TOTO LOTTO-OHNE GEWAHR, TAPE, 1981, GERMANY

Explicitly located on the sturm und drang side of the Neue Deutsche Welle equation and fronted by the very distinctive caterwauling yelp of Christoph Anders (whom Chris Cutler would wisely later hijack for his Cassiber project), Toto Lotto were known (if at all) for their inclusion on the seminal NDW compilation LP Schau Hor Main Herz Ist Rhein. Corrosive both musically and lyrically, Toto Lotto are utterly indebted to the tabula rasa mentality that informs both their immediate peers in the Einsturzende Neubauten camp and their kissing cousins in the American no wave scene. Indeed, with Anders handing sax scree here as well, Toto Lotto's debt to The Contortions is made plain. If it were in my remit to do so, I'd switch the indexing and direct one and all to begin with side B as this is where their sound is maneuvered into a substantially more precedent free direction, specifically via the introduction of driving synthetic blooping and loud rhythm box clatter which, when set against the venomous ironic braying of Anders makes for some powerfully disorienting sound and motion.

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