Mute Records

Laibach Reveal MUSICK and European Tour Dates

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Slovenian collective Laibach has released their latest studio album, titled MUSICK, via Mute Records. The release marks the group’s first full-length, song-based studio album since 2014’s Spectre.

The album features a diverse range of contributors, including long-time associate Donna Marina Mårtensson, Balkan vocalist Senidah, Ghanaian artist Wiyaala, and British electropop producer Richard X. MUSICK is currently available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

New Music Video and Production Details

In tandem with the album launch, Laibach has released a music video for the track “Fluid Emancipation,” which was co-produced by Richard X. The visual accompaniment features scenes extracted from the Slovenian-Macedonian film Fantasy, directed by Kukla.

Upcoming European Tour and Art Exhibition

Laibach will commence the European leg of their promotional tour in support of the new album in mid-May. The schedule begins with a public dress rehearsal in Trbovlje, Slovenia, on May 14, 2026, before moving to various European cities.

Additionally, the group’s visual arts wing, Laibach Kunst, has announced an upcoming exhibition titled AUSSTELLUNG! LAIBACH KUNST: K.I.E.F.E.R.—Kontrolle, Integration, Erhaltung, Form, Evolution, and Reproduktion. The large-scale exhibition is scheduled to run from June 26 to September 4, 2026, at the historic Magazin Grando salt warehouse in Portorož, Slovenia, featuring notable works such as Unternehmen Barbarossa and Assimilator.

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Mark Stewart’s Rage and the Dying of the Light

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Mark Stewart never said “Goodbye.” The news came out one day that he had taken his leave quietly, without notice and without explanation. He had simply put on his jean jacket and slipped away from the party.

It was the opposite of the way that the big man had communicated on record and stage. As the front man for Bristol’s The Pop Group, Stewart had played rage as an instrument. As a solo artist, there was a unique intensity to his material, fuelled by magical conspiracy theories and genuine empathy for the downtrodden.

It was good to hear, therefore, that Stewart had left a complete album in the can. Now available on Mute, The Fateful Symmetry arrives with a deliberate sense of closure. The record consolidates Stewart’s wide-ranging influences—post-punk, dub, and experimental electronics—into a reflective and often restrained body of work. It’s less a departure from his past than a reconfiguration of it; showing Stewart still engaged with the concerns and sounds that shaped his career.

Opener “Memory Of You” sets the tone: a relatively melodic track with a subdued electronic backdrop and Stewart’s vocal delivery more contemplative than confrontational. There’s a notable emphasis on clarity and structure throughout the album, with arrangements often pared down, allowing lyrics and mood to carry the weight. While Stewart’s earlier solo work often reveled in density and dissonance, The Fateful Symmetry leans into atmosphere and pacing.

Adrian Sherwood’s mix of The Korgis’ track, “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime,” transforms the familiar into something looser and more ambiguous than its pop origins would suggest.

Tracks like “Crypto Religion” and “Blank Town” suggest a lingering distrust of digital culture and urban decay – familiar thematic ground for Stewart. Yet, even here, the delivery feels less urgent than observational. The edges are still present, but softened. It’s an album that gestures more than it declares.

The delicate poetry of the album closer, “A Long Road” recalls the sensitivity of “Stranger than Love;” but, perhaps, is even more beautiful in its delivery. Stewart’s voice is raspy and harsh, as usual, but invested with a personal quality that is also gentle and endearing. It’s a genuine and cinematic tear-jerker, in light of events.

“We are the children of the void,” he sings on “Blank Town.” And we all commit to it, in the end.

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He Takes Pictures: Brian Griffin Announces Depeche Mode Book

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Brian Griffin, the world-famous photographer, has announced a crowdfunding campaign for his new book, MODE. Gathering his pictures from the band’s first five albums and promotional materials — including some versions that have never been published before — MODE promises to be the definitive collection of the band’s early images.

Appearing together with his collaborator, Vaughn George, Griffin recently announced the book and Kickstarter on Youtube. Fans, who have been waiting for decades for Griffin to focus on the boys from Basildon, were invited to commit to buy a signed copy of the book, which will include a list of supporters. Other options include premium prints of Griffin’s images and a boxed edition with a gelatin print.

Griffin’s cover shot for A Broken Frame appeared on the front cover of Life magazine’s special issue, The World’s Best Photographs, 1980-1990. One of the most iconic images associated with Depeche Mode, it was shot in a grain field in rural England during a break from a storm. It could be put down to luck, had Griffin not gone on to shoot the magic, mountainous cover of Construction Time Again with just as much artistry.

Griffin’s last album cover for Depeche Mode was Black Celebration. He went on to have a career in video, and the promotional video for “Only When I Lost Myself” was one of the most unique for the band.

The cut-off for the Kickstarter is 16 June 2023.

We asked Griffin a few questions, on the back of the announcement:

What is your favourite Depeche Mode song?

Only When I Lose Myself.

What inspires you about Depeche Mode?

Freedom.

What is your favourite moment in the book?

The story about the making of “Only When I Lose Myself.”

 

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London Date for Lonelyklown

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Dave Baker is preparing to take his Lonelyklown project live in London. The I Start Counting/Fortran 5/Komputer front man has been lined up to play the Black Heart in Camden on Saturday, the 24th of September. Also on the bill are Mechanical Cabaret and DeadAudioSaints.

Baker recently released the debut Lonelyklown album, Funny Sunday Morning. One of the first-wave of Mute artists, Baker knows his way around eclectic electronics and infectious melodies, which he has wrapped in a 1970s finish. We caught up with him with a few questions about this new work.

What is the inspiration for the Lonelyklown project?

Lockdowns, long walks, nature, swans, pigeons, cats, skies, dusk, in-between times, relaxation, vintage analogue synths, the 1970s. Everything in the lyrics to “My Favourite Letter is You.”

You have mostly worked solo on these songs. Is it very different after all the years with your musical partner, Simon Leonard?

In some ways it is harder, as I have to be my own quality control. But also it is easier, as there are no expectations or blueprints.

Every project we have worked on was different, and we worked in different ways, so it just followed on from that.

“Everything I Try to do is Wrong” was put forward as a Komputer song, initially, but rejected by Simon. He said that I could have it.

In terms of instrumentation, what equipment did you use to make this album?

Composed in my head, then on piano, then mostly old school gear: Korg MS20, Yamaha CS30, Roland 100m, Roland VP 330, Roland SH101, Korg Poly 800, EMU E5000 sampler, Doepfer Dark Energy, Microkorg, Yamaha P60 Digital Piano, Gibson Epiphone guitar, Ableton Live.

What has been the reaction to the new material?

“Follow THIS ARTIST! A modern day Burt Bacharach!”

“We’re still bathing in the awesome sounds of the Lonelyklown album, Funny Sunny Evening. Beautiful sounds with a voice like a bar of Galaxy Chocolate!”

“A one-man Mike Oldfield!”

What should the audience expect at your live show?

A nervous clown.

Ticket information: https://camden-live.com/gig-listing/the-black-heart/mechanical-cabaret-2022-09-24-2000

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Shine On: Robert Görl

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Compared to the privileged founders of Kraftwerk, who were able to launch their project with family money, Robert Görl had it tough.

Raised in an orphanage in Munich, he was attracted to punk and became one of the outsiders hanging around Düsseldorf’s Ratinger Hof. There, he connected with fellow spirit, Gabi Delgado, and the duo became the core of Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, one of the leading Neue Deutsche Welle acts. A formally trained jazz drummer, Görl brought a sense of rhythm and structure to the band, which was to spin off acts like Pyrolator and Liaisons Dangereuses.

The first album by DAF, Ein Produkt der Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, was an experimental, improvised collection of instrumental tracks. It led to a trip to London, which saw the group of German punks sleeping on the floor of Daniel Miller‘s mother’s middle class house in Temple Fortune, London. The next step was an album, Die Kleinen und die Bosen, which was the first full-length release for Miller’s Mute Records label. Given the catalogue number, STUMM1 (‘stumm’ being the German word for ‘mute’), it featured a live side recorded in London and a studio side produced by Conny Plank.

Plank’s son tells the story that Görl, Delgado and Miller went to Conny’s Studio in Germany to finalise the material. Miller had booked three days of studio time. On the first day, Plank cooked and chatted with Görl and Delgado. On the second day, the same thing happened. Miller was watching his budget being eaten up – literally. On the third day, as Miller’s anxiety was peaking, the Germans went into the studio and did the entire session in one go. This was the beginning of a key relationship between Plank and DAF. DAF

It also led to the reorganisation of DAF as the duo of Görl and Delgado. After Die Kleinen…, they clinched a contract with Virgin Records and forged a new, minimal sound. The rest of the band were out, and Miller was told only after the deal was done. It was a messy affair, but it led to a series of albums that set new templates for European electronic music. With only a sequencer, basic synths, a drum kit, and Delgado’s voice, DAF crafted a distinctive sound with songs that cut open the belly of punk. Görl’s drums and electronics steered a path between icy anthems and intimate tracks, avoiding the traps of both 4/4 dance music and pub rock, while Delgado purred and shouted slogans and sensual promises with equal intensity.

The new arrangement was successful, but it didn’t last. It couldn’t have lasted. After three albums in two years, all produced in Conny’s Studio, DAF pulled the plug. The passion that kept the music interesting also led to collisions that blew the partnership apart. They regrouped in 1986 for a dance-oriented album, 1st Step to Heaven, but the tensions kept resurfacing. Over the years, the fans pulled DAF back into the studio and onto the stage, but keeping the band together was a recurring challenge. In the gaps between DAF projects, Görl continued to produce exceptional music.

In 1983, after the first DAF split, Görl returned to Mute Records with the single, “Mit Dir.” That led to a further single and album produced by Mike Hedges, including a collaboration with Annie Lennox of Eurythmics. Görl had provided drums for the Eurythmics’ 1981 single, “Belinda,” which appeared on the Plank-produced album, In the Garden, and kept close to Lennox. Although critically well received, Night Full of Tension failed to ignite Görl’s solo career in the UK.

After the second DAF split, in 1987, Görl went off to study acting in New York; quickly finding himself expelled for having the wrong visa. On return to West Germany, he was picked up by the army, which wanted to know why he hadn’t completed his national service. Faced with the choice of joining the Bundeswehr or making music, Görl split for Paris, where he recorded demos in a suburban flat. He took them to London, where Daniel Miller recommended that he connect with the Canadian prog musician, Dee Long, who had set up as a Fairlight operator at George Martin’s AIR Studios.

Long had previously worked with Rational Youth on the Heredity album and with Images in Vogue, so had some experience working with the current technology. Before they could properly record the material that Görl had developed in Paris, however, he was involved in a horrific car accident. The drummer began 1989 with broken bones and soft tissue injuries that prevented further work and would impact him for the rest of his career.

The result was a hiatus from music that lasted until 1992. In that time, Görl became a monk at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand; a role he traded in for techno production after returning to a reunited Germany and experiencing Berlin’s Love Parade. His love for Buddhist spirituality remained, but so did his drive to make music as DAF. In 2003, he and Delgado released Fünfzehn neue D.A.F.-Lieder, updating the DAF sound while demonstrating their continuing relevance. More splits followed, but a way forward was always found.

In 2021, following the death of Delgado, Görl released the final DAF album, Nur noch einer, drawn from archive material and ideas the duo had been working on together. It was a kind of closure, but not the end of the journey: Görl has recently continued to perform as DAF, and there are other sketches in the vaults that could still be worked on. DAF lives…

10. DAF – Kebabträume

The first DAF single on Mute, “Kebabträume” is an electro-punk treatment of the controversy about Turkish immigration to West Germany. It deals with the division of Berlin and cold war spycraft, reflecting the anxieties of the times. It was re-recorded by the Görl-Delgado version of DAF for their third Virgin album, Für Immer, with cleaner production and a more minimal style, but the original 7″ in the Simone Grant sleeve remains the definitive version.

9. Robert Rental – Double Heart

Görl’s skills as a drummer have been called upon a number of times for other acts. Rental had worked with Daniel Miller on a tour of the UK and France, which had been documented on a one-sided album for Rough Trade. It was natural, therefore, that he would release his second single on Mute. It was recorded at Blackwing Studios, where Miller was working on his Silicon Teens material, with Thomas Leer and Görl assisting.

8. DAF – Ich und die Wirklichkeit

The version of DAF that went to Virgin was one that Mute would have loved to have bid for. DAF’s first album for Richard Branson’s label, Alles ist Gut, was to become a classic and a crossover hit in Germany. With the instrumentation reduced to drums and sequenced synths, the duo was able to reinvent electronic music entirely. The live version of this track offers a view of the band’s strong punk sensibilities; rejecting both the hippy ambience of Tangerine Dream and the angular pop of the Anglo-American New Wave.

7. DAF – The Gun

The return of DAF in 1987 was at the height of Stock Aitken Waterman’s powers. Hi-NRG was all over the dancefloor, and the band was well positioned to take a run at commercial success. They brought with them an early track – “Absolute Body Control” – and wrote new material, including this funky 12″ single. Some saw this as a sell-out, but DAF’s club campaign yielded a string of excellent singles and an album that added polish to their sound.

6. Robert Görl – Dominatrix Supreme

Görl’s return to Germany led to a period of techno production that is sometimes overlooked in his work, but the material is of very high quality. DAF’s sound was one of the major influences on the development of dance music, and it is only natural that Görl would have turned his hand to the music of the clubs.

5. Client with Robert Görl – Der Mussolini

In 2006, Görl performed live with Client, the band fronted by Sarah Blackwood and championed by Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode. At the end of their set, they had a go at this classic dancefloor number by DAF. In 2007, Görl’s remix of the band’s Adam Ant-written song, “Zerox Machine,” was released.

4. Robert Görl – Part 1 (Vince Clarke Remix)

The accident that prevented Görl from taking forward his second solo album with Dee Long was very serious. He spent six months in hospital, was implanted with steel pins, and had to learn to walk again. Completely defeated by chance, he took himself away to a monastery and gave up music entirely. The discovery of a cassette with his demos led to the release of an album by Grönland Records in 2018. Vince Clarke provided a remix of this track; hinting at the way the material could have taken shape if Görl had worked on it in London as planned.

3. FLA – Eye on You

Canada’s Front Line Assembly called on Görl to contribute to this track from 2019. As Bill Leeb told The Electricity Club: “We met at M’era Luna and another festival. We all hung out backstage, and I kind of hunted him down. One time, [DAF] played right after us and we were hanging out backstage, waiting to change, and I just started talking to him. I was such a huge fan, and the first couple of DAF albums were groundbreaking – kind of like the whole Mute and DEPECHE MODE world. We just started chatting in German, and he’s a super nice guy, and next thing you know we were doing the track.”

2. DAF – Ich denk an dich

Released in the wake of Delgado’s untimely and unexpected death, “Ich denk an dich” [EN: “I Think of You”] is Görl’s tribute to his musical partner. Their relationship was sometimes difficult, but it was also productive. Some of Görl’s most significant material is inseparable from Delgado’s contributions. With the last DAF album, he had an opportunity to express this using archival recordings and the sketches made with Delgado.

1. Robert Görl – Mit Dir

Released in the spring of 1983, “Mit Dir” finds Görl singing a love song over a minimal, icy-cold set of synth sounds. One of the most beautiful songs released on Mute, it is a masterpiece that shows off Görl’s expressive range and control of minimalist instrumentation.

 

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I Start Counting Open Archives

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I Start Counting should have been the next Depeche Mode. Recording for the same label (Mute), working with the same producer (Daniel Miller), and writing songs filled with melody and pathos (see: “Letters to a Friend“), they ought to have nestled easily into the slipstream of the Basildon boys. Instead, their brand of detuned synths and pained observations took a less commercial turn; and, like Fad Gadget before them, the band became more influential than successful. The fickleness of the music industry meant that they were more likely to have their sounds plundered than played on radio. It is a pity, because many of the tracks they recorded were stronger than the charts could bear.

Simon Leonard and Dave Baker met at Middlesex University (which, in 2014, awarded an honorary doctorate to Daniel Miller, but that is another story). They began DJing together before recording some demos, which Leonard presented to Miller, a fellow North Londoner and acquaintance from the underground electronic music scene. That led to two singles produced by Miller using his Synclavier, “Letters to a Friend” and “Still Smiling.”

An album followed with one of Mute’s in-house producers, Paul Kendall, that demonstrated the duo’s ability to cannily combine experimental, humorous and pop-oriented material. My Translucent Hands was followed two years later by a second album, Fused (with the amazing “Lose Him”), before the project folded. Leonard and Baker then relaunched as Fortran 5, joining the wave of club material issuing from the house movement, before becoming Komputer, an act drawing heavily on the sounds popularised by Kraftwerk. Throughout, they have maintained their slightly quirky but knowing approach to music.

This past summer, Mute released two limited edition cassettes of material from the I Start Counting archives. Ejected (the blue one) featured a selection of demos, including the original versions of “Million Headed Monster” and their cover of “Rawhide.” Re-fused (the red one) continued the theme with versions of “Lose Him” and the excellent “Million Headed Monster.” The hand-made releases were a treat for collectors, but now they are being made into commodities for distribution through record shops and digital platforms. If there is any justice in the world, that is where I Start Counting belong.

Ejected and Re-fused are released by Mute on 25 March 2022, and pre-orders are open now.

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Wire – Live at Bloomsbury Theatre (1985)

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

A live Wire performance is always an exciting prospect. In this video, taken in London in 1985, the band is in one of its transitional phases; recreating itself on stage like a snake shedding its skin.

At this time, Wire were part of Mute Records, and their recordings were made with the help of the same producers who worked with acts like Depeche Mode. On stage, however, they were free to make their own sound, and they subverted pop conventions at every turn.

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Play It All Back: Mark Stewart on Reissue

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Mark Stewart, The Pop Group vocalist and bard of conspiracy theories, is having one of his best solo LPs reissued with added materials from the archives.

Learning to Cope with Cowardice, his first solo album, was a landmark for post-funk, post-punk, post-industrial music. Recorded with The Maffia – musicians on loan from label-mates Dub Syndicate and New Age Steppers – it featured On-U Sound’s Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk with all of the pots turned to the the right and all of the sliders pushed forwards.

The thunder clap of beats on …Cowardice sounded like Thor enraged, while Stewart’s cries and growls subverted dub conventions. On the title track, he worked up a lather of anger and anguish sufficient to shame the most apolitical clubber into active resistance.

In the event, the politics of the album were potentially a muddle. “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” took its title from a book by Gary Allen, a spokesman for the far-right John Birch Society and promoter of the concept of a conspiratorial “New World Order.” Wes Brooks’ roots classic, “Don’t Ever Give Up (Lay Down Your Arms)” was covered as “Don’t Ever Lay Down Your Arms.” The album ended with “Jerusalem,” the alternative English national anthem written by the radical socialist William Blake, in one of Stewart’s accidental moments of epic beauty.

Mute Artists have repackaged …Cowardice with The Lost Tapes, a collection of out-takes from Stewart’s sessions with Sherwood. Stuffed with stickers and posters, the collection comes as a two-LP set on clear vinyl. Spun at 33 1/3 rpm, The Lost Tapes reveals a set of experimental versions of some of the tracks that ended up on …Cowardice, along with edits that didn’t make the final cut-up. They deserve to be beamed to other planets as proof that we once knew how to groove.

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Take It to The Bridge: Leer and Rental

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Thomas Leer and Robert Rental accidentally made one of the most compelling and influential albums of the 1970s. While disco and punk faded around them, they locked themselves in an apartment in Battersea with some rudimentary equipment supplied by Throbbing Gristle and gave birth to The Bridge.

Some of the gear they used had been sourced from Pink Floyd’s Britannia Row studio, but their environment was a million miles from the insulated sound rooms in Islington where it was normally employed. As they noted on the album cover, “All blips clicks & unseemly noises were generated by refrigerators & other domestic appliances & are intrinsic to the music.”

The two week recording period in the summer of 1979 when The Bridge was made was an intensely creative period for the two Scottish artists. Former hippies whose paths had led them to London, Leer and Rental (real name, Robert Donnachie) produced an album that sounded like the future. Side 1 contained five songs that followed conventional structures, while the flip led to a set of ambient tracks that were inspired by Brian Eno and still sound magical today.

The history of The Bridge and the paths of both artists were displayed at the recent exhibition, From The Port To The Bridge, in Greenock. Organised by Simon Dell (right), it captured an enormous amount of detail that had been obscured by Rental’s retirement from public music activity. With care and precision, it laid out the creative flare that burned when Leer and Rental came together, as well as Rental’s notorious live collaboration with Daniel Miller of Mute Records.

Leer’s own career, which entered the mainstream and included releases on Trevor Horn’s ZTT label, was shown with artifacts sourced from his own collection. Dell managed to excavate memories and equipment for the show that brought the careers of both musicians to life in a surprisingly detailed and compelling way.

The story of Leer and Rental begins with hippy idealism. As Dell sets out in an essay accompanying the exhibition, the two met while working as gardeners in Port Glasgow and were connected by a joint appreciation for psychedelic music. They took a lot of drugs and found electronic music through an album by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, recording as Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, called Zero Time. For hippies living in communal squats, equipment like that used on the album would have been completely out of reach, but the seed was planted: Leer worked with a friend to make a synthesizer that could be played using nails as contacts.

The pair moved around, starting families and playing punk in Edinburgh, before finding themselves in London. Inspired to make their own singles, they pooled their resources so that Leer could make “Private Planes/International” and Rental could record “ACC/Paralysis.” Part of the DIY revolution that saw the early electronic music from The Normal and Human League emerging around the same time, the singles from Leer and Rental hinted at the gritty, alternative sounds that they would bring to The Bridge.

A turning point came when Rental met Daniel Miller and Throbbing Gristle at the latter’s infamous May 1978 show at the London Filmmakers Co-op. The show descended into chaos, as TG’s music provoked the crowd, but from the riot of thrown chairs and swung basses emerged a set of contacts that would lead to new innovations.

Miller had just released “TVOD/Warm Leatherette” as The Normal, and the two shared an interest in using the new technology that was becoming more affordable and available to create a kind of electronic punk music. They teamed up to tour with Stiff Little Fingers and Essential Logic for Rough Trade, performing as Robert Rental & The Normal in early 1979. One of their shows, at West Runton Pavilion, was released by Rough Trade as a one-sided LP in 1980.

The exhibition displays the backing tapes used by the duo, which they played forwards or backwards as necessary. On the Live at West Runton Pavilion recording, it is near impossible to make out any of Robert’s words shouted or half-sung over the buzzing electronics, but it is revealed through the tape covers that there were titles for the songs. The lyrics might be lost to history, but these details help to fill in a picture of one of the first industrial music performances. It’s a magnificent, epic block of noise and pulsations that would have blown a hole through the accelerated pub rock of punk at the time.

Following the tour, Throbbing Gristle re-entered the picture. The Industrial Records label, started to release their own music, had already issued a single from Monte Cazazza, and the “very friendly” quartet were looking for other artists to get involved with. A signing ceremony was organised at a Soho restaurant, just like they imagined major labels would do, and arrangements were made for an album to be recorded.

In their impish way, TG didn’t let Leer and Rental use their Martello Road studios. Instead, Sleazy Christopherson (who also took the picture that appears on the album cover) hired some equipment from Britannia Row and Chris Carter provided the pair with a quick explanation of how to use an 8-track reel-to-reel system. They were left alone with their Wasp synthesizer, a guitar and a lot of cigarettes to come up with something interesting. A lot of the time was spent trying to make the gear work, and they took clues from a schematic on the reverse of Brian Eno’s Discreet Music album to organise the equipment.

The exhibition includes a Wasp synthesizer (on loan from Mark Warner, Rental’s original having been passed on some years ago), as well as Leer’s Japanese drum machine and a contraption from under Rental’s bed that looks like an effects unit. Forced to work with this limited equipment and working to a deadline, Leer and Rental ditched plans to create a split album and worked together to create the nine songs of The Bridge.

Leer threw out guitar chords while Rental worked the Wasp, and then they took turns laying down tracks with the synthesizer. Their results were released at the end of 1979, and sales generated enough income to allow them to invest in new equipment.

Rental was asked by Daniel Miller to record a single for his fledgling Mute Records imprint. “Double Heart/On Location” was recorded at Blackwing Studios, where Miller had first set up his equipment for Silicon Teens, and it involved Leer and the DAF drummer, Robert Goerl. Recorded by Miller with Eric Radcliffe and John Fryer, “Double Heart” was Rental’s last studio project. The pressure of recording with others and the technical challenges of getting the sound he wanted frustrated Rental, and he invested in making his own studio in Battersea. Although he produced music for The Comic Strip’s A Fistful of Traveller’s Cheques, his perfectionism got in the way of releasing additional material, and there were no further public recordings before his premature death in 2000.

Leer, by contrast, was increasingly comfortable with the recording industry. Also in 1980, he signed to Cherry Red for a five album deal. He was turned off by the man-machine labours of Gary Numan, and an appearance of “Private Planes” on Virgin’s Machines compilation made him worried about being stuck in a futurist rut. His first release for Cherry Red, the single “Four Movements,” revealed his soul and jazz interests and a turn towards more commercially viable pop.

A well-received album, Contradictions, followed. Besides good reviews in the music press, it attracted the attention of the major labels, and Leer’s contract with Cherry Red was bought out by Arista. That gave Leer access to a Fairlight and recording time at John Foxx’s Garden studio. A single, “International,” showed what Leer was capable of. The exhibition features ephemera from this time, including an airplane model issued to promote “International.”

The experience at Arista wasn’t a smooth flight, however, and Leer founded a new act with Claudia Brucken of Propaganda called…Act. Their first single, “Snobbery and Decay,” appeared on Trevor Horn’s ZTT label. It was given the full ZTT gloss — Anton Corbijn promo photos, Steve Lipson production — despite the track spearing the decadence of the entertainment industry.

What followed was swallowed up in the emerging acid house and eurodance crazes. Act was too refined for ravers’ fields and not amped up enough for warehouses. Leer took a long break, and only slowly re-emerged following his relocation to Greenock.

His return to the starting point has led to several albums of interesting and varied material. From the waterfront outside the Beacon Arts Centre, where his memorabilia is exhibited, one can understand the nourishment of the environment. It’s a beautiful setting in the autumn, with clean air and none of the intellectual grime of London. It’s a place in which hardy things can grow.

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Red, Black and Cool: Tina Schnekenburger

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Tina Schnekenburger has worn a number of guises over the years.

From the punk scene in Kraftwerk’s home town to the world of modern art, she is a card carrying member of the avant-garde.

Schnekenburger can be seen in the new Conny Plank documentary, operating backing tracks for DAF. In leather, with cropped hair, she is effortlessly cool: a Teutonic Siren behind Gabi Delgado’s beat-fuelled leaps.

A long-time friend of DAF, she is credited with typography on the liner notes for Die Kleinen und Die Bosen, the very first album on Mute (cat: STUMM 1).

As an early member of Die Krupps, her contributions to the rhythm section can be found on key recordings.

Recently, Schnekenburger held her first showing of modern art. A long-time painter, fans pushed her to present her dramatic artwork to a wider public.

It’s on the back of her Berlin show, Colors and States of Mind, that we took the chance to catch up with Schnekenburger from her base in Germany.

You were part of the German punk scene. What was it like in those days, and what inspired you to start making music?

When I moved from Spain to Düsseldorf, I had a heavy drug and drinking problem. For the first few weeks in Düsseldorf, I kept on drinking and using. Then, one day, I somehow ended up in Ratinger Hof, and the music just hit me!

Punk and me – that was love (or rather hearing) at first sight. From then on, I was in Ratinger Hof every single night. I stopped drinking, smoking and using all together, from one day to the next, because I finally had something that actually touched me inside and gave a meaning to my life. As clichéd as it may sound, you can truly say that punk rock saved my life.

As punk gave me the feeling that everything was possible, even when you were a girl (which was not normal at the time), I thought about getting into making music myself.

As it happened, one day there was a party at the house of Thomas Schwebel’s parents in Solingen.

First, we ruined the garden by kicking a ball around, and then later the guys started jamming (Thomas had all the equipment there). At some point, I just grabbed the bass guitar and joined in. That was that.

Next thing I played bass in Die Rächer, together with Eduardo and Olga Delgado (brother and sister of Gabi).

How did you originally connect with DAF?

Well, Ratinger Hof was the place to be, so naturally I met absolutely everybody there, including the guys of DAF.

I got to know Gabi at the pinball machine. Jürgen Engler, Gabi, Wolf-Dieter Lauenroth and I were the best pinball players around, and you would find us at the pinball machine quite often.

Did you ever have to sleep on the floor at Daniel Miller’s house in London?

Of course! For about six weeks, as far as I recall. That was so nice of Daniel – I will never forget that.

When DAF reduced to a duo, you joined them for live shows. Those were high energy but incredibly stylish events. What was it like for you being on stage with them?

I was incredibly nervous every single time!

First, just putting on the tapes was not as easy as it may sound. You had to wind them exactly to the beginning of the song, and you were always afraid of “Bandsalat”.

Second, it’s not easy at all to have nothing to do between the songs and still look cool. But apparently I managed quite well.

In Die Krupps, you had a role in production and songwriting. What kind of sound were you going for? Did you have specific influences?

That, in fact, is a bit too much credit. I know that in some place it says that I was involved in the production but that was Jürgen’s part.

When I joined, Volle Kraft voraus was nearly finished but it still needed lyrics. So, I wrote some of the lyrics, together with Jürgen.

In Entering the Arena, which still is my favorite, I wanted to go back to the roots – i.e., “Wahre Arbeit, Wahrer Lohn” – something more high-energy and danceable.

You might say that “Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn” was my influence at the time – a great song that is working live still.

When you left Die Krupps, were there musical ambitions you still wanted to fulfil? Will we see you return to stage?

After I left Die Krupps, Jürgen (Engler) and I founded the label Atom H. We released bands like Rumble Militia, a punk-/metal-crossover band from Bremen with a strong political message.

There was also, for instance, Protector, a Thrash Metal band that reminded one of Slayer.

At that time, New Metal was the thing, and there were lots of amazing new bands. It was a great time: we went to lots of gigs, almost every night. It was totally rock’n’roll.

After a while, I got tired of the music business – and especially the people in it – so I left Atom H. I moved to Berlin, just in time for the Wall to come down, where I took up photography again. I later returned to painting.

In London, I was in an all-girl reggae band where I played the drums, and it was always in the back of my head to go back to drumming; so, last year in May, I started taking drum lessons.

Whenever I can find the time in between painting and getting my next exhibition organized, I practice. I am dreaming of playing the drums in a rock band in the future – maybe in 2020.


You are also becoming known as a painter. When did you start? What do your paintings express?

I have been painting since I was a little kid and kept doing it until the age of 16, when I left school.

My mother took me to an art school in Stuttgart (at the time we were living in Heilbronn) to apply – successfully, but I never went. By that time, I already was heavily into booze and drugs, so I didn’t get anything together. Instead I hitchhiked to Torremolinos in Spain, where I lived until I moved to Düsseldorf.

Inspiration is coming to me in two different ways: One way is entirely from inside me, resulting in the darker paintings such as Suicide, the Tatort series and so on.

Those paintings are very much inspired by blood, which for me is the essence of life itself. Without blood we simply wouldn’t exist. Also, I very much adore the color of blood, which you can clearly see in my paintings. Red is dominant.

The other kind of inspiration comes from the outside world; solely driven by a specific color; inspired by something I see – for instance, a scene in a movie.

When I look at something, at first I notice the colors – always! Colors and the composition of colors. As Marie Pellicone (of Marie Pellicone Gallery in Soho/New York) said: I am truly a colorist.

You recently showed your paintings in Germany. Was the reaction encouraging?

Very much so! I even sold a painting weeks after the show, a lady bought one of my drawings for her husband as a birthday present.

Tina Schnekenburger's Colors and States of Mind shows in Hamburg from 7-10 September, 2018. Pop-Up Gallery BloodRedArt, Jungfrauenthal 3 in Hamburg (next to U Klosterstern).
All photos of Tina Schnekenburger by Krichan Wihlborg.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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