I struggled long and hard before the vast majority of German Hardcore Punk started to speak to me. Some of the worst jocks I met in my life had Mohawks, a beer bottle glued to their one hand, the other hand in the air and on the back of the leather jacket-uniform, you could see the logos of bands such as RAZZIA, CHAOS Z, VORKRIEGSPHASE or BETONCOMBO. And BETONCOMBO’s LP it was that totally got my by my balls (as if I had any) when in Berlin in the mid 90s and being a miserable cunt, a friend put on the record and it just made “click” in my head. From this point in time on, I was able to read these bands.I doubt (and I pray to the Dalai Lama or Uriella that I’m right with it) that those jocks hear the same when they play these bands and I really don’t know what it is they hear. And I don’t care.
CHAOS Z are in a way the opposite of what I post last. Whereas SIEGE are tight and to-the-point with their energy, CHAOS Z are sloppy and maltreating their instruments. The drummer sounds like a very, very cheap ass drum computer running low on battery, the bass has more distortion than the thin guitar and the singer is monotone yet dripping acid with his voice. But these blokes manage to crank out an atmosphere of – yeah, of what? Insert the typical adjectives you’d hear from me in about every post [here] and still, CHAOS Z have more to their music. But I don’t know what it is. Every damn song has practically the same drum beat, the same scheme is used and the pure reptition is it maybe, that gets me so excited here. The first three songs are almost identical. “Harte Zeiten” and “Zwang” almost get me on my knees, but when I flip the plastic over, “Rational Mensch” and “Militär” rip me to shreds! “Rational Mensch” especially has an almost surrealistic brutality – all is so stripped down to the minimum that the song seems to implode and result a maximum of power and expression. You can hear that this is not just simple Hardcore Punk. Compare it to the first ANTI-CIMEX 7″ and you’ll probably hear similarities, but CHAOS Z are way more interesting in the end. Simplest musical forms of expression transcending into something more: This is what my dreams are made of! Although I’m pretty sure that not too many of the readers will dig this, I’d say give it two or three rounds and listen to some ABWÄRTS first. This should get you in the right mooooood.
The lyrics … well, “Bildungs-KZ” and such. I dunno. Maybe some other time I’ll sit down and try to over-read what I don’t like.
After this, the band had some comp tracks and one LP. The LP is kinda boring, if you ask me. Maybe the Mohjocks were referring to the LP, haha. The band later became FLIEHENDE STÃœRME of whom I have nothing, but reliable sources keep telling me “You’d love them!”
Harte Zeiten.mp3
Abmarsch.mp3
Zwang.mp3
Rational Mensch.mp3
Militär.mp3
25 Comments
Do you have the Extrem/Mickeyman split from 1983? Or anything by Extrem from Austria? If so, any chance of upping it?
cheers,
- stiener
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Perfect description of the item! Category: “German transcendental punk”?? Haha, I guess bands like TDC and SETA shoud fit there!
No, but maybe Abwärts, Mipau & such should be re-categorized there
Betoncombo, great LP indeed, I think you promised some aeons ago posting their killer, full of aggro EP (not requesting, I have the songs already)
Frenando
(Note: TDC = Transcendentale Deduktion der Categorien, great Oi-street punk band, and SETA = Synthetische Einheit der transcendentalen Apperzeption, those mohawked lads, of course) My typical mongo humor, y’know, sorry
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I had this for a loooong time before I had to let it go. I just couldn’t cope with it. The Buttocks had to stay though. The Betoncombo is great! And I have to make a confession that I was really into these mid 80s german HC bands. While the US bands seemed to get less interesting I found joy in Challenger Crew, Everything Falls Apart and the likes. Nowadays I don’t find these bands too exciting but still can’t decide if I shall keep them or not. They have their moments. In the end I think Middle Class Fantasies is the best thing I’ve heard so far from Germany.
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thanks for (another) great post!
CHAOSZ – when i was 14 a girl friend gave me their first record as a present. i later sold that original LP with all inserts and stuff for like 5 deutsche mark because I needed money.
because of their song “stuttgart über alles” i always loved stuttgart.
during the song “goldvieh” they seem to take black flags “six pack” lyrics one to one in german.
all in all: a wonderfull band! totally not vergleichbar with yours normahl, inferno, toxplasma (also all great bands – at least, on their earyl records).
but that selling their record for 5 dm still hurts even 16 years later.
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Also CANAL TERROR was great! as for FLIEHENDE STÃœRME, i will be one more to say you have to check! I saw them live in Rostock in 2002 and it was really good, very dark atmosphere and cool guys!
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curious – my copy of this 7″ has nice printed center labels with song titles and whatnot. were there different pressings with blank labels like yours? anyone?
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Thanks y’all!
Mike: I’ve been wondering too about the labels. Mine are handwritten and I always asked myself whether this could be a testpressing, as records in Germany have to have printed labels due to legal reasons. Maybe somebody knows more? Does your copy have an insert?
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nope, no insert. weird though, the last song on the printed labels is called 1981, instead of militar like on yours.
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I totally dig your work admin! All in all very varied (though you seem to be on the HC trip lately) and always with amazing insight and understanding of music. This one is a bit too primitive for me but I can understand what’s fascinating with these simple songs. Being born in the late 50s and active in the first wave of Punk from 76-78/79, those 80s bands still sound so incredibly aggressive. I’m not sure if I realized that when it was happening but in retrospect it’s amazing how wild and angry these bands are.
Thank you for all the great work and for showing me many many records I had never heard of if it wasn’t for your blog (and KBD blog!).
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“Filed in German Transcendental Punk” hahahahahahahahaha – Erich, you made my day!
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Had this ep lost somewhere in a mixtape Jan/AGx made me…great to be able to “find” it proper on this site.
I can’t stand other punks either…most useless pieces of shit I’ve ever met were in “the scene”. Total jock douchebags hiding under a pretense of “fighting the system”.
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I doubt that you’ll like FLIEHENDE STÃœRME… since you don’t like EA80…
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…
Don’t be cruel, Flo. I could try and be a 13 years old Vorstadtpunkerin.
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My copy had printed center labels too!
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@ Joel: thanks for the kind words. You’re right, I’m in a bit of a HC vibe. HC is summer music, Metal is for the dark winter nights.
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I love this, german punk is so great!
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poor mans… social unrest??
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Just the way it should be…fast, simple & catchy.
They were from Stuttgart, which is until today a pile of boredom in the south of Germany, and they did another album in the 90′s called “45 Jahre ohne Bewährung”, which is in my eyes much better than their first album in the 80′s.
They were quite unique and far ahead, because of their mixture of fast HC-Punk and their gloomy & spooky style. Fliehende Stürme are still around and they have a cult following amongst the so-called Gothic kids…
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Great Label “Weird System” brought out the complete ChaosZ-Diskographie on a Double-LP.
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I worship that band and wish I had all original releases, though I found this EP weaker than what came after it.
Fliehende Stürme is awesome, more like Wave. If you give it a listen, better start with the early stuff recorded before the bassist died (“An den Ufernâ€, “Priesthill†and “Fallen†LPs, the “Kaleidoskop†single, maybe the “Zerstörung†EP and definitely the tracks on the “Neues Deutschland†compilation, which were more into Punk again). The later records have good moments, too, but the older records are better to listen to as a whole. And the “Lunaire†album even seems to be absolutely weak.
To refer to the comment before mine:
Weird System sucks. Their CDs can’t be played on CD drives for computers (how Punk and underground!), and the version of “Krieg†on the Chaos Z re-released lacks the intro it originally had on the “Ohne Gnadeâ€, which is bad enough, but if you compare it to the version on the first “Schlachtrufe BRD†LP (which has no intro either), you will see the job couldn’t have been done any worse.
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First press comes w/ blank label & small center hole, second press comes w/ printed labels. In 1997 there is a counterfeit bootleg press w/ blank labels & big centerhole
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Can’t be true: I bought my first copy of this in ca. 1988, and the 2nd in ca. 1992. Both times blank handwritten label, big center hole.
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someone tried to sell me a chaos z abmarsch ep that had labels just like on this image, i know that german records don’t come with blank labels like scandinavan records, so obvously it was a bootleg. i do have a copy in my personal colletion and it does come with professional looking printed labels, on mulleimer records!
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Admin Reply:
May 2nd, 2010 at 08:44
That’s the second press. First press had blank labels.
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Oh boy, CHAOS-Z… I can honestly say: I have not heard their music in at least 20 years. I kinda liked their stuff though around the time the LP came out, which after a while was sort of a no-no because of their affiliation with Rock-o-Rama and Egoldt. Still, I think Bluttat, especially the first 12″, are more brutal with their Disorder/No-Music-approach. My favorite German band will always be Tu-Do Hospital, though. Very underappreciated band, very underappreciated album, which at the same time does not reflect at all what the band was capable of live. And that’s a compliment not given lightly, because the girl I loved left me for their singer. Aaaahh, those were the days…
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side two sounds like it was recorded at a different studio set up than side one. it turns out similar to the early abwarts zick zack machine appeal ( in the summertime from the 81 comp, the first ep and the roboter 7″). amazing what a bit of tin can guitar does to the listener’s sense of repetition.
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