V/A-GANZ EINFACH, LP, 2002 (RECORDED: EARLY 80'S), GERMANY

Alongside Kernkrach and, slightly later, Vinyl-On-Demand, Was Soll Das? Schallplatten was among the very first imprints to begin to document for posterity the vast array of brilliant and uncompromising musical activities initiated during the 80's within the milieu of Germany's cassette culture underground, a subculture that erupted in tandem with the advent of the more public face of the Neue Deutsche Welle (D.A.F., Einsturzende Neubauten, Der Plan et.al.) and whose artistic output was heretofore destined to decay into demagnetized oblivion. Issued in an edition of 100 copies, Ganz Einfach was the very first release on Was Soll Das? Schallplatten (nowadays known as WSDP and closing in on 40 reissues, last I checked) and consists of a cherry picked selection of art damaged underground craziness culled from assorted tapes, a tack that the Kassettentater series of LP's would pursue to similar ends. I've flown the flag for NDW since I started posting on M.S. and the batch here is genuinely stellar. The sensibility of Franck at WSD?S/WSDP seems to privilege the more feral, freaky and noisy manifestations of the NDW zeitgeist and the best bits here (though it's all largely excellent) are the proactively damaged ones, from Tagesschau's post-industrial robot chant to Der Hassliche D's Bomis Prendin-like tinker toy art grind and from the dead eyed cold wave flatline of Chemische Ameisenscheisse to Solide Einsamkeit's poignantly Tuxedomoon-y art wave.
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