Friday, December 29, 2017

ABWÄRTS - Beirut, Holiday Inn 12'' 1982

Abwärts is a German punk combo from Hamburg, founded 1979 by Frank Z. (vocals, guitar), FM Einheit (keys & percussion, drums), Mark Chung (bass), both left the group in 1982 to join Einstürzende Neubauten, and published with "Computerstaat" & "AmokKoma" two records that are on my Top Ten list of German punk records. Dissatisfied with the support provided by ZickZack, they now wanted to work more professionally and offer the next album to a major label. The work began fall 1981 in the Hamburg Hafenklang, a month of self-financed & produced studio recordings followed by a week of mixing in the London Townhouse studios and at the end of the year the album Der Westen Ist Einsam was finished and offered to various record companies and finally Abwärts signed at Phonogram. The reviews were shitty and in my opinion wrongly but that was the 80s journalists scum and Punk were Abwärts since already no longer. But it works for them and Mercury released then this 12'' with a new version of "Beim Ersten Mal Tut's Immer Weh" plus three more fine tunes, less punk and more Wave style, but worth hearing and as comparison you'll find their last ZickZack 7Inch "Roboter In Der Nacht" within (after that record, the hamburgers became uninteresting for me). Be nice to each other in your crisis area!


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