RFI: Fehlfarben

Fehlfarben grew out of the early German punk band Mittagspause, with reinforcements from S.Y.P.H. and DAF. Mittagspause were getting too heavy and their "bass" guitarist (it was actually a normal guitar slightly detuned and played through a bass amp) Franz Bielmeyer was mentally disintegrating, and singer Peter Hein wanted to play more ska-influenced stuff. The classic album is "Monarchie und Alltag", the classic single (which the band purportedly hate) "Es geht voran". I like their first singles most of all; those are available on the amazing compilation "Verschwende deine Jugend" on Ata*Tack with just about every other early German punk or New Wave single you'd ever want to hear. The new record "Knietief im Dispo" is very good too.

Tons more information is available in Juergen Teipel's book "Verschwende deine Jugend", which is not yet available in English.

Cheers, Colin! It seems hard to get the CDs you mentioned here in the US, but they are both available from Amazon's German store (with sound clips for every song, no less!), so maybe I'll try...

I just got the CD issue of Monarchie und Alltag, and the "greatest hits" CD Es Geht Voran... both are mostly great.

Too bad if the band hates "Ein Jahr (Es Geht Voran)". It's one of the greatest European "post punk disco" singles ever made... sure, the *BOOOooo* *BOOOOooo* sound effects are slightly dated, but the rest of the single's elements hold up, and it's tight, and never fails to get bodies jerkin' on the dance floor.

However, the band were indeed a lot more than just The Band That Did "Ein Jahr (Es Geht Voran)" (if that's the reason they hate it, which would make sense.) At least on the first album, they were a very competent and crisp sounding screaming German hybrid of early Jam, Gang Of Four, and -- in moments -- The Fall and The Cure.

Actually, their very first single from 1979 -- "Abenteuer Und Freiheit"/"Große Liebe/Maxi" -- was post-punk ska. Yes yes, what's commonly referred to as "second wave ska" was technically "after" "first wave punk", sure, but I'm using the phrase to describe the hybrid of what we call 80s ska literally mixed with what we commonly call today a "post punk" sound.. starkness and all. The single isn't as weird or mind-blowing as that may sound to you, but it's certainly hard to find anything that sounds quite like it, and both songs are great... but better are the songs I heard from the album Monarchie und Alltag proper.. especially "Apokalypse", "All That Heaven Allows", "Das War Vor Jahren", and others. Anyway, it's all on that CD. Get it. Fucking great.

The collection CD is more of mixed bag. It kicks off with the single version of their BIG SINGLE, which is probably half the reason people buy it alone. But there's more to chew on after Track #1. I would REALLY love to hear the albums which followed in '81, '82 etc. because while spottier, some of those songs culled here are amazing. The only other song I've heard that is as Chic -- pun intended -- if not moreso than "Ein Jahr (Es Geht Voran)" is the track "14 Tage". Sometimes they sound like that, and then sometimes they'll turn around and sound like the Church.

I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like they broke up/reformed/took a hiatus between 1983 and 1991?... as more than a third of this CD is from the early 90s. The 1991 stuff sounds like it took a few cues from "Madchester" but very few.. the two 1994 era songs sound very, well, un-90s, which is a compliment really. It's like they lived in a vacuum during the late 80s then suddenly got out of the oxygan tanks in 1991 for some reason and just continued on...