Monday 21 October 2019

Jürgen Ecke ‎– "Sound-Synthese" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 171) 1986


DDR synthesist,Jürgen Ecke, dared to do what even Paul 'N.N.N.N.N.Nineteen' Hardcastle would never consider with a Fairlight.Almost every horrible eighties production value has been turned up to the max on this East German manual on how NOT to do electronic music.
Like a soundtrack for a bad 80's Madonna Movie, or the music for an endless love-making scene in Miami Vice, the music spews forth hefty Gated Reverb snare sounds,with the despised Fairlight sampler Orchestral Stab.
It smells of the "Well we've bought all of this latest equipment so we might as well use it......a lot" syndrome.....and yes there's a syn-drum in use too. 
Its absurd datedness make this album almost avant-garde its unintentional self-parody;but also charming in its quaint cluelessness.When this hit the dancefloor (singular tense is intentional) of downtown East Berlin,the Polit Bureau would have lapped it up as a demonstration of how socialism is more than capable of keeping pace with the west in all technological areas; be it Chemical Weaponry,mass surveillance techniques or Popular Music styles."You Young people WILL be happy,and You will DANCE with your socialist Joy!!"

Tracklist:

A1 HAYH-HAYH 4:11
A2 Auf Der Suche Nach... 5:00
A3 Irritation 2:54
A4 Der Letzte Tag 4:40
A5 Über Allem Ist Ruh' 4:14
B1 Über Dem Nördlichen Wendekreis 4:04
B2 Bolero 3:53
B3 Kulmination 3:02
B4 Der Ewige Traum Des Ikarus 3:59
B5 Illumination 3:55


3 comments:

Farquhar Throckmorton III said...

Your blog is magnificent. I'm not going to listen to any of this, but knowing you're keeping it alive - barely - is a great comfort to me in my declining years.

If only you'd harnessed your awesome powers of archival research for good! We'd have world peace!

Big fan of your work. I think we might have bumped into each other at Plastic Passion ...

Jonny Zchivago said...

I'm doing World Peace in a few weeks.
I'm pleased i'm comforting you as you drift into a senile stupor,its a pity your won't listen to,or can't hear, all this bizarre soviet pop......as the bloke in Boney M said...."Ohhhh you russians"....I think i've used that quote before...i'm losing it too,like you.

Anonymous said...

I love this record for what it is: a time capsule of the late 80s created by people who never go to really live the 80s