|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
ATA WR88CD
|
"As a sequel to Wieleicht this is -- in the original words of D.Diedrichsen -- the fabulous 'White Album' of Germany's underground rock in German. S.Y.P.H.s second offering on the the Ata Tak label and S.Y.P.H.'s last album in more or less its original formation with Harry Rag (vox), Uwe Jahnke (guitar also with Fehlfarben and Toon), Jojo Wolter (bass) and Ralf Bauerfeind instead of Ulli Putsch on drums. In conspiracy with the groups Mittagspause and Fehlfarben S.Y.P.H. projected Germany onto a punk and Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) plane which other groups later dissected and commercialised. S.Y.P.H. is primordial punk, Dada in its best sense as well as Trance-Rock which no 'weed' can beat. Like no other band from the legendary early 80s scene in Düsseldorf, S.Y.P.H. -- (Smashed Yankee Pummels Homo or Save Your Pretty Hearts) -- assimilated influences from Can, the Kinks to Pere Ubu with unrivalled originality and anarchism. S.Y.P.H.s Am Rhein moves playfully in the groove. The long trek from Industriemädchen(Industrial Girl) in the late 70s to Picknick im Grünen (Picknick in the Green) is artfully dealt with. S.Y.P.H. 87 no longer stands out there alone and colossal, but for magicians meandering through 1000 ideas, building bridges from island to island, emptying out the pop marshland's sludge and enabling the essentials to come into view. And somewhere between a psycho pop odyssey and nursery rhymes, their music comes over as completely uncramped -- an aural rural sculpture. The music is a concoction of rock, film, literature and experimental -- it's all there. And yet there is a concept to all this -- a critical standpoint to what officially and what unofficially exists or happens. The group's ingenuity lies in their skill to come out with the absurd without the intellectual need to make sense where it doesn't exist, with a result that the only meaningful element is what remains in the music itself."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
ATA WR84
|
"It comes as a small surprise that the fabulous Atatak label, which has been instrumental in shaping the German music scene since the end of the 70s should also be welcomed as the discoverer of Düsseldorf `s most popular Elektrotikiband The Bad Examples. The Bad Examples play instrumental pop music, which relates stories -- either long or short, cheerful or sombre. Harmonies and sounds, acoustic and electronic glide into another dimension when the four musicians take to their instruments, as if becoming part of them. They collectively mould a sound that takes us by the hand and accompanies us to Exotica. Here's their latest release -- a selection of extensive playing time, which after repeated listening is still not long enough. It is a lucid exemplification of the art of subtle arousal, which The Bad Examples are very capable of generating. As previously, narrative structured tones of electronic provenance haunt the music like a central theme, supporting the harmonic minor second steps which turn into a truly catchy little number. The tracks sound as if from a film at the same time as from the electric jungle -- Dubbed Melodica meets Sub-Bass meets Delay meets Vibraphon meets E-Piano meets computer generated sounds, which sample themselves. The remarkable music of The Bad Examples is equally at home in a flamboyant nocturnal bar, on the a dancefloor of an intimate club, or on the stage of humid summer open-air festival as much as it is on the formatted waves of a national radio station or those of a single-format radio channel. There is no conclusive evidence of what makes the Bad Examples' music so mysterious -- or so irresistible. What is for sure is that Pyrolator produced it. The captivating cover design originated from Moritz RRR refines yet another great Atatak creation."
|