Deutsche Kassettentäter

In the late 1970s, the German music scene was shaken up by a virtual explosion of new bands that sounded radically different to anything that had come before. They played music that was experimental, playful, absurd, minimalist and astute, with lyrics that were sung – or more commonly screamed – exclusively in German. Small companies like ZickZack and Ata Tak started to release records by these young artists who were springing up like mushrooms. The independent record label was born. The spirit of this new movement – later branded Neue Deutsche Welle – emerged from a collision between the self-confident attitude of punk, the legacy of Germany's electronic avantgarde and a belief in the imminence of an atomic apocalypse.

Felix Kubin, who started creating experimental electronic 4-track music himself as a teenager in 1981, presents a caleidoscope of sound, tape and fanzine examples, including interviews with Alfred Hilsberg (the founder of Hamburg’s seminal ZickZack records) and Frank Apunkt Schneider (author of the book Als die Welt noch unterging - "When the world was still on the verge of downfall").


This event is framed in the context of the ZickZack exhibition at Various/Artists (Oct. 8 - Nov. 7), and is a part of Goethe-Institut New York's contribution to the region-wide project, Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50. Emerging in the mid-1970s as a radical subculture defined by opposition, negation, and disruption, punk challenged conventions in music, politics, and everyday life. Half a century later,  Alle  gegen  Alles  asks: What roles do subcultures play in today’s volatile societies? What defines punk in the present moment?  Across participating cities, locally curated programs form the backbone of a larger international dialogue on subculture, protest, and self-determination.