pass: tdats
Welcome to part 2 of the the somewhat forgotten pysch, prog and hard rock of communist East Germany, as promised when I posted part 1. I will not repeat the introduction to part 1, and the brief account of the struggles of rock bands in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (aka GDR), but you can go back any time and read it, and get the music, in that post from December last year (LINK). Most of the band information I provide here has been paraphrased and abridged from the amazingly comprehensive website deutsche-mugge.de, and if you want any more detailed info on any of these acts you will find it all there (link).
I compiled both of these at the same time and decided to split the comps into two posts, for easier digestion. If you felt there were some important names missing from part 1, such as the Klaus Renft Combo or Karat, then this volume completes what I think is all the bands that are worthy of this particular subject, which still bring the required TDATS heaviness with them too!
As with volume 146, this rounds up a large variety of sounds, from the usual period heavy psych, fuzz and hard rock you'd expect, to some more space rock in the final track, and even a hint of disco rock, from Gruppe ,,WIR". Again we have got plenty of super groovy jazz prog, including a brilliant flute rocker from the Ekkehard Sander Septett, a touch of glam from the Angelika Mann & Reinhard Lakomy-Ensemble, and the return of a Hungarian band that was adopted as a favourite in the GDR, witch seems to have become TDATS royalty now, with this fifth appearance on the blog. Another band, Katja & Roman, is from a country outside of Germany. These acts are included as they were adopted in the GDR and had releases unique to the region, sung in German. There were some other East European bands that have appeared in TDATS before, that received similar attention in the GDR at the time, including Poland's Breakout, Czechoslovakia's Blue Effect and Hungary's Skorpió, all three of which appeared way-back in TDATS 41: Eastern Europe special (link), and some other episodes.
Of the sixteen tracks here, fourteen are brand-new acts to the blog so I hope this will yet again be a very fresh listen for everyone!
TRACKS
01. Magdeburg - Heisses Land (1975)
from album Beatkiste Vol. 4
02. Theo Schumann Combo - Vesuv (1969)
from album Theo Schumann Combo
03. Omega - Zerbrechlicher Schwung (1973)
from album Hallo Nr. 9 and Das Deutsche Album
04. Katja & Roman - Ich Will Sein Wie Das Meer (1974)
single
05. Bürkholz-Formation - Sei Kein Vulkan (1973)
from album Hallo Nr.10
06. Klaus Renft Combo - Zukunft (1971)
from album Beatkiste Vol. 5
07. Babylon - Tschigiten-Legende (1976)
from album Beatkiste Vol. 4
08. Horst Krüger-Band - Hab Mir Von Der Tagesreise Manches Mitgebracht (1974)
from album Hallo Nr. 1 / 74
09. City - Nur Die Nächte Gehören Uns (1979)
from album Der Tatowierte
10. SET - Eisen (1975)
from album Hallo Nr. 1 / 75
11. Karat - Ich Lauf Durch Die Stadt (1975)
from album Beatkiste Vol. 6
12. Ekkehard Sander-Septett - Kein Märchen (1973)
from album Ost-Kraut! Progressives Aus Den DDR-Archiven
13. Panta Rhei - Hier Wie Nebenan (1972)
single
14. Angelika Mann & Reinhard Lakomy-Ensemble - Ein Irrer Typ (1975)
from single & album Hallo Nr. 2 '75
15. Wir - Eisberg (1976)
from album Rhythmus '76
16. Günther Fischer-Quintett & Hansi Klemm - Kosmoslied (1978)
from album Die Erde Dreht Sich Linksherum
THE ARTISTS
Magdeburg - Heisses Land (1975)
Here’s a doom laden slow-burner from a band that evolved out of Klosterbrüder, who were in the previous DDR volume (link). After the joint "Fusion" tour of the Klosterbrüder and Stern-Combo Meissen (also on previous volume) in 1975, Lothar Kramer and Jörg Blankenburg left the Magdeburg group Klosterbrüder. The band was under enormous pressure from the GDR authorities, who repeatedly found fault with Klosterbrüder. Shortly after Gisbert Piatkowski joined Klosterbrüder as the new guitarist and Hans-Peter Dohanetz as the new keyboardist to replace the dropouts just mentioned, the group was renamed Magdeburg. Musically, however, there was no change of direction, and they stayed true to hard rock, but also made a brief excursion into disco music ("Funky Dance" and "Come on, and stay with me").Dohanetz' affiliation with the new formation did not last long and he switched to the group Pilot. Rüdiger "Ritchie" Barton came in for him as the new keyboard player. Magdeburg premiered in a TV show on GDR television. The first time was not easy for the newly founded band, because the old fans from Klosterbrüder times had their problems with the new name and the story behind it. Despite this, the group established itself very quickly. New songs emerged; Band leader Dietrich Kessler and Klaus Weigert were responsible for the compositions. Lyrics came from Ingeburg Branoner, Burkhard Lasch and Jan Witte. The first recordings were made for GDR radio, and in 1976 Magdeburg's first record was released with the single "In Meinem Land".
The band suffered continuous problems with the authorities, which sadly brought them to a quick breakup in 1981, soon after the release of their first full album, these troubles even lead to Dietrich Kessler and Hans-Joachim Kneis going to prison for 18 months!
In 1992 Magdeburg started a comeback and played live again. Since 2000 the band has been active and touring again under their original name Klosterbrüder. The founding members Hans-Joachim Kneis [† 2020] and Hans-Peter Dohanetz [† 2006] have since passed away. This bio can be read in full detail at deutsche-mugge.de (link).
Here’s a super groovy instrumental with a ska-like horn section and nice fuzz guitar. Theo Schumann's musical path began with the orchestras of Kurt Hohenberger and Schwarz-Weiss. The Theo Schumann Combo (also Theo Schumann Orchester or later Theo Schumann Band) was founded by Schumann in 1961 and was not only one of the longest-serving groups in the GDR, but also one of the first beat bands in the GDR. The group was given the opportunity to make their first studio productions in early 1964, before other bands were granted this privilege.
Theo Schumann was actually a jazz musician, but he played beat music with his Theo Schumann Combo, which was extremely popular with young people at the time and which also spread quickly in the GDR. As already mentioned, the Theo Schumann Combo was allowed to record their first songs for GDR radio in 1964, so "All The Things You Are", "Karawane", "Hully Gully Party" or "Radebeul West" were some of the songs that were recorded at that time. The combo then had appointments in the studio to record new songs more and more frequently, because just one year later, in July '65, the Theo Schumann Combo produced the song "Sag nie mehr I love you zu mir". This is the German version of the Beatles song "I Should Have Known Better". In addition, the songs "That can't be true", the German version of the Rolling Stones track "The Last Time", and another cover version of a Rolling Stones hit, namely "Satisfaction", were recorded with partial German lyrics. However, the latter song only saw the light of day long after reunification. The reason for this was that the Amiga label decided shortly after the recording that "Satisfaction" should not be released and played on the radio. The Theo Schumann Combo's "Satisfaction" version then disappeared in the basement of the studio building before any of the musicians even heard the finished song. The title was first published in 1995 on the CD "'64 to '69" on the small Grauzone label.
By the time their first LP was released in 1969 ("Theo Schumann Combo", Amiga), the group had released a whopping 11 singles. The LPs "For Young People" (1970) and "Guten Abend, Carolina" (1971) were then released in the space of a year. Apart from the Theo Schumann Combo, only Thomas Natschinski's Group (see v146) had managed to release this large a number of records. In addition, the Theo Schumann Combo, along with the Natschinski group Team 4 , was the only beat band that survived the harsh actions of the GDR authorities against the beat movement. The full band bio can be read at deutsche-mugge.de (link).Here's a heavy hammond belter from a band that have appeared in the blog four times before, back in vols 2 (link), 22 (link). 41: Eastern Roc (link) and 87: Space Rock (link). Omega was the most successful rock band in Hungarian music history, and one of the longest-serving (if not THE longest-serving) rock band in the country. Musically, the group served a variety of music genres with beat music, symphonic rock, hard rock, progressive rock and influences from many other styles. The last line-up has been active since 1971 with no personnel changes, with the exception of guitarist Tamás Szekeres, who joined Omega in 1989, and Katy Zee (2012). Some of the band have been making music together since 1959, because Omega was formed in 1962 from musicians from the two groups Ciklon (János Kóbor, András Kovacsics, József Laux and István Varsányi) and Próféta (László Benkö and Tamás Künsztler). The young musicians had their first appearance under the name Omega on September 23, 1962 at the Technical University in Budapest. The idea for the band name did not come from one of the musicians, but from the organizer of this first concert, who spontaneously gave the musicians who were undecided about the band name, the name Omega.Omega's first single was released in 1966. It features a cover of the Stones hit "Paint It Black" and another cover of "Bus Stop" (originally by The Hollies). More singles followed with more cover versions of international hits. With "Nem új a nap alatt semmi", their first original song appeared on single in 1967. In the late 1960s, Omega was discovered at a performance and gained a manager. This manager ensured in 1968 that the band could go on tour in England and got an international record deal with Decca. This made it possible for the musicians to record a complete album in London. There the band performed as Omega Red Star and released in the same year (1968) the "... from Hungary" album, sung entirely in English. In their native Hungary, the record was released in Hungarian in the same year under the name "Trombitás Fredi és a Rettenetes Emberek". The LP reached gold status in Hungary shortly after release. The English record, on the other hand, was not a commercial success at first, but reached gold status there a few years later.In 1969, attention was first drawn to Omega in Germany. A complete album, "Omega Ensemble Budapest", was released in the GDR. In 1972 another album was released in East Germany, simply titled "Omega". This LP was a kind of coupling with tracks from the first three Omega LPs. During their guest performances in the GDR, where the band played well-attended concerts, the opportunity was taken to produce various Omega titles in German for radio. These productions resulted in titles such as "The Night Road", "Pearls in the Hair", "Unfaithful Friends", "She Calls Every Day" and "Magical White Stone". In the other part of Germany, back in the 70s, there was obviously not that much interest in the band's songs sung in German. Various Omega albums with lyrics sung in English were released here from 1973 onwards. The German producer Peter Hauke became aware of Omega in 1973 and got the band a record deal with the Bacillus Records/Bellaphon label. This was initially only signed for three years, but was extended in 1976 due to good sales figures. In the years that followed, Bacillus Records released the English-language versions of the Omega albums mentioned above. It wasn't just the original tracks with English lyrics, some of the older songs were completely re-recorded for the Western releases. The album "Time Robber" was released in 1977 even before the Hungarian version "Idorabló - Omega 7". Due to the success of their LPs, Omega played numerous concerts in their home country of Hungary and abroad in the '70s. So it was only logical that in 1979 the band's first real live album was released both in Hungary and in Germany under the name "Élo Omega - Kisstadion '79". A year later this record was also released in Japan.
For the 58th year of their existence, the band had finally set their sights on completing a long-awaited new studio album. The musicians used the cancellation of concerts and other performances due to the corona virus in the summer of that year to produce new songs in the studio. Before the album "Testamentum" was released in December 2020, the band had to accept two heavy blows of fate. Within a few days, keyboardist and founding member László Benkő died, followed by the bassist . Both had lost their battles with cancer. For the year 2022, the musicians had already worked hard to think about how to celebrate the band's 60th birthday. In the middle of the planning, Mecky fell ill with the corona virus, the consequences of which he died from on St. Nicholas Day 2021. Very sadly, Omega died with him. The extensive Omega history can be read at deutsche-mugge.de (link).
Here’s a groovy rocking single with a girl singer. This single was put out by the Amiga label in 1974, and I have been able to find nothing more on Katja Kutchinsky, who was presumably the singer here. The other two names attached, Roman Runowicz & drummer Ireneusz Nowacki, are both well-documented Polish musicians. Runowicz was in Nurt, who featured on Polish TDATS v101 (link) and Nowacki (discogs) played with Runowicz in Romuald I Roman, who also appeared on the Polish volume of TDATS. Another song by Katja & Roman, “S-Bahn Blues”, was put out by Amiga on two of their many compilation albums. Some more brief mentions of the band members can be seen at beatles.ru (link) and savagesaints.blogspot.com (link).
Bürkholz-Formation - Sei Kein Vulkan (1973)
Wer Bloß Ist Heute Groß? (2021) |
Klaus Renft Combo - Zukunft (1971)
Babylon - Tschigiten-Legende (1976)
Babylon then played two tours in the Soviet Union. The song "Tshigiten-Legende", composed by Dieter Wiesjahn and produced for the radio, became the band's first hit. Shortly thereafter, "Paule" Fuchs and Manfred Hennig left the band and started the group Pond. There they both met again with the keyboarder Harald Wittkowski, who had left Babylon two years before.
Horst Krüger-Band - Hab Mir Von Der Tagesreise Manches Mitgebracht (1974)
City - Nur Die Nächte Gehören Uns (1979)
SET - Eisen (1975)
Here's another short rocker, with great guitars and a powerful prog sound, especially in the vocal delivery. SET was founded in 1972 as an amateur band in Leipzig by Lutz Heinrich (g, voc), Helmut Schulze (bass), T. Riehl (keys), Hendrik Kralle (sax, fl) and Jürgen Schachmann (dr). The blacksmith Lutz Heinrich from Gröditz was discovered by "Cäsar" (Renft) and brought to Leipzig, where he quickly got to know the other founding members of SET. When band boss Helmut Schulze had to go into the army at the end of 1972, Bernd Seifert and Hansi Kölling joined in his place. At the beginning of 1973 there were more changes, until the group consisted of Hans Kölling (voc, g, sax), Lutz Heinrich (g, voc), Bernd Seifert (bass), Herbert Schmidt (key, org) and Bernd Haucke. While songs were covered at first, SET started writing their own songs in 1974. Shortly thereafter, the band was able to make its first radio recordings, "Lied für Freunde" and "Eisen" (included here) were created. The latter song ended up on Amiga's "Hallo 1 / 75" compilation, making it SET's first record release.
Shortly thereafter, Bernd Haucke, Lutz Heinrich and Bernd Seifert left the band. While Thomas Bürkholz took over the drums position, Lutz Künzel (Tobias Künzel's brother) and Frank Czerny filled the other vacant positions. There were no more releases and things became increasingly quiet around the band. From the mid-1980s, SET did very few live shows and in 1989 they disbanded.
Karat in 1975 |
The next track comes storming in like prime Deep Purple, a band that heavy German prog in general seemed to love, and rightly so! Karat was founded in 1975 by Henning Protzmann and Ulrich Pexa. Officially it is said that they emerged from the band Panta Rhei (coming up soon) but it might be more accurate to say Henning left the jazz rock formation consciously in order to be able to break new ground. Herbert Dreilich and Ed Swillms were the last to join later. Protzmann's goal was to make music that appealed to the public more than with Panta Rhei, while still being progressive and technical. The original line-up, which first rehearsed together in the autumn of 1974, included Henning Protzmann and Ulrich Pexa, as well as Hans-Joachim Neumann, Konrad Burkert and Christian Steyer (known to many as the narrator of "Elefant, Tiger & Co", a reality TV show about a working Leipzig Zoo). Ulrich Pexa had the idea of naming the band "Karat".
Steyer left after just a few weeks, because he wanted to focus on acting. To replace Steyer, the group inducted Ulrich "Ed" Swillms, who joined the band together with Herbert Dreilich. Shortly after its formation, in January 1975 Karat had the opportunity to produce four songs for the radio station of the GDR. The songs "Du und ich", "Ich Lauf Durch Die Stadt" (included here), "Leute, welch ein Tag" and "Schwester" were recorded. A month later the band gave their first concert (on February 21, 1975) at the Otto Buchwitz cultural center in Heidenau.
In the first year of its existence, Karat produced more than 10 radio recordings. In 1976 Pexa and Burkert left and were replaced by Bernd Römer and Michael Schwandt. Another year later Hans-Joachim Neumann left the group. From now on, Herbert Dreilich was the sole singer.
Karat has continued as one of Germany's prominent hard rock bands until the present day, with a lot more documented than I can possibly fit in here, you can read it all at deutsche-mugge.de (link). Karat also have a current website (link).
Here we have the irresistible sound of funky flute and hard prog guitar! I believe this track is a radio recording and is thus-far only available on the recent compilation from Bear Family Records called "Ost-Kraut! Progressives Aus Den DDR-Archiven (1970-1975)".
The Sander Formation was founded in 1969 by Ekkehard Sander in Dresden under the name Ekkehard Sander-Septett. The first line-up also included Udo Jakob, Volkmar Ryssel and Thomas Reuter. All musicians were graduates of the Carl Maria von Weber Music Academy in Dresden.
In the early days, the band mainly played songs by other artists at dance events. The band earned their first money, for example, during the holiday season on the Baltic Sea coast. At the beginning of the '70s the group was already quite well known and from 1970-1971 wind instruments were included in the line-up in order to further develop the sound. During this time, the group also acted as an accompaniment and concert band for the Swedish pop singer Marianne Kock during her tour of the GDR. But time and again they created their own songs, a few of which were produced in the GDR radio studio. In 1972 Amiga released the first single with two of these radio productions, "Alle Wege". Another single record followed in 1973 - both come from the "DT64 Musikstudio" series. While the first record was a single with two tracks by the themselves, the second release was a split single, with Lift.
From 1973 the band changed its name to Sander Formation. In the middle of 1973, the group was able to place itself well ahead in various charts with their song "Kein Märchen" (included here). In 1974 Sander started working with Gerulf Pannach from Renft. He wrote lyrics for four songs for the group, which were radio-produced in April 1974 but unfortunately not released on disc, including the songs "Rück näher heran" and "Sommertraum".As a result, the band continued to play concerts. There was also another record release: In 1978, the group's third single, "Hier lebe ich mit Dir" (B-side "Girls from Düben"), was released. Although there was certainly enough material available, the only record company in the GDR, Amiga, did not allow Sander Formation to produce their own LP.
Ekkehard re-formed the group in the mid-1980s. Only he himself remained. From 1989, singer Petra Hennig was the first woman in Sander Formation. The group existed until the mid-90s, but no longer playing their own songs, they accompanied other artists in the studio and on tours, such as Jonny Hill, Andy Borg and Claudia Jung. Read more at deutsche-mugge.de (link).
Panta Rhei (translated: everything flows), named after words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, existed for just under four years, and hardly any band split has ever produced such successful off-shoots as this - among other things, Karat and Veronika Fischer & Band. The line-up almost reads like a "Who's Who" of what later became the GDR rock scene. Panta Rhei was founded in April 1971 by singer and guitarist Herbert Dreilich, bassist Henning Protzmann and pianist / cellist Ulrich "Ed" Swillms, who all three had known each other since 1970 from the Berlin live band the Alexanders. Blood Sweat & Tears songs, as well as the three musicians' own songs, shaped the musical profile of the band and in the jazz lyricist Jens Gerlach they found an accomplished writer who understood how to transform the heaviness and harsh sounds of the melodically and rhythmically unconventional works into popular, lyrically political music.
In addition to Herbert Dreilich, it was Veronika Fischer who left her stylistic visiting card with Panta Rhei after taking her first steps as a singer in the Stern-Combo Meißen in 1971. When she left with drummer Frank Hille in 1973 and founded her own band, Panta Rhei came to an end. The wind section had already been reduced earlier and the jazz and soul orientation had proved to be a handicap for the public success. Popular bands like Renft or the Puhdys put on a better show or were simply closer to the tastes of the general public with their songs. Protzmann left the group and began building a new band. After Herbert Dreilich and Ed Swillms also moved there, the former core of Panta Rhei presented itself as the group Karat in February 1975.
In contrast to many other bands from the former GDR, which re-appeared soon after reunification with new records, Panta Rhei did not make a comeback, but co-founder Henning Protzmann started his own new version of Panta Rhei and has been playing live with this band again since 2015. Read the full Panta Rhei history at deutsche-mugge.de (link).
Lacky & Lütte |
Angelika Mann |
Nearing the end of this set, we have a stomping glam rocker with a charismatic vocal from Berliner Angelika Mann. After attending the Friedrichshain music school, as one of the only female students in her area of study at the time, she became pianist in the Peter Hanisch Combo, a Berlin amateur band that later changed name to Medoc. From there she was in a number of ensemble-type groups, including those of names already mentioned here like Klaus Lenz. In 1973 she joined the Reinhardt Lakomy-Ensemble, which is where this 1975 track is from. From 1976 onward she helmed her own bands such as Angelika Mann & Gruppe, Angelika Mann & Obelisk, along with many classical, theatrical and acting endeavours up to recent times.
Reinhard Lakomy |
Angelika Mann & Reinhard Lakomy-Ensemble |
Die Erde Dreht Sich Linksherum - 1978 |
The haunting electronically infused closer of this set is true space rock; it comes from a 1978 Amiga compilation LP called "Die Erde Dreht Sich Linksherum" that was made in honour of Soyuz 29, a space mission with cosmonauts Siegmund Jähn (the first German in space) and Soviet Valery Bykovsky.
Günther Fischer |
Fischer first specialised piano, saxophone, flute and clarinet. He founded his first group in 1960, a trio consisting of guitar, bass and accordion. Between 1960 and 1963 Fischer studied music education at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Zwickau. He continued his studies between 1965 and 1969 at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in East Berlin and added the subjects clarinet, saxophone, composition and arrangement, and conducting. During this time, Fischer played in the Klaus Lenz Band and founded the Günther Fischer Quartet in 1967 together with Reinhard Lakomy (piano), Wolfgang "Zicke" Schneider (drums) and Hans Schätzke (bass), which over time became a quintet (from 1969 with the guitarist Fred Baumert) and sextet (from 1979 with the Hans-Joachim Graswurm on trumpet).
Die Erde Dreht Sich Linksherum - 1978 (rear side) |
Related listening:
The Day After The Sabbath 146: HALLO Nr. 1 - DDR Rock part 1 [Rock of Communist Germany]
The Day After The Sabbath 134: Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia special
The Day After The Sabbath 120: Wolf of Iron Jaw [Serbian rock pt1]
Good to see you are back! I've only just checked in and now have some catching up to do, thanks for all your efforts!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Thanks! And spread the word :D
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