Various Artists — Science Fiction Park Bundesrepublik
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!