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We're Here To File A Complaint.

I can't remember when I first discovered Tocotronic. I started my Last.fm account in 2006 so possibly around that time. Four years later (if indeed it was 2006) they are my most listened to band; who would have thought that the band to take this accolade would sing in German? Stranger things have happened I suppose. It is well recorded that I am a bit of a Germanophile and I have become increasingly interested in the country's music scene and more and more British bands are citing German bands as influences; the recent resurgence of Krautrock styling and synthesized instrumentation as two examples.

Tocotronic are also important in the shaping of contemporary German youth-culture, youngsters from the fatherland copying the bands clothing and haircuts. Tocotronic have been active since 1993 and were recognisable due to their anti-fashion stance preferring to wear clothes found in charity bins, unlabeled, skin-tight and generic, today this has become the norm for anybody remotely 'indie' (though I hate the word) but when Tocotronic first did such it was completely unusual. As for the haircuts, short back and sides with a heavy one-sided fringe became the desired style and if you walk around any European large town or city today it is still the case. Ask the average alternative Brit who Tocotronic are however and they'd draw a blank. It all started with them.

The album cover above is for the album 'Wir Kommen Um Uns Zu Beschweren' (We're Here To File A Complaint) and was released in 1996. I bought this album as I was intrigued by a track that named checked front man of The Fall Mark E. Smith (Ich Habe Geträumt, Ich Wäre Pizza Essen Mit Mark E. Smith) and for someone who spoke very little German I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Fast-paced guitar music with raspy and direct German vocals, scratchy and refreshingly homemade (some say similar to Pavement); the music behind the lyrics (the large majority of which I couldn't understand) made me want to know what was being said and four years later I have a better grasp. If you talk to any German about Tocotronic they will tell you that they like them due to their clever, intelligent and political lyrics (poking fun and getting angry about Germany's conservative, middle-class ways.) For me however the lyrics came as secondary of course and my love of Tocotronic came initially from their music and music alone.

I now have most of their releases, 10 studio albums, a plethora of EPs and Maxi-CDs and they have released a new album this week Schall & Wahn (The Sound & The Fury) which is practically unattainable in Britian, thank god for the internet. Today Tocotronic are one of the biggest alternative bands in Germany the fact they are singing in German giving them notable credibility (the only English language release was a version of the 1999 album K.O.O.K.)

The latest album adds further gravitas to Tocotronic's versatility and has a completely different feel from 'Kapitulation' (Surrender - their last studio album released in 2007) as a band they have noticeably moved with the times and maybe we sense a slightly more positive Germany? Although their sound has changed considerably since their conception Tocotronic are always Tocotronic and unmistakably so, the mark of a great band surely? Since I have spoke of Kapitulation here is a video for the title track of the album:



Tocotronic are:

Dirk Von Lowtzow - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Jan Müller - Bass
Arne Zank - Drums
Rick McPhail - Lead Guitar, Keyboards

Visions Of China.

Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Sylvian.

Southfork Ranch.

A few months ago I started watching my DVD's of Dallas. I have to report that I have managed to get a tad behind so I think I might have to start from the beginning to refresh my mind. Who shot J.R? Well, sadly I already know, it is after-all common knowledge but the famed shot is not fired until series three so I have many hours of Texan-oil-based-televisual-drama yet.

I usually hate anything that is remotely cow-boyish and my skin crawls at the mere sight of a stetson but somehow I have warmed to Dallas and its characters and take it from me J.R Ewing is a right bastard, Lucy Ewing is a little tart and I really can't stand Ray Krebbs (please don't get me started.) All this reminds me that I must get my signed photo of Larry Hagman framed as it's an absolute travesty that it is still hiding in a cupboard. If you are like me and currently have little to do with your time and don't mind bad 70's haircuts, a high ratio of lurid polyester garments and a lot of crude talk (oil that is) then give Dallas a bash.

As this post has been very short and mostly pointless I feel I must leave you with a quote at least; ladies and gentlemen,
Mr J.R. Ewing:

"A marriage is like a salad: the man has to know how to keep his tomatoes on the top." *

* (whatever the hell that means.)

Plight.

Joseph Beuys (5), originally uploaded by NeueDeutsche.

This is a photo I took of an installation by one of my most admired artists Joseph Beuys. Here we see a portion of an art-work called Plight (1985) and is currently installed at The Pompidou Centre in Paris where I encountered this work. We see a blackboard and thermometer atop a piano which is placed in a room completely lined with rolls of grey felt. You enter the room through a small door which you must stoop down to go through. Once inside you are overcome with a sense of warmth, the room being much hotter due to the insulation.

Felt is an important and reoccurring theme in Beuys' works; the story goes that when Beuys was a German aircraft pilot in the second world war he was shot down over the Dolomites (a section of The Alps) and was rescued by a group of nomads who covered his body in animal fat and then felt in order to keep him warm and thus surviving. Fat therefore is another regular aesthetic and sculptural device. This story has since been discredited but it is an important factor in the explanation of Beuys' sculpture.

Beuys takes ready-made, everyday objects and elevates them to plains of the mythological with constant nods towards the themes of life and death together with regeneration and the political.

Beuys creates allegorical environments to address the world around us and the human condition. Plight by the nature of the word coupled with the felt that lines the walls creates a tension between security and insecurity. The word 'Plight' suggests possible anxiety or instability yet the felt stands to suggest warmth, shelter or protection. The piano as far as I ascertain suggests escapism (in this case through music) although the piano will not make a sound and the lid remains shut; it's attainability jars with the welcoming softness of the walls. The blackboard and thermometer seem to suggest education and the comfort of knowledge, the thermometer physically confirms the warmth, the blackboard is an outlet for understanding.

Here is a link to an audio clip from 1985 of Joseph Beuys talking about the work:

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/audioarts/cd2_8.shtm

Pissed Jeans.

Pissed Jeans., originally uploaded by NeueDeutsche.

Pissed Jeans - A.T.P Vs Pitchfork - Pontins, Camber Sands - 2008.

I Have Moved.

So, here I am sat watching The Simpsons in my new house in Oxford. I have moved in with my boyfriend Grundy who chivalrously missed going to see Aston Villa vs West Ham in Birmingham today to help me and I couldn't be more thankful to him. I hate moving; within the last four years I have moved six times and have amassed a scary number of possessions. I have somehow managed to collect over 400 books and those do not include the few hundred that are back in my mum's house. I think it is time to quash this addiction so I have decided not to buy any books until we are at least back from Malta in 6 weeks time. Bring on the cold turkey 'and with gods help I will conquer this terrible affliction' (I can't even stop adding the odd literary reference, thanks Irvine Welsh.)

The worse thing about moving is the packing and unpacking; every time I have moved I have more things to cram into boxes and laundry bags, although, this time I was ruthless and threw away 8 industrial sized bin-sacks of bits of paper, crap magazines, empty whisky bottles and all sorts of other unnecessary items that my cluttered mind has told me to hang onto. As Grundy said at least 50% of my possessions were the books, a scary thought. We loaded the van in London at 9.00 this morning and I used the same van-man as last time, salt of the earth all round lovely chap Van Man Bill and got here at about 11.30, marvelous. As I am sat here writing this I keep glancing over at the pile of stuff in the lounge and I am filled with dread, once it is all safely put away, out of sight and out of mind I will be happy and will sleep easily.

So, thanks London, it was nice while it lasted but I am more than happy to be having a break from the city. They do say however if you are tired of London you are tired of life, which is probably true. I'm not tired of London however, I am more than willing to have the odd day trip but I am not going to miss the extortionate living costs, relentless traffic noise, throngs of people everywhere, the stuffiness of the tube and the general unfriendliness of the city and its inhabitants. I will of course miss the friends I have made but I'm not far away, in-fact I think I am at the perfect distance, not too far and not too near. Thank-you Oxford Tube.

Anyway, I suppose I better show willing and do more tidying. Well, maybe a cup of tea first.

Malta Bound.

It's been on the cards for a while now; here we are in Oxford still very much snowed under (although it is beginning to melt slowly) and we thought it was about time for a holiday. This morning Grundy and I took a short stroll up to the Cowley Centre and spoke to our friendly travel-agent and on 22nd February we shall be flying to Malta for five days in the sun, hurray. I spoke to my friend Clare on the phone the other day and she was very surprised that I would want to holiday somewhere hot; her summation of my personality was as follows:

"Matt Retallick you are the sort of person who aspires to live in a place like Durham and relish visits to dingy museums in the drizzle."

Never a truer word spoken. I usually love winter, I'm all for log fires and cosey nights in with the boyfriend but this year winter has been, well, too wintery. It's been a long cold winter of sparse heating, feet like blocks of ice and snot running down my filtrum. So I have an over-whelming desire to wear nothing but shorts and sunglasses and burn to a crisp (I'm not the sort to tan easily.)

We are going to Sliema and staying in a hotel that is over-looking a crystal blue bay and only five weeks and five days of cold to go before we are there. Grundy has been to Malta four times before so he is a seasoned Maltese traveler but this is my first excursion to Mediterranean climes. I expect to eat seafood by the platter-load, smell of after-sun and gain alcohol related sun-stroke. It wouldn't be a holiday if I didn't.

Expect a tedious stream of the usual holiday snaps on our return, but until then here is a charming picture of where we are staying:

W02.

W02., originally uploaded by NeueDeutsche.

Neue Deutsche Welle.

I am a self confessed music geek. I've got the big spec's, the only music magazine I buy is Wire, I have a nerdy vinyl collection of rarities and like nothing more than record shopping. Occasionally I hate myself for it but it could be worse I 'spose, I could actually play an instrument, well, I can play a portion of Popcorn on the stylophone but that's about it. So? What music are you into? Well, that's a very hard question to answer and I have agonised over it time and time again. My music taste is so disparate that it is hard to pin-down; sometimes however you are forced to stick your neck out, the last club-night I staged was called 'This Is Pop?' (named after an XTC song) and took place in Dalston, East London and on the accompanying promotional material I chose the following genres:

Post-Punk, New-Wave, Industrial, Experimental, No-Wave, E.B.M (Electro Body Music) and N.D.W (Neue Deutsche Welle) which translated means 'New German Wave' (pronounced in German as 'Noy-ah Doyt-cha Vell-a') N.D.W, as it will hereafter be referred reared it's head in the late seventies when music journalist Alfred Hilsberg conjured-up the term in 1979 to describe the growing underground music movement. To understand the sound of N.D.W you must first understand the politics of Germany at the time. Berlin, the city where the wave first struck was of course divided by an imposing concrete wall keeping the communist east segregated as The German Democratic Republic (DDR) with a very real sense of potential war, members of the DDR being shot dead trying to escape for the west. Berlin in particular would have been a politically cold place to be with reminders literally all around, barbed-wire, checkpoints and the presence of the military.

In the east musical output was controlled by the state, laws were passed meaning you could only release songs in German. For the east German youth there was little choice in music but some people could manage to pick up a western T.V. signal thus secretly exposing them to new sounds such as those created over the wall and later genres such as hip-hop. I am going to take this opportunity to introduce you to a few note-worthy N.D.W bands.

I will start off with Palais Schaumburg. Hailing from Hamburg the band were named after the former residence of the German Chancellor and was fronted by Holger Hiller. Holger was kind enough to DJ at my club-night last year playing a set comprised of demos and songs from the Schaumburg days never before heard in public; to the few hardcore Hiller fans that were amongst those that came this was a truly memorable occurrence. Here is the video for 'Wir Bauen Ein Neue Stadt...'



Continuing the run down here is a band who are sadly all but forgotten although I have managed to locate some of their much sort after releases on vinyl. Kosmonautentraum (translated somewhere along the lines of 'dreaming of a kosmonaut') were formed in 1980 and stand out amongst other N.D.W bands. Sonically they seem the capture how I would imagine the feel of Germany at the time. Not a video but a song never-the-less. Kosmonaut from the album Juri Gagarin:



Not all N.D.W bands have ebbed into obscurity however and without the doubt the most celebrated today are Einstürzende Neubauten who are regarded as particularly influential and have been name-dropped by such luminaries as Nick Cave and bands such as Sonic Youth. To show their versatility here are two videos, the first a performance of 'Sand' in 1990:



and secondly a clip from the Sogo Ishii film 'Haber Mensch'...



N.D.W was always dark in thematic however jolly it could appear on the surface. Here is a video from Die Radierer featuring a song about trying to poison yourself with Lego.



Finally (at least for this installment) I will leave you with Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (a.k.a DAF and translated as 'German American Friendship) and the video for 'Der Räuber Und Der Prinz' (The Robber and the Prince.) DAF are another celebrated N.D.W band and even had a retrospective world tour last year and performed to capacity crowds in London, I was there and they are on fine form. Until next time then my exhausted reader, D.A.F...

Station To Station.

Station To Station from 'Christiane F.' - David Bowie.

Oxford.

For those of you who know me personally, especially those in London you will have noticed my absence lately (or not, depending on how much you care) so here is an up-date on my life at present. You will know by now that I have spent the last half a year dividing my time between London and Oxford to be with my boyfriend Grundy; there have been a few developments in my life, the majority of which are not worth getting into but Grundy is without a doubt the biggest and most important and I will be moving to Oxford to start-a-fresh next week. You may also know that in September I started an MA in 'Design Writing Criticism' I have decided for now to take a break from my studies (the first break in education since I finished nursery) a decision which was not taken likely but I feel the best decision for now. I also take this opportunity to thank those who have made this year special whether in London or Oxford and for those who have listened to me moan and whine at any given opportunity particularly Joe and Clare, Jamie and J.B. Thanks also to Roger and Teal for allowing me to stay around and helping me decide what I was doing with my life. Greatly appreciated. So, here's to Oxford and look out Blackwells you are about to get rinsed of stock on a weekly basis.