Wild Planet Revisited – Abwarts

Wild Planet P1-02

Kicking off, we have 50 words on Abwarts, the German post-punk group who actually hailed from Hamburg, not Berlin. The connection with Berlin’s “Die Geniale Dilletanten”, which encompassed Einsturzende Neubauten, Die Todliche Doris and others, was the dual membership of Abwarts and E.N. by FM Einheit and, later, Marc Chung.

Forming in Hamburg in 1979, and releasing their first recordings on the Zickzack and Rip Off labels, the group signed to Phonogram for their second LP “Der Westen Is Einsam” (The West Is Lonely) and started to get linked with the German music industry’s attempt to create a movement “Neue Deutsche Welle” (New German Wave). This spurious industry technique lumped together bands such as Trio and Ideal alongside more innovative groups like Palais Schaumburg and Yello (yes, they were Swiss!) to try and break this “scene” in the UK and USA with a number of compilation LPs.

Marc Chung left the group around 1983 to concentrate on Einsturzende Neubauten, whilst “Mufti” Einheit continued to link with the group for several more years.

Abwarts have released 15 albums and 13 singles with Frank Ziegert the only remaining original member, their most recent being the “Krautrock” album in 2014.

Here is “Computerstaat” from their first EP in 1980

 

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