimers, and Rita Marlowe, the siren of the Yiddish song. Delight in the cheeky street patter of the incomparable slapstick drummer Max Bacon rejoicing in the East Enders love affair with "Beigels", celebrate the world famous Petticoat Lane street market with not one, but two 1920s fox trots -- but also shed a tear with Leo Fuld, the remarkable Dutch Yiddish singer, whose recordings in post-war London were haunting reminders of a way of life decimated by the Holocaust. Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World is compiled by Alan Dein, the multi award winning radio documentary presenter, whose own family harks back to the major wave of immigrants fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe from the end of the 19th century. The album title is inspired by a 1920s Yiddish slogan of an East London gramophone record shop. A time when Whitechapel was a fertile breeding ground for singers, songwriters, conductors, and cantors to musicians, managers, proprietors of record shops and club owners -- and according to Dein, "their stories are now entwined with the development of the British recorded music industry. But for the first time ever, we can the discover the remarkable sounds of Jewish-themed jazz recorded in London between the 1920s and the 1950s..." The accompanying booklet designed by Will Bankhead includes a detailed essay by Dein, illustrated with rare photos and memorabilia. This release is co-compiled by Howard Williams, better known for his Japan Blues radio show on NTS, and a series of compilations spanning Moondog (The Viking of Sixth Avenue), Japanese jazz singer Maki Asakawa, and the worlds of Japanese surf rock (Takeshi Terauchi), rockabilly (Masaaki Hirao), and soul funk and disco ("Lovin' Mighty Fire"). Also features Baker and Willie with Orchestra, Stanley Laudan, Mendel and his Mishpoche Band, Maurice Winnick and his Sweet Music, The Plaza Band, Oscar Grasso and his Intimate Music, and Chaim Towber with Johnny Franks Orchestra.
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PL 097LP
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To release a tape in East Germany in 1986 called Ihre großen Erfolge (Their Great Successes) illustrates how every situation produces people that are unwilling to accept that situation. Claus Löser and Florian Merkel were two such people. Their band Die Gehirne and their many side-projects ensured that their hometown of Karl-Marx-Stadt, today's Chemnitz, could assert its role in the independent art world of the GDR. Inspirations included Frank Bretschneider from the experimental electronic band AG Geige, the artist friend Klaus Hähner-Springmühl, the jazz guitarist Joe Sachse, and the free jazz figures Conny Bauer and Luten Petrowsky. A small batch totaling some 35 copies of Their Greatest Hits by Die Gehirne was gradually handed out around the scene to trade with other musicians. For Tapetopia 002, Play Loud! Productions put together a shortened vinyl version, while the complete tape is available for download at the label's website.
Tapetopia is a series of vinyl releases based on cassettes from the East Germany's '80s underground, particularly from the East Berlin "Mauerstadt" music scene, featuring original layouts and track lists. For over 30 years after their initial "release" the music on these tapes was neither available on vinyl nor CD, but they were important statements in the canon of the GDR subculture. Despite the miniscule number of original cassettes in circulation at the time many of the bands were popular in countercultural circles, a factor that made them highly suspect among the government's own inner circles. Tapetopia is edited by Henryk Gericke.
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PL 090LP
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"As can be ascertained from the programmatic introduction, the group's name appears first, followed by the various musicians involved and their respective instruments. It might be worth mentioning when the Bunte Truppe was actually founded. The attentive reader will notice that Limpe Fuchs, Ruth-Maria Adam, Ignaz Schick, and Ronnie Oliveras started performing together in 2017 with a battery of percussion, wind and string instruments, as well as numerous electronic aids. At this point, it is extremely important to describe how such a colorful troupe can remain at the cutting edge of contemporary music, moving effortlessly between different musical genres with their improvisations. It goes without saying that this rather exaggerated claim assumes that the Bunte Truppe can challenge their audience in this way. But of course! Anything else worth mentioning? Attention could be drawn to historical contexts and other cultural connections, for example the fact that Limpe Fuchs has been around as a musician for God knows how long (for a time in the free improv duo Anima-Sound), and is widely known internationally; or that Ruth-Maria Adam and Ronnie Oliveras also go on the rampage with Datashock and the Flamingo Creatures; whilst Ignaz Schick rushes from one Artist in Residency to the other with a record player under his arm. These facts may or may not be important. Similarly, in order to put their music in perspective, it may or may not be helpful to draw comparisons with other international benchmarks. However, before we get lost in the labyrinth of music, let's rather prick up our ears and devote our attention to the astonishing sounds hiding in this recording: full of life and seemingly carefree, but (at the same time) always heedful of each other, the members of the Bunte Truppe start playing as free as a bird, and manage to unite apparently incompatible musical opposites without any effort. The material cannot be mastered, it has suffered enough already." --Holger Adam LP version comes in an edition of 500.
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PL 089LP
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Glen was formed in 2015 in Berlin, Germany, by multi-instrumentalist and film score composer Wilhelm Stegmeier and Greek visual artist, film maker and musician Eleni Ampelakiotou. Coming from a cinematic background, and having collaborated on several films and audio-visual projects, they created Glen as a prismatic multi-faceted musical persona, which cannot be easily assigned to a specific genre. Listening to just one track or even one part of a track can misguide the impression of this album, like seeing just one single frame of a movie. As a mostly instrumental band with classic line up of two guitars, bass and drums, Glen deconstructs popular and classical music genres scratching them together with experimental expression and attitude. Minimalistic tonal sequences develop gradually, to complex fugues, interlacing crystal clear guitars with eclectic distortion, vibrating overtones, and shimmering sounds. The wave-like structured compositions approach, break on a chorus, to curl up in free improv or dissolve into a rhythmic torso. Even the mainly choral vocals, that you hear on this album appear as one element of composition, adding the quality and nature of human voices to the sound sculpture. With a glimpse of irony Glen revises the supposedly light atmosphere of melodic fragments to a complex epic multilayered hypnotic structure of free improvisation and repetitive themes, breaking loose either to Dionysian chaos or escaping to poetic cinematic soundscapes. Adding layer by layer, Glen creates a synthesis of contrasting textures with different references to no wave NY, free improv, noise, doom, postrock, minimal music, as well as cinematic scores merging to a unique sound of colorful narratives and surprising mosaics of rhythmic dissonant chords, melodic patterns, and abstract noise.
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PL 088LP
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Tapetopia 001 -- A Collection of East German Underground Tapes. In 1988, the legendary freak wave outfit Ornament & Verbrechen handed out some 20 to 30 copies of their Rotmaul-Tape to friends. The band, formed by the Lippok brothers, emerged from the first East Berlin punk group Rosa Extra and the avant-wave project Fünf Wochen im Ballon. From the moment of O&V's inception, the band was the wellspring for many acts that would subsequently branch off as tributaries and streams in the East Berlin underground music community. Bands like Aufruhr Zur Liebe and projects like Corp Cruid, The Local Moon and Bleibeil originated in the environment or from the collaboration with a band that functioned like an open house in the closed institution GDR. By 1995, To Rococo Rot and Tarwater had formed from this tried-and-tested framework, pursuing the template without copying it. After the GDR infarction in 1989, the project Ornament & Verbrechen continued to glow, sparking new ideas and flaring up again today. Edition of 500.
Tapetopia is a series of vinyl releases based on cassettes from the East Germany's '80s underground, particularly from the East Berlin "Mauerstadt" music scene, featuring original lay-outs and track lists. For over 30 years after their initial "release" the music on these tapes was neither available on vinyl nor CD, but they were important statements in the canon of the GDR subculture. Despite the miniscule number of original cassettes in circulation at the time many of the bands were popular in countercultural circles, a factor that made them highly suspect among the government's own inner circles. Tapetopia is edited by Henryk Gericke.
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PL 085DVD
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Franco on Trial is a documentary film by Dietmar Post and Lucía Palacios. After the success of Franco's Settlers (PL 084DVD), their first exploration of Franco's dictatorship, now they investigate one of the darkest chapters of European history: the crimes committed in Spain during the 1936 coup, the subsequent civil war (1936-1939), and during Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975), which could only be established with the cooperation of Germany, Italy, and Portugal. After a Spanish judge's attempt to prosecute Franco and his generals for crimes against humanity failed in 2010, Franco's victims filed a case in Buenos Aires, known as "Querella Argentina". An Argentinian investigating judge, María Servini, has now issued 24 international arrest warrants for high-ranking representatives of the Franco dictatorship. The filmmakers accompany her as she tries to initiate court proceedings against the accused, proving that a reappraisal of Spain's darkest chapter is long overdue. Franco on Trial investigates specific cases presented in the "Argentinian Complaint". By interweaving never-before-seen archival material with current footage and contextualizing each case historically and juridically, the film reveals new evidence. In one of the key scenes, when one of the suspected perpetrators is confronted directly with the accusations by the plaintiff, the investigating judge and the plaintiff's lawyers, the film creates a sense of the impending lawsuit's significance. For more than twenty years Palacios and Post have been investigating Spanish "historical memory". Franco on Trial is the result of over ten years' work. During that time the directors managed to gain access to people from both sides of the conflict, including the daughter of a general in the 1936 coup, who still cherishes a silver-framed portrait of (and personal present from) the German Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Franco on Trial reveals an almost forgotten part of 20th century European history and considers whether the "Argentinian Complaint" will become a Spanish Nuremberg.
DVD content: Germany, Spain 2018, DVD 9, NTSC, no regions. Film running time: 102 minutes; Total running time: 121 minutes. Includes 16-page booklet in German, English, and Spanish. Subtitles: English, German, Spanish.
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PL 084DVD
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Franco's Settlers: The History Of A Village Without A History: There's a village among the high plains of La Mancha in Spain whose name pays tribute to its creator. Llanos del Caudillo (Plains of the Caudillo) was one of 300 settlement villages built for poor farmers during the dictatorship of General Franco. The documentary film Franco's Settlers is a portrait of this village, which was founded in 1955. The film explores how the legacy of the dictatorship is handled, a legacy that still divides Spanish society. Highly significant documents were unearthed during the shooting of the film. The findings prompt the mayor to declare: "These documents contain the history of a village without a history." What begins as an investigation into an unknown chapter in Spanish history evolves into a reflection on contemporary Spanish society. A society in which a judge trying to prosecute those who committed crimes during the dictatorship himself becomes the subject of judicial prosecution, while at the same time those who still valorize the dictatorship go unpunished. The film explores the past to find the key to the present and the question why many people still honor the dictator. Meanwhile, some Spaniards are demanding justice for crimes against humanity committed during the military coup (1936), civil war (1936-1939) and the 40-year dictatorship (1939-1975). Approximately 114,000 victims of Francoist violence are still missing, buried in mass graves. The amnesty law of 1977 impedes any sort of penal action. In 2010, victims seeking justice filed a complaint in Argentina. Unlike many films that deal with Spanish historical memory by siding with the victim's perspective, Franco's Settlers gives voice to both sides, including those who still defend and admire the dictator Franco. So the film captures what it meant to live under a dictatorship. By using the village as an example and villagers' stories of harassment, abuse and economic betrayal, the corruption of the Francoist system is revealed. The film consciously locates itself in the tradition of poetic documentary filmmaking, recalling both in its aesthetic and its cinematic narrative the historical film debates of Claude Lanzmann (Shoah) and Eberhard Fechner (Der Prozess).
DVD content: Germany, Spain 2013/2018, DVD 9, NTSC, no regions. Film running time: 118 minutes; Total running time: 211 minutes, bonus materials. Includes 16-page booklet in German, English, and Spanish. Subtitles: English, German, French, Romanian, Spanish. Includes teaching materials in German and Spanish.
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PL 083BK
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A collection of texts by Patricia Campelo, Carlos Castresana, Cristóbal Gómez Benito, Christoph Haas, Christoph Hübner, Paco Nadal, Rafael Poch-de-Feliu, Johanna Pumb, Georg Seeßlen, Kerstin Stutterheim, and Juan Zapater. For some time, neoliberalism has defined the content and aesthetic of documentary films. The classic open, "searching" documentary film is now very rare. It has been superseded by formatted, closed documentaries that follow the rules of advertising, propaganda or feature films, seeking to arouse emotions and encourage identification with the heroes of the story. For the past twenty years, festivals, film sponsors, and TV companies have been demanding and promoting feel-good films in conformity to the market. There's little desire for films that offer grey shades, skepticism, complexity, distance from the subject, films that are thought-provoking and challenging. Through the example of Franco's Settlers (PL 084DVD), this book explores the difficulties encountered by filmmakers who resist this neoliberal standard format. It also considers the subject of the film, how Spain has not yet undergone a process of coming to terms with the civil war, Franco's dictatorship and their legacies. 320 pages; softcover; 33 colored photographs.
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PL 069LP
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Play Loud! Productions present the first vinyl reissue of German band Die Regierung's 1992 album, So Drauf. It was their first record on the famous Hamburg based L'Age D'Or label. Christoph Gurk writes, "Led by an acidhead, who is already in his thirties, the singer/songwriter band has lived through an erratic career. Originally founded as a home-recording outfit, Die Regierung ('The Government') released a seminal debut album -- Supermüll (PL 057LP, 1984) -- in the aftermath of German New Wave (NDW)." Die Regierung anticipated the sound that, years later, became known as the Hamburger Schule, and set the tone for German independent music in the early '90s. Die Regierung had a huge influence on Germany's most famous independent Hamburger Schule band, Tocotronic, but they never hit it big. Includes two bonus tracks. Edition of 500.
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PL 070LP
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Play Loud! Productions present the first vinyl release of German band Die Regierung's 1994 album Unten. It was their second record on the famous Hamburg based L'Age D'Or label. Afterwards the band disintegrated. The record was voted by the German music magazine Musikexpress among the 750 best records ever. Christoph Gurk writes "Led by an acidhead, who is already in his thirties, the singer/songwriter band has lived through an erratic career. Originally founded as a home-recording outfit, Die Regierung ('The Government') released a seminal debut album -- Supermüll (PL 057LP, 1984) -- in the aftermath of German New Wave (NDW)." Die Regierung anticipated the sound that, years later, became known as the Hamburger Schule, and set the tone for German independent music in the early '90s. Die Regierung had a huge influence on Germany's most famous independent Hamburger Schule band, Tocotronic, but they never hit it big. Includes one bonus track, "Sprechen". Edition of 500.
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