SBB ‎– "SBB (or The Amiga Album)" (AMIGA ‎– 8 55 631) 1978

For SBB's East German sojourn, they got to release an album on VEB Deutsche Schallplatten's classic "Amiga" label, and record at 'Rundfunk der DDR' studios.Maybe they misunderstoof the 'Rundfunk' part, because they made a Herbie Hancock album instead of the usual SBB prog exploration.The poles have got funky for this one,the 'Third' eponymous album by SBB....referred to as the 'Amiga Album'.
The East German government were rather more officious than the Poles or the Czech's,a hangover from the Nazi period.So, i guess some high ranking state official insisted that they made something 'To Dance To Ja!?"....."Unt you vill DANCE!", was standard DJ talk at the state Discothéque;open every Friday from 7pm 'til curfew.
It may be mid-seventies funky Jazz Fusion, rather than Symphonic Progressive Rock, but it make me wanna tap my twinkle toes to its funkeh riddyms somewhat.Yowzaaaaah!

Tracklist:

A1 Tanzbär 3:05
A2 Magische Blaue Stunde 3:05
A3 Hektik 3:05
A4 2.10 2:10
A5 Ouzo 5:00
A6 Unterbrochene Erotik 2:52
B1 Kala 3:30
B2 Tumba 3:45
B3 Mutraczka 4:20
B4 Nr. 7 5:00
B5 I Wonder Why 4:35

DOWNLOAD the closest Herbie Hancock ever got to the DDR HERE!

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

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Servi ‎– "Pas De Deux In H" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 344) 1988

Liking the artwork again!?.... what's going on there?
A saucy young communist lady relaxing in an art gallery looking at some really shite paintings, then reaching for a photograph of our hero's in Servi slotted into the inside jacket pocket of a....Dummy!? This is the kind of extreme art statement that can bring down walls. Just as David Hasselhof did after his world chamging concert in Berlin in 1989. So combining the 'Hoff' with Servi on their respective sides of the Berlin Wall,was so powerful that the thing had little choice but to crumble before the power of Pop Music.
Naturally, the 'Hoff' has a problem with self-delusion and auto-agrandising Psycopathy,as well as being a shit actor, and musician toboot;but, Servi aren't that bad, in fact they're was is known in the world of understatment as 'Not Bad'.
While the youth of the UK danced the second summer of love away on drugs and elctronic tunes played by forty year old DJ's in a field around the M25.The youth in the German Democratic Republic had to make do with this bunch of television intermission tunes.One can now appreciate them as coming from a place that we could never possibly comprehend having lived our lives in a liberal democracy that prides itself on promoting freedom,even if we are not really free at all. Of course I refer to the 'Prison without walls' concept of control.A slavestate where our feudal lords like to pretend that the slaves are the ones in control,when the fact of the matter is that we control each other;trapped in a capitalist machine embodied as a flaming car racing downhill to the cliff edge with no brakes and no-one at the wheel.Like Dogs, the human race need a leash and a master to bark orders, or the dog will run into the road under an oncoming Bus. Also like Dogs, we, without fail,tend to destroy the things we hold most precious.Our Planet, the natural world, and,the thing we adore most of all,.....ourselves.
A Good,but unintentionally weird album,from a good but unintentionally weird former country. 

Tracklist:

A1 Tagtraum 1:58
A2 Entdeckung Von Augen-Blicken 3:09
A3 Sie 0:58
A4 Pas De Deux (Begegnung) 3:02
A5 Menetekel - Zeichen An Der Wand 3:01
A6 Ernüchterung 9:16
B1 Solitude 3:48
B2 Worte Suchen 7:27
B3 Ein Lächeln Auf Deinem Gesicht 2:29
B4 ... Und Nach Dem Satz: Ich Liebe Dich, Ist Die Stille Die Gleiche 7:59
B5 Abendlied 1:53

DOWNLOAD the synth Doctorr from the D...DR Synth HERE!

Servi ‎– "Rückkehr Aus Ithaka" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 229) 1986

Servi were duo Jan Bilk,(no relation to Acker) and Tomas Nawka; formerly of the Rock group version of Servi. Thankfully they switched to Electronica around 1986,and produced this Vangelis,Jean Michel Jarre type album.
Opening tracks "Thetis" and "Hellespont" are the standout tunes here,the rest of the album is a mixture of ambient electronics,Kosmiche Musick,disco stompers, and failed Soundtrack themes;but, still one of the better DDR Synth releases.There are some terrible eighties drum sounds like the ones used in the BBC's "Eastenders" soap,but these are mostly nullified with some lush synth sounds,and a limited dose of experimentation.

Tracklist:

A1 Thetis 3:42
A2 Hellespont 4:58
A3 Symplegaden 3:13
A4 Kirkes 10:22
A5 Medea 3:17
B1 Chiron 4:36
B2 Sirenen 3:46
B3 Laistrygonen 4:57
B4 Nausikaa 4:57
B5 Leukothea 5:34

DOWNLOAD at your servi-s HERE!

Pond ‎– "Planetenwind" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 049) 1984

Scientists from behind the Iron Curtain undoubtedly did some human cloning experiments. Not only to create an army of expendable super-soldiers,but musicians also.A couple of these experiments involved cloning Vangelis from some of Demis Roussos's back hair and an alternate Georgio Moroder extracted from a casually disguarded pair of Donna Summers  Tena lady absorbant underpants. The two resultant dopplegangers were placed in Berlin School wanna be's, but from the very wrong side of the wall, 'Pond'.The evidence of their existence on this recording, although not credited of course, can be found on tracks 2 and 3, "Cassiopeia" and "Zeitmaschine",where Vangelis's double Helix's genetic memory insists that they play the 'Theme to Blade Runner' note for note and Moroder's disco chromosome assumes its dominance by unleashing a previously unreleased moroder track upon a disbelieving world.
Nope, not a smidgen of a credit offered forth for either of these blatant rip-offs;but in a communist state, intellectual property is very much ,the property of the state.Anything otherwise is Theft,and subject to the greater crime of egregious capitalism.
Founded in East Berlin by a couple of Fuchs (pronounced 'Fucks'),Wolfgang and Frank Fuchs, 'Pond', were one of the earliest of few Electronic combo's from the German Democratic Republic,but they lacked the darkness of your Klaus Schulze's and your Tangerine Dreams, vearing unerringly on a collison course with the Vangelis's and Jean MIchel Jarre's of this world.Another couple of Fuchs in my opinion.
I suspect the state officials in attendance would have issued instructions to portray East Germany as a 'happy' place,where the musicians wanted to produce uplifting melodies for the endlessly ecstatic workforce to play in their downtime in front of their one channel black and white state provided TV's after a long smoky journey back to their allocated residemnce in their state provided Trabant.This album is a state provided Trabant,but like the Trabant, it has its uncertain charms.

Tracklist:

1 Planetenwind 18:30
2 Zeitmaschine 3:00
3 Cassiopeia 3:55
4 Jumbo 4:35
5 Sturmglocke 3:45
6 Supernova 3:00

DOWNLOAD and fuch off HERE!

Reinhard Lakomy & Rainer Oleak ‎– "Zeiten" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 111) 1985

It's 1985, and the German Democratic Republic,rather undemocratically as it seems, is still in the grips of the most thorough Police State that has ever been.But at least everyone had a job,somewhere to live,and a crap car. The Stasi probably made a recording of Lakomy making this recording,which likely still exists in the Stasi HQ,waiting for the deluxe reissue of this album in the west.
On this one, Lakomy, and buddy Oleak,get more experimental with their imported DX-7....never one of my favourite synths, but they seem to make it sound electronic rather than emulating a bank of digital horns as most of the chart-bound sounds of 1985 preferred.
The cover references several Hammershøi style open doorways which pass through several walls,almost daring those trapped in that drab communist existence to pass through these symbolic walls into the mysterious room at the end where the slavery is much more subtle...'The West', and so-called freedom.
In the west we are our own personal Stasi,voluntarily existing in a prison with no walls.
To quote W.S.Borroughs, "An efficient Police State doesn't need Police".In some ways that makes the DDR a more honest form of oppression,and a victim of its own sucess.
Oppression aside, Lakomy's previous "electronics" albums are fairly accessible outings typical of the era, much of this album belongs in the experimental category. The first three minutes of "Gleichzeit" and much of "Klangzeit" resemble the abstract 60s/70s computer music of academia: atonal and sparse, dissonant,whereas "Ruhezeit" wouldn't sound out of place on an early '80s Tangerine Dream album.

This was not at all endorsed by Erich Honecker of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany,but the fact that you could make a record like this in the DDR,seems to suggest it weren't all shite.You could curl up with your alloted Stasi tail,and listen to some pretty cool electronica of an evening.Leaving all the paranoia behind for forty minutes.....then back to the normal recorded conversations and video taped sex.Even spys need a time-out every now and again.

Tracklist:

A1 Gleichzeit 10:02
A2 Raumzeit 6:15
A3 Ruhezeit 5:14
B1 Klangzeit 9:30
B2 Hochzeit 8:52

DOWNLOAD to your prison with open doors HERE!

Reinhard Lakomy ‎– "Das Geheime Leben" (AMIGA ‎– 8 55 893) 1982

The Handsome ,yet ,Modern Young Gentleman that was Reinhard Lakomy

Lakomy was well known in the DDR for releasing all sorts of projects,such as nursery rhymes, books for children and,more significantly, records in such various styles as Jazz,Schlager ,disco,and euro-pop,among many other atrocities. So it wasn't astonishing that he made the first release of Berlin School style  electronic music in East Germany,of which "Das Geheime Leben" was it .Only about a dozen years after Tangerine Dream's debut in the western part of this subjucated country, followed closely by Pond and others later.

Rumour has it that he heard a Jean Michel Jarre album(Which is one more than I've ever managed!?) and away he went.After such a traumatic experience most of us never regained our mental faculties again, but somehow Reinhard managed to retain his perchant for such progressive electronics until the wall came down and ruined everything.It was Illegal to be unemployed in the Soviet Bloc, so I suppose he had to say he was doing.... something?...it was either that or Jail.Now that's what I call artistic motivation.

Tracklist:

A Das Geheime Leben 21:15
B1 Es Wächst Das Gras Nicht Über Alles 11:24
B2 Begierde Und Hoffnung 5:40
B3 Das Unendliche Rätsel 3:30

DOWNLOAD the communist Jean Michel Jarre HERE!

Reinhard Lakomy ‎– "Der Traum Von Asgard" (AMIGA ‎– 8 56 021) 1983

From the East Berlin school of electronics,on DDR state label, Amiga. Reinhard Lakomy provides us with some Tangerine Dream inspired electronica with fine socialist morals.
Its full of gorgeous analogue electronics that never escaped until the wall came down and piles of cheap Amiga vinyl was snapped up up by rich westerners. Most East German music was, of course, pure shite.But a few nuggets lay amongst the squalor...this being one of them.Active in various genres, Reinhard was the most published musician in the DDR,but didn't discover his true mojo until he made this couple of electronic Kosmischer albums.Truly worthy enough to be awarded the 'Karl Marx Order for exceptional merit in relation to ideology, culture, economy, and other designations'?

The Karl Marx Order Medal that Reinhard Lakomy was never awarded!

....good cover art too. 

Tracklist:

Der Traum Von Asgard 11:45
Die Gotischen Narren 9:20
Möglichkeit Einer Ouvertüre 3:27
Orakel 6:04
Sodom 11:32

DOWNLOAD 'cus a reinhard's gonna fall HERE!