This article was automatically translated by AI.
There were prefabricated buildings, huge chemical complexes, polluted air, dreary uniform gray, and the notion that this location was a spearhead for socialist prosperity in the economy of the German Democratic Republic. The air and environmental pollution, which took many years to attempt to neutralize after the reunification, was kept quiet. Many millions were invested there for clean air and a clean environment. The chemical complexes could no longer be saved after the reunification. The machines were too dilapidated, too old, and too ineffective. Thousands of people became unemployed and often hopeless.
AUSSCHLAG was a band of three angry teenagers three or four years before the reunification who screamed their hatred of the hamster wheel of the GDR in the dark, cold basements of the city of Bitterfeld. The recordings were long considered lost. The three teenagers have since become men who no longer want much to do with the anger of their youth. The three band members are virtually unknown in Bitterfeld. No punk knows them, no ordinary person. They are somewhere....
As fate and happy coincidences would have it, the band's recordings were eventually found. The recordings, made at the time with primitive and barely existing recording technology on poor cassettes, having been recorded over multiple times, were too shabby to trust anyone with. After a loving and elaborate digital processing, or in modern terms: remastering, the recordings are now audible again and thanks to the Berlin DIY micro-label Ostklotz, also available to listen to.
The eleven songs still impress after such a long time with their anger and despair, which can be heard in every second. A truly angry, screeching singer brings forth songs with his two buddies that can hold their own against East and West German Deutschpunk bands of the first and second wave.
The anger at the system takes precedence over musical skill.
Titles like “Kack Zukunft”, “Brenn Bitterfeld” and “Hausverbot im Konsum” express the desperate rage that the three teenagers must have had.
The edited version of the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic is state-hostile incitement in its highest form. For that, one could have faced years in prison.
Punks were considered enemies of the state in the GDR. People who did not want to live in the hamster wheel were seen as enemies of the system. Anyone who was against it, any individuality, was stifled by the state in the form of the Stasi, block wardens, and people's police. Openly rebelling against this was hardly possible and even difficult in basements, because if a loyalist caught wind of it and spread the word, the state would be at the door. In the best case, one was only interrogated; in the worst case, it led to Stasi prison. An image we can hardly imagine today.
Recording something like “Who Ordered All This Poison?” during this time was very dangerous.
Perhaps that is exactly why these recordings are so authentic, yes, a piece of history.
A piece of GDR punk history!!
On the homepage of the DIY label Ostklotz, you can listen to the recordings for free and even download them for free.
A must!!
