play loud! is a Berlin-based film production company and film and music label, founded in 1997 in New York by filmmakers Dietmar Post and Lucía Palacios. Based in Berlin since 2002, Post and Palacios have received acclaim for their film work, earning comparisons to American filmmakers D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. In 2008 they received the prestigious Adolf Grimme Award. In 2009 they initiated the play loud! (live) music series, which is inspired by Alan Lomax's work as an archivist and chronicler, BBC radio sessions, and the work of Direct Cinema pioneers, such as the Maysles Brothers, Leacock, Wildenhahn, Les Blank, and Pennebaker. play loud!'s intention is to create an extensive archive of interesting popular music and culture that features both the filmmakers' huge resource of unreleased filmed material and also material from other sources. In 2010, play loud! began working on their Limpe Fuchs archive series dedicated to reissuing the work of German musician Limpe Fuchs.
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PL 184CD
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$25.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/1/2024
Jim Coleman's NOW WAVE - Glowing: Beth B Exhibition features collected tracks that represent the sonic component of the "NOW WAVE - Glowing" exhibition by Beth B. This 2024 exhibition appeared at Silent Green in Berlin, featuring several live performances. Coleman collaborated with a stellar group of musicians and artists: Annie Bandez (Little Annie), Robert O. Leaver (This Wilderness, Birdthrower), Phil Puleo (Swans, Cop Shoot Cop), Jared Louche, Kirsten McCord, Paul Wallfisch, Vincent Dubuis, Nick Flynn, Evelyn Frantti, No Anger, Louise Hoffmeister, and Bliss Blood. The fusion of text, music, filmic image material, and performance create an immersive experience that is captivating and entertaining, but also confronts existential questions of human coexistence. The universal stories of the artists confront perceptions and assumptions concerning heartache, disability, mental illness, and addiction alongside the visceral music by Jim Coleman. Voicing the unheard and seeing the unseen are themes that have run through Beth B's films, art, and installation work with an eye to creating dialogue, community, and a place for self-knowledge and acceptance.
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PL 175LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/13/2024
There was a seismic shift in the European punk scene when Californian Mike Sobieski and Norah Findlay selected the Basque phenomenon Kike Turmix as their frontman in 1987. Madrid was the place to be, and with the addition of the British bass player Barnaby Bowles and later Spanish Angel Ramos, The Pleasure Fuckers crafted a singular sound, grabbing punk and doing rock while simultaneously grabbing rock and doing punk. In 1988, Simple Needs was the first of a long succession of singles, EPs, LPs, videos, soundtracks, and documentaries, and the band was known from Helsinki to Peru and Prague to Seattle. Kike unfortunately passed in 2005. The Pleasure Fuckers have returned with legendary singer Scott "Deluxe" Drake from Suicide Kings, The Humpers, and Guerrilla Teens. This group is always going to make listeners shudder and move and will shake the world of punk and rock and roll.
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PL 161LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/13/2024
When asked about the title of her new record, Amor, Limpe Fuchs bluntly responded, "because it's everything." Being a Beatles fan from the very beginning, she's well aware that "all you need is love," but there's more to her sentiment than a corny pun. On the one hand, she's more than half a century into her musical career, and describes the relationship towards her instruments in terms of an ongoing and deepening love affair. So, it's about time for a love letter to her percussion instruments and the act of drumming and listening to her drums, which can be heard as "Trommeln" on the second to last track on Amor. Listeners also get to learn about "Verliebte Autos im Wald" -- a poem by Augusta Laar that Limpe recites during the closing track. What may come across as a goofy nursery rhyme at first is indeed testament to Limpe's longstanding animistic beliefs, her imagination towards everything around her. "It may sound wonky, but it's as simple as it's true, and it's important to love yourself and everything around you -- at least I try to do so the best I can, and sometimes I fail, sure." And, again, if you think about it, it's not much of a surprise, she's singing about cars, the vehicles that since decades get her and her instruments from gig to gig, all across Europe. But it's not all just about the material world around her, of course. So, on the other hand and for the most part, Amor reflects on love as an interpersonal and spiritual experience. Drawing inspiration from such different authors as Giordano Bruno, Hilde Domin, and Serge Kahili King, Amor is a record of compositions one could almost call "songs," although they're far from being performed in a conventional way. It is also Limpe Fuchs' most openly insightful and vulnerable record to date. As curious as ever, in her light-hearted yet thoughtful manner she explores the upsides and downsides of what it means to be loved or not loved.
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PL 163LP
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$28.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/13/2024
After re-releasing 1982 and the double LP Froh zu sein and 8-EP-Sampler, play loud! now completes the Familie Hesselbach catalog (1980-1985) with the third vinyl LP Sueddeutschland & Der Untergang des Hauses H. Enjoy!
"40 years after six students from the prestigious university of Tübingen were latecomers to the German new wave, it is once again the turn for Familie Hesselbach, who have always been called 'The German Talking Heads,' something we could agree with, if we add to their sound the rhythm schemes of A Certain Ratio, the groovy bass of Bush Tetras, the skronky disco-esque of James White, and turn Byrne's voice to a more spastic and cons ice one. Berlin´s play loud! label reissued in vinyl this early '80s German new wave gem, and if you think of all the bands we've named, you know this is going to blow your mind!" --Tremendo Garage about the first LP 1982
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2LP
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PL 139LP
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"Moments Remixes began from a conversation with Jlin. We did an interview together for Talkhouse in fall of 2019, in season with the original Moments release on Unseen Worlds. Her poignant and effusive dialogue sparked the inspiration for us to do a remix together. That organically evolved into a full project idea. Xiu Xiu did the second remix in January 2020, and before things continued further -- the pandemic was upon us. During the course of the pandemic, it evolved more, and organically became a more focused project for the isolation and lack of in-person collaborative environments/performance halls. All of but one remix was completed by 2021, and then refined and curated further over the following (four) years. The highlighted dialogue across the album is how these sparse, melodic minimalisms in piano and vibraphone could manifest in a diversity of experimental subgenres: electronica, IDM, avant-rock, drone/ambient. The careful curation and illustrative collaborators elicit the transportive 'new moments' and permeable qualities of the core compositions, that discover uncharted life in this project." --Michael Vincent Waller, October 2023
Michael Vincent Waller remixes by Moor Mother, Jlin, DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess, XiuXiu, Yu Su, Fennesz, Loraine James, Prefuse 73, Lex Luger, Jefre-Cantu Ledesma, Lafawndah, Carmen Villian, Levon Vincent, Tom VR, and Ka Baird. Presented on teal color vinyl.
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PL 162LP
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Is DJ Marcelle a masochist? She hates musicals and called her 2022 album DJ Marcelle: The Musical. She dislikes cheese and calls her new album A Different Fridge For Cheese. Probably the answer has more to do with her wicked sense of humor and her love for original track and album titles. This new album is like any Marcelle production (and DJ-set): it's hard to pigeonhole. Dub, techno and avant-garde influences are clearly present but the overall feeling is one of freedom, excitement, adventure and playfulness. Ideas bounce off another and Marcelle is certainly not content with one single formula. Each track becomes a new beginning, a new adventure. Bristling with possibilities, structures are pushed and pulled and explode excitedly. Album opener and closer "Muslimgauze Was Right Part I and II" are short pieces of rhythmic noise, "Big Room Techno Looking For A Room" is a weird and very danceable techno track and the bouncy "Nice Feet" is not only another great dance track but also the second tribute on the LP ("Muslimgauze Was Right" the other one); this one is an ode to the best female footballer in the world, Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati. "New Equipment" describes the mood of the track perfectly. For a The Fall fan the track title "You Don't Have To Be Weird To Be Weird" should ring a bell. Insect sounds dominate stop-start track "To Bee Or Not To Bee." "A Difficult Fridge For Cheese" (nearly the title track!) is a storming avant-garde track featuring voices of some of her (musical) friends like two members of avant dub outfit Holy Tongue and fans and friends she met whilst DJ-ing in amongst others Brazil and Portugal, asking in their native language to leave the cheese in the fridge, por favor. The title was inspired by a visit to her DJ-friend and fellow The Fall-fanatic Carlos Souffront in San Francisco. Souffront, in daily life a cheesemonger, does have a different fridge for the cheese in his house. Upon seeing this, Marcelle decided to name her new LP after this. For future album titles controversial phenomena like "pop choirs" and "DJ schools" are warned! After Explain The Food, Bitte (PL 113LP, 2021) and DJ Marcelle: The Musical (PL 126LP, 2022), A Different Fridge For Cheese is Marcelle's third album being released on the Berlin label 'play loud!'.
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PL 138LP
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Play Loud! will release the entire recordings of the Manchester post-punk band Gods Gift (1979-1985), some for the first time ever. In heavy rotation at the BBC in the early 80s. Mark E. Smith was a fan too. Gods Gift guitar player Steve Murphy compiled 11 songs for what will be their first LP ever. Includes DVD (NTSC, region-free) with a live show in Rotterdam and extensive liner notes plus a postcard.
"Gods Gift were around when lots of Manchester groups were gaining fame and fortune. Manchester spawned a bleak soundtrack for the music loving youth of the time. The Gothic catacombs were the breeding place of much anger and consternation. Some groups wanted to be amusing, some wanted to be arty, some wanted to be doom-laden, but most wanted to be famous. Gods Gift wanted to shout their rage and hatred at a world that wasn't listening to anything as irrelevant as people...The songs on this new album were a long time in the making. They are angry songs and anti- everything. The entire back catalog of Gods Gift songs and a video will be available as digital downloads very soon through the German outlet play loud! They are priceless jewels from a group that cared and mattered. Buy them, listen to them as loud as you can and go out and demand to be heard!" --Steve Murphy, June 2023
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PL 142LP
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White vinyl. Play Loud! Productions present the first reissue of Roky Erickson's All That May Do My Rhyme, originally released in 1994. Roky Erickson is a legend. Former member of the 13th Floor Elevators, he was considered the white James Brown. Drug problems and diagnosed schizophrenia made him an outsider. By the '90s, he was struggling to survive on a $200 monthly social security check. In 1990, artists like R.E.M., ZZ Top, and the Jesus and Mary Chain recorded his songs for a tribute album. Erickson performed publicly for the first time in many years at the Austin Music Awards. In 1994, he returned to the studio with guitarists Charlie Sexton and the Butthole Surfers' Paul Leary to record All That May Do My Rhyme. This record was released on CD, cassette, and vinyl in 1994 on Paul Leary's Trance Syndicate Records. Notes from the original press release: "Trance Syndicate is pleased to present the first studio recording in almost a decade by one of the most gifted, most influential, most inspired singer/songwriters from the Republic of Texas since Buddy Holly. Roky Erickson is back! performing new songs and a few classics in one of the best studios in Texas, backed by some of Texas' finest musicians." This is no cheap live tape, crummy reissue, nor a slimy bootleg. This is the real thing.
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PL 140LP
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First vinyl release. In 1989, before the wall came down, Mona Mur and her producer Dieter Meier (Yellow) came to Poland. Under the musical direction of Polish rock star Grzegorz Ciechowski (Republika) and with renowned Polish musicians, arrangers and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, she recorded her album Warsaw in early 1990. Mona Mur: "Warsaw deals with the old topic of love as a marginal experience. Why does this intrigue me? Because this is how I experienced it at a very young age. There is hardly a more relevant subject for me as an artist, maybe apart from war. Both confront you with the possibility of annihilation." During six months of production in Warsaw, from September 1989 to March 1990, Mona Mur observes historical changes in Europe and the whole world. The recordings take place at Polish Television's legendary studio S4 - 10 songs of great intensity, three of which are given genre-redefining orchestration by renowned composer and conductor, Krzesimir Debski. Producer Dieter Meier is enchanted. But Warsaw faces challenges. Its release does not happen as planned. Mona Mur's record company back then, German RCA, feels the album is not mainstream enough. More illustrious bidders follow, including Stevo Pearce of Some Bizarre, then the album vanishes. In 2000, four of Mona Mur's songs from Warsaw are covered by Polish singer Katarzyna Groniec on her album Mężczyźni (SONY). Producer: Grzegorz Ciechowksi. The album gets high chart rankings, the single with Mona's song "Paintings" (polish: "Dzięki za miłość") sells over 70,000 copies. Soon after, in late 2001, producer Grzegorz Ciechowski dies suddenly at the age of only 44, under tragic circumstances. His work as a musician, singer, frontman and rock poet is unique in Poland. An annual memorial concert in the medieval city of Torun, as well as several new interpretations of the Republika hits keep the memory of "Citizen GC" alive. In 2011, Mona Mur is invited to Torun, where she performs live with Grzegorz Ciechowski's band members. Finally, in 2015, Mona Mur's album Warsaw was released by Mystic Productions, but only on CD and exclusively in Poland.
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PL 129LP
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The concert was filmed on June 4th, 1982 at Sartory Säle in Cologne (Germany) during the 82' "Collision Drive" tour. In 1981, Alan Vega had released his second solo LP under the title, Collison Drive. It forms part of the "play loud! (live) music series". The "play loud (live) music series" is based on three precepts: Alan Lomax's work as an archivist and chronicler, John Peel's BBC radio sessions, and the work of Direct Cinema pioneers, such as the Maysles Brothers, Leacock, Wildenhahn, Blank, and Pennebacker. play loud! aims to create an extensive archive of interesting popular music and culture that includes both material from the filmmakers' large amount of unreleased footage and material from other sources. Other artists in this series: Damo Suzuki, Lydia Lunch, Floating di Morel, Hans-Joachim Irmler, FM Einheit, Faust, Die Regierung, Limpe Fuchs, Guru Guru, Friedman + Liebezeit, Camera featuring Michael Rother and Dieter Moebius, and many more. Rockpalast (Rock Palace) is a German music television show that broadcasts live on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Rockpalast started in 1974 and continues to this day. Hundreds of rock, heavy metal and jazz bands have performed on Rockpalast. For this vinyl and DVD release play loud! has licensed the Alan Vega show from 1982. Credits: Alan Vega - vocals, harp, guitar; Mark Kuch - guitar; Sesu Coleman - drums; Larry Chaplan - bass. Remastering by Moritz Illner (duophonic). The vinyl LP comes with an eight-page booklet and a DVD, containing the entire live show (film I), which was recorded by German Public TV during Vega's 1982 'Collision Drive' tour. Also, on the DVD, the art exhibition "Alan Suicide: Collision Drive 2002" at Deitch Projects in New York (film II). It was Alan Vega's first exhibition after 18 years. Interestingly, both the Rockpalast show and the art exhibition carried the title Collision Drive. A term that maybe best describes Vega's art and music. 1982/2002/2022 DVD is NTSC, region-free.
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PL 132LP
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Mona Mur, born in Hamburg, met FM Einheit, Alexander Hacke, and Mark Chung from Einstürzende Neubauten and Gode B. from Front during the punk explosion. As Mona Mur & Die Mieter they released their first 12" single Jeszcze Polska in '82, which immediately claimed the "Single of the Week" slot by London's New Musical Express. Mona Mur then lived a wild life in Paris and Berlin. In fall 1984, she formed a new Mona Mur band with FM Einheit and Alexander Hacke, joined by Flucht nach Vorn keyboardist Nikko Weidemann (today Moka Efti Orchestra), Siewert Johannsen (guitar, Stricher), and Thomas Stern (bass, Crime and the City Solution). This Mona Mur band was recorded and mixed live by Raymond "Nainz" Watts (Einstürzende Neubauten, Psychic TV, KMFDM) at his Building Site studio in Hamburg. The band played acclaimed concerts in Germany and Europe, as well as festivals, such as the renowned Pandora's Box in Rotterdam. Their manically intense live performance in guitar thunderstorms and morbid slowbeat chic and especially their seminal Brecht/Weill interpretations ("Surabaya Johnny", "Der Song von Mandelay", "Die Ballade vom Ertrunkenen Mädchen") are still cult today. The band broke up in spring of '86, and Mona Mur embarked on a solo career. The recordings, made between 1984-1986, had never been released... until now.
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PL 135LP
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2023 repress. On May 28, 1969, four American musicians -- reed/wind players Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, bassist Malachi Favors, and (accompanied by his wife, singer Fontella Bass) trumpeter Lester Bowie -- boarded the ocean liner S.S. United States, bound for Le Havre, France. After landing five days later, they moved on to Paris, where they got to work. On August 22, 1970, in the waning days of their stay overseas, the group, with Bass on vocals, would record their second release for EMI's Pathé Marconi: the movie soundtrack Les Stances à Sophie. The record, an exciting, eminently listenable combination of soul, classical, and jazz strains that survives as the Art Ensemble of Chicago's most stylistically diverse album, has long been admired by a devoted cult. Its durability is largely due to the popularity of its "hit": Over the years, "Theme de Yoyo" has been covered repeatedly, essayed by acts as varied as German funk band the Boogoos (and the offshoot Deep Jazz, both featuring singer Julia Fehenbeger), British nu-jazz combo the Cinematic Orchestra, Polish jazz man Wojtek Mazolewski, Norwegian rockers Motorpsycho, French dance music artist Étienne Jaumet, and London-based remixer, Shall I Bruk It. More than half a century later, "Theme de Yoyo" and Les Stances à Sophie still bring it. Limited-edition LP reissue from play loud! Productions, supplemented with new notes by U.S. music journalist Chris Morris.
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PL 126LP
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Tina Turner. Princess Diana. Johan Cruijff. Jesus. Abba. Spider-Man. Jerry Springer. Mormons. A brothel. Monty Python. A gay remake of Shakespeare. Anne Frank. Nothing and no-one seems to be able to escape the fangs of the musical industry. So it's no real surprise that the last woman standing, DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess, has also fallen victim to this evil fate. The album, after 2021's Explain The Food, Bitte (PL 113LP) her second release with Berlin label Play Loud! Productions, is as surprising and up-to-date as ever. Marcelle's productions come into existence quite quickly, like sketches capturing a moment. Take, for example, "The Quarantine House Party Try-Out", a bouncy track dealing with those illegal parties people organized in their own homes during the covid period. With the pandemic now hopefully over, the DJ/producer travels the world again. Marcelle deals with this in "Soups On Tour", related to a link on her website where she documents all soups she eats on the road (and in restaurants). It's this individual approach to her creative process that gives her artistic fulfillment; her DIY attitude is inherent to everything she does and is reflected in her creative process as a whole, from the music itself to how it is presented: on the sleeve of DJ Marcelle: The Musical you see her literally "dropping" a musical. The freedom she grants herself is essential, she never had the difficulty of coping with certain expectations or being stuck with a certain perceived musical (ha!) profile, because she has always been able to make sure people didn't have any anticipation of where her music (and DJ-sets) would go in the first place. So it's no real surprise that, following danceable tracks like "Voted Best DJ School (25% Off)" and weird album opener/warning "This Record Is Scratched" on side A, we get only one track on side B: the 17-minute-plus technoid stomper "Smacznego!" (Polish for "enjoy your meal"). It's a hypnotic, continually shifting track which, even when it ends after such a long time, leaves you hungry for more. The hilarious promo video of the song hopefully satisfies this appetite. So now you have DJ Marcelle also being exploited as a musical. There is one consolation, though: DJ Marcelle: The Musical happens to be the first instrumental musical in the world.
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2LP
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PL 123LP
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Reissue, originally released in 1974 on Preiser Records. Gatefold sleeve. Free music is free. It is the opposite of traditional, conventional music bound by various rules or by any kind of metric, tonal, harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, social or other system, as well as music that is beholden, restricted, schooled or unfree. In short, it's the opposite of any music we've known before. In free music, every rule that's ever existed in unfree music is rejected. Likewise, all existing notions about how music should or should not be, what its purpose must or cannot be and so on. Free music comes from the unconscious, an original source from within the self. It is by placing trust in players and listeners that we liberate them. The individual's pride, fears, inhibitions and aggression resist this act of liberation. But if they yield to it, whether as a player or listener, they discover something shockingly new and unheard. They feel like they've suddenly been transported from their familiar, oppressive surroundings into a glorious flower meadow. What's happened? They've simply returned home, to the realm of ordinary wonder, and to their own soul. With happiness and gratitude, they rediscover how to connect with their soul to move, live and laugh. They also learn that they can communicate musically with anyone, perhaps even with any creature. It transpires the styles, traditions, conventions and languages which were developed to enable communication are actually great impediments to it. Having decided to discard them, communication immediately becomes freer. Until now, there have been very few players who comprehend free music in a profound sense and who are able to create it. But it's likely that their numbers will quickly grow, and free music will soon become widespread. There's a clear need for it. Artists include: Limpe Fuchs, Paul Fuchs, Friedrich Gulda featuring Albert Mangelsdorff, Barre Phillips, Munir Bashir, Gerhard Herrmann, Leszek Zadlo, Ursula Anders.
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PL 122CD
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The historic Buchla 100 series modular synthesizer was built by Don Buchla in California in early 1960s. An instrument intended for electronic music performance that together with the Moog Modular is one of the most important synthesizers in the history of electronic music. One of the few still fully functional Buchla 100 Synthesizer can be found at the Ernst Krenek Institut in Krems, Austria. During an artist-in residency program, Mario Verandi explored the endless sound possibilities of this rare and extraordinary instrument. The result is his Eight Pieces for the Buchla 100 Series, a journey into experimental minimal electronic music. Mario Verandi is an Argentinean-born composer, musician and producer living in Berlin. With an extensive artistic career, Mario Verandis works are wide-ranging and include electroacoustic and experimental music, music in modern classical and ambient style, live electronic performances as well as sound installations and music for dance, radio and theater. He has also collaborated with several musicians and visual artists. He has performed in several prestigious European festivals including Märzmusik (Berlin), Multiphonies GRM (Paris) and Donaueschinger Musiktage. His works have been awarded in the Prix Ars Electronica Awards (Linz), European Bell Days Composition Prize (ZKM, Karlsruhe), Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition (France), Stockholm Electronic Art Awards (Sweden) and is included in the Essex Collection of Latin American Art.
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PL 118EP
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The protest song is back. The Dr. Drexler Project operates from the Southern German town of Augsburg, birthplace of Bertolt Brecht. The collective's sound is modernized post-punk. Rhythms for the dancefloor. Snarling bass, chiseled beats, sharp-edged guitars and gritty lyrics that give voice to angry times.
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PL 109LP
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LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Mona Mur, vocalist of her own class, songwriter, music producer, '80s survivor. Together with Alexander Hacke, FM Einheit, Mark Chung (all of Einstürzende Neubauten) and organ virtuoso Nikko Weidemann (Moka Efti Orchestra) responsible for underground hits such as "Snake", "120 Tage", or "Eintagsfliegen". She first graced the music scene with the 12" Jeszcze Polska (Supermax, 1982) which immediately claimed London's NME's "Single of the Week" slot: "Her weapons are a passionately bloody voice and a gift for multiligual puns she applies to acerbic commentaries." At the time Mur lived a wild life in Hamburg, Paris and Berlin which shaped her unique and uncompromising musical persona. A violent sound of darkest shades and concerts in manic intensity and morbid slowbeat-chic were foundation stones for her cult image until today. Mona Mur is also a composer and sound designer, her music and soundscapes are to be found in movies like Gegen die Wand and video games such as Kane & Lynch2: Dog Days. In summer 1987, Mona Mur met legendary Stranglers musicians JJ Burnel and Dave Greenfield on their compound in beautiful and enchanted East-Anglia to create her first full album Mona Mur. The synth pop pearl with Dave Greenfield's signature and unique keyboard arpeggios and Burnel's brutal and elegant bass lines strongly influencing the production sound was released 1988 by RCA and was celebrated by filmmakers Monika Treut and Elfi Mikesch in their movie Die Jungfrauenmaschine -- which contains a MM live performance of the song "Ritz". The official "Ritz" video was shot by Eduard Oleschak in Vienna on Heldenplatz and Hofburg and in Palais Saurau in the city of Graz, Austria. The album also features a special re-recording of "Surabaya Johnny" using tracks by FM Einheit, Alex Hacke, Nikko Weidemann, Thomas Stern and Siewert Johannsen (the second Mona Mur band line-up) with additional drum tracks by Dave Larcombe. Remastered by En Esch (KMFDM, Pigface), comes in a new running order with a special version of "Jealous" and a bonus track, "Venus 2020", featured as credits's song of the upcoming Monika Treut movie Genderation (2021).
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PL 113LP
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DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess is that rare combination of things: fearless, innovative, playful, independent, unpredictable and with a great sense of humor. The singular producer and DJ from Amsterdam lives in that rare league of artists who are out there, doing their own thing, continually pushing the boundaries of electronic music and having a great time in doing so as well. Her third album in just over two years is as versatile as ever. Steelpan (!) dancehall goes hand in hand with off the wall techno and weird avant garde. The album contains a surprising collaboration with Michael Vincent Waller, a modern classical composer/pianist from New York: "The Orphan Serenade" is Marcelle's most personal, sensitive track to date. As always, her track titles are a joy in themselves ("The Vegans Are Backstage", "Hum Hum Hum", "Technicians Leaving The Club"). The album is covid-19 proof: Marcelle wears a face mask on the sleeve. Join Marcelle in her unique musical universe. And try to explain her the food, please.
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PL 109CD
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Mona Mur, vocalist of her own class, songwriter, music producer, '80s survivor. Together with Alexander Hacke, FM Einheit, Mark Chung (all of Einstürzende Neubauten) and organ virtuoso Nikko Weidemann (Moka Efti Orchestra) responsible for underground hits such as "Snake", "120 Tage", or "Eintagsfliegen". She first graced the music scene with the 12" Jeszcze Polska (Supermax, 1982) which immediately claimed London's NME's "Single of the Week" slot: "Her weapons are a passionately bloody voice and a gift for multiligual puns she applies to acerbic commentaries." At the time Mur lived a wild life in Hamburg, Paris and Berlin which shaped her unique and uncompromising musical persona. A violent sound of darkest shades and concerts in manic intensity and morbid slowbeat-chic were foundation stones for her cult image until today. Mona Mur is also a composer and sound designer, her music and soundscapes are to be found in movies like Gegen die Wand and video games such as Kane & Lynch2: Dog Days. In summer 1987, Mona Mur met legendary Stranglers musicians JJ Burnel and Dave Greenfield on their compound in beautiful and enchanted East-Anglia to create her first full album Mona Mur. The synth pop pearl with Dave Greenfield's signature and unique keyboard arpeggios and Burnel's brutal and elegant bass lines strongly influencing the production sound was released 1988 by RCA and was celebrated by filmmakers Monika Treut and Elfi Mikesch in their movie Die Jungfrauenmaschine -- which contains a MM live performance of the song "Ritz". The official "Ritz" video was shot by Eduard Oleschak in Vienna on Heldenplatz and Hofburg and in Palais Saurau in the city of Graz, Austria. The album also features a special re-recording of "Surabaya Johnny" using tracks by FM Einheit, Alex Hacke, Nikko Weidemann, Thomas Stern and Siewert Johannsen (the second Mona Mur band line-up) with additional drum tracks by Dave Larcombe. Remastered by En Esch (KMFDM, Pigface), comes in a new running order with a special version of "Jealous" and a bonus track, "Venus 2020", featured as credits's song of the upcoming Monika Treut movie Genderation (2021). CD version includes comes with Mona Mur & Die Mieter EP Jeszcze Polska (1982).
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PL 107LP
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In other places, the New German Wave was already over by 1982. In the countryside they were always a bit behind. Particularly in the south-west of Germany, where the quiet university town of Tübingen sits like a Disney version of a German province. The late 1970s were synonymous with a left-leaning alternative scene, and it was in this climate that a bunch of renegades met. Two things united them: antipathy towards their fellow students and a desire for musical renewal. To give (post) punk meaningful direction and to present to the public the already nostalgic (perhaps only retroactively constructed) idea of pop as an agent of permanent cultural revolution, they needed bands whose confrontational performances could stir up and split student gatherings. That's what Attraktiv & Preiswert did, fronted by Ralf van Daale. The Hesselbach Family was founded by Gottfried, Axel, Claude, Frank, and Klaus Hesselbach, with Handke Hesselbach joining later. The name, taken from a TV series about a Hessian family business, placed them somewhere between wishful thinking (Ramones) and reality (the provincial backwaters). Compared to most projects, where everyone was involved in three (one group and two side projects), the Hesselbachs were a band in the old-fashioned sense. Their playing was tight, which was unusual for the New German Wave. Their co-conspirators had brilliant ideas (like Autofick and Zimt), but the Hesselbach Family really had the new possibilities at their fingertips. They had the groove of A Certain Ratio and Medium Medium, as well as the "broken jazz" of James Chance groups, and they shamelessly adopted the manifesto pop of British DIY bands and the Scottish "Postcard sound". They were even quicker than others to integrate "Zitatpop", the further development of the revolution that was underway and still largely not understood in Germany. For a long time, no one realized that it was the legacy of a scene that was small, but highly motivated in terms of content. It represents those who, between 1979 and 1983, wanted to recreate the big and exciting pop world in the sleepy regions around Stuttgart, for fun but with the necessary seriousness. German post-punk was traditionally averse to theory. It is only now, when they sound as they should have done, that you realize that the Hesselbach Family were the Talking Heads in this completely unlikely constellation. Photos and liner notes by Frank Apunkt Schneider. Remastered by Moritz Illner.
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PL 103LP
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Official holidays played a role in the short but tumultuous life of the East Berlin improv-punk band Klick & Aus, beginning with Walpurgis Night in 1983 when two members of the band met for the first time: Sala Seil, saxophonist, singer and dancer, and Tohm di Roes, poet, drummer and singer. In the summer the duo was joined by bassist ToRo Klick, who had been crafting rhythms with Thom di Roes since 1982. Still nameless, the trio opened an exhibition by artist W.A. Scheffler at the private gallery "rot-grün" in Berlin's Sredzkistraße, a team of producers grouped around the brothers Erhard and Mario Monden. The noise-laden performance heralded the birth of a new band: Klick & Aus, using the bassist's surname to create a militant multilayered association. Their live debut lasted all of 15 minutes. Later performances were similarly burlesque to grotesque. New faces had also joined, including the poet Florian Günther, who soon left again, as well as Klick's wife Evolinum on fanfare and violin. Rounding out the eccentric combo in classic style was singer Pjotr Schwert, a scientist whose dream GDR "day job" was as the night porter on a railroad sleeping car. As Orwellian 1984 neared its end Tohm di Roes roamed Alexanderplatz recording the sounds of the local Christmas Market. These snippets became interludes between the songs on the cassette album AIDS delikat. Recorded with underground producer Thorsten Philipp at his studio in Berlin's Mahlsdorf district, the album melded loud shamanic chants with song structures and archaic sampling. Klick & Aus played an amalgamation of proto-punk and post-punk influenced by acts from both East and West including Galloping Coroners, Captain Beefheart, and Cabaret Voltaire. The Klick & Aus sound breathed restlessness and petulance, like a company of soldiers always simmering for battle, but refusing to march in step. Klick & Aus convened a celebration of the untamed and ecstatic, and put infantile masculinity firmly in its place. Klick & Aus wanted a high-quality production, so the band members spent their own money to avoid using the expensive lo-fi blank cassettes from the officially sanctioned ORWO company. A shortened vinyl version of the tape has been compiled for Tapetopia 003. Edition of 500.
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PL 100LP
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About this record and how Limpe and Paul Fuchs got together with Friedrich Gulda: In 1968, the Austrian classical and jazz pianist Friedrich Gulda organized the First International Music Forum of Ossiachersee with the theme "Improvisation in Music -- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow". During the third edition of the festival, Gulda got to know the band Anima Sound and was fascinated by their "absolute free music", which they played on home-made instruments. Anima Sound was Limpe and Paul Fuchs, who had already released two albums in 1971, Stürmischer Himmel (Stormy Heaven) on Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's OHR label and the self-released Musik für Alle. Musik für Alle developed during a 4,000-kilometer tour throughout Europe when the band and their two children hitched a handmade mobile home and stage to an old Hanomag tractor, bringing their anarchic, uncompromising improvisations to an impromptu public, free of charge. German documentary filmmaker Helga Tiedemann captured part of the tour for the film Mit 20 km/h durch Europa. Gulda and Anima Sound often toured together throughout the '70s and the band became regulars at Gulda's festivals of free music. In 1972, they released the simply titled LP Anima. In 1973, Tiedemann captured one of the shows, and the film Gruppe Anima in Salzburg. The International Music Forum of Ossiachersee ended in 1974. In the same year, Gulda and Limpe and Paul Fuchs went on tour with some of their festival musicians and recorded the double-LP It's Up To You. Gulda and partner Ursula Anders's festival in Ossiach attracted top-class guests, including among others Pink Floyd, Weather Report, Tangerine Dream, and many great jazz and world music musicians. The follow-up festival, Tage Freier Musik (Days of Free Music) at Castle Moosham in the Lungau region of Salzburg, Austria in 1976 again offered a high-class bill. A year later in 1977, the guests were Don Cherry and Moki, The Revolutionary Ensemble, Günther Rabl, Makaya Ntshoko, among others, and Anima Sound with Limpe and Paul Fuchs. The recordings here were made during the 1977 festival and have been restored and are released for the first time ever. The music critic Baldur Brockhoff wrote for Süddeutsche Zeitung about the Anima Sound concert: "Paul and Limpe Fuchs played superbly. As archaic as the instruments may seem (sand shovel, circular saw, hand-knitted crumhorn, sheet metal), as simple as the musical patterns and structures are, far from all virtuosity, the two have meanwhile found a complete harmony in making music together. The most beautiful thing about this music is probably the unfamiliar; no role model is used here."
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PL 099LP
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Floating Di Morel is a band from Berlin (Germany). The band was founded in 1994 by Sabine Blödorn (ex-Young Scamps) and Kai Drewitz (ex-P.L.O.). Other temporary band members have been Martin Osti, Thorsten Neu, and Ulf Goretzki. Summer Has Become Cold is the eighth release (six albums and two 7-inches) by Floating Di Morel, the fourth LP on the Berlin label Play Loud! Productions.
"Reckon this might be my favourite album of the year so far -- 'Omu' is certainly my favourite track. Summer Has Become Cold is the new one from Floating Di Morel, the long-running northern German band centered around Sabine Blodorn and Kai Drewitz. It picks up where their 2018 split with Ulf/FDM left off, with terse drum-machine loops and dubwise walking basslines providing the backdrop for the duo's icily laconic vocal interplay and minimal, plasmic guitar. Can't quite put my finger on it, there's something really unusual and beguiling about the way the tracks are arranged and mixed: ultra-criss, stripped-back, machinic, but at the same time diffuse, smeared, on the cusp of dissolve... All I can really say is that fans of Bobby Would, Nico + The Faktion, The Phantom Payn, Jac Berrocal etc need it and need it bad." --Low Company
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PL 098LP
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LP version. A vibrant soundtrack to the Cockney Jewish experience, when the swinging hot dance bands were still all the rage, and the Yiddish language was spoken on the streets of Whitechapel. Feast on long forgotten 78 rpm discs that have only recently been unearthed, starring a host of recording artists united for the first time. Hear the legendary dance band figures of the era like Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra, and Lew Stone and his Monseigneur Band, to the relatively unknown Jewish specialty acts like the Johnny Franks and his Kosher Ragtimers, and Rita Marlowe, the siren of the Yiddish song. Delight in the cheeky street patter of the incomparable slapstick drummer Max Bacon rejoicing in the East Enders love affair with "Beigels", celebrate the world famous Petticoat Lane street market with not one, but two 1920s fox trots -- but also shed a tear with Leo Fuld, the remarkable Dutch Yiddish singer, whose recordings in post-war London were haunting reminders of a way of life decimated by the Holocaust. Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World is compiled by Alan Dein, the multi award winning radio documentary presenter, whose own family harks back to the major wave of immigrants fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe from the end of the 19th century. The album title is inspired by a 1920s Yiddish slogan of an East London gramophone record shop. A time when Whitechapel was a fertile breeding ground for singers, songwriters, conductors, and cantors to musicians, managers, proprietors of record shops and club owners -- and according to Dein, "their stories are now entwined with the development of the British recorded music industry. But for the first time ever, we can the discover the remarkable sounds of Jewish-themed jazz recorded in London between the 1920s and the 1950s..." The accompanying booklet designed by Will Bankhead includes a detailed essay by Dein, illustrated with rare photos and memorabilia. This release is co-compiled by Howard Williams, better known for his Japan Blues radio show on NTS, and a series of compilations spanning Moondog (The Viking of Sixth Avenue), Japanese jazz singer Maki Asakawa, and the worlds of Japanese surf rock (Takeshi Terauchi), rockabilly (Masaaki Hirao), and soul funk and disco ("Lovin' Mighty Fire"). Also features Baker and Willie with Orchestra, Stanley Laudan, Mendel and his Mishpoche Band, Maurice Winnick and his Sweet Music, The Plaza Band, Oscar Grasso and his Intimate Music, and Chaim Towber with Johnny Franks Orchestra.
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PL 098CD
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A vibrant soundtrack to the Cockney Jewish experience, when the swinging hot dance bands were still all the rage, and the Yiddish language was spoken on the streets of Whitechapel. Feast on long forgotten 78 rpm discs that have only recently been unearthed, starring a host of recording artists united for the first time. Hear the legendary dance band figures of the era like Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra, and Lew Stone and his Monseigneur Band, to the relatively unknown Jewish specialty acts like the Johnny Franks and his Kosher Ragtimers, and Rita Marlowe, the siren of the Yiddish song. Delight in the cheeky street patter of the incomparable slapstick drummer Max Bacon rejoicing in the East Enders love affair with "Beigels", celebrate the world famous Petticoat Lane street market with not one, but two 1920s fox trots -- but also shed a tear with Leo Fuld, the remarkable Dutch Yiddish singer, whose recordings in post-war London were haunting reminders of a way of life decimated by the Holocaust. Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World is compiled by Alan Dein, the multi award winning radio documentary presenter, whose own family harks back to the major wave of immigrants fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe from the end of the 19th century. The album title is inspired by a 1920s Yiddish slogan of an East London gramophone record shop. A time when Whitechapel was a fertile breeding ground for singers, songwriters, conductors, and cantors to musicians, managers, proprietors of record shops and club owners -- and according to Dein, "their stories are now entwined with the development of the British recorded music industry. But for the first time ever, we can the discover the remarkable sounds of Jewish-themed jazz recorded in London between the 1920s and the 1950s..." The accompanying booklet designed by Will Bankhead includes a detailed essay by Dein, illustrated with rare photos and memorabilia. This release is co-compiled by Howard Williams, better known for his Japan Blues radio show on NTS, and a series of compilations spanning Moondog (The Viking of Sixth Avenue), Japanese jazz singer Maki Asakawa, and the worlds of Japanese surf rock (Takeshi Terauchi), rockabilly (Masaaki Hirao), and soul funk and disco ("Lovin' Mighty Fire"). Also features Baker and Willie with Orchestra, Stanley Laudan, Mendel and his Mishpoche Band, Maurice Winnick and his Sweet Music, The Plaza Band, Oscar Grasso and his Intimate Music, and Chaim Towber with Johnny Franks Orchestra.
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