Stendal Blast
| Stendal Blast | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) |
New German hardness electronic music |
| founding | 1989 |
| resolution | 2013 |
| Website | http://www.stendalblast.de |
| Founding members | |
Singing, music, lyrics |
Kaaja Hoyda |
Singing, music, lyrics |
Hajo Mönnighoff |
Singing, music, lyrics |
Marc Degens |
Singing, music, lyrics |
Torsten Franz |
| Last occupation | |
Singing, music, lyrics |
Kaaja Hoyda |
| Markus Anton Müller | |
| Bernhard Lottes | |
Stendal Blast is a German band founded in 1989 around the singer Kaaja Hoyda .
history
Stendal Blast was formed in a disused silo in the Westphalian town of Dorsten , in which the then nameless band, modeled on various avant-garde and industrial bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten , Krupps or Throbbing Gristle , started their first musical attempts. She did not pursue any particular concept. Her songs were never repeated at first, as improvisation was in the foreground. It was only with the piece Mehr als Liebe ist Hass (1992), penned by the later singer Kaaja Hoyda, that the band began to compose reproducible songs. On the first demo tape Müll (1993) with Die Crisis , Kalter Kebap and He never comes back there are pieces that the band performed on a short tour with the formation Calva Y Nada . The demo also reached the Munich label Gymnastic Records (later Chrom Records), with which the band signed their first record deal in 1994.
In the course of recording the album Was withered , the members gave themselves the name “Stendal Blast”, inspired by a poem by the poet Paul Anton Bangen. The album was released in 1995 and is clearly electronically oriented. It also shows influences from the EBM , such as on the song "White Walls", and has a sonic similarity to the works of The Eternal Afflict . Hoyda's texts dissect human relationships and denounce the deterioration of values and social coldness. However, he rarely develops a specific counter-model.
The second work, Alles Liebe , was released on Chrom Records in 1998 and was produced by the band in a small home studio. The artistic freedom should be as great as possible. Therefore, the label refrained from making a producer a condition. With lots of love and the release of oil , the band turned to the New German Hardship . The song Öl in particular is one of the key tracks for the band's new musical direction.
With Morgenrot (2000, Chrom Records), Stendal Blast achieved a critically acclaimed album, which, however, was spurned by the audience. The record became the band's commercial rock bottom. Hoyda's lyrics are less cryptic, the arrangements are much quieter than before; the sound is electronic, less rocky. Nevertheless, the album entered the German Alternative Charts for four weeks .
With the work Fette Beute (2002, Moonstorm Records) the band followed on from the success of Alles Liebe . Guitars are used throughout, the sound is heavier and more experimental. The title song Fette Beute paved its way into the alternative clubs and brought Stendal Blast back into conversation. Also because the band was able to win Alexander Veljanov , the singer of the band Deine Lakaien , as a duet partner for the track Nur ein Tag . Kaaja Hoyda , however, described the title Adieu in several interviews as one of the key pieces to the entire oeuvre to date. It's about death and human dependence on chance.
The fifth long player dirty hands was released in 2004 on the label Dark Dimensions. With the title Fährmann , the band achieved a veritable hit. The track Die totale Disko led the band back into the environment of the New German Hardness and thus back to their roots. There are two bonus tracks that were recorded together with the Blutengel formation . In various interviews, Hoyda named the play My private Puff as the most important title , in which he processes the time in his apartment on Hamburg's Steindamm , a notorious drug line. The first 1,000 copies of the album were accompanied by an audio book on which Kaaja Hoyda reads nine of the columns he had written for the music magazine Bodystyler . Because of this audio book, he was invited to several readings. Since November 2009 Hoyda has been writing his column "Beulenpest und Wankelmut" for the revived "Bodystyler".
On October 4th, 2013 the band played their farewell concert in the Moritzbastei in Leipzig .
reputation
Many music journalists count Stendal Blast among the most innovative and important German acts in their field, although this importance has not yet been reflected in a chart placement.
In 2005 the band was invited by the German Consulate General in San Francisco, Radio Goethe with the support of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on a concert tour to the USA, where they represented the German language.
Discography
- 1995: Was Verdorrt (CD)
- 1998: Oil (MCD)
- 1998: Alles Liebe (CD)
- 2000: where is this going? (MCD)
- 2000: Morgenrot (CD)
- 2002: Just One Day (MCD, with Alexander Veljanov )
- 2002: Fat Booty (CD)
- 2004: My Babylon (MCD, with Blutengel )
- 2004: Dirty Hands (CD)
- 2015: we surrender! The best for last (CD)