Here’s an exclusive event we co-present with Cold War Night Life in London. Robert Görl (DAF) and Hanna Rollmann will read from their book, “The Voice That Dwells Within”, on Saturday, January 27, 2024, at The Strongroom in London (tickets available here). The duo will also sign copies of their book during this intimate event.

Robert Görl co-founded DAF (Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft) in 1978 — 45 years ago — with vocalist Gabi Delgado. The band started as a punk/experimental outfit, using a combination of conventional instruments and electronics, before relocating from Dusseldorf to London. After meeting Mute Records’ Daniel Miller, they released “Die Kleinen und die Bösen,” featuring production by Conny Plank. The group consolidated as the duo of Görl and Delgado, made the jump to Virgin Records, and released three albums that changed the face of German (electronic body) music. They formed the template for a line of bands, including Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb. They were working towards a new album at the time of Delgado’s sudden death in 2020, which Goerl completed alone as “Nur Noch Einer.”

In the spaces between DAF releases, Görl and Delgado each released separate material. Görl’s 1984 solo album, “Night Full of Tension,” featured an appearance by Annie Lennox of Eurythmics — returning the favor after Görl played drums on that band’s Conny Plank-produced debut, “In the Garden.”

“The Voice That Dwells Within” uses Görl’s memories to reconstruct stories from all these events. The book is centered around the 1989 car crash that almost killed Görl and led him to Buddhism.

The event will take place at The Strongroom, Curtain Road, London EC2A 3SQ, on Saturday, January 27, 2024. The starting time is 7 pm. Tickets are £15 in advance / £20 on the door.

Here’s a video trailer.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Meet Naeon Teardrops, a fresh electronica project from Norway. But here’s a twist: the talent behind this name is none other than the seasoned Norwegian techno artist, Per Martinsen, also known as Mental Overdrive.

For those who’ve been around, Per Martinsen isn’t a new name. He’s been a force in the hardcore, rave, and techno scenes for over 30 years. Starting in 1990, he kicked off with powerful techno tracks on the Belgian label R&S. He’s also worked with labels like Smalltown Supersound, Ploink, and Virgin Records, to name a few.

With Naeon Teardrops, Martinsen is diving into synthpop and darkwave sounds, giving them a modern twist. This new direction stems from his fictional autobiography, “Pyramids On The Moon”. In this three-part tale, he imagines three different life paths, each with its own musical alias.

Naeon Teardrops’ debut has been preceded by several singles: “Amnesiacs” came out in 2021, followed by “Shadowsister” in 2022. The recent singles, “Water Rising” and “Outbound”, dropped in March and May 2023.

The debut album, “Testimony”, is a blend of three decades of electronic music, mixing electropop, darkwave, and more. Set to release on September 8th, 2023, through Love OD Communications, it’ll also be on vinyl and CD via Apollon Records.

Want a taste? Check out the tracks released so far below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

“Dazzle Ships,” the fourth studio album from the English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), is set for reissue with additional demos and rarities. Originally released on 4 March 1983 by Virgin Records under the fictitious Telegraph label, the album’s title and cover art were inspired by Edward Wadsworth’s Vorticist painting, “Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool,” which featured dazzle camouflage.

The 12-track album served as the follow-up to OMD’s commercially successful 1981 release, “Architecture & Morality.” “Dazzle Ships” showcased a departure in sound for the band as they struggled with writer’s block and pressure from the record company to replicate their previous album’s success. The record is renowned for its experimental content, particularly its use of musique concrète sound collages and shortwave radio recordings to explore Cold War and Eastern Bloc themes. The album also delves into the rise of technology in society. It produced two singles, “Genetic Engineering” and “Telegraph.”

Although “Dazzle Ships” was initially a commercial disappointment, it eventually gained a cult following and inspired numerous recording artists. Music journalists have come to recognize the album as an underrated, misunderstood, and ahead-of-its-time work. Despite the later recognition, the band embraced a more radio-friendly sound on the follow-up album “Junk Culture” (1984).

Already re-released once in 2008, the expanded reissue of “Dazzle Ships” now includes bonus demos and rarities compiled and mixed by OMD’s Paul Humphreys. The album is available in three formats:

• Limited Edition black 180g 2LP vinyl in the original bespoke die-cut sleeve, including a lithograph print of the album artwork
• Colored 2LP vinyl in a standard gatefold sleeve (blue and silver color)
• CD

The 2008 reissue featured the following extra tracks:

1. “Telegraph” (The Manor Version 1981)
2. “4-Neu” (“Genetic Engineering” single B-side)
3. “Genetic Engineering” (312MM version)
4. “66 and Fading” (“Telegraph” single B-side)
5. “Telegraph” (extended version)
6. “Swiss Radio International”

The new version offers these additional tracks:

1. “Telegraph” (Very Early Demo / 1982)
2. “Silent Running” (Demo)
3. “Sold Our Souls” (The Avenue Demo)
4. “Shakespeare ’82”
5. “Untitled Instrumental ’82”
6. “In Heaven Above” (4- NEU Demo)
7. “Telegraph” (Live 1984)

Here’s the teaser 3-track release on Spotify.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

A new vinyl boxset of The Human League is to be released. Called “The Virgin Years” it encompasses 1981 to 1990, and includes all the songs you know, including “Don’t You Want Me”, “(Keep Feeling) Fascination”, “Mirror Man”, “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of”, “Human”, “The Lebanon” and “Heart Like a Wheel”. The boxset will be released November 11, 2022 via UMe.

Between 1981 and 1990, The Human League released four studio albums and one extended EP on Virgin Records. Those albums and that extended play have been collected in a special limited edition colored vinyl box set. In addition, the remix album “Love And Dancing”, initially released in 1982, was recently reissued on white vinyl for Record Store Day.

Since 1978, The Human League have released nine studio albums, four EPs, over 30 singles and several hit compilation albums. Read the review of ‘The Virgin Years’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Out now is the re-release of Faust’s 3rd album “The Faust Tapes”. It’s far from sure that this re-released krautrock album will sell as much as the initial original release back in 1973 which ended up selling between 50 to 100.000 copies. All thanks to the clever marketing strategy of Virgin Records boss Richard Branson.

Back at the time Virgin Records wanted to cash in on the rush for German music and it was Virgin’s Richard Branson who wanted the UK to get to know Faust. Although, honestly speaking, Virgin Records’ boss did have a preference for very alternative bands. After all, he signed Mike Oldfield, Gong, Public Image Ltd., DAF, and so on.

As for Faust’s first album on Virgin Records, Branson’s marketing strategy was very simple, selling the LP for 49 pence, the price of a single at that time. But by selling the album for the extremely cheap price, the album was quickly declared ineligible for chart placement. By then, the ‘damage’ was done as they say and the album was available to thousands of households. Nevertheless, the sales of the album put Virgin at a £2,000 loss.

There’s a crypto-terrorist in the house named Nettelbeck

Our chief editor Bernard Van Isacker talks about “quite a weird achievement for this band which was powered by producer and crypto-terrorist Uwe Nettelbeck.” Bernard: “I clearly add crypto-terrorist because Nettelbeck was an associate of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization and as an editor of the underground magazine Konkret, he gave a platform to the very cute but communist nutcase Ulrike Meinhof, the founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF). In short, Nettelbeck didn’t have any problem selling thousands of records and at the same time being a die-hard communist who adored Mao and supported extreme left wing terrorism. Orwell’s “Animal Farm” comes to mind indeed. Note that over the years several bands and artists would glorify Ulrike Meinhof in their music such as Marianne Faithfull and Doris Days to name just two. A kind of very misplaced idolatry you can say.”

Musically not a real album according to the band

The music on this album, drawn from Faust’s own library of private tapes, was recorded informally and not originally intended for release. There was literally no post-production work done and the band itself never referred to it as their 3rd album but considered it more as a bonus release to mark their signing with Virgin Records. That was also what the band communicated.

The album had 2 tracks, both called untitled, and the album had a running time of a bit more than 43 minutes.

You would think that Faust’s next album “Faust IV” would be a hit after all this ‘Branson’ work. Allas, the band, who was used to live in a Hamburg based commune, didn’t like the music industry enough to make that happen. They in the end broke up in 1975 after Virgin rejected their fifth album.

The band would reform in 1994 to release “Rien”, their fifth album.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Out soon via Grönland Records is the new release “Nur Noch Einer” by Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF).

On vocals we find Robert Görl, as Gabi Delgado died in March 2020 just when Görl and Delgado had reunited to record a new album aided by producer Sylvie Marks. Sound wise this album features a lot of the band’s unfinished 80s sequences which Görl found on old tapes and used for this release. After the death of Delgado, Görl started writing and recording the lyrics.

The album holds 15 tracks and will be released on November 26th on CD and vinyl.

Track listing

1. Erste DAF Probe
2. Im Schatten
3. Kunststoff
4. Wir Sind Wild
5. Das Pur Pur Rot
6. Gedanken Lesen
7. Du Bist So Zart
8. Ein Kind Aus Dem Ratinger Hof
9. Loslassen
10. Neue Welt
11. Kein Ausweg
12. Es Muss Ans Licht
13. Holland Road
14. Das Geschenk
15. Nur Noch Einer

About Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft or DAF, was an influential German electropunk/Neue Deutsche Welle band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 featuring Gabriel Delgado-López (vocals), Robert Görl (drums, percussion, electronic instruments), Kurt Dahlke (electronic instruments), Michael Kemner (bass-guitar) and Wolfgang Spelmans (guitar). Kurt Dahlke was replaced by Chrislo Haas (electronic instruments, bass guitar, saxophone) in 1979. Since 1981, the band has consisted of Delgado-López and Görl.

Their first album, “Ein Produkt der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Freundschaft”, was released in 1979 on Dahlke’s Ata Tak label (then called Warning). The album was 22 improvised untitled instrumentals, Delgado having temporarily left the band at the time.

The band then moved to London, met Daniel Miller and signed to Mute Records. DAF recorded “Die Kleinen und die Bösen” for Mute, one side held studio material and most of the other side of the album were live recordings. DAF then shrank to just Delgado and Görl, and the duo signed to Virgin Records where they released “Alles ist gut” which became their breakthrough album.

The next two albums, “Gold und Liebe” and “Für Immer” followed by by then the band had reached its limits and they split during the recording of “Für immer”. Delgado and Görl reunited in 1985 to record “1st Step to Heaven”, their only album in English.

When DAF reformed for the 2003 album “Fünfzehn neue D.A.F.-Lieder” their style had shifted to a fusion of the classic Plank-produced DAF sound with elements taken from Robert’s techno work. The band prepared more music, but split before they could make another album. In 2010, the band returned with a new single “Du bist DAF”, limited to 2010 copies. The band announced its 5th split in January 2015, with another farewell tour.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com