<b>INTERRUPTIONS #5. Deutsche Kassettentäter. The rise of the German home-recording tape scene #2. <br><br>Curated by Felix Kubin</b><br><br>Featuring interviews with Alfred Hilsberg and Frank Apunkt Schneider<br><br>Link: <a href="http://bit.ly/oRtfAZ" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/oRtfAZ</a> <br>
<br><b>Summary:</b><br><br>With the foundation of his label
ZickZack in 1979, <b>Alfred Hilsberg</b> rapidly became a key figure in the
booming German independent music scene, and even came to be known as the
'Punkpapst' (punk pope). ZickZack released records by groundbreaking
bands such as Die Toedliche Doris, Einstürzende Neubauten and Palais
Schaumburg who would become 'triggers' for the new movement – just
before it was commercialised by the mainstream industry. In his first
English radio interview ever, Hilsberg talks about the dawn of the Neue
Deutsche Welle (German New Wave), a term that he had introduced to
readers of the influential music magazine 'Sounds'. His column 'Neuestes
Deutschland' was met by such an enthusiastic response that he was
eventually 'attacked by 20, 30, 40 cassettes per day coming in from all
areas of Germany'.<br><br>Hilsberg and his younger colleague <b>Frank Apunkt Schneider</b> often use the
term energy when they try to describe the anger, angst and dynamism of
the Kassettentäter scene. Schneider, pop theorist and member of the
Vienna-based artist group monochrom, regularly contributes essays and
articles to the magazines testcard, Zonic and Skug. In his book Als die
Welt noch unterging* (When the World Was Still on the Verge of
Downfall), an encyclopaedic topology of the German New Wave underground,
he sums up the radicality of that music in a nutshell with the phrase
'Die ungerichtete Aggression der befreiten Geräusche' (the undirected
aggression of the freed noises). Never before had there been such a high
level of experimentation and playfulness in German pop music.<br><br>Both Hilsberg and Schneider consider 1980 to
mark the start of a new era in which 'the old order was not valid
anymore and a new one hadn't yet been found' (Schneider). In this
cultural vacuum, under the looming threat of a possible nuclear war and
squeezed between opposing ideologies, everything became possible. Arts,
music, literature, film and humour had to adapt to the monstrosity of
the political momentum.<br><br>The words of Hilsberg and Schneider are
illuminated by fragments of a historic 1983 recording: sitting in their
kitchen, the notorious Kassettentäter<b> Armin Hofmann, Klaus Schmidbauer
and Handke Hesselbach</b> discuss the current state of the underground tape
scene. Their final conclusion is clear and simple: a new movement is
necessary.<br><br><br>Deutsche Kassettentäter. The rise of the German home-recording tape scene #2: <a href="http://bit.ly/oRtfAZ" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/oRtfAZ</a> <br>Related info: <a href="http://bit.ly/pQUAET" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/pQUAET</a> <br>
MP3: <a href="http://bit.ly/rkVaAy%20" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/rkVaAy </a><br><br><br>Deutsche Kassettentäter. The rise of the German home-recording tape scene #1: <a href="http://bit.ly/n3aN7s" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/n3aN7s</a> <br>
Felix Kubin @ Ràdio Web MACBA: <a href="http://bit.ly/e0iR0F" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/e0iR0F</a> <br><br>
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