Various Artists – “Sure! 80 – Cassette Poster from Dusseldorf 1980-82” (Review) – ByteFM

Variety Artists – “Sure! 80” (Desk B)

7.0

The Greenland label moved the label’s herbal and electric focus for two of the samples to Düsseldorf and primarily positioned the city’s big names with the most iconic pieces in “Electri_City 1” and “Electri_City 2”. Krautrock from Neu! and La Düsseldorf alternately with (Prä-) Industrial by Die Krupps and DAF or Ambient by Wolfgang Riechmann. Despite the great music, this remained a rather sketchy concert tour of “Electri_City Düsseldorf” and was intended primarily to be understood as a sequel to the book of the same name by Rudi Esch.

So it’s fortunate that Hamburg’s Bureau B is digging one layer deeper into the music and subculture between NDW, punk and innovative sophistication. The label has already dedicated itself to the cassette medium on “Sammlung – Electronic Cassette Music, Düsseldorf 1982-1989” and has also coined an antithesis to the high-gloss aesthetics of its Greenland collections with artwork (everything grey, grey, grey).

Free Jazz / Fake Jazz

This time, label and arranger Stefan Schneider (including To Rococo Rot) goes back in time with “Klar! 80 – Cassette Label Dusseldorf 1980-82” putting together a sampler covering the years 1980 to 1982 for the Klar label! 80 (“No Program Poster”, but all editions have a black and white cover on yellow paper) well lit. Some of the originals are completely rare and highly sought after. Office B’s careful adaptation to the past is sorely needed.

This is desolate Dusseldorf in the 1980s. Accordingly, products often sound like echoes of concrete buildings. Punishment for the Mutiny stage the opening “Blaue Mig” as an acoustic installation, as does P.Projekta/G.Ranzz with “M4” and Ralph and Ernie. The latter is taken from the “special” version. Just like Rara, Axel & Ralph (Ralph is different), these are just recordings made by musicians and/or sound engineers who are in the studio. Here at the latest it becomes clear that “Sure! 80” There is sometimes obscure music along with great music and great obscure music.

Primitive music of the Dusseldorf subway

Probably the most famous sampling interpreter, Xaõ Seffcheque, NDW jack of all trades and later member of Family 5 (who passed away in May of this year), plays with his band (Xaõ Seffcheque and the rest) on a very instrumental piece “I Miss the Words” Electronic dubbing of free jazz or something. This actually looks the most professional. Electro and dub are very present in Klar! 80″, but with clear genre definitions, it’s a hit with this primal soup music of the Dusseldorf subway.

Sometimes it rings out loud. For example, with Eraserhead, whose track “OT” lets wild drums duel with synths that somehow sound like Turkish folk music (!). It feels like lo-fi fights. very good! Or Red Star Belgrade (with label founder Rainer Rabowski) and their monotonous painter “Plas Din Kni Ein”. What kind of names are these, what kind of music is this! The very particular pallor (again with Xaõ Seffcheque, Neubauten member Alexander Hack was also there for a short time) the faux-jazz all but disappeared in the end. With so much of a journey back into the concrete, it’s a shame to lose SYPH of all people.

Release date: July 14, 2023
Label: office b