Genre/Influences: Minimal-Electro, Experimental, Industrial.

Format: Digital, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Matthias Schuster (also known from Bal Paré, Das Institut, Geisterfahrer, Lichtjahr ao) broke the silence unleashing his first new Im Namen Des Volkes-work in years. It also is the first work he released by Ant-Zen. This EP features four songs.

Content: This project remains driven by good-old influences from 80s Electro/Industrial pioneers. It definitely sounds Experimental but is still into the typical ‘analogue’ 80s approach of Electronic music. This work reminds me of the glorious days of SPK.

+ + + : Great comeback for this artist which remains inspired and devoted to the sound and magic of the 80s. This is great old-school Electro/Industrial music featuring heavy, blasting passages composed by an artist who was already active during the 80s. You’ll discover great sound treatments with spoken-like vocal parts on top.

– – – : I regret the tracks are pretty short -which however often was quite 80s-minded as well.

Conclusion: Im Namen Des Volkes bring us back to the past and will for sure evoke great souvenirs.

Best songs: “Wellengenerator”, “Welt An Die Wand”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.thegeisterfahrer.de /  www.facebook.com/ImNamenDesVolkes

Label: www.ant-zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

“Alles Muß Raus” is the third album by Akustikkoppler, an ongoing collaboration between German artists, Matthias Schuster and Malte Steiner.

The album was completely produced on vintage and modern equipment and all tracks were produced between 2008 and 2012, and were remastered in 2021. The album is available digitally and as limited edition of 300 copies on 12” LP in translucent vinyl with gatefold cover.

Akustikkoppler was formed around 2004 but both members have a rich career behind them.

Matthias Schuster started in the 70s with his band Geisterfahrer which combined a punk rock setup with electronic instruments. In his studio he recorded and mixed most of the bands for the Hamburg label ZickZack at the beginning of the 80s. But later on in the nineties we also find him back as producer for the electro act Fortification 55 (“Heartleader”) for instance. He has been involved in other projects as well like Bal Paré and later on, Das Institut.

Malte Steiner from his side started with electronic music in 1983 in addition to his study of visual arts. First meant to be performed for the openings of his exhibitions, Malte started to distribute his music from 1987 on via his own label block 4 which released for instance the albums from his industrial projects Das Kombinat (with Andrea Pritschow) and Notstandskomitee on cassettes, later also on CD and vinyl.

Here’s the video for the track “Entrümpelung”.

You can order the release as download or on vinyl from Bandcamp.

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Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Akustikkoppler  is the sonic symbiosis between two, legendary, German, Electronic, artists. Matthias Schuster (Das Institut, Bal Paré, Geisterfahrer, Im Namen Des Volkes ao) and Malte Steiner (Notstandskomitee, Das Kombinat ao) once met in Hamburg. Their common passion for electronic gear brought them to set up Akustikkoppler. They this year released the project’s fourth full length album “Alles Muβ Raus” which can be defined as styled, minimal, electronic music. The work has been released by Malte’s own label Block 4. I asked a few questions to both artists.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You guys have been involved with numerous projects so what incited you working together and set up Akustikkoppler? 

Malte: We met when I was living in Hamburg, I think it was in the Hörbar, a place for experimental music which I founded with some others in the early 90s and that still exists. Our common love for synthesizers and experience of studio production alone can result in long conversations but also our shared preference of weird music and art. And then of course the whole history of Matthias and his role in German New-Wave / Post-Punk…

Matthias: Yes we met at Hamburg Hörbar and later on I have heard about Maltes projects and art installations and was amazed about the videos and music from Das Kombinat, Notstandskomitee etc etc

Q: What makes the chemistry and complementarity between the both of you? What did you learn from each other and how do you work together?

Matthias: At that time I was a pure hardware freak, I had so much vintage synthesizers like Moog, ARP, PPG, KORG, ROLAND etc so I was absolute excited about Maltes software instruments like PureData etc. He even programmed his own software synth, and the sound was amazing!

Malte: When I am in Hamburg we meet in Matthias’ Geisterfahrer Studio, switch on everything and start to improvise. There are no rules or conversations about what we want to achieve. It is just experimenting and then hitting the record button at the right moment, usually one of us yells ‘hit record, it can’t get better’. All is recorded mixed on stereo without any overdub, and I take the files with me into the achieve, and compile albums out of the best tracks and remaster them.

Matthias: I always was interested in making ‘realtime’ music I practiced in the past with Jürgen Weiss, my Geisterfahrer drummer so it was obvious to do that together and let surprise by ourselves and the machines who played us and we played them too.

Q: I noticed your new album “Alles Muβ Raus” features songs that were originally written between 2008 and 2012. That was right at the beginning of the project so why didn’t you release the songs earlier and how was it to work on ‘older’ stuff?

Matthias: Yes, there is no hurry. Malte moved to Denmark, so we only meet sometimes in a year to do one or more sessions and our music is timeless and follows no trends etc…

Malte: Since we both are busy with gazillion other projects, it can takes a while to compile and agree upon an album, years sometimes, and I think we’re living the “Theory Of Obscurity” by The Residents, we often forget the tracks and rediscover them. That and the fact that the vinyl required a year in the pressing plant lead to the perceived delays, but we are not in a hurry anyway. Everyone including the big guys are pressing records, in several editions at once, therefore the smaller labels are put on hold when a Major drops an order for 100.000 records. Anyway, “Alles Muß Raus” is our fourth album, plus there was a 7”.

Q: Tell us a bit more about “Alles Muβ Raus”? What is the work all about and what did you try to express & achieve sound-wise?

Matthias: There’s no concept, but it’s like a concept album I think… a concept album by random.

Malte: I still believe in the album as a concept and art piece and when I suggest a selection of tracks to Matthias, they have to form a journey, a development from start to end. I have access in our archives to material from many years, back to around 2004 when we started to work together so the meaning and overall vibe comes late in the process and not when we record the tracks. For instance the tape “Inspektor” which we released on the French label Serendip Lab I discovered that some tracks formed a Soundtrack to a crime movie in my mind, a very cheesy one, probably from 60s Germany.

Q: Akustikkoppler has this typical vintage sound DNA, which brings us back to the magic of analogue equipment. What’s your perception about the evolution of electronic equipment and the way of composing; from analogue to digital to the cheap software synths and -programs of today?

Matthias: When I started in the early 70s there was no Midi etc only CV/gate which I hated because of the different systems like 1V octave, or Hertz volt etc. Bands like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, etc… ruled over Electronic music and of course Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, etc

After years of struggling with equipment it was so great to have the first digital machines like PPG Wave, DX7, Atari Computers… Today is best with the mix with software, computers (Apple now) and vintage analogue.

Malte: One reason might be that we both are vintage. It’s decades of music experience which comes together here, we each started long before Techno and even before Hip-Hop became something. I love the development of equipment, it’s amazing what is possible today, especially for a low price. Personally I don’t have any preference. I equally use analogue and digital synthesizers and all kind of computer software, partly stuff I develop on my own. I usually bring some device or software on my laptop to the sessions which Matthias don’t have -which is difficult- just to add another color.

It’s good to have again available all kinds of analogue, digital and modular synthesizers. One major development for me, apart from ‘Machine Learning’ which I use with projects like Notstandskomitee or Elektronengehirn since years, is the rise of resolution in the control-data and therefore improved expressivity.

Q: How do you see yourself as musicians/producers when it comes to self-criticism, perfectionism and eventually criteria and/or references you’re using? And what are the further plans?

Matthias: Of course we will stay in composing/recording process! But we are our own listeners, so the process of criteria is in our own hands, means we decide what will comes out and what not!

Malte: A speciality of Akustikkoppler is that we don’t allow ourselves to edit the tracks except a bit in the mastering process way later, which is complete decoupled from the composing process. Everything is recorded in one go played manually, only with the help of step sequencers and drum computers here and there. That saves us from the perfectionist loop which can destroy creativity, see for instance the latest remarks of Karl Bartos about the arrival of the computer at Kraftwerk’s studio. A story I heard often since the dawn of Midi composition, it is both a blessing and a curse. Something I struggle a bit with at Notstandskomitee, everything can be edited, rerecorded and processed endlessly, it’s difficult to decide to finish a track and let loose. With Akustikkoppler we don’t have that problem.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Minimal-electronics, EBM.

Background/Info: Im Namen Des Volkes is a German solo-project set up by Matthias Schuster (also known from Bal Paré, Das Institut, Geisterfahrer, Lichtjahr and a few more projects) in 1979 (!). Most of his early work was released on cassette- and 7” format. This album is a selection of old material that has been reworked and recorded with added vocals.

Content: I’m familiar with several other projects –but especially Bal Paré, of  Matthias Schuster so this album is a real opportunity to go back in time and discover a truly electronic pioneer who’ll remind you of DAF, but also to bands like Cabaret Voltaire and The Neon Judgement. The electronic manipulations and the simple magic of analogue material definitely are the main trademarks of Im Namen Des Volkes.

The work reflects the spirit of the 80s. the typical analogue sweeps, robotic vocals and cold leads will bring good-old memories alive. There’s a variety of songs on this work, which also reveal pure and still minimal-like EBM cuts in the purest DAF tradition.

+ + + : Peripheral Minimal likes to bring old sonic pearls back to life and this album is one addition to the list. If you’re into vintage electronics and early EBM, this is without a shadow of a doubt a work that will catch your attention. It’s pure nostalgia, but still revealing a project that probably didn’t gain its deserved recognition. From songs such as “Psychopharmaka” to “Industrie Synfonie” to the EBM-driven “Hunde Im All”, “Alles Ist Umsonst” and “Dein Bester” there really is a lot to discover and enjoy. Speaking for myself I’m more into the EBM side of the band. The digipak format is a nice little bonus, which might convince you to buy the album.

– – – : Some of the vocals are missing power and passion and that’s maybe why a band like DAF became worldwide famous and Im Namen Des Volkswagen did not. The vocals appear to be the single element that doesn’t always fully convince –and especially on the harder cuts, while on the other ones the robotic effect is more efficient.

Conclusion: This album is an efficient way to bring the past back alive. It reveals a forgotten and less recognized pioneer of electronic music who however received serious recognition as member of Bal Paré.

Best songs: “Dein Bester”, “Hunde Im All”, “Alles Ist Umsonst”, “Psychopharmaka”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.thegeisterfahrer.de/thegeisterfahrer.de/Heimat.html /  www.facebook.com/ImNamenDesVolkes

Label: www.peripheralminimal.co.uk / www.facebook.com/PeripheralMinimal

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Goth-metal, dark-rock, epic.

Background/Info: ‘Asp’ aka Alexander Spreng became one of the uncontested flag holders of Trisol. “Geisterfahrer” was originally released as an EP in 2012 and features 6 songs. The songs have been reworked –mainly by the addition of real drums, and completed with two extra tracks.

Content: This work reveals the obscure power of ASP. The sound is a melting pot of metal, gothic, electronics and epic influences. It’s filled with rage, but also explores melancholic passages. The electronic arrangements add a melodic flavor to the work while it sometimes also reminds me of Rammstein.

You’ll rediscover the 6 familiar songs from the EP in a reworked version plus 2 bonus cuts totally matching with the power of this composition.

+ + + : ASP confirms its versatile character. After the more cabaret-inspired gothic novels (cf. “Verfallen”) ASP moves back to hard metal-inspired compositions. The sound has been accomplished by alluring German vocals plus melodic arrangements and even some medieval ingredients. Even if this band is mainly famous in their homeland, “Geisterfahrer” is a fully enjoyable production even for non-German music lovers, and especially for those who like Rammstein and co. There are a few outstanding cuts on this work.

– – – : Even if both new cuts are matching with the original power of this release, they don’t exactly add a real bonus. Both songs appear to be a kind of B-side cut.

Conclusion: It was a good idea to re-release “Geisterfahrer”, which sounds harder and definitely different compared to the original version.

Best songs: Überhärte”, “In Sack Und Asche”, “Geisterfahrer”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www.aspswelten.de / www.facebook.com/AspsWelten

Label: www.trisol.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Trisol–Music–Group/104166526285471

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com