Although this debut double 7″ has been reissued on CD in 2004 (here), MITTAGSPAUSE will probably be pretty much inconnu outside of Germany.
After this, MITTAGSPAUSE (“Lunchbreak”) had another great and “tighter” sounding 7″ (“Herrenreiter”) and an interesting live LP (“Punk macht fetten Arsch”, which was released posthumously I believe). The untitled double 7″ was re-released on 12 inches in 1983. The band seems to be better known though for the fact that the core members went on to form FEHLFARBEN in 1980. “Monarchie und Alltag”, FEHLFARBEN’s debut was and is and ever will be one of the most amazing records, with a perfect symbiosis of music, sound and lyrics! No collection of good bad music is complete without it.
It’s crazy when you think that there’s only about a year between the release of this babe here and the climax of german post-punk and else as heard on “Monarchie und Alltag”. From snotty, experimental and funny dilettantism of MITTAGSPAUSE to the clean, icecold and hermetic world of FEHLFARBEN in such a short span of time, that is remarkable! Yet one of the two songs both records share, “Ernstfall”, works perfectly in the two versions; sloppy and clean, minimalistic and ballistic. However, you must enjoy this here for what it is. A record that starts off with the tuning of the instruments (“on “Testbild”) can’t be but great! Again, I can’t imagine MITTAGSPAUSE (or FEHLFARBEN) is accessible without the german sung lyrics, but well, let’s see.
Testbild.mp3
3 x Nordpol.mp3
Intelnet.mp3
X-9200.mp3
Militürk.mp3
Innen Stadt Front.mp3
Testbild.mp3
Deutschland.mp3
Derendorf.mp3
Ãœberblick.mp3
In der Tat.mp3
ernstfall.mp3
14 Comments
Wasn’t Mittagspause the first band of Gabi Delgado-Lopez, which became the singer of DAF? I think having read that “Militürk” was the first version of “Kebab-träume”. I don’t really know Fehlfarben, even if my young brother must have a few tracks form them… I guess I should listen to it!
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Yepp, Picard – Delgado-Lopez was the first singer before Peter Hein took over. Don’t know if Delgado-Lopez ever recorded something with Mittagspause though.
You’re also right about “Militürk”. You will actually find a version of this song on “Monarchie und Alltag” too. I never liked this song too much.
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I like this alot!! Think I heard some later stuff that was quiet good too. Not as good as Die Toten Hosen though ho ho ho
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No easy listening stuff here but that’s why I like about your blog. Nobody out there has such an intense mixture of styles of “good bad music” (nice term).
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yes, there is a recording from mittagspause with gabi delgado-lopez and peter hain both “Bendorf lügt/Marmor Stein und Eisen bricht/Industrie total/1978 Deutschland” live in 1978 on the legendary s.o.36-live-compilation.
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Ah, nice info Martin! Care to post that first KZ36 comp? Never heard it, dearly missin it.
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KZ36 with Ätztussis, Betoncombo, Kondensators, Blitzkrieg or S.O.36 with PVC, Ffurs, Wall, Stuka-Pilot, Dub-Liners, Mittagspause, Male, Din A Testbild?
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Ich meinte den KZ36 I Sampler, Martin. Hab ihn heute morgen (noch vor dem Kaffee) mit dem SO36 live Sampler verwechselt.
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i knew the song “innen stadt front” because it’s covered by Male, on one of their singles.
on that same 7″they cover die Toten Hosen too, they changed the lyrics from Jürgen Englers Party
into “die Toten Hosen Ihre party” (und wir kommen nicht rein)
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Yeah, Militürk by Mittagspause and Fehlfarben and Kebab Träume by DAF. The 3 songs have different music, though; only the lyrics are the same. Wir sind die Türken von Morgen… To tell the truth I don’t really get the message…
Here’s a translation (my German has limitations, anyway)
“Kebab dreams in the wall city / turkish culture behind barbed wire / new izmir in the DDR / Atatürk the new lord / Miliyet for the Soviet Union / In every Imbissstube a spy / In the ZK, agent from Turkey / Germany, Germany, everything’s through / We are the turkish of tomorrow”
Oh, and there was another band, OHL, who wanted to participate in the game and they used again the lyric in their “Türkenlied” (1981), again, with new music.
I love Mipau’s amauterism. A couple of songs have a clear Neu!-influence, sorta Kraut-punk.
I love SYPH too, and Abwärts.
Fernando
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I have the CD version (Captain Trip) from the double 7″ but I knew that the original “Militürk” had a diff. mix than the CD (some echo-effects disappear on the CD version). So I’ve checked these mp3 and yeah, the mix is clearly different. I’ve heard for the first time the tuning of guitars in Testbild (the CD starts with a fade-in).
The original mix is better, rawerrr
and more amateurish
Thanx for this
Fernando
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When I moved to England from Germany about 13 years ago, one of my first friends at school was a punk called Joe. This being way before the day of MP3s, we used to make each other tape compilations – him introducing me to the likes of the UK Subs and The Exploited, me showing him the wonders of Devo and Pere Ubu – and I do remember once making a tape where I included “1979 Deutschland” and “In Der Tat” on it. Not that I wanted to ‘introduce’ Joe to German punk or anything like that -back then I was too young to be intelligent enough to concoct an agenda when it comes to these things- but because, hey, I liked the songs and thought he’d like them too – and he did! He even commented that, due to Mittagspause, he thought that German made a brilliant language for punk, even if he couldn’t understand a word of it.
On this note, it also bears mentioning that, every time I include a Fehlfarben or a Mittagspause song on a compilation for a friend, it gets a positive response, illustrating that great music does transcend language or other such bullshit cultural divisions.
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HEY dudes,
such a great thing that youre talking about MIttagspause. I’m from Berlin and nobody is able to get the either double 7” or the red one with the riffle! How could I get the record? Where?
I’m writtin’ a paper on the influences on racisism in NDW New Wave and Early german punk…I need this record as you see….
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Why “Intelnet” is missing? It’s one of the best Mipau songs….
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