Computer state
| Computer state | ||||
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| Extended play from downwards | ||||
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Publication |
April 1980 |
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admission |
1980 |
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| Label (s) | ZickZack Records | |||
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Format (s) |
7 ″ |
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Title (number) |
5 |
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running time |
14:24 |
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| occupation |
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Down |
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Studio (s) |
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Computerstaat is an EP by the Hamburg punk band Abwärts and also their first own release. The EP was released in 1980 by ZickZack Platten in 7 ″ format and is considered one of the best-selling, independently produced and distributed phonograms in the Federal Republic of Germany in those years.
History of origin
Downwards went to the Hamburg Hafenklang-Studio in February 1980 to record a single for the Hanoverian independent label No Fun Records and the RipOff distribution of Frank Z. and Klaus Maeck . The self-financed and self-produced recordings then appeared on the ZickZack label newly founded by the music journalist Alfred Hilsberg as their second release. Frank S. (effects, vocals), Frank Z. (guitar, vocals), Axel D. (drums), Margitta (vocals), Gibo (bass) were involved in the recordings . The band operated under these pseudonyms in order to compete as a collective and to achieve success through their art, not as individuals. The concept looked down from the band Devo .
The EP was later re-pressed without consulting the band.
Track list
page A
- Computer State - 3:11
- Japan - 3:05
Side B
- Moon of Alabama - 2:19
- We wait - 4:16
- Home - 1:35
Song information
Musically extremely untypical for a band from the Hamburg punk scene is the use of synthesizers and the extremely monotonous sound.
The first track “Computerstaat” is still one of the most popular downward tracks and has a permanent place in the live set of the music group. The minimalistic counting rhyme was reminiscent of the texts of the also electronically working band German-American Friendship (DAF). The text counts the dangers of the Cold War and ends with the formula “Stalingrad, Stalingrad - Germany disaster state. We live in the computer state. "In particular, mention the politicians Yasser Arafat , at that time leader of the terrorist acting PLO , and Leonid Brezhnev , the then leader of the Soviet Communist Party . The text was created in response to the progress made in criminal prosecution, which from the point of view of the copywriters made a surveillance state possible. Here Frank Z. named Horst Herold's raster search system as a source of inspiration. The short text describes the fear in punk circles of a burgeoning hysteria against the left and the burgeoning punk movement after the crimes of the Red Army Faction (RAF) .
The line "Paranoia in the tram" gave its name to the eponymous punk song from Weird System , on which the said piece was also located. It has been covered several times , including by the punk bands Slime from Hamburg and Die Toten Hosen from Düsseldorf . There is also a cover version of the techno DJ Westbam . The German Rolling Stone selected the piece in 2013 as one of the 111 best German songs.
In Moon of Alabama is an interpretation of Alabama Song from the opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill .
Publications and chart successes
The EP was positively received in the leading music magazines Sounds and Musikexpress . The downward debut sold extremely well and is one of the best-selling records in the network of independently produced and distributed music in the Federal Republic of Germany, which is currently emerging in connection with the punk movement. It stayed at number 1 in the German independent charts of the music magazine Sounds for almost a year . By the summer of 1981 alone, 22,000 copies had been sold. Later editions of the EP, like other ZigZag products, were distributed by independent distributor Indigo .
Web links
- Computer state at Discogs
- Computer state at Musik-Sammler.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Jürgen Teipel: Vschwende your youth. A documentary novel about German punk and new wave . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-39771-0 , pp. 217 .
- ↑ Kay Wedel: It goes up with DOWN . In: Ox-Fanzine . No. 59 (April / May), 2005 ( ox-fanzine.de [PDF]).
- ↑ Paranoia in the tram. Indigo , accessed May 25, 2014 .
- ↑ Westbam - Computer State. hitparade.ch , 1999, accessed on July 29, 2016 (on “Pop 2000 - that's only available once”).
- ↑ Ralf Niemczyk: The 111 best German songs: Downward - "Computerstaat". In: rollingstone.de. September 11, 2013, accessed May 25, 2014 .
- ↑ History, on the official downward homepage ( Memento of July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved on May 25, 2014.