Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Various Artists - Science Fiction Park Bundesrepublik [Finders Keepers Records - 2014]

From late 2014 here’s a rather splendid & wholly consistent compilation of quirky, odd, charming, and strange home studio work from Germany’s 1980 underground tape scene. The CD brings together twenty five tracks, and just shy of seventy two mintues playing time- all making one of the most fascinating & rewarding compilation I can think of in recent years.

The compilation is complied by respected German electronic musician Felix Kubin- whose worked with contemporary/ avant grade classic legends such as Karlheinz Stockhausen & György Ligeti, as well influential German electronic acts like Kraftwerk & DAF.  The release comes with a highly informative 32 page inlay booklet, and this takes in a lengthy piece by Kubin about the time & this compilation (in both English & German). As well as a page on each artists featured.

All the tracks featured here are from obscure projects &  mostly rare, yet each is quirky, inventive & often memorable in it’s own right. Its clear Kubin has spent a long time compiling & sequencing the whole thing, so it mangers to be both varied & entertaining through-out ,which is a tall order in it’s self!.

A few of my highlights come in the form of the following: Neros Tanzende Elektropäpste’s Der Singende Lenorhaushalt which features a  bobbing lo-fi ‘n’ slurred reggae synth ‘n’ beat mix ,which is pitted with all manner of random  sonic flotsam & jetsam  such  distant chainsaw, gurgling, sudden runs of winding down nursery rhyme melody,  waltzing organ effect, and  the sound of running down alarm clock.  The jaunting & tiny wonderfulness of Das Glück’s Die Bombe, which mixes taut pip-pop electronic drums with strutting guitar riff, and wonky yet memorable layered Germanic vocals.  The cold yet bouncing sci-fi/ synth  march of CHBB’s Ima Iki-Mashoo which finds thick  yet off-kilter  keyboards swamped with murky elector noise stretchers & thinned mumbled vocals. The sinister  & playfully stoned jarring-ness of Wat?Sanitär’s  Except Me And My Monkey, which brings together if-you-go-down-to –the-woods synth bass line, kitchen sink percussion, hammered prepared piano elements, quirky female vocals, and a end that wonders off in just stumbling piano melancholically. The churning yet slightly haphazard of Lustige Mutanten’s Missgeburten, which brings together a thick groove of slurred funk guitar, melted keyboard stabs, dramatic & bold  male Germanic vocals- all to a summon-up a  weird brew of  up-beat  1980’s Residents material, Pere  Ubu, and angry yet theatrical German.

Really this is a must have item to anyone who enjoys 1980’s music that is experimental, creative yet memorable. Let’s hope there is a second volume in the pipe-line, as this compilation really is pure gold- Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Various Artists - Science Fiction...
From late 2014 here’s a rather splendid & wholly consistent compilation of quirky, odd, charming, and strange home studio work from Germany’s 1980 un...
150925   Creepshow 2 - Creepshow 2(VOD)
150925   múm - History of Silence
150925   Various Artists - Disk Musik:...
150925   The Sea of Wires - Self Titled
120925   Through And Through. - Throug...
120925   Ride A Wild Stud - Ride A Wi...
120925   Osvaldo Coluccino - Rispecch...
120925   Didier Rotella - Zone Grise
110925   Tim Lucas - Succubus(Book)
110925   Perpetrator - Perpetrator( Bl...
Latest Articles

Third Window Films - A Label For ...
Formed in 2005, London-based Third Window Films has been one of the key film labels releasing Asian cinema in the West. Their catalogue touches down in a lot...
030925   Third Window Films - A Label ...
130825   HNW fest- Barcelona- 12th Apr...
250725   Raté interview - Walled-in F...
180625   Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sha...
280525   The Residents - Visits From T...
090525   Ennaytch - Of walls, abused ...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
110325   Sebastian Tomb - Walls of unb...
040225   Alien Sex Fiend - Possessed B...
231224   Best Of 2024 - Music, Sound &...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom