Originally posted by Lele:
If you like proto-industrial Euro-punk I would argue that DAF's second album, "Die Kleinen und die Bosen," is essential listening. Recorded live and very cheaply when they were still a band instead of just the duo of Robert and Gabi, it is one of the noisiest, craziest, most combative punk records ever.
While I agree with your basic description of "Die Kleinen und Die Bösen", I find it less consistent than their first three synth duo records. "Nachtarbeit" is great. Gabi shrieking and caterwauling is pretty unlistenable in my opinion. (Also if you want to get picky, the first half of the album was recorded in the studio. The second half was live.)
Originally posted by Lele:
The transition from the band's early sound to the signature synth minimalism of the duo is astounding, and Conny Plank rightfully deserves most of the credit for it.
100% agreement on this point.
Originally posted by Lele:
but by the time of "Für Immer" I started to lose interest, as did they, I think, since that album included a fairly lame reworking of one of their most controversial punk singles ("Kebabträume").
I have a DAF bootleg from 1979 with the full band playing "Ich und Die Wirklichkeit" which was later reworked to good effect on their first synth duo album. So perhaps, rather than losing interest, "Kebab Träume" was part of their standard practice of reworking full band songs which never made it onto an album.
With the "Kebab Träume" reworking, I might concede that the music was a little worse but I think the vocals improved. Gabi sounded high pitched and squeaky on the original single.
With respect to "Für Immer," I've always liked "Ein Bisschen Krieg" ("A Bit of War"). Only Conny could make one simple synth riff and some drums really sound like a war. Initially I didn't like the rest of it that much because they started to deviate from the formula of the previous two records. But it has grown on me over time and I rate it highly now.
