Moderators: lazyben, static14, texasvinyl

By thewaystation
#75170
I had been meaning to write about an entirely different album but on the day when I wanted to write my deep cut I picked up this record for a few bucks from the local store:

R. Die Musik zum Film “Der Fan”,
by Rheingold
1981
EMI
(1981 version with some additional English versions and early singles; 1982 version on Welt-Rekord/EMI with just the seven tracks from the film)

Discogs link



I had never heard of it before, nor been familiar with the band, a German electronic / dark wave threepiece consisting of Brigitte Kunze, Bodo Staiger and Lothar Manteuffel. The album has only had a couple of hours to sink in – apologies, therefore, if this cut is less satisfactory than it should be.

Some research suggests that “R“ has been sitting between artist album and ost release from the very beginning: The original, put out by EMI in 1981, was trying to cover all bases, subtitling the album “Musik zum Film ’Der Fan’“ (music for the movie “The Fan“) and including early singles and English versions of key tracks. All later editions, starting with the 1982 co-release with Fehlfarben’s Peter Hein’s Welt-Rekord label, mentioned the movie only on the back cover. Maybe the labels wanted to camouflage the stand-alone release as an artist album? After all, neither the lp nor the two singles that went with it (“FanFanFanatisch“ b/w “Augenblick“, and “Das steht dir gut“ b/w “Stahlherz“) were using any visual material from the film [the 7"titles are linked to discogs]. This might have been due to the maverick status that “Der Fan“ had almost immediately gained, particularly in Germany.

What, then, is the film about? You might want to check the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwbSuahJ1AA

Popular German tv host, teen star and an early 80s German adolescents’ fantasy in her own right, Désirée Nosbusch is starring as Simone, a 17-year-old fan girl devoted to electropop artist R (played by none other than Rheingold vocalist Bodo Staiger). When she finally manages to attract his attention, she is exploited for a one-night stand and takes drastic measures to make sure the star will never leave her again. There is teenage angst, nudity, and cannibalism. It is utterly dark stuff, directed by Eckhart Schmidt and recently released on Blu-ray (which you can find discussed comprehensively here). The theatrical release got massively delayed as Nosbusch, who mostly featured in youth television and actually presented a show called Musicbox for ZDF (one of the two state-owned West-German networks), had second thoughts and tried to prevent the studio from releasing the film (she lost the court case and the film was eventually released as it was, in summer 1982). No wonder, maybe, that the labels felt compelled to fiddle with their lp presentation, but then again “R“ might not have made #13 in the German album charts without all that ruckus.

Produced by the legendary Conny Plank, this album marks the point where the trajectories of German Krautrock/experimental electronics and the more song-based post-punk leanings of Neue Deutsche Welle (“German New Wave“) meet. The four tracks on the a-side follow established song patterns, including Staiger’s partly vocodered vocals, whereas the b-side lets rip with three instrumentals, culminating in the incredible “Stahlherz“, which clocks in at a whopping 11 minutes. For all the film music work that the German krautrock legends went on to do, they rarely scored horror films (Klaus Schulze’s “Angst”, an earlier deep cut, being the most obvious exception to this rule), which makes this disguised soundtrack an even more intriguing proposition.

The opening track, “FanFanFanatisch“, is probably why most people are coming to this album. It is reminiscent of DAF’s “Mussolini” (which was indeed another Conny Plank production from the same year) and a dark wave floor filler:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUjSvOYaEaA

With a band name culled from Richard Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen“ opera cycle, it won’t come as a surprise that there are teutonic tropes all over the place. Musically this might be more obvious elsewhere but when it comes to pop cultural references, the second track, “Das steht dir gut“, can hardly be bested. It features on-screen, and full-length, in the movie, and is introduced by a real-life German music show host who, here, presents the fictional show “Top Pop“. Watch the music clip as part of the movie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5elyUTlKUlA

If you’re only going to watch one of the clips from this deep cut it should probably be this one, as the clip-within-the-movie is a high-camp work of art in its own right, full of neon lights, androgynous dolls, posturing straight out of Leni Riefenstahl’s “Olympia”, fetishized studio machinery and a lot of black to allow for expressionist lighting. Additionally, the lyrics clearly reference Kraftwerk’s “Das Model“, which after all covers a similar subject matter:

Sie ist exklusiv / Sie ist ein Star / Sie ist so expressiv / Sie schaut dich an / Sie ist für dich da / Das macht sie gut / Ihr Lächeln ist so wunderbar

The song itself is typical of Neue Deutsche Welle in how it uses synth stabs to unleash punk mayhem. (There’s even a hint of pogo – and abstract neon geometry – in this awesome early 80s live footage of “FanFanFanatisch“:)
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKx-Gd5 ... elyUTlKUlA[/video]

After all this it could hardly come as a surprise that both Staiger and Manteuffel would go on to collaborate with ex-Kraftwerk members Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür, respectively.

The next track, “Augenblick“, is a solid ballad, but not much more.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5oag4n1MY4[/video]

“F.A.N.” is an elegiac dark wave piece with a synth line that I know from somewhere but cannot quite place. Check the passage after 0:24 to hear what I mean. While it doesn’t strike me as very original, I enjoy this song a lot.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKVt1SwdP0[/video]

The instrumental b-side is opened by “Abfahrt”, which wouldn’t be out of place on a Tangerine Dream soundtrack like “Flashpoint“ or their “Tatort” contributions:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3tkLBVMwBc[/video]

The short track “Überblendung” (‘cross-fading’) offers some blissful synth release at first but quickly fades into a vicious rattle straight out of the Riz Ortolani handbook. I haven’t found a clip on the net but at this point the reader will probably be thankful for any, well, shortcuts. – Next up is “Stahlherz“:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Kwj5v ... AF&index=6[/video]

The track is also on the b-side of the “Das steht dir gut“ single but – even on the 12“ – only in a truncated version of this 11:26 suite. The long version is not to be found online, either, which is a shame as this behemoth represents Rheingold at their freest, and yet at their most narrative. What kicks in with a playful disco bounce is soon put on edge by suspenseful electronic interference and finally has to make way entirely for glacial shifts and a muffled, unnerving pulse.

For the next deep cut I nominate @ghostfires.
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By freshoj
#75175
pure gold here!
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By Dollarhyde
#75177
Awesome cut waystation. Have recently been digging DAF's Mussolini after hearing it in 'The Guest' soundtrack, along with other dark wave tunes, so this is going down very nicely. Thanks for the education.
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By monsterworship
#75208
Damn you, this was actually gonna be one my next deep cuts.

Really love this movie, so creepy.