"No Escape," Caberet Voltaire (1979)

 One of my favorite early electro punk singles;  bleak, brooding, tribal, and punchy hammer down electronics. And I'm pretty sure burnishing their punk cred with a reworking of '60s protopunk garage classic, "Pushin' Too Hard," by the Seeds. 

DAF and Robert Gorl (Sans Umlaut): The Origins of Gothic Synthpop Dance Music

"Beruhrt Verfurht," ("touched seduced") Robert Gorl (1984) sounds like Alan Vega's (Suicide) German cousin. Mumbly, breathy, inscrutably emphatic, especially in Gorl's case because it's all in German, so no idea what he's on about until I looked it up. Although touching and seduction as subjects wouldn't have been too hard a guess. The girl singer sounds like a dry sassy Dietrich update. It's a nice '80s techno pop period tune. 

But Gorl, more like Suicide's Martin Rev, I'm learning is really a pioneering maestro of creative synthpop tempos, goosestepping stomps, hopped up polka Oompahs, robotic Teutonic jamming with a minimalist's blunt appeal, and a widely revered pioneer of Techno music. 

Here's Gorl showing off his instrumental chops and drollery on this 1984 failed solo stab at the charts: 

But where it all started was Gorl as one-half D.A.F. ("German American Friendship") with Gabi Delgado, German post-punk innovators, pioneers of synth-pop and industrial dance music styles between 1978 and 1984. Gabi adds the punky mock Nazi authority vocals and lyrics, crucial to their radical origins fashioning an electronics and synth based analogue to 1977 London punk rock. 

Add Gorl's brilliantly propulsive and minimalist drums and electronics, some production help from Krautrock legend Conny Plank (Kraftwerk, Neu, Cluster), and the first four DAF albums are extremely listenable, a journey from art-punk to what they called "Electronic Body Music" or EBM, and was rarely exceeded in catchy proto-synthpop sounds from that period. 

And they are another secret treasure in the annals of postpunk music unearthed for me by Simon Reynolds postpunk book. Back in the day I'd admired DAF no further than "Der Mussolini" as a kind of punk era one-hit-wonder. But never searched any further until running into them again in Reynold's Rip It Up and Start Again. 

"Der Mussolini" (1981), an international hit and monster in the dance clubs, was my first DAF song. The electro punk edge was instantly grabbing, but I barely noticed the dancing to Mussolini, Hitler, Jesus Christ, Communism, and right/left rhetoric beyond punk provocation and sloganeering. The provocations struck me as mocking as the Sex Pistols. 

  

Anyway, a deeper appreciation of their postpunk electronic synthesis now comes as exciting news. Their punk rock incubation phase is viscerally charged, to say the least. Check out this performance of "Ich und die Wirklichkeit" ("Me and Reality") (1981). Delgado on the mic, Gorl at the drums, but not sure about the New Romantic help on the electronics? But key! An electro charged punk rock fit. 

Best translation I could find googling: 

Me and I

In real life

Me and I

In reality

I feel so weird

I feel so weird

I feel so weird

I feel so weird

Me and I

In real, ha, life

The reality comes

Reality comes

Reality comes

Reality comes

I feel so weird.

Delgado is a hypnotically effective ranter, his tortured sarcasm comes through without much translation. This one standard issue existential punk rock angst but crucially with drums and electronics, no guitar. 

"Sato-Sato" (translates from Japanese as "always active"?), DAF (WestBam Remix from 2017): Priceless original early '80s footage of punkers dancing to DAF's electronic punk montaged by contemporary mixmaster WestBam. Public service:  

So of course the more fully up to date music people as opposed to a Mr. Magoo dilettante like me have been onto my DAF discovery for at least twenty years. Here's DAF dominating the Wire Festival in 2003 with another one of their Techno punk classics, "Alle Gegen Alle" ("All Against All") (1981). Flirting with violent fascist imagery via Hobbes, but again emphasizing the power over the hate-mongering. 

There's more trigger warning talk online about DAF, about how they were out gays and their lyrics tended toward explicit sex and rough trade stuff. I can definitely see some of the gay leather thing in their album covers but until this late edition song I haven't encountered much explicit language. Again, not that I'd notice with the German, other than to observe a lot of German sounds like cursing to me, if not particularly sexual. But looking up a few translations of the DAF I'm sharing here this is the first song I've come upon with explicit language. So adult content warning but also an evolved example of their special combo of tricky beats and aggressive electronics and sarcastic humor. 

"Ich glaub ich fick dich später" ("I Think I'll Fuck You Later") DAF/DOS (1996): 

A lot more where this came from that I don't know but a previously unexplored synthpop fountainhead source of electronic music fans of the genre will want to know, I will insist. DAF are one of the key founders of postpunk electronic-based gothic dance music and if you like any one of those musical categories they are not to be missed. Invigorating.  

"Fear," Easy Going (1980)

Ever wondered why Pink Floyd never made a disco track? Everyone else did in the 1970s. Or one better or more than "Another Brick in the Wall," anyway. This 1980 Italo-disco workout might satisfy your curiosity. Easy Going are named after a gay club in Rome. They put out a handful of records between 1978 and 1980 and sound here like Floyd doing some robotic disco. No dance floor liftoff crescendos but a suitably hypnotic assembly line groove with some cutting edge 1980 electronic disco moves. 

Bonus track: A goofy and energetic spin on Giorgio Moroder's electro-disco. And another significant subgenre deposit of Italo-disco or Euro-disco early 1980s. Hyper bouncy chirping tempos and rolling TV show synth fanfare. I adore pop disco instrumentals. "Plastic Doll," Dharma (1982)

"Y.A.L.A," M.I.A. (2013)

In as much as punk rock is in your face, taunting, angry, and snotty M.I.A. is punk rock. She turns YOLO ("you only live once") inside out, like a Hindi mind trick, now YALA ("you always live again"), but with the same urge to throw caution to the wind. M.I.A. was defining "bangers" before "bangers" were "bangers bangers." 

Post-colonial Sri Lankan/Global South, immigrant as global refugee, dancefloor toaster with swagger and lots of sauciness: "Where is my mind?" Pioneer in world beat electronic music genre. That her electronics sound like cheap home electronics adds to the rock & roll energy. She's more DIY hiphop than DIY punk. 

And maybe most punk rock contrarian-libertarian of all she's now come out against vaccines, which goes with '77 punk's wearing Swastikas for sheer stupid "I wanna destroy the passerby" punk-rock-ness. I mean, if you have a bad experience with a vaccine by all means speak out about it. But your misfortune, terrible as it may be, isn't a credible argument against vaccines; it can't negate the millions of lives saved by vaccines. The health care where I live tries to screen for bad reactions to vaccines. Sounds like a lot of people close to M.I.A. missed such screening measures. Anyway, what I especially don't like about M.I.A.'s latest punk move is how it feels like she's trolling for the conspiracy theory fake news audience. Which actually does endanger public health. So, annoying and disappointing.

But, alas, M.I.A., Bad Girl to the bone, again, again, and again, rocks, always has. "Y.A.L.A."! One thing I believe for sure, it's a banger!