CLASSIC CUTS

GERMAN PUNK& WAVE:
1978-1984 VOL.1
VARIOUSVINYL ON DEMAND

C"pioneering stuff, classics of theunderground in fact, which thisbox set captures perfectly..."lassic art is often ‘classic’because, yes, it’s good andfrom the soul of a true talent, but also because it has
been given patronage; backing for materials, a stage fordisplay or funds for distribution. For,
if no-one knows about it, it cannot
become popular and will not receive
national or worldwide acclaim. Music,
especially, gains and suffers fromthese factors and the sub-genresof punk and wave more than most.
Because the DIY ethic provided artistic freedoms, those same freedoms
meant that most artists of that ilk
were left working without a net... ortwo pennies to rub together. So wehave to thank German record label
Vinyl On Demand therefore, forbringing together the eleven bands
in this boxset that provides, at least
to many UK ears, the first chance tohear a selection of classic German
punk and wave music.
They include PVC, inspired by
UK punk band The Adverts who,
despite being formed in 1977,
didn’t release anything until 1982;
White Russia included ex-membersof PVC, releasing two LPs during
their lifetime. This set includes analbum’s worth of tracks from each
(eleven and twelve respectively);
MDK, purveyors of post-punk with adistinct Clash flavour; Din A Testbild
were a new wave, punk-electro outfit
who moved into synth experiments
as did another band in the box
set, Poison Dwarfs, with their brief
techno stabs. The Didaktische
Einheit will be of interest to cold
wave fans with their stripped, raw
approach while the Off Band andNo More explored the darker areas

130
P130 subbed§.indd 130

HI-FI WORLD JULY 2011of post-punk. Other bands include
the wonderful Funtastiklons which
provided a unique instrumental
electronica providing pastoral electrowith elements of Kraftwerk andflavours of early UK outfits like early
Human League, Die Werkpiloten(check out the hypnotic minimalismof ‘New Arrangements’ in thisboxset) and Die Gesunden who
played unrefined melodies that wereno less attractive for it.
Utilising a number of Kenwood,
Yamaha, Aiwa and Sony decks assources, label boss Frank Maier hada gamut of sources for this boxset
including, “well preserved DATs andoriginal tapes provided by artists
and transferred digitally as WAV/AIF.
Some artists provided CDs which
they recorded from their original
cassettes, tapes or quarter inchreels.”
Trying to get the best soundfrom this hotchpotch of sources
proved challenging, as the masteringengineer for this box set, Anders
Peterson from GS Mastering & Post,explained. “For any compilation,
especially one as big as this, it’s often
tricky to get a homogenic sound.
In this case, with recordings datingback twenty-five to thirty years, therecordings were quite different fromeach other; varying levels, varying
instrumentation and overall sound,varying amounts of hiss and otherelements of noise and audio artefacts.
But that’s what’s so interesting,challenging and also inspiring about
doing audio post on a project like
this, being able to present theserecordings in a new light, so tospeak.”

The music on this box set isoften basic and primitive, partly bydesign but also partly because cash
was scarce. Peterson recognised thecare he had to take with the sources,
therefore. “Making the remastering
just clean and polished would not
do the music justice. So balance is a
keyword to pretty much all aspectsof the remastering process.”
In practical terms, Peterson
had to deal with the fact that thesegroups did not have audiophileconcerns in mind before they started
recording. The idea was to get
the band together in a space, anyspace, where they could do theirthing and hit the record button. Yet
that meant that, “on several tracks,
there were several layers of various
forms of noise and hiss that had
to be removed or greatly reduced.
I often use analysis software fromthe French IRCAM studio to locate
the troublesome frequency sections
and I have an EQ I programmed
myself in Csound, where I canbasically alter the amplitude of every
single frequency in the spectrum.
Such a detailed processing is notalways required but it gives fantastic
possibilities.”
The result has been worthwhile
though, because the box set
preserves the raw nature of themusic and conveys the essenceof what the bands were trying toachieve. This was both the beginningand end of music as they knew it atthat time. Everything was old, thiswas new, it was pioneering stuff,classics of the underground in fact,which this box set captures perfectly.
PRwww.hi-fiworld.co.uk

17/5/11 20:13:04