POST-PUNK COMPILATIONS
Two collections of new wave: one from Britain’s powerpop scene, one from the German underground
Harmony In My Head: UK Power Pop & New Wave 1977-81 CHERRY RED 7/10 Kreaturen Der Nacht STRUT 8/10 TWO new collections explore a couple of the many directions the maze of independent music took following punk; from Cherry Red, there’s
Harmony In My Head, a three-disc collection of UK powerpop, while Strut sorts through the less familiar world of the German post-punk underground on Kreaturen Der Nacht. Although there’s little that unites the two sonically, they share a DIY spirit and desire to forge a new reality. The difference is that while the UK bands are seeking alternative routes to chart success that would ultimately lead to a musical dead end, the German acts had other things in mind.
The Cherry Red set takes its title from Buzzocks but the defining spirit is created by Squeeze’s “Take Me I’m Yours”. Here are the staples of powerpop: a catchy title, chorus to kill for, guitar full of echo, itch-making melody and yearning for melodrama set off by an undefinable absence of polish. Stiff set the scene through Squeeze, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, Elvis Costello and Yachts (all present), but the mood was picked up by others who added elements from ska (The Piranhas), country (The Search), glam (Strangeways) or metal (Chelsea).
While groups like The Chefs point the way towards mid-’80s indie, there’s also a lot of punk’s conservatism – many songs are sped up R&B or Meek-inspired retro-futurism, bands are overwhelmingly male-centric and songs are rigorously apolitical. The music was unthreatening enough for DJ Mike Read to contribute the (excellent) “High Rise” as The Trainspotters. It’s easy to see how the scene drifted into Mod revival, but on the way left behind songs as fabulous as “(I Wish It Could Be) 1965 Again” by The Barracudas, “Down At The Zoo” by The Naughty Lumps (the latter co-written by Bill Drummond) and “(Baby You’re So) Science Fiction” by The Dodgems.
Over roughly the same period (1979-1984), the bands on Kreaturen Der Nacht took a very different approach, rejecting pop melody and often singing in German as they strived for unorthodoxy. This set features many acts from the German New Wave (Neue Deutsche Welle), who incorporated electronica as they moved towards dance, just waiting for the right drugs to come along and set the beat free. In the absence of MDMA, they have more in common with No Wave, most notably in the discordant free jazz of Mania D, Ausserhalb’s “Zeitzelle” and “Fakten” by ExKurs.
The general tone is minimalist electronica, but some songs inch towards melody. Andreas Dorau and Die Marinas produced “Fred Vom Jupiter”, poppy lo-fi that sounds a little like Jilted John, while “Veb Heimat” by Weltklang and Stefan Bloser’s “Voyager One” are proto-techno. Best of all is the disco-Ballard beat of “Wunderbar” by Christiane F (“I’m addicted to the feel of your steering wheel”), a singer whose recollections about her experience as a teen prostitute and drug addict were made into a film with a David Bowie soundtrack.