Friday 22 September 2017

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft ‎– "Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen" (Mute STUMM 1) 1980


From the cold war chic propaganda artwork of three soviet athletes,probably drugged up on performance enhancing substances at the boycotted Moscow olympics; to the crazed live B-side recorded as support to Wire at the Electric Ballroom. This is without doubt one of, if not thee best German album ever? DAF almost single handedly dragged West Germany out of the terminal jam session hangover from the 'Krautrock' daze (sic). As soon as I heard them on Earcom 3, I knew they something rather special. This sounded like a future I would like to be part of, and still does.
Unfortunately they caved in to become dance friendly shortly after this, and embraced a slightly dodgy sweaty rent-boy image after the band was reduced to just two.....er...members. EBM (Electronic Body Music) innovators they may have been, but the puffing and panting over a hard disco beat never did it for me.
The live side of the album benefited , in the same way Wire did, from the recording being a tad overloaded into the red zone of the VU meters.Creating a live electricity and energy that lodged this band deep into my adolescent brain. 
The Conny Plank produced studio side is less unhinged but shows the more disciplined synth-punk side of the band in 1980. Great enough to permanently expunge the ghosts of both Nazi Germany and Amon Duul 2 forever?

Tracklist:


Studio Side:


A1 Osten Währt Am Längsten
A2 Essen Dann Schlafen
A3 Co Co Pino
A4 Kinderfunk
A5 Nacht Arbeit
A6 Ich Gebe Dir Ein Stück Von Mir
A7 De Panne 


Live side at the Electric Ballroom 29/02/1980

B1 Gewalt
B2 Gib's Mir
B3 Auf Wiedersehen
B4 Das Ist Liebe
B5 Was Ist Eine Welle
B6 Anzufassen Und Anzufassen
B7 Volkstanz
B8 Die Lustigen Stiefel
B9 Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen
B10 Die Fesche Lola
B11 El Basilon
B12 Y La Gracia


5 comments:

Henk Madrotter said...

THANKS!!!! I had this album but it got lost many, many years ago ...

For me, personally, for sure thee best album ever to come out of Germany... Been loving this since the late 70's...

This Heat's Deceit, Metabolist's Hansten Klork and this one were the three most important albums for me back then... The first album from The Gang Of Four, The Soft Boys' Wading Through A Ventilator and some other albums come to mind too but those three albums......

Jonny Zchivago said...

I think we are reading from the same hymn sheet. Can't fault your choices there.

Henk Madrotter said...

There were some other really, really good German bands though, a bit later than DAF, you probably know 'em all, Palais Schaumburg, Abwaerts, I played their albums almost daily back then, Holger Czukay's On The Way To The Peak Of Normal album... That ep from Einsturzende Neubauten with Lydia Luch, Thirsty Animal.....

Pisŧöff said...

Fuk yeah dude- reminds me of Ike Yard

Robert Gomez said...

Thanks! This is the first album I ever bought that met all my requirements for what I thought punk rock should sound like.