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2LP
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ET 864-02LP
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Populäre Mechanik is an improvisational group from Berlin playing a unique amalgam of Fluxus-inspired garage rock, free jazz, and live electronics. It was originally founded in the early 1980s by Wolfgang Seidel who had previously been the original drummer for West-Berlin leftist rock band Ton Steine Scherben and after that became a long-time collaborator of Conrad Schnitzler with whom he played in Kluster and Eruption, as well as in duo recordings. Recently, Seidel emerged as an author and has published a number of writings on the history of free rock and experimental music in Western Germany -- especially Krautrock -- most notably the book Wir Müssen Hier Raus (Ventil Verlag, 2016) that is still awaiting its English translation. The music of Populäre Mechanik is rooted in equal parts in the pop music socialization of its members and the desire to experiment and incorporate cues from free improvisation and avant-garde music, while retaining a sense of enjoyment and playfulness, avoiding all pitfalls that are often present in rock-based progressive music. The name of the band is a nod to the 1950s and 1960s era of US science and technology magazine Popular Mechanics and was chosen as a statement of positive affirmation of the modern age, against the dystopias offered by much of punk and Industrial music at that time. The first incarnation of Populäre Mechanik released a 7" single and two cassettes, parts of which have recently been compiled on a CD/LP on Bureau B (BB 186CD/LP, 2015). It broke up during the 1980s. In 2005, Seidel revived the name for a new line-up -- himself being the only common member -- that played in a similar vein. This second incarnation of Populäre Mechanik can be heard for the first time on this double-LP. The line-up features improvised vocals by Alex Bulgrin, who otherwise performs as a garage rock singer with Berlin's '60s music collective Beatorganization, as well as Sven Hanke (table git, synth), Marcus Jaeger (guitar), Lars Jeschke (piano, keyboards), Kolja Nixdorf (trumpet), Matthias Sareika (bass, synth), and Wolfgang Seidel (percussion, synth). All recordings were made between 2005 and 2014 in Populäre Mechanik's rehearsal room. Full-color, gatefold sleeve with photos and extensive liner notes by Seidel explaining the history and musical positions of the group; Edition of 300.
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CD
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BB 186CD
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Bureau B presents the third release in its Kollektion series, a volume highlighting the music of Populäre Mechanik, the 1980s post-punk/jazz project of Ton Steine Scherben founder Wolfgang Seidel. Seidel describes the development of Populäre Mechanik after his departure from Ton Steine Scherben: "The music of Ton Steine Scherben soon lost its fascination for me, so before long I quit the band. I was far more intrigued by the music performance club Zodiak Free Arts Lab run by Beuys student Conrad Schnitzler. The Zodiak had one white room and an empty black room, the latter used for concerts. And what concerts they were! A poster announced: 'Totally free music. Everyone plays. Anyone plays. Everyone can do it.'... I teamed up with Schnitzler, but there was no room for a drum kit in his little studio. Instead, I started playing around with synthesizers and transposed the rhythms I had played on drums, prompting Schnitzler to nickname me 'Sequenza.' As the years passed by, however, I started to miss the drums, so in the late 1970s I replied to a small ad and found a few musicians roughly the same age as me. Our stories were similar, having begun with rock music in the 1960s. We were not the kind of folk who wallowed in nostalgia, having grown disenchanted with the direction rock had taken. Rock was clearly developing into a soundtrack for squares. Punk was far more attractive to us. It reminded us of the 1960s, rather to the annoyance of the punks. Still, we maintained a certain distance. We shared punk's dislike of the way rock and roll had developed, but beer-fuelled nihilism was not our style. Devo and XTC were the kind of bands we really got excited about. And there were also jazz musicians who wanted away from the entertainment circuit for sophisticates. These two ingredients blended into the music of Populäre Mechanik... The band's strategy for resisting assimilation into any scene was the creation of a cassette label -- allowing us to release our music quickly and cheaply. With a 4-track tape recorder and a healthy appetite for experimentation, we jammed endlessly ages before selecting the most interesting recordings." This collection, curated by Palais Schaumburg founder Holger Hiller, includes tracks from two Populäre Mechanik cassettes from the early 1980s, never before available on CD or vinyl. The accompanying booklet includes Hiller's interview with Seidel, in which they discuss the function of rock and pop music over the past 45 years.
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LP
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BB 186LP
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LP version. Bureau B presents the third release in its Kollektion series, a volume highlighting the music of Populäre Mechanik, the 1980s post-punk/jazz project of Ton Steine Scherben founder Wolfgang Seidel. Seidel describes the development of Populäre Mechanik after his departure from Ton Steine Scherben: "The music of Ton Steine Scherben soon lost its fascination for me, so before long I quit the band. I was far more intrigued by the music performance club Zodiak Free Arts Lab run by Beuys student Conrad Schnitzler. The Zodiak had one white room and an empty black room, the latter used for concerts. And what concerts they were! A poster announced: 'Totally free music. Everyone plays. Anyone plays. Everyone can do it.'... I teamed up with Schnitzler, but there was no room for a drum kit in his little studio. Instead, I started playing around with synthesizers and transposed the rhythms I had played on drums, prompting Schnitzler to nickname me 'Sequenza.' As the years passed by, however, I started to miss the drums, so in the late 1970s I replied to a small ad and found a few musicians roughly the same age as me. Our stories were similar, having begun with rock music in the 1960s. We were not the kind of folk who wallowed in nostalgia, having grown disenchanted with the direction rock had taken. Rock was clearly developing into a soundtrack for squares. Punk was far more attractive to us. It reminded us of the 1960s, rather to the annoyance of the punks. Still, we maintained a certain distance. We shared punk's dislike of the way rock and roll had developed, but beer-fuelled nihilism was not our style. Devo and XTC were the kind of bands we really got excited about. And there were also jazz musicians who wanted away from the entertainment circuit for sophisticates. These two ingredients blended into the music of Populäre Mechanik... The band's strategy for resisting assimilation into any scene was the creation of a cassette label -- allowing us to release our music quickly and cheaply. With a 4-track tape recorder and a healthy appetite for experimentation, we jammed endlessly ages before selecting the most interesting recordings." This collection, curated by Palais Schaumburg founder Holger Hiller, includes tracks from two Populäre Mechanik cassettes from the early 1980s, never before available on CD or vinyl. The accompanying booklet includes Hiller's interview with Seidel, in which they discuss the function of rock and pop music over the past 45 years.
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