Review:

on 2011-04-19 CharlesMartel Said:

I once went through a brief (very brief!!) phase of liking German techno-pop. Looking back, it is just one of things you have to go through, I think. Remember, this was the time when Rudi Voller was the king of German football, and his image of a blond mullet and a neatly trimmed moustache not only fitted the archetypal image of eighties German euro-pop, but also bore a more than passing resemblance to virtually every German male porn star you saw impale some tousled lovely on his member.

As a result of this brief interest, I can find amongst my collection singles by Falco and Deutsche-Amerikanische Freundschaft and albums by Kraftwerk, Alphaville and, again, Deutsche-Amerikanische Freundschaft. Alphaville was, in truth the only outfit whose work I really enjoyed, although at time I found a strange fascination for Karftwerk. But Alphaville produced one sparkling album and faded from view. Deutsche-Amerikanische Freundschaft, on the other hand, went on for longer. They had their roots in the late eighties combining electronic and post punk music in a format which was at times edgy but always danceable. But it always seemed to me to lack something.

I had not heard this album in quite a while and went back to it after a very long absence with the intention of reviewing it for this site. How it has dated! This is eighties music at its most clinical, its most anti-septic and its most soulless. At times it is positively dour. Deutsche-Amerikanische Freundschaft set out to be this way, but it does little to inspire. Whereas Kraftwerk used the machine to emphasise the soullessness of machinery in contrast to the creativity of mankind, Deutsche-Amerikanische Freundschaft relied on soulless machinery to emphasise the exact opposite. Machines became the power to music. Musicians were no longer needed, a couple of sequencers and a barrage of synthesisers would do. Music did not require human creativity. It could now be manufactured in a factory. Anonymous and irrelevant, humans faded into the background. It is no coincidence that the cover features the two band members in black silhouette. Their identities are practically irrelevant to the whole piece.

The crispness of the earlier rhythms, providing an infectious danceability has also been lost on this album. What the band have frequently come to rely on is the repetitive four-four thumping of the drum machine to create a danceable theme. Synthesisers provide whatever layering and texture there is to the sound and the vocals are almost monotone in delivery. I recall buying this on the back of the terrific "Der Mussolini", a 12 inch single they put out which encapsulated that dance-electronica style they often deployed. In retrospect, the decision to buy may have been somewhat misplaced for this has none of the energy of "Der Mussolini"

The album therefore does not live up to expectations. None of the tracks has the capacity to move me. I guess this is one of those albums which I have outgrown and no longer hold in much regard. Perhaps that is why I never had a mullet and rarely wore jackets with extended shoulder pads. The eighties may have been the decade with which I have the strongest affinity, but the eighties were not always the sign of the best music.
Rating: 5/10