Neun­ta­ge – Tape­to­pia 006 Sol­dier LP

In 1983, some more sub­dued sounds began to waft from the GDR punk under­ground into the second half of the ’80s. At five to the end of time, it was per­pe­tual­ly striking mid­night and the occa­sio­nal punk band would mix a litt­le lau­da­num into their poten­ti­al for aggres­si­on. Port­ents in this vein pre­ce­ded a dark wave who­se foamy crest would break on fog walls of dry ice. Espe­ci­al­ly in Leip­zig and East Ber­lin, a chain-ratt­ling zeit­geist pro­du­ced bands that drew from a dark well. Many of the­se bands aro­se from the still hot or alre­a­dy cold ashes of punk.

The two foun­ding fathers of Neun­ta­ge Alt, René Glof­ke and Tay­mur Streng (nick­na­med “Strang­ler”), knew each other from the East Ber­lin punk sce­ne. The third man aboard, Mike Sau­er, play­ed drums in the ear­ly 1980s for Sen­de­schluß, a punk band that, lost in thought some­whe­re in the no-man’s land bet­ween punk and post-punk, faded away in 1984. Punk was no lon­ger the order of the day, but it was a form of expres­si­on among many and easy to com­bi­ne. Glof­ke and Streng found com­mon ground in expe­ri­men­tal set-ups with such other-world­ly names as Medu­sa Brah­ma or Die zeit­wei­li­ge Erschei­nung. From this far-flung point of depar­tu­re, a short tun­nel led straight into the black light of Neun­ta­ge Alt, the col­dest star in the low…  more