Electronic body music
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Electronic body music
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| Development phase: | early 1980s |
| Place of origin: | Blue banana |
| Stylistic precursors | |
| Electro-Punk , Industrial , Minimal Electro , Post-Punk , Post-Industrial , Synth-Pop , Avantgarde , Krautrock , Berlin School | |
| Pioneers | |
| DAF , Liaisons Dangereuses , Die Krupps , Front 242 , Nitzer Ebb | |
| Instruments typical of the genre | |
| Sequencer , synthesizer , e-drum , sampler , drum computer , personal computer | |
| Regional scenes | |
| MR Rhein-Ruhr , Flanders , Eastern Sweden | |
| Influenced styles of music | |
| Electro Wave , New Beat , Industrial Rock , Detroit Techno , Techno , Goa Trance | |
Electronic Body Music , or EBM for short , at times known under the short syllable Aggrepo (aggressive - positive) , is a style of music that emerged in the early 1980s and is characterized by repetitive sequencing , dance-focused rhythms and mostly clear, slogan-like shouts (i.e. chanting ). It is considered to be a coincidental amalgamation of British industrial and continental European minimal electro music and had a significant influence on the development of subsequent musical styles such as new beat , techno and Goa trance .
EBM gained in importance in the wake of the post-punk , post-industrial and new wave movements and was able to gain a foothold in Sweden , Japan , the Netherlands , Canada and some regions of the United States in the second half of the 1980s grasp. After its zenith in 1988 and 1989, with extensive media coverage, electronic body music returned to the underground in the early 1990s, where it remained until 1993 and then ebbed away.
With the growing popularity of the style, a youth cultural scene formed from around 1987, which experienced a revival after the turn of the millennium in parts of Europe, mainly in Germany and Sweden, on the occasion of a musical upswing .
Stylistic features
music
EBM is characterized by repetitive , dynamic tone sequences (synth bass and lead sequences) that are programmed in advance using a step sequencer . The deep, sometimes multi-track melody loops fit into the rhythm in such a way that the piece of music remains danceable. In the early days of the style, guitar amplifiers and various effects devices were used to modify and intensify the sound . From the mid-1980s onwards, bass sequences were increasingly generated with the aid of digital frequency modulation (see FM synthesis ).
The rhythm schemes , which are mainly based on traditional rock patterns, are based on 4/4 time , whereby the speed of the respective pieces can be between 100 and 250 bpm (see Nitzer Ebb - Let Beauty Loose with about 233 bpm). The spectrum of basic percussive forms ranges from a simple, punk- oriented rhythm design (i.e. a staccato-like backbeat based on kick drum and snare drum , sometimes expanded to include a closed or open hi-hat ; see Pouppée Fabrikk - Retrospect ) to a syncopated addition Noise components, such as hammer blows or laser shots (see sampling or sound effects ), which can also be used as rhythm carriers. Both driving , straight and groove- heavy pieces can be realized here. The 'implied funkyness ' of various compositions (see Front 242 - Headhunter ) mostly results from the use of preset rhythm patterns ( presets ) that were programmed as standard in drum computers as early as the 1980s and were used in different, synthetically generated music styles ( e B. Synth-Pop, Electro-Funk, Hip-Hop, etc.).
The vocals are sung or spoken clearly and deeply, bellowed gutturally or called like a military slogan (shouting) . Electronically alienated singing is also used, although the voice is not distorted beyond recognition, but the clarity of the vocal lines is mostly preserved. Delay effects are often used that allow individual words and sentence fragments to reverberate like echoes. Female singing is rather rare and resembles primarily the spoken song or shouting of the man (cf. Spartak - Pour le Grec ). Occasionally the vocalist is supported by a second voice, who often does the shouting and is responsible for “throwing in parts of the text again, commenting on them or giving brief requests and instructions” (cf. And One - Second Voice ).
In the consciousness of the music critics, EBM was "the further development from the original DAF structures with which one can write real songs."
However, many musicians limited themselves to the use of repetitive sequences and combined these with rhythm, singing and electronically generated effects , the interplay of which creates a minimalist, but also dense, complex overall picture (see Hula - Poison Club Mix ).
"EBM bands do without pop song structures, the tracks are based on an absolutely dominant, repetitive beat, the harmony is reduced to tiny tone jumps."
Alternatively, some of the performers added melodic synthesizer surfaces to the basic elements mentioned, e.g. B. in the form of a bridge or - if available - to accompany the chorus . The rhythm could also change several times within a piece (see DRP - Enkephalin ).
With the widespread marketing of inexpensive instruments, sampling became popular in the mid-1980s . This makes it possible, for example, synthesizers and drum machines through unconventional percussion ( " percussion to supplement"). The sampling technique offers the possibility of reproducing any real existing sound true to the original and of alienating it in terms of sound. Samples such as hitting metal, objects in free fall, machine-like noises, but also excerpts from war and science fiction movies or political speeches that are placed at the beginning, at the end or in the middle of a song were particularly popular. There were hardly any limits to the design of a composition.
Nevertheless, a number of EBM producers followed a "low-tech philosophy", which made a complex work process necessary.
“The real advantage of the 'low-tech idea' is […] that you have to work harder and more ambitiously with cheaper and therefore less comfortable machines in order to achieve the same goal; that through this more intensive work process one goes to work with heightened awareness and greater attention to detail. This then leads to the fact that the factory sounds, which function as common property, are avoided wherever possible and are proud of having created the sounds yourself. "
EBM is often characterized by aggressive sound patterns and, according to the circumstances at the time, was considered powerful and energetic. Danceability and the performance of unaffected hardness were always in the foreground. Stylistic differences were mostly regional. While German, English and Swedish projects mainly drew their inspiration from the minimal electronics of the early 1980s (in this case electro-punk ), Belgian and North American musicians focused on British (post) industrial . There were points of contact with the electro-industrial genre .
"An explosive mixture, full of power and energy, which, despite all the hardness and mechanics, sometimes lacks sensitivity and humanity."
Structurally, EBM is described as tidy, "clean" and sonically understandable. The basic structure of the pieces and the processed components (percussion, sequences, vocals) can be easily broken down. This is u. a. to the reduced use of distortion effects, the systematic layering of the individual elements and the quantization used in electronic music (production-technical aid for structural precision).
Content
There was no uniform thematic orientation in the EBM. Criticism of society and religion, global politics and war events, technological threats as well as events and challenges in everyday life are the subject of innumerable texts, but many pieces merely convey content without making a statement. In the context of forms of political provocation, EBM linked Take the concept of industrial music, for example.
“What we do is a reflection of the world as it appears in the media. We sampled TV news and movies and passed them back to people along the way via music. This is not connected to a message. People should only take in impressions and then they should do something with them themselves. "
A unique selling point, however, was the emphasis on the body of many pieces. In contrast to house music, which was purely functional music intended to animate the body to dance (“Move Your Body, Shake Your Body”), EBM was explicitly aimed at the sporting spirit of the consumer: “Muscles steel in the rhythm of the machines.” Sweaty people Bodies do hard but necessary work. Exertions have to be mastered to the point of complete exhaustion. In this context, the word body is used almost inflationarily in texts and titles (cf. Nitzer Ebb - Let Your Body Learn ). Exactly this overemphasis on the body developed into the trademark of the style and found expression in the genre name EBM .
“I find the term very appropriate for this type of music. I am just surprised that so many bands are now distancing themselves from it. I can understand that people are afraid of being pigeonholed, but if one term is appropriate, this is it. It's just music that is made for the body. "
Individual pieces have agitational traits (cf. Die Krupps - Full power ahead! And The Tanzdiele - Follow the leaders! ). The texts were often written in imperative.
In addition, there are a number of nonsense texts (cf. Pankow - Das Wodkachaos ) or allusions to the prevailing motto in punk (or generally in rock & roll) “Live Fast, Die Young” (cf. DAF - Verschwende Deine Jugend ).
Origin of name
The term Electronic Body Music was first used in 1978 by Ralf Hütter in an interview with the US radio station WSKU (Kent - Ohio) to symbolize the danceable character of the Kraftwerk album Die Mensch-Maschine :
"[...] we have now composed some kind of 'electronic body music', because electronic music, basically like Tangerine Dream , has been mainly connected with 'brain music', where you sit back in your armchair and put on headphones, and fly off into space, some kind of cosmical consciousness type of music. Where we were always interested with Kraftwerk in including society and really environmental music, earth music, city music, and now we have done something which we call 'electronic body music', where we can, we have invented some influence, where you can stimulate electronic sounds with the movements of your body, by moving up your arms and legs, and your whole body. "
In February 1985 Front 242 released the mini-LP No Comment on the band's own label Another Mask Music !. The line “Electronic Body Music composed and produced on eight tracks by Front 242” was noted on the back of the inner shell . According to Daniel Bressanutti, a member of the group, "Electronic Body Music" was a name that Front 242 was first used in 1982 when Another Mask Music was founded! used:
“When we founded our own label in 1982, we called our music 'Electronic Body Music'. EBM was the type of music that Front 242 produced in the 1980s. "
A few years earlier Gabi Delgado-López described the dance-oriented compositions of the German-American friendship as "body music" , for example in an interview from 1981. In 1983 the press also picked up the term and used it in context, among other things with López 'solo album Mistress :
“Gabi Delgado-López, ex-singer of the new German formation DAF, is still trying to make 'Body Music' a reality. Everything danceable, rhythmically compact, monotonous, nice arrangements. "
DAF are seen as an important influence on the music of Front 242.
“Front 242, a (unfortunately) still unknown quartet from Belgium, surprised me above all with the explosive rawness on their new LP (see No Comment ). [...] the band [...] calls their music 'Body Music', which is certainly a fitting description of their harsh computer rhythm. The influence of DAF seems to have been very big at Front 242 if you ignore the vocals. "
The genre name was not established until the late 1980s, mainly supported by compilations such as This Is Electronic Body Music, Forms of Electronic Body Music and World of Electronic Body Music . Already at this time the expansion to acoustically fundamentally different music projects took place, mainly for reasons of marketing strategy. The SPV label operator Manfred Schütz was looking for a name to make Belgian electronic formations interesting for the German market:
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“It was 1986. It was about pushing all the Belgian electronic bands. In the end, my idea was to make a sampler for little money, with a lot of music and with a fat booklet, a page for each band. What was still missing was a name for the sampler ... "
And this one was found soon afterwards. Two years later the compilation This Is Electronic Body Music was released in collaboration with the Belgian record company Play It Again Sam . The label Antler Records (later Antler-Subway), also based in Belgium, continued this concept with a three-part sampler series under the name World of Electronic Body Music and Another World - Electronic Body Music until 1991. Since these albums are label compilations that only cover a limited spectrum of a record company, and the stylistic similarities of the respective artists played a secondary role in the selection, these releases can only partially be considered representative of EBM. Some of the bands on offer, such as Parade Ground, Chris & Cosey and Snowy Red, can be located in the areas of New Beat and Synth-Pop .
From 1988 the acronym gradually established itself for Electronic Body Music . The second name Aggrepo, created by Andreas Tomalla ( Talla 2XLC ), refers to both the musical aspect ("aggro-pop", ie "aggressive pop music") and its positive effect ("aggressive - positive") and from the end The 1980s for bands like Front 242 , The Klinik , Vomito Negro, Insekt and Armageddon dildos could not prevail in the long term. In the summer of 1989 Future Perfect (alias Gabi Delgado-López and Saba Komossa) explained the Aggrepo concept in the music show Tanz House on Tele 5 (cf. Sato Agrepo ).
Other style names are front music , sequencer hardcore and body techno .
In addition, the term Old School EBM is often used in order to be able to distinguish the characteristic minimalism of the 1980s from the stylistic expressions of the 1990s, which developed on the basis of EBM, but headed in a completely different direction in terms of sound and production technology (see this electric ). Although the old-school understanding has existed since 1991 ( e.g. in connection with the Swedish band Pouppée Fabrikk and the US formation Schnitt Acht), the term only came into circulation in the mid-1990s. Used from 1997 for the neo-traditionalist sounds of Ionic Vision , it appeared regularly in the magazines of the alternative scene in the new millennium .
history
Style development (1981–1985)
Electronic body music has its origins in Europe in the early 1980s. Germany and Belgium are primarily considered to be the nucleus of the movement; DAF and Front 242 are usually mentioned as the founders of EBM . Both fans and parts of the music press see the Belgian band Front 242 as the first EBM formation and mark the beginning of the EBM movement with the title Body to Body , published in 1981 . At the same time, this status was granted to the pioneers of German-American Friendship, or DAF for short, who in the same year created some classics of the genre with plays such as Alle gegen Alle, Der Mussolini and Verschwende thy Jugend , and which provided significant impetus to Front 242s œuvre. When the music journalist Dirk Scheuring reviewed the single Body to Body for Spex magazine in December 1981 , he described the piece as a “Belgian contribution to modern minimalist dance”. Scheuring put the focus directly on the use of the bass sequences and finally noted how "ideas quickly become conventions" - a reference to how timely sound components of a new type of music are being further developed across borders.
In particular, German artist from the NDW - and Electro Punk -Umfeld as Liaisons Dangereuses ( être assis ou danser CH / BB: Ima Iki-Masho ), Die Krupps ( ! Full speed ahead , for an instant, true work, true wage ), Tommi Stumpff ( Creve petit con, heroes never die alone ), the dance floor ( follow the leaders! , beachcombing, Hatz for the treasure ), X-square ( buy you freedom ) and the aforementioned DAF, exercised in the development phase of style. Both the tonal and production-related character of many pieces as well as the thematic focus on strength and physicality were taken up by a large number of subsequent bands and initially formed the basis of electronic body music until the early 1990s. Nitzer Ebb , next to Front 242 one of the leading figures of the European EBM movement, oriented themselves, for example, to the minimalist and danceable song structures of DAF, expanded them with more powerful arrangements and borrowed almost 1: 1 the artistic concept of the band.
“[…] It (can) actually only be DAF, what is clenching its heels out of the [record] grooves . But what is marching there is Nitzer Ebb. [...] Musically, Nitzer Ebb always stays true to the line. Associations of long leather coats and boots and of muscle shirts that, at least with effectively crossed arms, squeeze six biceps wide on three torso. It sounds like sweat, sexual intercourse and forced labor. "
In the music of Front 242, which followed similar paths with titles such as U-Men , the DAF sequences, on the other hand, were from the beginning equivalent to the influences of artists from the industrial environment ( Cabaret Voltaire , Throbbing Gristle ). In addition, the avant-garde works of the German formation Kraftwerk as well as the Krautrock of groups like Can and Neu! to the sources of inspiration, although the tonal influence on the style development only comes into its own in the background. However, the development of the EBM essentially corresponds to that of the Berlin School around interpreters such as Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze . Former rock bands (mostly from the post-punk periphery with regard to EBM) built accented sequencer loops into their pieces and gradually dispensed with conventional instruments such as guitar and bass. DAF, for example, which played as a quintet in 1979, shrank to a duo.
In 1982 the initiators of the movement, including DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses and Duotronic Synterror, a project by the musician Andi Arroganti ( Chronique Scandaleuse ), largely disbanded. Only a few records, such as the single Contergan Punk by Tommi Stumpff produced by Konrad Plank or the self-titled debut of the Wörther Quartet No Hunch (see Sentimental Youth ), found their way over the counter.
“What DAF did years ago with the 'Mussolini', what the Krupps brought in the real wages through 'True Work', that is what 'Plastic' brings today as a cultural asset. On 'Sentimentale Jugend' the band shows its pure rawness, a classic piece of hardcore electronics. "
In England, Portion Control released their maxis Hit the Pulse and Raise the Pulse (both 1983), with which they broke away from the bulky structures of their early works. Cabaret Voltaire meanwhile gradually turned away from industrial music and used electronic bass sequences for the first time to structure their pieces, which is particularly evident in Just Fascination (1983) and Drinking Gasoline (1985). Richard H. Kirk later expressed his fondness for DAF music.
Nitzer Ebb debuted with the singles Isn't it Funny How Your Body Works? (1984) and Warsaw Ghetto (1985), followed by Ben Watkins ' projects The Flowerpot Men ( Jo's So Mean To Josephine, 1984) and The MT Quarter ( Glass Finger. 1985) in cooperation with the Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover , as well as the Italians ПАНКОВ with God's Deneuve (1984) and another maxi by Tommi Stumpff ( Seltsames Glück, 1985), on which Konrad Plank was again involved as a producer.
“Under the thumb of Conny Plank, a violent psychopath number was created. Tommi Stumpff does what DAF didn't dare to do. Unwavering tempo terror. "
Front 242 meanwhile brought the singles Politics of Pressure and No Shuffle as well as the mini-album No Comment on the market. Songs like Don't Crash, Funkhadafi or Lovely Day became club hits and made the band known to a wider audience.
Other groups associated with the style were Attrition ( Shrinkwrap, 1985), Click Click ( Sweet Stuff, 1985) and Hula with the 1986 single Poison (Club Mix) produced by Daniel Miller . EBM had thus established itself in places in England in the mid-1980s. At around the same time, an underground scene was emerging in Belgium, with artists such as The Klinik , Signal Août 42 , Vomito Negro , Liquid G., Typis Belgis, 7 A Nou, Schicksal, Braindamage and Emotional Violence. Many of these bands, such as Portion Control, The Klinik and Signal Août 42, had an avant-garde-experimental background and were at home in the fields of minimal electronics and post-industrial before they embarked on a more danceable path towards EBM.
Accordingly, Electronic Body Music established itself in Europe in a densely populated large area, clearly shaped by industry, which roughly corresponds to Roger Brunet's spatial planning model (the so-called “ Blue Banana ”). These include England (Sheffield, Coventry, Manchester, London), Belgium (Brussels, Ghent), Germany (Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main), Switzerland (Zurich, Basel) and northern Italy (Florence).
Boom and flowering period (1986–1992)
While Synth-Pop , Italo Disco and Hi-NRG dominated the charts, EBM initially remained a marginal phenomenon without a target audience until 1986.
In Belgium acts like The Klinik ( Pain and Pleasure ), Signal Août 42 ( Pleasure and Crime ), à; GRUMH ... ( No Way Out ), The Neon Judgment ( Awful Day ), The Weathermen ( This Is the Third Communique ) and A Split-Second ( Flesh ) in the spotlight. In Germany, producers like Harald Blüchel (see Chanson Deux ) dealt with the style, but without great success. Only The Invincible Limits Push! was able to assert itself as a hit in 1986. The single sold around 12,000 times by mid-1987 and also led to the foundation of the Frankfurt record label Techno Drome International, which also marketed the subsequent work Current News (now under the name The Invincible Spirit ).
Simultaneously, the Australians Severed Heads (together with à; GRUMH… and Skinny Puppy) toured both sides of the Atlantic and based themselves on the European EBM productions of the time ( Twenty Deadly Diseases, 1986).
Nitzer Ebb, meanwhile, perfected her aggressive minimalism on the singles Let Your Body Learn and Murderous, which helped the British to sign a contract with Mute Records , and in the following year they released one of the most influential albums of the genre, That Total Age . Front 242 made the leap with Official Version and the release Masterhit and went on tour in autumn 1987 as the opening act for Depeche Mode . Mute Records operator Daniel Miller has now committed Nitzer Ebb to a European tour with Depeche Mode, which they started in February 1988. With the help of numerous concerts and extensive media presence, both Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb led electronic body music to widespread recognition.
As the style grew in popularity, countless works by artists from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, England and Japan found their way into the clubs . The stylistic influence of acts such as DAF, Die Krupps, Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb was particularly strongly expressed here, as a number of groups took up the sound ideas of the initiators and processed them compositionally.
“When compared with other groups on the international electronics scene, the nationalities disappear. Locations emerge that only differ in detail: Vancouver, Brussels, Frankfurt, Stockholm. "
In the course of this, the internationality of the style was recognized as early as the 1980s and discussed in the press. The former musician and journalist Frank Grotelüschen provided an explanation for the fact that the EBM was traded as a Belgian 'export hit' despite its roots and distribution:
"The fact that the (always) international phenomenon 'EBM' is also often referred to as the 'Belgium beat' is largely due to a band: First they appeared in the collective consciousness of the music community, which is always looking for 'the new', made possible by a compact, handy and militant appearance, made possible by similarly symbolized, dry and brutal computer music. Since then, Front 242 have been considered the typical EBM exponents, sometimes even seem to be held responsible for it, which at least guarantees them the best record sales in the entire profession. "
In Belgium new productions by Signal Août 42, Vomito Negro, Insekt, The Klinik and newcomers like What's. At the beginning of the decade, most electronics projects - often due to the language barrier between the Flemish and the Walloon-Francophone part of Belgium - had hardly any contact with each other, so companies like Antler-Subway, KK Records, PIAS and Body Records started a lively one a few years later Scene around. Compilations like Music from Belgium, with acts like Typis Belgis and E! Truncheon, are among the most important audio documents of that time. Meanwhile, The Force Dimension and Fatal Morgana made a name for themselves in neighboring Netherlands .
At about the same time, a new generation of EBM bands was growing up in Germany, after the use of powerful sequencer loops there was hardly pursued for years (not least because of the negative response from the local press). The most important groups included Bigod 20 , Tribantura, Aircrash Bureau, Armageddon Dildos , VF Decoder, Paranoid, Master Program, Orange Sector , but also underground bands such as Dilemma, Everything & Sincerity and Entre Deux Guerres. In Switzerland, too, the style quickly found imitators with groups such as Séance, I Scream, Next Generation, Spartak, Deo Cadaver and Panic on the Titanic. The former Yello member Carlos Perón turned to the EBM with his work Impersonator II , but then drifted off into other areas of music.
Sweden's scene was able to draw attention to itself from 1987 onwards, primarily through the Front Music Production label, which emerged in the New Life environment. In addition to Energy and Electronic Beat Association, it formed the basis for Energy Rekords , one of the most important record companies for electronic music in the 1990s. Labels such as Evil Eye Productions, on the other hand, mainly concentrated on cassette releases. Together with Pouppée Fabrikk, Scapa Flow, Sheweird, Asfalt, Delusive Smiles, 3 Miles from Here, Presto Fervant, Arvid Tuba, Herr Capitan (later name changed to Cultivated Bimbo ) and Thorbjörn Synthetic, Inside Treatment and Cat Rapes Dog were among the leading interpreters of the Style.
One innovation was the use of singing. While shouting was previously widespread in German, Belgian and English bands , Pouppée Fabrikk, Scapa Flow, Inside Treatment and Cat Rapes Dog increased the hardness by using growling . Texts were not only called like slogans, as usual, but also shouted gutturally ('Booze Voice'), a Swedish peculiarity that enjoyed international popularity years later. In November 1992, MTV reported live from the 'Pet Sounds Records' store in Stockholm on the program 120 Minutes, moderated by Paul King , and provided an insight into the regional music scene.
“Inside Treatment, Cultivated Bimbo, […] Pouppée Fabrikk and Cat Rapes Dog. [...] Sweden now seems to have finally replaced Belgium in the EBM sector. "
England, meanwhile, produced acts such as Ganzheit, Johnson Engineering Co., Federal State, AAAK (As Able As Kain), Mighty Force, Shock Corridor, Television Overdose and Electro Assassin, which benefited from the success of Nitzer Ebbs and gained some notoriety, especially in insider circles , but only played a subordinate role in the further development from the beginning of the 1990s.
Although the artist Hiromi Moritani alias Phew was possibly the first (female) musician in Japan to come into contact with EBM - the result was a cooperation with Konrad Plank in his studio in Wolperath near Cologne, which resulted in the classic Signal in 1981 - are particularly true Adbaloons, 2nd Communication, DRP and Soft Ballet (the latter with an idiosyncratic mixture of EBM and dance-pop) as the earliest Japanese representatives. According to the European scene, EBM in Japan reached its productive peak between 1987 and 1991 with the centers Tokyo and Sapporo. Most of the musicians later turned to the techno / electronica environment.
During this period of time there was increased overlap with other styles (see assignment problem ). In 1987, for example, the Central Unit project released the single Computer Music, which merged EBM and electro funk . The British duo Electro Assassin took up this mélange again on the 1992 album Jamming the Voice of the Universe (cf. Infect and Reinfect ).
Decline (1993-1994)
In 1991 the press predicted the decline of the style. Both established music magazines such as Spex and underground gazettes such as Limited Edition announced that “the recession of the music genre to which Front 242 gave shape and title” was announced. While numerous albums were still being released across Europe up to 1992, the flood of publications visibly stagnated in the following year. In the early summer of 1992, the Wave magazine Glasnost counted only three bands with Belgian characteristics:
"In addition to their village neighbors Vomito Negro and the unrivaled Front 242, insects are the last survivors of the Belgian EBM generation."
Well-known record companies such as Animalized, Antler-Subway, Body Records, Parade Amoureuse and Techno Drome International either stopped their activities or devoted themselves entirely to new music genres. Zoth Ommog and KK Records, which a short time later were confronted with the same problems, initially decided against the discontinuation of their label work. Both remained active until 2000, each with a different musical reorientation.
Another problem was the approaching Tekkno movement, which also favored the rapid decline. At the time, EBM was considered a relic of the 1980s and with the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc, the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Cold War, it was no longer up to date. The next decade was determined by the " Love, Peace & Unity " generation, who seemed alienated by the martial direction of the genre. Culturally mostly rooted in house and disco music, this had less of the claim to make “existential statements about the lives of people and the nature of the world”, at least “not as superficially” as was the case with EBM.
“The time was reflected in the militarily driving rhythms of Nitzer Ebb or the synthesizer surfaces of Front 242. This music sounded as cold and fast as the present felt. "
In Germany in particular, individual EBM productions continued to hit the market (cf. Tyske Ludder and Mastertune), but the “massive demand as at the beginning of the decade has long since ceased to exist”.
After clearing the field for the time being around 1993, EBM paved the way for varieties such as dark electro and electro-industrial and thus laid the foundation for the electro scene in the 1990s. The enormous change in style leading projects such as Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb , which is characterized by the increased use of rock guitars, metal - riffs and breakbeat expressed -elements, at the same time signaled the end for the core of EBM culture.
"No. No more EBM. We really hate being pigeonholed. We want to break out of the image that people have of us. It has been the case since "Tyranny for You" and now we have finally made it a reality. "
In the music media, such innovations were seen as a failed attempt to break the boundaries of the genre and to transform EBM for the 1990s. But far too often, "the most zealous helpers are more grave diggers than midwives."
Despite its existence for over a decade, electronic body music was spared any commercial exploitation. By the middle of the decade, EBM was only known to insiders . As part of an annual survey conducted by Klaus-Ernst Behne between 1993 and 1995 regarding musical preferences in adolescence, the now low level of awareness of the style became apparent:
“Most young people have a clear idea of what music is meant by rap or heavy metal. Ska or electronic body music, on the other hand, are only known to specialists. "
German-Swedish friendship
Inspired by late 1990s epigones such as Ionic Vision , after the turn of the millennium, attempts at revitalization by artists such as Dupont , Spetsnaz , Proceed, Sturm Café , Menticide (Volt), Sequence-E and Void Kampf were mainly successful within Germany . The projects, mainly from Sweden and Central Germany , between which an active and direct exchange takes place, thus represent the status of the third EBM generation.
Proto-EBM
Early approaches
Already at the end of the 1970s, before the EBM came into being, there were a few tracks that anticipated essential features of the style, e.g. B. Warm Leatherette by The Normal (1978) and Light My Fire by Moebius (a The Doors cover from 1979 with Minimoog sequences). The German sound engineer and technician Robert Wedel, who is responsible for programming the basic sequences in Utopia and I Feel Love (cf. Giorgio Moroder ), was also significant in this context . Wedel used the modular synthesizer Moog IIIp from Eberhard Schoener for this . Every now and then, the minimalistly arranged compositions by Suicide are given a pioneering role in sound. According to Martin Rev , however, the band specifically did not use any sequencers to generate their music.
The origin of the distinctive bass sequences is occasionally thematized in music literature. The focus is primarily on Robert Görl ( German American Friendship ) and Chrislo Haas ( Liaisons Dangereuses ), who are considered the inventors of the driving bass lines. However, there was the use of bass sequences in a comparable manner already on the single Kohoutek of power plant that of Konrad, Conny 'Plank produced and was taken in December 1973 on the market. Plank has worked with a number of EBM protagonists in his career, such as B. DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses, Tommi Stumpff and VF Decoder, and had a considerable influence on the sound of their songs. The bass lines of Electronic Body Music would thus be a direct result of Plank's production style from the experimental phase of Krautrock .
use
The term Proto-EBM is primarily used for German bands who produced music in the style of EBM up to 1982, but are often attributed to minimal electronics in the public perception . These are especially Neue Deutsche Welle artists such as DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses, Die Krupps , The Tanzdiele , Duotronic Synterror, X-Quadrat, Aloa ( German encounter ) or Kurt Dahlke's Pyrolator ( Mein Hund ).
“The song“ Warm Leatherette ”(The Normal, 1978) marks the beginning of EBM's constitutive development, which initially combined the musically and aesthetically radical DIY approach of punk with electronic sounds. This was then continued by bands such as DAF, Die Krupps and Liaisons Dangereuses from Düsseldorf, whose music from today's perspective can in part be described as proto-EBM. "
For Ralf D Körper (Die Krupps, Propaganda ), Warm Leatherette was the main inspiration and the starting shot of his own musical career.
Style reception
One of the oldest style analyzes was carried out by Spex journalist Olaf Karnik in November 1981. He was fascinated by the “entanglement of rhythm machine and bass-run sequencer melodies that usually run against each other”. This method is "meanwhile already typical for groups working according to the DAF principle".
Spex colleague Dirk Scheuring added in July 1982:
“Another means that can be verified by viewers and the media is to plunder the rather meager DAF arsenal, musically through the use of sequencers and tight rhythms, lyrically through the constant evocation of» power «and the like in a commanding tone. The Krupps did particularly well in this area. "
Scheuring rated Krishna Goineau, the singer of the Liaisons Dangereuses, positively. His voice makes it clear that under the pulse of the "sequencer motor skills there is something lively, mobile, and emotional".
However, few believed that the style could last. Just a few months earlier, the demise of this "early wave" was precisely predicted:
“The synth will probably continue to be used heavily, but sequencer doodles à la DAF have been canceled. The German groups currently performing haven't generally gotten worse, but the audience is a bit overfed. "
EBM in North America
distribution
On the east coast of the United States, the EBM was occasionally accepted as part of the local post-punk scene as early as the early 1980s. For example, Philadelphia- based post-punk groups, such as the DAF and Suicide- influenced Bunnydrums (see Win, 1981, and Sleeping, 1983) and the Executive Slacks ( Executive Slacks, 1983), whose albums are available on the Dutch label Red Music distributed in Europe were clearly inspired by European Body Music . Both bands toured Belgium together in 1984, a. a. Brussels. Regardless of this, EBM had only moderate success in North America and was only able to establish itself in the late 1980s with the popularity of bands such as Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb.
“The American kids, who are around 15-18 years old, like heavy metal and hardcore because they get crammed with it all day. Those who are a little more informed may be interested in metal crossover things like Ministry , the Cocks etc. The Americans can hardly identify with pure electro stuff . Guitars are the most important thing in America. Everyone wants to be a rock star. You can pose a lot better with a guitar than with a computer. [...] Take a look at the Belgian and German electro scene. They usually sit under neon lights in the basement and program their computers. Most projects consist of one or two people. Many groups have a deeply sad industrial ideology behind them. It's different in America. "
A large number of North American bands, such as Front Line Assembly , Numb and Skinny Puppy , did not count (themselves) as electronic body music, since EBM was not a common name for a style of music in Canada or the United States. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the collective term industrial dance was used for the music of these projects . Despite European influences (DAF, Portion Control, Liaisons Dangereuses), many of these performers steered in a different, later increasingly complex and rock-oriented direction (see Skinny Puppy), so that only a few of them, such as Noise Unit , Batz Without Flesh , Data -Bank-A (Dominion, Compound), Manufacture, Lead Into Gold, Contagion and Schnitt Acht , which corresponded to the characteristics typical of EBM.
Sales concessions
For the releases of Front 242 on the US market in 1984 the music label Wax Trax! Records in Chicago as a license partner. Al Jourgensen (Ministry), formerly part owner of the label, was looking for a support act and brought the Belgians to the States for the upcoming Ministry tour. Both bands then decided to work together and founded the joint project Revolting Cocks , which, due to musical differences, was soon led by the Ministry members alone. Richard Jonckheere (aka Richard 23, Front 242) left the band in 1986 because he considered the increased use of hard rock and metal guitars to be retrograde.
In the same year the Canadian record company Nettwerk Productions became aware of Front 242. Interception, Masterhit, Official Version and the most successful work to date, Front by Front , appeared here after a long delay . Geffen Records took care of Nitzer Ebb's albums from 1987 onwards . Their cooperation with Die Krupps : The Machineries of Joy appeared on this label in May 1989 .
“The special esteem of DAF and the like is an integral part of every steely EBMler heart. So why not bring the old and the younger electro bands together? Krupp's 'Collaboration with Nitzer Ebb' will even go to America via Geffen: 'True work' à la 1989 [...]. "
The Frankfurt Bigod 20 were signed by the Los Angeles-based major label Sire Records , which made a name for itself primarily with publications by artists such as Talking Heads , Ramones , Depeche Mode , The Cure , Madonna and Soft Cell . Here Bigod 20 released some singles as well as the two albums Steelworks (1992) and Supercute (1994). Armageddon Dildos were also licensed to the same record label in 1993 - also with two albums and three maxis.
Assignment problem
Electronic music
Since the beginning of electronic body music there has been overlap with other varieties. For example, the first Front 242 album Geography contains not only the EBM tracks but also numerous minimal electronic pieces. Music projects based in NRW (especially in the Ruhr area), such as The Invincible Spirit , The Fair Sex , The Mao Tse Tung Experience , Lost Image , Wasted Doom or The Base of Subsoil, but also Fortification 55 from Hamburg, primarily produced a form of Electro Wave , which was heavily interspersed with EBM elements. Séance, And One, Syntec or Advanced Art combined EBM with Synth-Pop , which makes it difficult to assign these artists precisely. Points of contact with catchy synth-pop on the one hand and more experimental post-industrial (or electro-industrial) on the other were not uncommon.
There were also projects that were assigned to the genre on the basis of individual songs, single and album releases. Examples are As Able As Kane, The Weathermen, Pankow , Borghesia, Severed Heads, Click Click (with roots in guitar-oriented post-punk), Philadelphia Five (who abandoned this categorization early on) or the experimental The Klinik . The latter can predominantly be located in the post-industrial environment.
Another example is the English project Attrition , which in 1985 steered into the EBM environment with Shrinkwrap and six years later with A Tricky Business brought almost an entire album in the EBM style to the market. The synth-pop acts Hard Corps, Vicious Pink and Propaganda (a project by Krupps' musician Ralf D Körper ), also based in England in the mid-1980s, experimented with the style for a while, the latter with the 7-inch rough cut of their piece Jewel also received media attention.
Tilt too ! From Germany, with the 1990 album Aliens & Orgasms and the club hit Merciless contained on it, were initially considered a typical EBM band, which, however, distanced themselves from this reputation with their later works.
Rock based music
Reference points for rock music arise from the use of guitars and their sampling . The Neon Judgment, A Split-Second or groups from the Leedser Rouska label ( The Cassandra Complex , Son of Sam, WMTID) saw themselves rather as rock formations with an electronic background, a fact that was influenced by pieces like Mambo Witch, The Parallax View and Tear Your Rhythm Down (A Split-Second) or I Wish I Could and Awful Day (The Neon Judgment). “Are sequencers compatible with Rock & Roll?” Asked Spex in a review of the music The Neon Judgments at the end of 1987 .
“I compose our songs almost exclusively on the guitar, it has become our most important instrument. This is also reflected in our live performances. This is pure rock 'n' roll [...] "
The clear categorization was also countered by the addition of guitar samples. Sampling hand-played instruments had the task of making the overall picture of a piece appear more organic. Since the sampled raw material is of human origin, some producers saw it as an advantage over the “dehumanized” machine sound of the sequencer.
“Birmingham 6 from Denmark is often a puzzle because their clean guitar runs come from the computer. From the acoustic impression, many pieces are crystal clear industrial [rock], but by definition EBM. "
Influence on other styles of music
Although Electronic Body Music has primarily remained an underground movement since its inception , it influenced numerous subsequent styles, such as New Beat , Techno , Goa Trance and Industrial Rock . The early Sound of Frankfurt , with artists such as Moskwa TV , MCL (Micro Chip League), CCCP , 16 Bit and OFF , also drew from the spectrum of the EBM. In Detroit, techno formations such as The Final Cut, Underground Resistance and Code Assault (aka Code Industry) were inspired by EBM. Jeff Mills and Alan Oldham were among the earliest African American producers to become familiar with the style.
New beat
In 1987 the New Beat movement started in Belgium , which was mainly initiated by DJs from the EBM and New Wave environment and initially consisted of reducing music already established in the clubs, such as A Split-Seconds Flesh Speed (33 rpm instead of 45 rpm). This method often gave the tracks a dull and heavy sound. Titles that initially only proved to be danceable to a limited extent became hits. As a result, countless artists began producing their own pieces. The first New Beat records found their way into department stores; Labels such as Subway , Target and R & S Records marketed New Beat on a grand scale. Characteristic for the new direction were speeds between 90 and 115 bpm as well as numerous influences from EBM, Acid House or Hi-NRG . Two years later the new beat hype was over and the techno movement replaced it. Despite its roots, the New Beat was criticized and rejected by the majority of EBM protagonists as purely functional dance music.
Hard beat
Hard Beat was a side branch of the New Beat, which focused on powerful electronic sequences. While the Phrygian mode was often used for the basic melodies of the New Beat (often E-Phrygian, which gives the pieces an "oriental" sound), Hard Beat is mainly based on the major / minor tonal system. Many of the hard beat productions released between 1988 and 1990, such as Cavemen ( Eye of the World ), The Concrete Beat ( I Want You ), Tribe 22 ( Aciiiiiiied - New Beat ) and High Tention ( High Tention ), can be heard from conventional EBM instrumentals often hardly differ. The form of play, which has been described as the “perfect link between Electronic Body Music and New Beat” , was widely used by the producer team of the Complete Kaos Dance label (cf. Maurice Engelen , Jos Borremans, Koert Hendrickx, Nikkie van Lierop ). Music projects dedicated to both EBM and Hard Beat were Signal Août 42 (with the side project Amnesia, among others), Schicksal (Rudi Huybrechts) and In Sotto Voce (Poésie Noire).
Techno
In 1987 and 1988 the cornerstone for the techno of the 1990s was laid. Numerous styles such as Acid , Detroit and Chicago House merged with New Beat and EBM. In 1988 Bigod 20 released a remix single called Acid to Body for their debut Body to Body . Bigod 20 was one of the first bands to cross EBM with Acid House. Bigod 20 also worked with techno elements on their later works. Signal Août 42 from Belgium chose a similar path, who had been using strong acidic borrowings in their music since the late 1980s and with this melange published their first maxi in 1988 under the title Carnaval (Plastic Acid Mix) . A number of DJs who came into the techno environment through this merger and who later produced their own works brought essential elements of electronic body music to the still young techno movement. Especially with early techno pieces like War or Peace by Duce, Wait until it's dark by Klangwerk and Kennedy by Deep Thought, the EBM influence becomes clear.
Goa trance
Inspired by the party culture in the northwest of the Indian state of Goa , the Goa trance (later also referred to as psychedelic trance) developed around 1991, preferably in Europe . DJs and backpackers indulging in a mixture of New Beat, EBM, Acid and early techno on the beaches of Anjuna, Vagator, Morjim and Arambol soon began to give shape to their experiences through their own productions. Numerous Goa trance projects, such as Juno Reactor , Astral Projection , Koxbox and EON Project, mostly came directly from the EBM environment or refer to artists such as DAF, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb and Kode IV. Especially publications such as Sundown by The Overlords and Tyranny for You from Front 242, with pieces such as Neurobashing, already anticipated essential characteristics of Goa trance (e.g. sixteenth notes synth bass sequences, auto-pan effects, etc.). Front 242 later acted as a remixer for some Juno Reactor tracks, such as God Is God (1997) and the EBM-heavy Masters of the Universe (2001).
Industrial rock
In the second half of the 1980s, electronic body music was able to establish itself in the post-industrial scene in North America. There, at the end of the decade, she merged with hardcore punk , noise rock and harder varieties such as thrash metal . Ministry , which laid the foundation for industrial rock with the 1988 work The Land of Rape and Honey , occasionally resorted to EBM-typical structures, for example in You Know What You Are and I Prefer . Nine Inch Nails , icons of the genre, used EBM sequences in their hit Head like a Hole . Trent Reznor, vocalist and mastermind of the band, mentioned artists like Front 242 as major influencing factors. Cut eight, which with the 1991 debut Subhuman Minds on the Firing Line still strongly steered into the EBM environment, underwent a style change and presented themselves two years later as a pure industrial metal combo. Then European acts such as Die Krupps , Pouppée Fabrikk or Oomph! to follow the crossover trend and incorporate heavy rhythm guitars into their pieces.
“The synthesis of EBM and Heavy Metal is not only interesting from a technical and musical point of view. It is also obvious, because both styles of music are based on the same motivations. "
European scene
Location
Contrary to the sociological view that the EBM scene is part of the Gothic culture , the EBM movement sees itself as an independent youth culture that operates with separate niche events, essentially outside the black scene . In fact, there are hardly any significant similarities between the two scenes in terms of musical cultural roots, outfits or lifestyle. Although both moved within the post-punk periphery of the 1980s, EBM consumers do not, unlike Goths, retreat into an idealized and romanticized world ( escapism ) or a philosophical discussion of topics such as death and Impermanence in the foreground, but rather the confrontation with reality and dealing with socially critical issues, such as those found in punk or industrial.
There are also differences in the gender-specific composition. As a form of expression based on aggressiveness and harshness, EBM specifically attracted a male audience, whereby the proportion of male members of the scene clearly predominated. The gender distribution within the black scene is very balanced. The author Kirsten Wallraff gives one reason for the acceptance of the genre there. This refers to the dance suitability of the style and its hardness and dynamics as an aggression valve:
“One reason for the increasing popularity of this music is certainly the extremely good danceability of many pieces. Sometimes the aggressive style gives the dancer the opportunity to react to negative feelings on the dance floor. Through contact with the EBM scene, the black scene has experienced an enormous musical enrichment. The members of the EBM scene, which is composed almost exclusively of young men, for their part create a visual loosening up in the gloomy appearance of blacks. Many of them prefer martial combat clothing such as camouflage pants, army shirts, muscle t-shirts and heavy combat boots. Together with their often ultra-short shaved hair and an aggressive, pounding dance style, they give the inexperienced observer the image of a military sports group on the practice area. "
Accordingly, EBM was not fully recognized in the black scene, but was exposed to critical voices (including among musicians of the scene). Ernst Horn ( Deine Lakaien ), for example, expressed his aversion to EBM and stated that the militarism that goes hand in hand with the genre "repels" him.
history
backgrounds
Two essential factors were directly linked to the emergence of electronic body music in the 1980s: the aggressive political and social climate, i. H. the escalation of the Cold War , the associated ongoing danger of a nuclear war and the mass unemployment as a result of the global economic crisis and technological progress on the one hand, the musical optimism of the do-it-yourself generation known from punk , industrial and the NDW on the other. Much of this is reflected in the outfit of the following, who mostly oriented themselves to the appearance of their idols .
“We grew up in a very politically intense environment. At the time when we went to our first concerts, there were riots in the streets, every part of daily life became politically charged. Music, violence and social comments were inseparable for us. From a global perspective, the Cold War was raging, and Ronald Reagan and Leonid Brezhnev were collecting nuclear weapons in alarming amounts. One had the feeling that nuclear war was not far away. All of this was of course still connected to the Second World War, and the combination of two totalitarian systems and their symbolism and slogans also influenced us. "
This went hand in hand with the optimization and development of new types of electronic sound generators (step or MIDI sequencer , for the first time freely programmable drum computers , later samplers and affordable digital technology), with which it was possible to replace a conventional rock combo. The technology was of particular benefit to those who did not master a conventional instrument or who considered the concept of a classical music combo to be outdated.
The beginnings
However, a fully developed scene did not initially exist. In Western Europe, smaller clubs in particular, where EBM was played, served as a meeting point for local skinheads , punks and hooligans . The style quickly caught on, especially in the metropolitan regions of Belgium and the Netherlands. In Central European countries such as Germany, a similar picture emerged at the time. An employee of the Cologne music magazine E. B. (later EB / Metronom ) exaggerated the sequence of a 1986 appearance by Tommi Stumpff :
“A good 1000 people came to the Tommi Stumpff concert in Übach-Palenberg. How wide the circle is that feels addressed was shown even before the concert. The tallest and most colorful Iros , lots of skins , serious-looking cowl wearers on their hot stoves , all sorts of peasants, village youth in deliberately casual outfits and shiny black ghouls gave each other a rendezvous. At the latest at the entrance it became clear what atmosphere should prevail here ... Strong, silent, grumpy stewards found with a short, sure grip everything that could make more blood flow than a bare fist. Pistols, chains, brass knuckles, daggers, baseball bats, sabers and such other martial instruments finally filled a bathtub to the brim. "
Guy van Mieghem, a former member of Vomito Negro and Blok 57, made similar comments on this:
“Front 242's first appearances were indeed combat appearances. If you went to a Front 242 concert before, you practically went into a fight. There were skinheads, leather types, who met there to fight. […] You should have seen Richard (Jonckheere) on stage just kicking his boots in the face of someone in the audience. Sometimes people would jump on stage to start a fight with the band. It wasn't a show. They fought down to the blood. "
The origins of this audience go back to the 1970s. Skins were already part of the industrial culture around groups like Throbbing Gristle . In 1980, DAF expressed their sympathy for the British skinhead scene and ended a Spex interview with the demand "More skins for Germany!"
“Almost every concert we have a lot of skins around. There is sometimes a total fraternization campaign going on. [...] You have to see that there are a lot of different groups among the skinheads. That ranges from right-wing to apolitical, from the rude boys to the long-established skins. "
However, by no means all concerts were so aggressive. BBC presenter John Peel , who at the beginning of the 1980s a Nitzer Ebb- concert attended and was impressed by the diversity of the audience, recalled:
“There were shy New Wavers, next to cool electronics and sweaty rockers. [...] Gay synth popper, radical left-wing punks and straight skinheads drank their beer side by side and treated each other with almost respect. "
Parts of the later fan community could also be identified by their martial appearance, which often led to confusion with representatives of the punk and psychobilly culture or supporters of the neo-Nazi scene.
Development of the scene
After EBM grew in popularity, a target audience gradually emerged in the mid-1980s. In 1987 this was also mentioned in the established music press. Many EBM fans, especially East German fans, found their way through the synth-pop quartet Depeche Mode , although this band was not significantly involved in the creation of Electronic Body Music, but groups like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb achieved success through tours lasting several months and the audience. An audience that "has more in common with Depeche Mode than with Throbbing Gristle."
"Since Depeche Mode had nothing breathtaking to offer after their tour, many of their fans switched to EBM, so that a remarkable scene has already formed."
The main meeting places in Germany were Frankfurt am Main ( Dorian Gray , Music Hall) and Berlin ( Linientreu , Cisch Club). In the 1990s, both cities again developed into the Mecca of the techno house scene. Frankfurt in particular was considered one of the strongholds of the EBM movement in Germany at the end of the 1980s. Alongside Talla 2XLC , DJ Dag , Armin Johnert and Michael Münzing , Sven Väth was one of the most important DJs of that time. He played EBM in the Dorian Gray nightclub in Frankfurt from around 1987 and produced the EBM track Be My Dream together with Luca Anzilotti under the project name OFF . Väth was later able to make a name for himself worldwide in the techno environment of the 1990s.
The Dorian Gray owes its exclusivity not only to its mix of niche programs, “light storms”, “laser show” and “murderous machine sound”, but also to the repeated encounters of prominent guests, including bands and artists such as Front 242 , Carlos Perón , Ralf Hütter ( Kraftwerk ) and Nitzer Ebb .
“On good evenings on Fridays, up to 2,000 believers cavort there, gratefully feasting on a drunken, exuberant EBM gluttony. In terms of form and scope, this community meeting is probably quite unique in the world [...]. "
In addition, there were a number of other meeting points and venues that were important for the audience, such as the Frankfurter Batschkapp , the Metropol in Aachen, incident , Zeche und Logo Club in Bochum, the Rose Club and the Wave Music Club in Cologne, the Odeon in Münster, PC69 and Café Europa in Bielefeld, the Dortmund Live-Station, Loft and Kulturbrauerei in Berlin, the Melodrom in Kaufbeuren, the Rockfabrik in Übach-Palenberg, the Kulturfabrik Krefeld, Manege and Theaterfabrik in Munich, the Röhre in Stuttgart, the Hamburger Kir or the Coesfeld factory .
In 1988 the EBM movement became popular in England, with German interpreters from the early days of the style also finding favor. In the following year the Hard Club 90 (formerly Batcave ) in Soho, London, developed into a popular dance venue. EBM events were held here regularly until around 1994 under the motto “Eurobeat Dancecore”.
Inspired by the party concept of the Frankfurt techno club, the Cyber Club was formed in the student town of Lund in southern Sweden , which has been organizing EBM events in the Roxy disco and live performances in the AF-Huset since the end of 1990 . Hundreds of visitors from all over Scandinavia, especially Sweden and Norway, came together here.
The scene in the east
In eastern Germany, EBM gained some notoriety from the end of the 1980s. As a result of increasing pressure from West German competition (cf. SFB , RIAS and others), GDR broadcasting was modernized in March 1986. The DT64 youth radio station, established in 1964, served as a platform for new niche formats such as Parocktikum and Electronics .
A first Front-242 title ( Agressiva Due ) was broadcast in May 1987 on the radio program Parocktikum . Other artists such as The Klinik , Tommi Stumpff , Die Krupps , à; GRUMH ..., Cat Rapes Dog, 2nd Communication, Tilt !, VF Decoder, The Invincible Spirit , Pankow , Borghesia, Front Line Assembly , Mussolini Headkick or In Sotto Voce, were also part of the program's repertoire in the following years - up to the takeover of DT64s by the ORB . The Electronics format , which increasingly dealt with electronic artists from the Krautrock environment and the Berlin school , reported from around 1988 on bands such as Front 242 and the Belgian EBM scene.
“'Electronic Body Music' has been known to some for a number of years, but was only associated with Front 242. The Eastern media remained largely silent on this subject. Only in the youth radio DT64 was [...], in addition to other indie music, also sometimes played EBM. "
When the border opened in 1989, regional tour operator teams were formed that made EBM popular in the east German metropolises through regular discotheque events and live performances, including Total.Body.Control in Dresden and Rose Bowl '88 in Neubrandenburg. These had mostly emerged from earlier Depeche Mode fan clubs. Thanks to the existing Depeche Mode fan community, groups such as Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb quickly met with a positive response; Theme parties became more and more popular. The style of music in East Germany experienced a second heyday, while the scene in the west of the republic threatened to stagnate. Young bands like Armageddon Dildos, Paranoid, Syntec and Orange Sector, but also protagonists like Die Krupps, Vomito Negro and Tommi Stumpff, were able to benefit from this upswing.
“After the reunification of the two German states, the former GDR is preparing to catch up on the development that the music scene in the West has undergone in recent decades. In addition to the capital Berlin, the south with the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz seems to be particularly lively. [...] In Dresden z. For example, at the end of '90 / beginning of '91 came the great Front 242 boom […], but also Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Klinik, […] Pankow and Tommi Stumpff are becoming increasingly well known. The scene is reminiscent of old times in the West in 1988/89. "
In 1995, the EBM culture was largely considered extinct. After the rapid decline of music, part of the audience seamlessly switched to rave and techno . The electronic scene of the 1990s developed from further parts , while a small remainder turned to other areas such as crossover , hardcore and industrial metal .
The revival
After the turn of the millennium, interest in EBM increased again. Third generation bands such as Ionic Vision, Dupont and Spetsnaz are considered to be the initiators of the upswing . A number of other artists soon formed directly from the growing scene. East Germany in particular, with its social grievances, formed the breeding ground for renewed growth. At the same time, this revival embodied a struggle against technoid styles such as Aggrotech or Future Pop , which have been determining club events since the late 1990s.
Important centers were Berlin (BodyBeats) and Dessau (Electric Tremor), but also cities such as Cologne (EBM Music Club), Aachen (EBM back to NEP), Oberhausen (Dimanche Noir / EBM Music Club), Frankfurt am Main (Return to the Classixx) or Wiesbaden (Reanimation Club) enjoyed EBM-specific events for a long time.
Optical identifiers
The following list names typical clothing features of EBM trailers. Due to individual preferences and the different roots of the members of the scene (see punk, skinhead, synth-pop and new wave scenes), the appearance varies considerably. The visualization of the musical concept, which also included the styling of the protagonists such as DAF , Die Krupps , Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb , served as the starting point . Many components, such as muscle shirts, leather jackets, G9 blousons or short-shaved hair, were already part of the DAF look at the beginning of the 1980s.
“Provocation was part of the concept: bare, sweaty upper bodies, hair cropped short on the sides and leather clothing were just as much a part of the image of the German-American Friendship (DAF) as playing with homoerotic and fascist images. Robert Görl and Gabi Delgado López are pioneers of their time. "
A few years later, Depeche Mode , whose fan community soon devoted itself to the EBM, joined as a new source of inspiration . The outfit belonging to the synth-pop scene was only slightly modified. At the end of the 1980s, an appearance prevailed in many places that can be regarded as an exaggeration of the Depeche Mode styling and as “typical for EBM”. Black leather jackets, jeans and pants made of leather, often combined with simple black and white T-shirts, were not uncommon. Shoes with steel toe caps or boots from the brand Dr. Martens popular. Rather than a Dave Gahan facon cut, shaved sides were preferred so that the hairstyle resembled a defused version of the psychobilly haircut (' flat '). Musicians like Steve Naghavi ( And One ) carried this image into the 1990s.
Alternatively, there was "following the early, aggressive male form of presentation of EBM", a "military-looking outfit", which was characterized by combat boots, military pants and accessories and directly borrowed from the appearance of bands such as Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb ( see MA-1 flight jackets, tank tops of the Bundeswehr). Since the scene revival after the turn of the millennium, this style has again enjoyed great popularity. Occasionally there is a combination of elements of different styling variants, supplemented by clothing components from skinhead fashion (Harrington jacket), such as those worn by DAF in the early 1980s (see above).
Despite regional differences, there were and are many similarities in terms of appearance. Here is a summary of the predominant identifying features:
- Crew Cut or Flat ("briquette haircut")
- T-shirts , muscle and camouflage shirts , tank tops , some of which are printed with motifs typical of the scene such as band logos (lettering), Gothic fonts or symbols such as machine wheels and sledgehammers
- Leather jackets (influence of the punk movement or the synth-pop scene)
- Bomber jackets (MA-1 flight jacket; established in the scene by Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb)
- Harrington jackets (G9 blouson) and polo shirts (influence of skinhead culture)
- Jeans (mostly black, dark gray or white), camouflage and leather pants ("biker pants")
- Leather belt and field paddocks (uniform belt)
- rarely also braces (so-called "Army Suspenders") in connection with a bare upper body
- Lace-up boots, Dr. Martens , Underground or Getta Grip low shoes (3-hole)
The list does not claim to be complete, nor can it take subcultural unique selling points into account, as various items of clothing are also worn in other scenes or have flowed into the EBM scene through these cultures in the course of the 1980s.
Dance styles
Similar to punk and psychobilly culture, pogo was widely used as a dance style in the 1980s . This style, often referred to as fighting , was soon banned from numerous clubs and had to give way to a neat two-step dance. As a result of the musical and subcultural boom, the pogo celebrated its return to the dance halls immediately after the turn of the millennium. In the often darkened rooms, between artificial fog and flickering white light stroboscope, the synergism of man and machine immediately takes shape. With the internalization of the driving beats and repetitive bass sequences, dancing is experienced ecstatically.
At many concerts the "most robust dance machines are usually found in the middle in front of the stage" dancing pogo together, often with "bare chests or muscle shirts that show off the gym-hardened muscles."
“People pay so they can get something. Some want to dance the pogo, others prefer to watch. Pogo and stage diving are positive aggression. People can have fun there. It's better than fighting in the street. "
Drugs
The use of illegal drugs was strictly rejected and criticized several times. This fact differentiated the European scene from the North American post-industrial culture (see Skinny Puppy , Ministry etc.) and the later techno movement - both musical cultures in which illegal intoxicants played an essential role. As a reaction to the burgeoning techno-house scene and its massive drug consumption, For example, And One took part in the anti-drug campaign “ No power to drugs ” of the Federal Ministry of Health as part of their 1992 tour .
“None of us do drugs, and I don't think any of our fans who come to our concerts do drugs either - be it an ex-Depeche Mode fan, a Nitzer Ebb fan or a Front 242 fan. They are really clean people. "
Reason-oriented action and the integrity of the (painstakingly trained) body are likely to be decisive reasons for the negative attitude. Long-term effects of using drugs, e.g. B. irreversible organ damage, impairment of the nervous system and performance have been scientifically proven. On the other hand, the body's own substances are released through the dynamic of dancing, which makes the use of psychoactive stimulants unnecessary.
“[...] the dance movement to monotonous rhythms is an effective method to get into unusual spheres of consciousness. In ecstatic dancing, the body's own drugs are released. This includes so-called endorphins, the body's happiness hormones, which trigger euphoric moods. The creativity-enhancing neurotransmitter dopamine is then also increasingly formed, lifts the mood and increases the drive. "
Print media
In many youth cultures at the end of the 20th century, print media (primarily paper products) were widespread. In their primary function as a means of information and communication, which not only set the scene but also preserve the scene, the print media were of vital importance.
The three most important media in the scene were fanzines or regular music magazines, flyers and audio-carrier catalogs .
Magazines
The focus was on the so-called fanzines. These were mostly regionally available in limited editions and were distributed free of charge or at cost price. Some of them later resulted in high-quality music magazines that were distributed across borders.
The transitions from the fanzine to the standard trade magazine were fluid, since idealism and authenticity often took precedence over commercial interests even after professionalization of design and layout. B. not financed through advertising of luxury goods (tobacco, etc.). Regardless of the number of copies, these media followed an almost identical concept and consisted essentially of scene-relevant content such as news, interviews, label and band portraits, concert reports, scene specials, record and tape reviews, tour dates and classifieds (especially Contact and sound carrier search) together. Only new releases and intra-cultural events such as parties, concerts and scene get-togethers were advertised .
Noteworthy magazines that were preferred within the EBM scene were New Life, Frontpage, Zone and Vertigo, although none of them was exclusively dedicated to EBM, but also considered related styles.
The New Life Soundmagazine , which appeared in Switzerland from 1983 and moved to Hesse in 1992, was particularly popular . Originally launched as Depeche-Mode - Fanzine , it then reported on electronic music in general and in the 1990s also devoted itself to varieties such as intelligent dance music , ambient and drum and bass . The Frankfurt Techno Club -Magazine FrontPage , however, which saw the light of day in May 1989, conformed to the respective trend and two years later developed into a pure techno-house magazine.
Since August 1990 the Fanzine Zone has been published in the Aachen area , which, like New Life, placed its focus on EBM, Elektro and Electro Wave . It remained active until 1993. In December 1991 the magazine Vertigo appeared in Bremen for the first time. Although it was traded under the label "Electro-Avantgarde", it specialized primarily in Electro-Industrial , Dark Electro and EBM. It existed until 1997. A comparable medium was the NRG. Electro-Zine, which was released in the Dresden area from 1991 and - similar to New Life - emerged from a Depeche Mode fanzine.
The print media in English were Sideline from Belgium and Crewzine from Slovakia . A Swedish magazine based in Gothenburg appeared under the name Release .
Flyer
In addition to music magazines, flyers in particular were used to announce concerts and discotheque events. These are poster miniatures that are inexpensively reproduced using xero or hectographic printing processes and distributed in dance halls, youth clubs, record stores or fashion stores (underground shops ).
Via the DIY movement of the 1970s (punk, post-punk, industrial), the flyer found its way into the wave and independent scene of the 1980s. The often hand-copied notes in DIN-A6 format were mostly monochrome and strongly contrasted and thus resembled fanzines in their production method.
politics
Although EBM has a number of political connections, politics played a rather subordinate role. Many members of the scene showed themselves to be apolitical. The mostly uniform martial appearance of the supporters was often understood as a demonstration of a human ideal .
“These connotations come from looking clean and efficient and using terms like discipline, strength, and youth absolutely positively, simply because we believe there is an advantage in them. We don't ask everyone to do bodybuilding [...]. When we say 'strong' we don't necessarily mean physically strong, but the spiritual strength, a 'Fuck Off!' To people. hurl at those who want to ruin your life. Just because you're young doesn't mean that nobody has the right to tell you what to do. "
Various graphic components in the cover and stage design, such as hammer, machine wheel, wreath of ears of corn and clenched fist (as a sign of resistance), which have an artistic proximity to Russian constructivism and its focus on technology and functionalism, were often associated with the symbolism of the time associated with National Socialism . The wearing of uniform parts for the purpose of provocation (this is how Gabriel Delgado-López, Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris sometimes presented themselves on promotion photos in chamber trousers , marching boots and shoulder straps) quickly earned music and culture the reputation of being fascist.
“EBM works according to the old, always the same principles: music with a listening character that works not only in clubs, but also on stage or at home. Music that contains world designs that sell ideologically - an often strangely muddled, mythologized, post-new wave DAF industrial ideology with a slightly fascist aesthetic that is represented by people. "
This assumption was further reinforced by the fact that leading bands like Front 242 did not make any clear statements from their political point of view .
“We don't give a message to people. That would not be possible because we are four different people. "
Comparable allegations already existed at the time of the Neue Deutsche Welle . The German-American friendship was once put into the wrong light in the early 1980s - sometimes without questioning its motives:
“The longing to be ahistorical is the real driving force behind fascist historiography. Since parodic, ironic or theatrical distance is nowhere to be felt at DAF, her texts act as propaganda. "
Robert Görl (DAF) on this:
“Back then we played with political as well as sexual ideas, provocation was more important than anything. At the same time, we were so confident that we didn't care at all about the public's reactions. We flirted with homo-eroticism, with fascism, with every kind of perversion, because we were firmly convinced that art can and should do everything. We wanted total freedom in our work, so we just took that freedom. Censorship was the worst thing for us, we simply rejected it. [...] We wanted to get taboos out of the holes and say: Here, we're going to tip the taboo onto the dance floor - how do you like that? "
Tommi Stumpff , who was repeatedly confronted with the allegations of fascism in the 1980s and whose compositions often contain a descriptive representation of violence, pointed out that critics often confused the subject and the work process with the artist.
"The absolute separation of ethics and aesthetics is the basic requirement for understanding my music."
Jürgen Engler (Die Krupps), however, showed himself to be responsible:
“We have always deliberately opposed the law because the EBM generation had this fascist touch and the leading bands never clearly delineated themselves, but rather carelessly flirted with such symbolism and wanted to remain artistically freely interpretable. You have to make your point of view clear, because very few understand the artistic statement or provocation. "
Other bands, such as à; GRUMH… and The Invincible Spirit , explicitly positioned themselves in the anti-fascist spectrum. To date, there are no indications that the EBM culture follows political dogmas, e.g. right-wing extremist ideologies. Rather, she uses already familiar forms of provocation from the punk and industrial environment.
In the course of the 1980s and 1990s, there were repeated controversies and boycotts of music events, during which well-known politicians displayed their bias and lack of expertise. Green politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit said that the “fascist noise of right-wing radical groups such as War Ready and Front 242 is by no means a harmless form of popular music”. He did not give any well-founded sources to support his claim. Ironically, Richard Jonckheere, singer of the band Front 242, was one of the members of the Agalev party in Belgium at the time.
Scene language
In contrast to techno - or hip-hop -specific expressions and loanwords, the EBM scene has only developed its own jargon to a limited extent , which is primarily limited to the music-cultural context and can overlap with the jargon of other scenes. Some examples are:
|
(Eng. crowd ' crowd ') refers to the audience at concerts or discotheque events. |
|
(Engl. events , event ') refers to a party, a festival or similar music events. |
|
(Engl. flat , flat ') short for flattop, refers to the hair-section of an EBM-trailer. |
|
(English shout ' to call') means the aggressive singing style of the vocalists, who are also called shouters . |
|
(English stomp , stamping) is the name for a powerful and energetic EBM piece. |
Some of these words, like crowd, are used by the musicians themselves, e.g. B. by Douglas McCarthy ( Nitzer Ebb ).
Essential works
Albums / Singles / EPs
| Publications with key qualities | Related albums and albums by the initiators |
|---|---|
|
|
Compilations
At first, there were no compilations that focused on the genre. The compilations were mixed up with post-punk , post-industrial and minimal electro pieces. This only changed from 1986/87, when EBM was perceived as an independent music scene. Some notable compilations from this period are:
| Compilations |
|---|
|
LPs / CDs / cassettes:
Videos:
|
Hard beat productions
Hard beat productions had a strong connection to electronic body music and could mostly only be distinguished from regular EBM pieces on the basis of an acid house influence . Amnesia, New Design and Chayell were side projects of Signal Août 42 and A Split-Second. The financial success of many new and hard beat records mainly benefited the expansion of the Antler Subway label and the support of the EBM bands under contract there.
| Hard beat productions in 1988 | Hard beat productions 1989 |
|---|---|
|
|
Style-defining instruments
| product | Art | Construction year | Manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARP 2600 | Modular synthesizer | 1970 | ARP Instruments |
| ARP Odyssey | Analog synthesizer | 1972 | ARP Instruments |
| Akai S900 | Digital 12-bit stereo sampler | 1986 | Akai Electric Company Ltd. |
| Akai S1000 | 16-bit digital stereo sampler | 1988 | Akai Electric Company Ltd. |
| Akai X7000 | 12-bit sampling midi keyboard | 1986 | Akai Electric Company Ltd. |
| Atari 1040 ST | Personal computer | 1986 | Atari |
| Drumulator | Digital drum computer | 1982 | E-mu Systems |
| Emax | 8-bit sampling workstation | 1985 | E-mu Systems |
| Emulator II | Digital sampling keyboard | 1984 | E-mu Systems |
| Kawai R-100 | Digital drum computer | 1985 | Kawai |
| Kawai Q-80 | Digital sequencer | 1988 | Kawai |
| Korg DS-8 | Digital synthesizer | 1987 | Korg |
| Korg M1 | Polyphonic synthesizer | 1988 | Korg |
| Korg MS-20 | Monophonic synthesizer | 1978 | Korg |
| MFB SEQ-02 | CV / Gate -Step-Sequencer | 198? | Manfred Fricke Berlin |
| Moog Prodigy | Monophonic synthesizer | 1980 | Moog |
| Moog Source | Monophonic synthesizer | 1981 | Moog |
| Oberheim Matrix 6 | Analog synthesizer | 1985 | Oberheim |
| Oberheim OB-Xa | Analog synthesizer | 1980 | Oberheim |
| Pearl Syncussion SC-2 | Analog two-channel drum synthesizer | 1980 | Pearl |
| PPG Wave 2 | Wavetable synthesizer | 1982 | Palm Products German y |
| Roland GDR-30 | Digital drum module | 1984 | Roland |
| Roland Juno-106 | Polyphonic analog synthesizer | 1984 | Roland |
| Roland Jupiter 8 | Polyphonic analog synthesizer | 1981 | Roland |
| Roland MC-4 | Digital CV / Gate sequencer | 1982 | Roland |
| Roland Octapad 8 | Multi-trigger drum pad | 1985 | Roland |
| Roland SH-101 | Monophonic analog synthesizer | 1982 | Roland |
| Roland System 100 | Semi-modular synthesizer system | 1976 | Roland |
| Roland System 100 M. | Modular synthesizer system | 1978 | Roland |
| Roland TR-505 | Digital drum computer | 1986 | Roland |
| Roland TR-707 | Digital drum computer | 1984 | Roland |
| Roland TR-808 | Analog drum machine | 1981 | Roland |
| Sequential Circuits Pro 1 | Monophonic synthesizer | 1981 | Sequential Circuits |
| Yamaha CS-40 M. | Monophonic synthesizer | 1980 | Yamaha |
| Yamaha DX-7 | Digital synthesizer | 1983 | Yamaha |
| Yamaha TX-81 Z | Polyphonic synthesizer | 1986 | Yamaha |
Individual evidence
-
^ Sven Schäfer, Jesper Schäfers, Dirk Waltmann: Techno-Lexikon. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89602-142-7 , p. 132.
“Hard electronic music widespread from the beginning of the eighties as a result of the New Wave and Industrial movement. The protagonists include B. Front 242, Nitzer Ebb and Clock DVA. EBM is considered [...] as the European influence in today's techno [...] " - ↑ a b c Eugene ENRG (DJ Krusty '), Ray Castle: Psychic Sonics. Tribadelic dance trance formation. In: Graham St. John: FreeNRG . Notes from the Edge of the Dance Floor . Common Ground Publishing, Altona, Victoria, Australia 2001, ISBN 1-86335-084-5 , p. 265. ( PDF; 4.0 MB )
- ↑ a b Diedrich Diederichsen: 1987 - Done. Sequencer. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/88, January 1988, p. 66.
-
^ Rüdiger Esch: Electri_City. Electronic music from Düsseldorf. Suhrkamp , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-51846464-9 , p. 251.
“[…] it was already Chrislo [Haas]. He had brought all of the sequencing into the group. He also had the appropriate equipment, the Korg MS-20 and the keyboardless expander MS-50 . He then chased the whole thing through a guitar amp. Chrislo was the one who made us realize that it sucks to play a synth line-in straight into the desk. "(Kurt Dahlke) -
↑ a b Kami Kleedorfer: We wanted to revolutionize music history. Interview with Gabi Delgado-López , The Gap , December 2017.
“He was much more than a studio boss for us, he played a decisive role in shaping the DAF sound. We had our Korg synthesizers and other equipment, but it was Conny who created the driving sound with all sorts of tricks. For example, Conny recorded the Korg directly, but also chased the synth signal through a Marshall guitar amplifier and recorded this sound. This is just one of many studio tricks with which Conny helped shape DAF and made it unmistakable. "(Gabi Delgado-López) -
↑ Diedrich Diederichsen : Review of the compilation 'This Is Electronic Body Music'. In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 7/88, July 1988, p. 50
“So that's it, probably the most successful independent music in Europe, sometimes more, sometimes less monotonous sequencer loops, sometimes faster, sometimes slower on the one emphasized rhythms, sometimes staccato, sometimes atmospherically bound [...] " -
↑ a b c S. Alexander Reed: Assimilate. A Critical History of Industrial Music. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6 , p. 165.
“Rhythmically, EBM is based around an incessant quarter-note kick drum pattern, often with a backbeat snare. Drum machine hi-hats fill in the rhythmic gaps, but percussive ornamentation varies from artist to artist. " - ^ Timor Kaul: Electronic Body Music. In: Thomas Hecken, Marcus S. Kleiner: Handbuch Popkultur. JB Metzler Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-02677-4 , p. 105.
- ↑ a b Jörg Jahns: Nitzer Ebb - Belief. In: PopNoise. Issue 2/89, 1989, p. 34.
-
↑ Kirsten Wallraff: The Gothics. White as Snow, Red as Blood and Black as Ebony - Chapter 4: Music and Dance. EBM. 2001, ISBN 3-933773-09-1 , p. 48. (A diploma thesis written by Wallraff in 1994 served as the basis)
“In Electr (on) ic Body Music (EBM), mainly electronic instruments generate a pounding, grueling beat. Less priority is given to text and vocals. What is more important is the structure of a piece, which makes this music very danceable. In most cases, the driving dynamic music is accompanied by a male voice who sings or speaks the minimalist lyrics. " -
↑ Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: Die Welt der Gothics. Scope of darkly connoted transcendence - Electronic Body Music (EBM). December 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 , p. 271
“The use of vowels can best be described as spoken chant: The words and lines of text are clearly spoken or shouted. In addition to the deep, male main voice, which is usually easy to understand despite possible echo effects or slight distortion, a so-called 'shouter' is often used. " - ↑ a b Sebastian Zabel: Interview with Meat Beat Manifesto. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 8/89, August 1989, p. 11.
-
↑ Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: Die Welt der Gothics. Scope of darkly connoted transcendence - Electronic Body Music (EBM). 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 , p. 270
"The complete melody of the pieces can often only be found in the chorus part, while the voice tends to sound with pure rhythm during the verses, which is enriched with melody snippets or sound effects." - ↑ a b c Frank Grotelüschen: Interview with the Belgian band Front 242. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 11/88, p. 44, November 1988.
-
↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Annual Review: EBM. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/89, January 1989, p. 43.
“An example of this is the EP sampler 'Music from Belgium' (TDI), on which five young Belgian bands make music with analog equipment just like other Belgian musicians five years ago. Just record that on 8 not 24 track, and therefore feel incredibly original, rooted and uncommonly aware of the historicity of their goings-on. New style, technoid naturalism, or nice ideology around the fact that you couldn't (yet) afford digital equipment. " -
^ Report of the UN Human Rights Commission on human rights violations in the Federal Republic of Germany: Review of the DAF album 'Die Kleinen und die Böse'. Issue 3/80, p. 15, July / August 1980
"The essential characteristics of DAF pieces are rhythm, carried by drums and synths, and energy / power." - ↑ a b Rainer Bussius: Review of Nitzer Ebb's album 'That Total Age'. In: E. B. Music magazine. Issue 10/87, p. 34, July / August 1987.
-
^ Report of the UN Human Rights Commission on human rights violations in the Federal Republic of Germany: German-American friendship. Concert report. Issue 2/80, p. 4, May / June 1980
"Despite the extreme sound, DAF music is relatively rhythmic and easy to dance to." -
^ Report of the UN Human Rights Commission on human rights violations in the Federal Republic of Germany: German-American friendship. Concert report. Issue 4b / 80, p. 8, November 1980
“All three all in black, the hair even shorter than any skinhead. Gabi had a huge recorder with her on which all the tapes were stored. After Chrislo Haas left the trio, the whole thing radiated such strong power. Power from the assembly line, but still incomparable. Gabi jumped around like torn up, that was then carried over to the crowd. " -
^ A b Paula-Irene Villa: Banal fights? Perspectives on Popular Culture and Gender. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-18213-1 , p. 28
“In the EBM area, which hardly overlaps with the harder branches of industrial, but which has a significant impact on its moderate electro-industrial branch there is a strong fascination for war and soldierhood, which in some acts even determines the entire image and textual concept in a banal form. " - ↑ The Brandy: Nitzer Ebb - Band Portrait. In: PopNoise. Issue 6/87, p. 8, October / November 1987.
- ^ S. Alexander Reed: Assimilate. A Critical History of Industrial Music. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6 , p. 164.
- ^ A b Timor Kaul: Electronic Body Music. In: Thomas Hecken, Marcus S. Kleiner: Handbuch Popkultur. JB Metzler Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-02677-4 , p. 102.
- ↑ Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: Die Welt der Gothics. Scope of darkly connoted transcendence - Electronic Body Music (EBM). December 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 , p. 271.
- ↑ Ulf Poschardt: DJ Culture. Disc jockeys and pop culture. Rowohlt Verlag, October 1, 1997, ISBN 3-499-60227-X , p. 392.
- ↑ a b Håkan Ehrnst: Interview with Front 242, December 18, 1990. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 26, p. 24, March / April 1991.
- ^ S. Alexander Reed: Assimilate. A Critical History of Industrial Music. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6 , p. 154.
- ↑ Thomas Seiß, Jörg Kaldenbach: Interview with Tommi Stumpff. In: Zone music magazine. Issue 10, p. 7, June 1991.
- ↑ MJ Klein: WSKU Radio (Kent, Ohio) - Interview recording Ralf Hütter - 19/06/1978 ( Memento from March 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (November 25, 2007) kraftwerk.technopop.com.br
- ↑ Andreas David: Interview with the Belgian band Front 242. In: Entry. Issue 1/1998, p. 58.
- ↑ Alexander Weil, Thomas Kistner: 1980 - New Wave Hit Explosion. Video documentation with recordings from 1979 and 1980. MonteVideo, Munich 1981.
- ↑ Olaf Karnik: Review of the album 'Mistress'. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 4/83, p. 46, April 1983.
- ^ Mark Hagedorn: Review of the album No Comment. In: Independance Magazine. 2/85, 1985, p. 22.
-
^ Matthias Lang: Technical Terms. EB / Metronom, issue 31, p. 65, June / July 1991
“Tecdance has meanwhile developed into one of the largest tape labels for» electronic body music «. Compilations appear regularly, on which new songs are introduced. " - ↑ Reinhard Stroetmann, Jens-C. Schulze: Interview with Manfred Schütz. In: MagaScene. Issue 2, 2004.
- ↑ a b Michael Ruff: Electro - Body + Soul. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 8/88, p. 38, August 1988.
-
^ A b c Ralf Niemczyk: Germany 88 - report on Frankfurt's music scene. In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 9/88, Cologne, September 1988, p. 24.
“Aggrepo (= aggressive-positive or aggressive-pop ). for everything that goes under Electronic Body Music [...]. " - ↑ a b George Lindt: Armageddon Dildos - The dildos and their thing. Epitaph Kulturmagazin, issue 3, p. 34, October 1990.
- ↑ Ralf Niemczyk: Review of the maxi 'Headhunter' from Front 242. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 10/88, p. 53, October 1988.
- ↑ Sebastian Zabel: Review of the album 'Face to Face' by The Klinik. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/89, p. 70, January 1989.
-
↑ a b Various artists: Music from Belgium . Compilation, Techno Drome International / ZYX Records 1988.
“This record will show you the roots of Belgian electronic music. Young musicians who don't want to ride on the New Beat wave. They want to do 100% Aggrepo for your body mechanic. " - ^ Antonia Langsdorf: Future Perfect. Sato Agrepo. Dance house. Tele 5, 1989.
- ^ Frank Grotelüschen: Military Disco. In the fast lane - report on Front 242 . In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 4/87, Cologne, April 1987, p. 12.
- ↑ Sebastian Koch: Editorial. In: New Life Soundmagazine . Issue 38, Regensdorf, Switzerland, November 1988, p. 2.
- ↑ Andreas Schiegl: Fast + Transient. Concert report about a performance by the bands Nitzer Ebb, Borghesia and The Cassandra Complex. ("Sequencer-Hardcore" is used here for the music by Nitzer Ebb) In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 12/87, Cologne, December 1987, p. 15.
- ↑ Oliver Köble: Inside Treatment - Isolated Suburban Psychokillers in Coma. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. P. 28, issue 23, September / October 1990.
- ↑ Various artists: This Is Body-Techno. Compilation, Impuls Records 1991.
- ^ Heinrich Tillack: Review of the album 'Portent' by Pouppée Fabrikk. In: Limited Edition. Issue 33, 1991, p. 61.
- ↑ Thomas Seiß, Jörg Kaldenbach: Review of the album 'Subhuman Minds' by Schnitt Acht. In: Zone music magazine. Issue 10, June 1991, p. 22.
-
↑ S. Rumorak: review to the album, In Your Mind 'of electrical tape abscess . In: EB / metronome. Edition 55, p. 36, July / August 1995
“The duo makes atmospheric, melodic and sometimes melancholy music. Current trance elements are cleverly combined with old-school EBM and sound extremely successful. Exactly, because we have long since left the 1980s behind us. " - ^ Vertigo Musikmagazin, issue 1/97, p. 82, spring 1997.
-
^ A b c Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: The world of the Gothics. Scope of darkly connoted transcendence - Electronic Body Music (EBM). 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 , p. 270.
“This genre has its origin in Germany and Belgium in the early 1980s. In 1981 the first maxi 'Principles / Body to Body' was published by Front 242 in Brussels. Front 242 called their sound 'Electronic Body Music' and unintentionally coined the name for an entire genre. " - ↑ Spex. Music at the moment: Front 242 - The founders of Electronic Body Music. Issue 3/89, p. 80, March 1989.
-
↑ The Brandy: Nitzer Ebb - Band Portrait. In: PopNoise. Edition 6/87, p. 8, October / November 1987
“[The music was] inspired by the German scene, which at that time, in addition to the flat-chested Neue Deutsche Welle, also produced brutal dance electronics. DAF must be named here as one of the sources. " -
↑ Andrea Schilz: Flyer of the black scene in Germany: visualizations, structures, mentalities. Waxmann Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8309-2097-7 , p. 90.
“With the DAF (German-American Friendship) project from Düsseldorf, which later worked as a duo, the EBM (Electronic Body Music) subdivision got that distinctive characterized by hard electronic rhythms, a trendsetter. " -
↑ a b Dirk Scheuring: Front 242 - Review of the single Principles / Body to Body. In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 12/81, p. 31, December 1981.
“A Belgian contribution to modern minimalist dance. Sequencer and drums, sparingly synthesizer and guitar and a distorted voice that hisses incomprehensible. How quickly ideas become conventions ... " -
^ Holger Krüssmann: DAF - high voltage. In: Change Musikmagazin , issue 12/81, December 1981, international press department of Ariola-Eurodisc GmbH, p. 10.
“Ecstasy in German. Triumph of the body. The message from DAF is that of positive physicality. " -
↑ Freddie Röckenhaus : Nitzer Ebb. Band portrait. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 3/86, p. 7, March 1986
“In keeping with the music […] Nitzer Ebb copied the wandering DAF concept at the same time. This makes the work of the drawer much easier for the press and consumers. " - ^ Rainer Bussius: The Vicious Way. Interview with Front 242. E. B. Magazin, issue 10/87, p. 20, July / August 1987.
-
↑ Tibor Kneif, Christian Kneisel: Where the herb grows. Rock in the Federal Republic. In: Rock in the 70s: jazz rock, hard rock, folk rock and new wave. Rowohlt, 1980, ISBN 3-499-17385-9 , p. 201.
“From 1974 onwards, some bands expanded their electronic instruments to such an extent that conventional instruments fell completely silent at times. Drums and bass have been replaced by the sequencer, which can be used to produce automatically running, repeating tone sequences. The often eight-tone, tempered, fast and error-free pulsing sequences primarily covered the bass range. Their sound material was usually chosen in such a way that it was possible to improvise in major and minor against their background. H. Thirds were left out. Rhythmic subtleties were dispensed with, continuous sixteenth notes signaled a return to the moving (Tangerine Dream - 'Phaedra', 'Rubycon'; Klaus Schulze - 'Moondawn'). " - ↑ Michael Tesch: Duotronic Synterror. The legacy of Petra Schürmann. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 8/82, p. 37, August 1982.
-
^ Armin Hofmann: No idea - Sentimental youth. Lautt Magazin, issue 4/83, p. 33, autumn 1983
"'Sentimentale Jugend' is a fast track that sounds like a mixture of DAF and Suicide." - ↑ Willy Ehmann: I have no idea. Brief portrait. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 8-9 / 83, p. 8, August / September 1983.
- ↑ Florian Obkircher: Contemporary stories: Cabaret Voltaire . In: Groove Musikmagazin, August 13, 2014.
- ↑ Sebastian Koch: Pankow (biography, English).
-
↑ Bobby Vox: Review of Tommi Stumpff's single 'Seltsames Glück'. E. B. Magazin, issue 3/86, May 1986, p. 25.
“Tommi Stumpff is consistently continuing his swing in the direction of electronic music [...]. 'Come to us, join in, kill him' apocalyptically demand the troops, short, chopped off pieces of text, similar to the earlier work at DAF. Also in the two pieces on the B-side, 'The Last Idiot' and 'Ehre und Blut', musical and textual similarities with DAF […]. By the way, 'Seltsames Glück' and 'The Last Idiot' are produced by Conny Plank. The record says 'NO Drum Computer'; Tommi, how do you do that? " - ↑ Ralf Niemczyk: Review of Tommi Stumpff's single 'Seltsames Glück'. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 11/85, November 1985, p. 17.
- ^ S. Alexander Reed: Assimilate. A Critical History of Industrial Music. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6 , p. 162.
- ↑ a b Ralf Niemczyk: Fast + Transient. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 2/89, p. 4, February 1989.
-
↑ Martin Kurzbein: Men love men and music. Gay report. In: New Life Soundmagazine . Edition 28, Regensdorf, Switzerland, October 1987, p. 15.
“[…] so-called high-energy music is still popular. It is noticeable that women in particular dominate the musical scene. " -
↑ Nick Collins, Margaret Schedel, Scott Wilson: Cambridge Introductions to Electronic Music. Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-64817-3 , pp. 93-95.
“For a time in the early '80s, Synthpop was mainstream electronic dance music, perhaps with more clearly accessible song form compared to […] the more brutal Electronic Body Music (EBM). [...] In the UK, the Hi-NRG gay club sound was re-packaged as a dominant pop market force by the Stock, Aitken and Waterman production team, especially in the years 1987-89. " - ^ E. B. Music magazine: Short and painless. Edition 7/1987, p. 4.
- ↑ Frank Grotelüschen: extortion last Lebensmuts. Concert report. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/87, January 1987, p. 9.
-
↑ Gero Herde, Marcus Dahlmanns: Ebbheads - Interview with Nitzer Ebb. In: Inquisita Soundmagazine. Edition 12, April 1992, p. 27.
“The name Nitzer Ebb enjoys a special reputation in the world of EBM. Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris were there from the start when it came to combining electronics and dance [...]. With their mixture of aggressiveness and innovation, Nitzer Ebb has drawn more and more fans of harder-paced electronic music to their side over the years. Albums like 'That Total Age' or 'Belief' are EBM classics that no indie club in the country misses [...]. " - ^ A b Frank Grotelüschen: Interview with the Belgian band Front 242. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 11/88, November 1988, p. 42.
- ↑ a b Peter Erik Hillenbach: rhythm box instead of power blocks - report on Nitzer Ebb . In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 12/87, December 1987, p. 11.
- ^ L. Andreas: Reviews. In: PopNoise. Issue 3/90, p. 34, autumn 1990.
-
↑ Sebastian Zabel: Letters to the Editor. In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 6/89, p. 7, June 1989
“It was called» Belgium's best beats «, because of. admittedly flat association EBM = Belgium. " -
^ S. Alexander Reed: Assimilate. A Critical History of Industrial Music. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6 , p. 157.
“Because of such a density of electronic dance music in a small country, it's surprising, then, to learn that in the first half of the decade these musicians had very little mutual contact. For example, Dirk Ivens of Absolute Body Control and The Klinik flatly states, "We didn't know about each other." Add to that these musicians' bedroom-recording mentality and the linguistic divide that cordoned off Francophone acts such as Front 242 and à; GRUMH… from Flemish bands such as Absolute Body Control or The Neon Judgment, and the isolation starts to make more sense. " - ^ S. Alexander Reed: Assimilate. A Critical History of Industrial Music. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6 , p. 160.
- ^ Frank Grotelüschen: Electro-Control. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 3/89, p. 80, March 1989.
- ↑ Urs Tääkno: Energy Records - Spotlight. In: PopNoise. Issue 2/91, p. 16, summer 1991.
-
↑ Oliver Köble: Pouppée Fabrikk - Rage. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. P. 33, issue 23, September / October 1990
“The rough, son of a dog voice seems to be developing into Sweden's trademark, Cat Rapes Dog has already made us familiar. The shouter screams its soul out and the tight tin drums from the sequencers blow the command. " - ^ Johann Paul: Energy '92 - Electronic Beats from the North. In: EB / metronome. Edition 38/92, p. 60, June / July 1992.
- ↑ Hide Sasaki: Interview with Phew. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/82, p. 21, January 1982.
-
↑ Sebastian Zabel: Technozabel. In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 8/91, p. 42, August 1991
"Belgium-EBM is practically dead, even if genre old men still bring out dull records." - ^ A b Frank Affeldt: The Neon Judgment. In: Limited Edition. Edition 33, 4/91, p. 62, winter 1991.
- ↑ Oliver Köble: Interview with insect. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 33, p. 13, May / June 1992.
-
↑ Falko Blask, Michael Fuchs-Gamböck: Techno. A generation in ecstasy. Bastei / Gustav-Lübbe-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-404-60416-4 , p. 36.
“[…] just one year later the techno movement organized its final triumphal procession through the dance temples of Europe. From then on, EBM formations were rather ridiculed as fossils. " -
↑ Ronald Hitzler, Michaela Pfadenhauer: Techno-Sociology. Exploring a youth culture - generational experience and collective mentality. Leske + Budrich, 2001, ISBN 3-8100-2663-8 , p. 149.
“[…] somehow content always had to be transported. I did not want. [...] I think that electronic music is strong enough on its own to transport this content. [...] So the rhythms were already clear, but always with these brute voices. [...] That was also that certain punk attitude [...]. I don't want to hear that. [...] The music has enough energy to transport that. " -
↑ Hendrik Lakeberg: Through the night with: Marcel Dettmann . In: De: Bug Magazin. July 20, 2010.
“In a techno club, you can look like a bank clerk or a punk. [...] What I love about this music is that it is not political at all. EBM was totally different. It was politically in the sense of the dress code. "( Marcel Dettmann , techno producer and DJ) - ↑ a b Ulf Poschardt: Belgium - The jump from industrial to EBM and techno. In: DJ Culture. Disc jockeys and pop culture. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1997, ISBN 3-499-60227-X , p. 331.
- ↑ Hendrik Lakeberg: Through the night with: Marcel Dettmann . In: De: Bug Magazin. July 20, 2010.
-
↑ Helmar Giebel: Review of the album 'No Help!' from Mastertune. In: Intro music magazine. Issue 25, June 1995, p. 65
“According to information, the Berlin trio describes itself as the legitimate heir to the style of electronic body music that Front 242 shaped in the years 1983–1989. In fact, they use themselves quite unabashedly: a little Krupps, a little Nitzer Ebb and a lot of Front 242. " - ↑ Falko Blask, Michael Fuchs-Gamböck: Techno. A generation in ecstasy. Bastei / Gustav-Lübbe-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-404-60416-4 , p. 36.
- ↑ laut.de
- ↑ Stefan Herwig: Interview with the Belgian band Front 242. In: Sub Line. 7-8 / 93, 1993, p. 20.
-
^ Klaus-Ernst Behne: A cohort experienced the 1990s. First trends of a longitudinal study. In: Claudia Bullerjahn, Hans Joachim Erwe, Rudolf Weber: Children - Culture: Aesthetic Experiences. Aesthetic needs. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1999, ISBN 3-8100-2243-8 , p. 90
“A total of six surveys have been carried out since 1991, initially two at short intervals (August 1991 and October 1991), from March 1992 onwards at an annual rhythm. […] From the fourth survey (1993), the list was expanded to include four more terms: Independent, Techno, Electronic Body Music and Gothic. " - ^ Klaus-Ernst Behne: A cohort experienced the 1990s. First trends of a longitudinal study. In: Claudia Bullerjahn, Hans Joachim Erwe, Rudolf Weber: Children - Culture: Aesthetic Experiences. Aesthetic needs. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1999, ISBN 3-8100-2243-8 , p. 91.
- ↑ Bill Brewster: I Feel Love: Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder Created the Template for Dance Music , MixMag, June 22, 2017
-
↑ Wilfried Rütten: Life after suicide - Interview with Alan Vega. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 5/82, May 1982, p. 21
“Suicide - that was Alan Vega, vocals, and Martin Rev, synthesizer. How much groundbreaking innovation this American duo has achieved for the contemporary music scene is difficult to estimate. But it is not an exaggeration to claim that the Neue Deutsche Welle would have taken a different course without the music of Suicide. Maybe it wouldn't have even existed in the first place? So almost all the synthesizer experiments of the German waves, be it at DAF or Krupps or Liaisons Dangereuses, can hardly be imagined without the overwhelming influence of Suicide music. " -
↑ Interview with Alan Vega and Martin Rev aka Suicide. Berlin, January 23, 2004
"No, I never used sequencers at all. I played everything live. And we never got into sequencers. (Martin Rev) "( PDF; 34 kB ) -
^ Rüdiger Esch: Electri_City. Electronic music from Düsseldorf. Suhrkamp , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-51846464-9 , p. 251.
“Whether Chrislo Haas, Kurt Dahlke or Robert Görl invented these EBM blueprint sequences is an idle discussion. There was a basic pattern, a morphic primal feeling that this is now the sound of time. And they each formed it for themselves. "(Peter Glaser) - ↑ Jason Heller: Strange Stars: How Science Fiction and Fantasy Transformed Popular Music. Melville House, June 2018, ISBN 1-612-19697-7 .
-
^ Ansgar Jerrentrup: Popular music as a medium of expression for young people. In: Dieter Baacke: Handbook of youth and music. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1998, ISBN 3-8100-1543-1 , pp. 76-77.
“The synthesizer brought about a marked change in the expressive structure of popular music. The attractiveness of this instrument was so great around 1970 that even real synth groups formed. The best known is the »Berlin School« around Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, whose own musical forms still have an impact today. The Düsseldorf group Kraftwerk succeeded in stimulating movement on a technological basis, creating a new type of dance music with synthetic sounds and impulses. This music influenced the EBM, mainly due to the dominance of the purely electronic sound and its movement-oriented sequencer figures, or found its continuation in the so-called electro style - albeit somewhat reduced in its aesthetic independence: more current sounds and standardized rhythms from digital instruments displaced the power and sensuality of sound of analog instruments. " -
↑ Rob Windle: A Deluxe Extended Secret Wish. Interview with Ralf D Körper. Electronically Yours, July 2010, online article
“[…] All that happened in the 70s but didn't really make me start making electronic noises. That trigger definitely was Daniel Miller's 'Warm Leatherette'. "(Ralf D Körper) - ^ A b Olaf Karnik: Liaisons Dangereuses. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 11/81, p. 26, November 1981.
- ↑ Dirk Scheuring: Munich Rock Days. Nothing except expenses. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 7/82, p. 12, July 1982.
- ↑ Dirk Scheuring: Munich Rock Days. Nothing except expenses. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 7/82, p. 11, July 1982.
- ↑ Michael Kemner: Is that 1982? In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/82, p. 7, January 1982.
- ↑ Simon Reynolds: Generation Ecstasy. Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0-415-92373-5 , p. 124.
- ↑ Claudia Haman: Interview with Executive Slacks. E. B. Magazin, issue 5/86, p. 13, October / November 1986.
- ↑ Shaun Hamilton: Interview with Bunnydrums, Grave Concerns E-Zine, online article. ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Antler - Wax Trax !. EBM '90. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 2/90, p. 26, February 1990.
- ^ Gail Priest: Experimental Music. UNSW, 2009, ISBN 978-1-921410-07-9 , p. 48.
- ^ Enrique Ruiz: Discriminate or Diversify. PositivePsyche.Biz Corp 2009, ISBN 978-0-578-01734-1 , p. 219.
- ↑ Sebastian Zabel: Skinny Puppy - Can around 50,000 anti-animal experiments be wrong? A brief portrait. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 6/88, p. 14, June 1988.
-
↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Antler - Wax Trax !. EBM '90. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 2/90, p. 26, February 1990
“Al, who was a very early guitarist, came up with the idea of playing all pieces live with guitar. The only one who was unhappy about this was Richard 23, who saw it as a step backwards and got out. But the rest of us were fed up with his concept talk anyway. We just wanted to have fun. "(Paul Barker) - ↑ Spex. Music at the moment: Die Krupps. The real collaboration. Heard on Labor Day, buy the day after. Issue 5/89, p. 61, May 1989.
- ↑ Ralf Niemczyk: The Krupps. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 7/89, p. 12, July 1982.
- ↑ E. B. Magazine: Ad of the KM music label for the 4-track EP Anger Your Neighbor by Wasted Doom. Edition 10/87, p. 7, July / August 1987.
- ↑ Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: The Gothic and Dark Wave Lexicon - Electronic Body Music. 2002, ISBN 3-89602-277-6 , p. 127.
-
^ BF Hoffmann: Just for the Record - The Weathermen. In: EB / metronome. Issue 28, July / August 1990, p. 45
“The Weathermen, as their previous works also showed, are less to be assigned to the EBM circle, but rather their tradition results from the US New Wave à la Devo, Talking Heads and Wall of Voodoo." -
↑ Bernd Baumgärtel: Interview with Click Click. In: New Life Soundmagazine. Issue 37, September 88, p. 5
“It's a hype from the record company. We chose the song because it is closest to this style of music. But we have never made Electronic Body Music and will not do that in the future either. "
(Adrian Smith regarding participation in the compilation This Is Electronic Body Music ) - ^ Jürgen Laarmann: Philadelphia Five. Theory remarkable. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 2/89, p. 13, February 1989.
-
↑ Wolfgang Schreck .: Review of the album 'A Tricky Business' by the band Attrition . In: EB / metronome. Issue 36, p. 45, February / March 1992
“'A Tricky Business' took two years of work. It is an album that stands out with its melodic EBM dance rhythm and soundtrack passages. " - ^ Frank Lähnemann: Review of The Neon Judgments album 'Horny as Hell'. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/88, p. 54, January 1988.
- ↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Fast + Transient - The Neon Judgment. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 11/89, p. 7, November 1989.
- ^ Wolfgang Lux: Music Library. Suddenly on splinters. In: book and library. Edition 2/97, Bock + Herchen, February 1997, ISSN 0340-0301 , p. 147.
- ^ Wolfgang Lux: Music Library. Suddenly on splinters. In: book and library. Edition 2/97, Bock + Herchen, February 1997, ISSN 0340-0301 , p. 149.
-
↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Antler - Wax Trax !. EBM '90. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 2/90, p. 26, February 1990
“Everyone involved with whom I spoke during my stay in Chicago, their eyes sparkle when they talk about the 1987 RevCocks tour. Since that tour, Jourgensen has not made any music without guitars. The result is the last new, relevant style of music without an official name, which we laboriously describe here as Body Metal or Electro Trash. " -
^ Axel von Cossart: Techno-lution. Sounds, synths, surroundings. Voco-Edition, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-926566-23-X .
“Disc jockeys and computer specialists, especially in Belgium and Germany, take up the electronic tradition of Kraftwerk and DAF more or less directly, tightening, accelerating and hardening it into fast-brutal electronic body music, the nervously slow Belgian New Beat, the technically radical Aggrepo and the mercilessly marching Teutonic Beat and in this form again influence black dance music. " -
^ Gesine Jost: Negro Spirituals. Attempt to didactically interweave two horizons of experience. Lit Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8258-7329-3 , p. 130.
“In Detroit, a harder variant of electronic underground music was developing at the same time. Under the influence of the European EBM and the industrial that emerged in England in the 1970s, a style developed here that corresponded to the lifestyle of the people in an industrial city abandoned to decay. " -
↑ Felix Denk, Sven von Thülen: The sound of the family. Berlin, techno and the turnaround. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-46320-8 , p. 211.
“Musically, underground resistance worked for both the Frankfurt idea of techno, which was shaped by EBM, and for the Berliners. That was shaped by both soul and industrial. Their sound was right in between and everyone could agree on it. "(Mark Ernestus) -
↑ In-D - Virgin In-D Sky’s
"In 1987, Belgian New Beat groups proved that New Beat is a fact and the sales figures in and out of Belgium are the best proof! Special thanks to Nux Nemo, A Split-Second, Front 242, The Neon Judgment, B-Art, Code 61, Public Relations, Acts of Madmen […] " - ^ A b Holger Klein: Zeitgeschichten: New Beat . In: Groove Musikmagazin, June 3, 2014.
- ^ Jan Willem Geerinck: New Beat History, Belgium , JahSonic
-
↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Antler - Wax Trax !. EBM '90. In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 2/90, p. 25, February 1990
“Since autumn 1989 at the latest, the 'New Beat over' signals have been unmistakable in our home country Belgium. Seldom has a music trend been so precisely narrowed down as New Beat, so briefly that it is really completely clear and can actually be conclusively assessed. " - ^ Frank Grotelüschen: New Beat. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 11/88, p. 45, November 1988.
- ↑ a b Various artists: Hard Beat - First Cut . Compilation, Antler-Subway 1989.
- ↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Annual Review: EBM. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/89, January 1989, p. 43.
-
↑ Ronald Hitzler, Michaela Pfadenhauer: Techno-Sociology. Exploring a youth culture - generational experience and collective mentality. Leske + Budrich, January 31, 2001, ISBN 3-8100-2663-8 , p. 147.
“In the formation phase of techno, around the mid to late 1980s, Hi-NRG, early house music still popular on the dance floor orbited and new beat sounds combine with tense industrial or electronic body music. After all, the respective core groups - encouraged by the acid movement and British rave culture - enter a synthesis in techno music around the turn of the decade. Here it was brought to a common denominator, which in the 1980s were still scattered signs of new body mobility. [...] 'Move! (You Lazy Pack) 'was the call of an early project by the Frankfurt scene pioneer and DJ Talla 2XLC, which was still brutally presented in early 1988 in the piece' Body to Body '. " -
^ Wilfried Ferchhoff: Youth at the turn of the 20th to the 21st century. Lifestyles and lifestyles - youth cultural styles and scenes before the turn of the millennium. 2nd Edition. Leske + Budrich Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-8100-2351-5 , p. 143
“Although the historical forerunners mentioned are only rarely perceived as such, techno is a synthesis of acid house, industrial and electronic body music: a synthetically produced and Sampled instrumental music, which is carried by its specific monotonous electronic basic rhythm, especially in the departure from the conventional song structure and the extensive renunciation of singing. " -
↑ Markus Tillmann: Popular Music and Pop Literature. On the intermediality of literary and musical production aesthetics in contemporary German-language literature. Transcript Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-1999-7 , p. 200
“Significantly, many techno DJs and producers name z. B. Musicians like Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, DAF, Der Plan and Pyrolator as an initial spark for their own musical activities. " - ↑ Damage: Juno Reactor .
- ↑ Rob Fitzpatrick: The Roots of ... Nine Inch Nails. NME - First For Music News, July 3, 2013.
- ^ Danny Scott: Trent Reznor - FM Pioneer. Future Music Magazine, June 25, 2005.
- ↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Interview with Carlos Perón. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 10/89, p. 14, October 1989.
- ↑ Ronald Hitzler, Thomas Bucher, Arne Niederbacher: Life in Scenes. Forms of young people's community today. 2nd Edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2005, ISBN 3-531-14512-6 , p. 71.
- ↑ Ronald Hitzler, Thomas Bucher, Arne Niederbacher: Life in Scenes. Forms of young people's community today. 2nd Edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2005, ISBN 3-531-14512-6 , p. 77.
-
↑ Bruno Kramm: Gothic! The scene in Germany from the point of view of its makers - content instead of labels! Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-89602-332-2 , p. 222
“There was the famous SPV sampler entitled 'This Is Electronic Body Music', which united the legendary school of Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and Front line assembly. This rather electronically fixed wing of the movement began to demarcate itself back then [...]. " - ↑ Ronald Hitzler, Thomas Bucher, Arne Niederbacher: Life in Scenes. Forms of young people's community today. 2nd Edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2005, ISBN 3-531-14512-6 , p. 80.
- ↑ Andrea Schilz: Flyer of the black scene in Germany: visualizations, structures, mentalities. Waxmann Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8309-2097-7 , p. 201.
-
↑ Ute Meisel: The Gothic scene - self and external presentation of the controversial youth culture. A youth and media sociological investigation. Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag, 2011, ISBN 3-82888-911-5 , p. 55.
"On the whole, you can see the EBM'ler as a separate scene [...]." -
↑ Ute Meisel: The Gothic scene - self and external presentation of the controversial youth culture. A youth and media sociological investigation. Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag, 2011, ISBN 3-82888-911-5 , p. 12
“The demarcations and sometimes even opposites can be seen on the one hand in the strongly male-dominated image, which is expressed by the high presence of male members. On the other hand, the differences appear in the unusual militaristic image of clothing in the EBM scene for the Gothic scene [...]. " - ↑ Kirsten Wallraff: The Gothics. White like snow, red like blood and black like ebony - overlap with other scenes. 2001, ISBN 3-933773-09-1 , p. 25. (The basis was a diploma thesis written by Wallraff in 1994)
- ↑ Wolfgang Schreck, Lydia Eslinger: Your lackeys. There is no peace in heaven. In: EB / metronome. Issue 31, June / July 1991, p. 47.
- ^ Ronny Gehring: Interview with Nitzer Ebb. In: depechemode.de, February 2, 2010.
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Jurtzik: Interview with Tommi Stumpff. E. B. Musikmagazin, Issue 1, p. 21, January / February 1986.
-
↑ Frank Jinx: Is lobotomy a criminal offense? - Interview with Tommi Stumpff. In: EB / metronome. Issue 28, p. 6, July / August 1990
“The KFC had seven different line-ups, and I was less and less interested in working with people. At the same time, electrical devices for producing music were getting better and better, you could really make music with them and so I switched, do everything myself [...]. With the band I always had the problem that people played wrong. It was just people and they make mistakes. That doesn't happen to me with the machines. " -
↑ Frank Jinx: Is lobotomy a criminal offense? - Interview with Tommi Stumpff. In: EB / metronome. Issue 28, p. 7, July / August 1990
“I [...] am always amazed at the people standing in front of the stage. My light show enables me to sometimes see people briefly because they are lit by the headlights. From skin to long-haired hippie, everything is included. " - ↑ Marion Sölke: Tommi Stumpff - A bathtub full of weapons'. In: E. B. Music magazine. Issue 5/86, p. 8, October / November 1986.
- ↑ a b Oliver Köble: Interview with Vomito Negro. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 24, p. 18, November / December 1990.
-
^ S. Alexander Reed: Assimilate. A Critical History of Industrial Music. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6 , p. 138
“The audience for Industrial music was a social blend. There were makeup-wearing punks […]. There were working-class skinheads and university eggheads. There were clubgoers - gay, straight, and everything between [...]. " - ↑ a b Spex. Music at the moment: Interview with the German-American friendship. Issue 4/80, p. 13, December 1980.
- ^ Body of Work. In: fm4.orf.at. ORF, July 6, 2006, accessed on December 1, 2017 .
-
↑ Andrea Schilz: Flyer of the black scene in Germany: visualizations, structures, mentalities. Waxmann Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8309-2097-7 , p. 24
"The clothes and haircut of the predominantly male followers were often based on a modern military aesthetic." -
^ Martin Pesch, Markus Weisbeck: History of Techno and House music. In: Techno Style. Music, graphics, fashion and party culture of the techno movement. Second edition. Edition Olms, Hombrechtikon / Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-283-00290-8 , p. 11.
“1986/87: New bands like Nitzer Ebb, The Klinik and Vomito Negro appear on the scene and gain a large audience of mainly young males . " - ↑ a b Peter Erik Hillenbach: rhythm box instead of power blocks - report on Nitzer Ebb . In: Spex. Music at the time. Edition 12/87, p. 10, December 1987.
-
↑ a b c d e Jörg 'Niggels' Uhlenbruch: Techno-Scene East. Zone Musikmagazin, Issue 12, p. 6, November 1991
“This particular scene, the independent scene, has meanwhile found many friends in the eastern federal states, and electronic body music and techno in particular have found and are still finding many new fans. [...] There is a good breeding ground for this music in the new federal states, because there were really many Depeche Mode fans there even before reunification. Finally, it is a well-known fact that Depeche Mode is the entry point into electronic music for many. [...] After the borders were opened, many had their first contact with Techno and EBM. The western media were now accessible, the censorship fell away, and many received cassettes or records from friends in the West. " - ^ History of the music hall. In: frankfurt-music-hall.de. Bernhard Kunz, Ralf Holl, accessed on September 26, 2018 .
- ^ Armin Johnert : Report on the Frankfurt Technoclub. In: Zillo. No. 2/90, 1990, p. 39.
- ↑ Ravi Varma: DJ DAG. Mato Music Frankfurt. Biography. (No longer available online.) In: spessart-rave.de. SPESSART RAVE 2011, August 19, 2011, archived from the original on May 26, 2016 ; accessed on September 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Technoclub Frankfurt: Armin Johnert. (No longer available online.) In: welovetechnoclub.com. Technoclub Frankfurt, 2015, archived from the original on March 7, 2016 ; accessed on September 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Sean Albiez, David Pattie: Power Plant. Music Non-Stop - Trans-Europa Express: Tracing the Trance Machine. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4411-9136-6 , p. 227.
- ↑ a b Peter Huber: Interview with Nitzer Ebb. In: EB / metronome. Issue 26, p. 20, March / April 1990.
- ↑ Peter Huber: Interview with Nitzer Ebb. In: EB / metronome. Issue 26, p. 21, March / April 1990.
-
↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Annual Review: EBM. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 1/89, January 1989, p. 43.
"In 1988 the EBM movement became downright popular in England, and some of the songs from the early days of the era were enjoyed, which made us smile in this country [...]" - ↑ Spex. Music at the moment: fast + transient. Issue 12/89, p. 5, December 1989.
- ^ Kristian Pettersson: Live - Cyber Club Opening Party. In: New Life Soundmagazine (Sweden). Issue 8, December 1990, p. 29.
- ↑ Sebastian Stebe: Editorial. In: New Life Soundmagazine (Sweden). Issue 8, December 1990, p. 3.
- ^ Lutz Schramm: The Playlists: Playlist from May 26th, 1987. Online access
- ↑ Jörg 'Niggels' Uhlenbruch: Techno-Szene Ost. Zone Musikmagazin, Issue 12, p. 7, November 1991.
- ↑ Eike Moldenhauer: A life for music ( svz.de [accessed on September 26, 2018]).
-
↑ a b c Jörg 'Niggels' Uhlenbruch: Techno-Scene East. Zone Musikmagazin, issue 12, p. 7, November 1991
“In the area around Dresden, the project Total.Body.Control, alias Arne Rein, Steffen Ottmann and Alexander Grunert, is increasingly trying to spread electronic body music. In the meantime, TBC got the superb offer to put on records every week in the noble shed 'Sachs'. [...] There are still difficulties getting the plates. Often a trip to Berlin is necessary to get records. […] In addition, there are sometimes a few concerts in Prague, which for the Saxons is no further than Berlin. The Prague Front 242 concert was overpopulated with East German fans. [...] In addition to Front 242, Nitzer Ebb in particular have many new fans in the new federal states. " -
↑ Jens Krause, Anne Wojciechowski: Rose Bowl '88. In: New Life Soundmagazine . Edition 5/94, Melsungen, Hessen, May 1994, p. 43.
“In 1989 the activities were then expanded. The fan club also opened up for lovers of the EBM music genre […], which has since been an important part of all parties. The Rose Bowl '88 also continued the tradition of giving unknown bands the chance to present themselves in front of an audience. " - ↑ Stefanie Erhardt: DAF - Extend your youth. In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 2, 2009.
- ↑ Norbert Stirken: DAF - Provocative Pioneers of Music. In: Rheinische Post , August 28, 2015.
- ↑ a b Alexander Nym: Iridescent Darkness: History, Development and Topics of the Gothic Scene. Plöttner Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86211-006-3 , p. 157.
-
↑ Thomas Seiß, Jörg Kaldenbach: Interview with And One. In: Zone music magazine. Issue 15, May 1992, p. 12
“We wanted to do the whole tour under the motto 'No Power on Drugs', because we fully support it, because we don't take drugs ourselves and because we want a contrast to the drug stories of the Tekkno- Wanted to create a house scene. " - ↑ Oliver Köble: Interview with And One. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 33, p. 19, May / June 1992.
- ↑ a b Falko Blask, Michael Fuchs-Gamböck: Techno. A generation in ecstasy. Bastei / Gustav-Lübbe-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-404-60416-4 , p. 87.
-
↑ Ingo Weidenkaff: Music has a language - fanzines. In: Klaus Farin, Ingo Weidenkaff: Youth cultures in Thuringia. Verlag Thomas Tilsner, Bad Tölz 1999, ISBN 3-933773-25-3 , p. 80
“In almost all youth cultures, fan magazines fulfill the function of conveying opinions, views and reviews within the scene. They are the authentic voices of the scenes and cultures from which they originate, open-hearted, funny, often ironic and always very subjective, they document the trends, joys and needs of the scenes more precisely than any outside observer could. They almost always live and perish with their makers, which means that most of the fanzines on the market are usually only granted a short life on earth. " - ↑ a b Various artists: Trans Europa: A Swiss-Swedish Techno Compilation. CD booklet, p. 8, May 1989.
-
↑ Felix Denk, Sven von Thülen: The sound of the family. Berlin, techno and the turnaround. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-46320-8 , p. 184
“In Berlin in 1990 I was very much aware of the new sound, this fusion of techno and house. [...] I've written more and more about it. The EBM-oriented Frankfurters weren't happy about it, especially those from the Technoclub, who paid for the magazine. "(Jürgen Laarmann) - ↑ Lothar Gorris: Fresh. All About Acid House. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 11/88, p. 63, November 1988.
- ↑ Interview with Robert Görl. In: Zillo. Edition 10/96, 1996, p. 43.
- ↑ Interview with Robert Görl. In: Zillo. Edition 12/98, 1998, p. 41.
- ↑ Tina Peal: Tommi Stumpff - Campari for the Andalusian dog. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 3/87, p. 9, March 1987.
- ↑ Dirk Schneidinger: Tommi Stumpff - The apocalyptic fulminance. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 10/88, p. 10, October 1988.
- ↑ Lug & Trug Tiem: Tommi Stumpff - Autoquartett in D minor op. 7. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 3/85, p. 11, March 1985.
- ↑ Interview with Jürgen Engler. In: Zillo. 10/94, 1994, p. 12.
- ↑ Evelyn Sopka: Interview with à; GRUMH…. In: EB / metronome. Issue 16, p. 26, July / August 1988.
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↑ NLHQ: Editorial. New Life Soundmagazine, issue 4/95, April 1995, p. 3
“From my own experience with my 17-year-old son , I can safely say that the fascist noise of right-wing radical groups such as War Ready and Front 242 is by no means a harmless form of popular music . In the intoxication of the rhythm, our junior not only once processed the expensive rattan wicker furniture into crib straw. That should be multi-cultural? Outraged: Cohn-Bendit, Alliance 90 / Greens. " - ↑ NLHQ: Holy Gang. Freedom for energy. New Life Soundmagazine, issue 11/94, November 1994, p. 22.
- ↑ Interview between Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) and Jürgen Engler (Die Krupps). In: Zillo. 4/95, 1995, p. 32.
- ↑ Jürgen Laarmann: Antler - Wax Trax !. EBM '90. In: Spex. Music at the time. Issue 2/90, p. 25, February 1990.
