Thursday, March 8, 2007

Frieder Butzmann-Bunte Flügel(with Laurence Nagana )+Vertrauensmann des Volkes,LPs,1980/1,Germany


Butzmann, a self proclaimed "spokesman of the people," more specifically of the Berlin underground, published his debut album after the famous "Waschsalon" 7" at a time when electronic music was taking over punk, dada and new wave replacing teenage angst. While Der Plan made fun of Dόsseldorf and DAF cultivated their homoerotic macho military style from their London exile, Butzmann's work threw longer and more disturbing shades out of the Berlin behind the wall—not unlike Die tφdliche Doris or Minus Delta T.Caring less for technical finesse, a raw and sometimes disturbing quality emerges here. While a dadaistic influence shines through in the semi-naive use of electronics, piano, vocals and undefined sound sources, the basic idea is always more important then the perfect realization. This approach might explain the then-surprising guest appeareance by ex-TG member Genesis P. Orridge in the closing track "Just Drifting / Tales Of Death". The diversity on 'Vertrauensmann des Volkes,' is comprised mostly of short songs until the album reaches its dominating 9 minute piece, "Zivilisation." It's an uncomfortable amount of pressure built-up while Butzmann stands up against moral weakness and mental decay due to comfort and ignorance. Butzmann's lyrics are well crafted and used in unconventional ways to reach intense results. "Competition and sadism / that is the German mechanism" ("Sadismus und Konkurrenz") sung with Angelika Maisch sounds like an old French tune of the golden twenties amidts odd sounds, while the opening track "Gefluester" deals with communication and the passing of digital signs and numbers. The whole album should be treasured as a cornerstone of the German experimental and electronic scene.


Bunte Flügel was released in 1980 and in 1999(EISENGRAU TAPES FRITZODELIA 99 ) in very limited quantities!

Excellent and very rare records!

get it here

and here

3 comments:

Jim Slip said...

ASTONISHING ALBUM!! Thanks a lot.

Anonymous said...

I might check this out, if only because of the Megson collaboration. By the way, is Butzmann the lad on the cover? He looks just like I did when I was a youngster, albeit chubbier... whichever the case, in the end I'm rund und gesund too.

brian h said...

very interesting! thank you for posting!