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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
More krautrock than punkrock, 18 Oct 2006
1977: enter Nina Hagen. She looks like a punk in black lipstick, and she's covering The Tubes - albeit in German (TV Glotzer). But this isn't a punk record. Most of this album is thoughtful and melodic, and enjoyable as well, even if you don't understand the lyrics (what she gets up to in the 'damen klo' is a matter between you, Ms Hagen and your translator).
The band is torn between the fresh sounds of punk and their Krautrock heritage, and tries to marry them up with varying success. It's your link between The Clash and Kraftwerk and it's an odd document of the era - you can almost hear the Berlin wall - yet it's still strangely engaging.
Classically trained Hagen herself had actually been `invited to leave' East Germany - partly because she refused to lend her talents to glorifying the socialist paradise, but more because her father's dissident activities were an embarrassment and Erich Honecker's cronies wanted the whole `decadent' family gone.
Most of the music is pop-experimental, but it veers from side to side: from the Tubes cover at one extreme to the a-capella of 'Fisch im Wasser' and finally the outright punk of 'Pank'. That highly accomplished backing band, by the way, were already a unit when Hagen appeared and, after she left, went on to become the amusing and subversive Spliff.
There's some controlled aggression and some gentle, proggy trance music, punctuated by Hagen's remarkable, operatic voice. Sometimes it jars, sometimes (notably on Heiss and Naturtrane) it's sublime. There is a lot of musical `texture' here - perhaps a nod towards compatriots Can.
If you want something challenging and quite a bit different, this might be for you. So, all together now (to the tune of White Punks on Dope): "Allein! Die Welt hat mich vergessen/Ich Hänge rum! Habs bei allen verschissen..."
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