Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [44]
* * *
Thinking of studying in Germany, want to know how many breweries there are in Germany or what life’s like in Germany’s university towns? See the German Academic Exchange Service website, www.daad.de.
* * *
Members of the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW; German New Wave) always sang in German – although Nena, its tame international mother ship, successfully recorded her hit single ‘99 Luftballons’ in English, too. The movement spawned the Hamburger Schule (Hamburg School) of musicians, with recognised acts such as Blumfeld, Die Sterne and the Tocotronic still going strong since emerging in the 1990s. Die-hard legends gathering no moss are Germany’s most enduring punk band, Düsseldorf-based Die Toten Hosen; punk queen Nina Hagen (b 1955), whose transformations still seem ahead of their time; and Die Ärzte. Meanwhile, Herbert Grönemeyer (b 1956), ‘Germany’s Springsteen’ (also a decent actor) and leather legend Udo Lindenberg (b 1946) – who has resided in Hamburg’s Hotel Atlantic longer than some of us have been alive – are still kicking on.
As well as language, another choice facing bands is whether to base themselves in Hamburg or Berlin. Both cities are important capitals for rock bands but exert different influences – the Berlin sound is generally somewhat harder, while Hamburg bands often retain stronger shades of German New Wave, with a punk or lighter pop flavour. Giessen-bred Juli is one soft-rock band that works out of Hamburg, where the sound is often more melodic. Bautzen-born Silbermond is based in Berlin, whereas Wir Sind Helden, considered one of the best pop-rock bands around in Germany at the moment, started in Hamburg and shifted to Berlin.
* * *
Watch the videos and hear the music of Germany’s most influential electro band at www.kraftwerk.com.
* * *
Element of Crime, led by multitalented Sven Regener (b 1961), has probably had more influence on the arts spectrum than anyone else, having composed and played scores for films including Leander Haussmann’s Sonnenallee (Sun Alley) and Herr Lehmann (Regener also wrote the book and script of the latter).
Huddled between the popular rock, orchestral and electronic dance genres is Barbara Morgenstern (b 1971), who began her career singing a cappella in Hamburg before moving to Berlin, where she branched out into a solo career.
Since Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk, new generations of electronic musicians have moved into the limelight, making music spawned from techno but inhabiting splinter genres. Berlin-based Apparat (Sascha Ring) is closely associated with the charmingly named Shitkatapult records, one of the top labels for techno and post-techno sounds since the late 1990s. His experiments with sound and vocals result in vivid, melodic techno and rich electropop. The release Walls (2007) was one of the top electro albums and has since been followed by Things to be Frickled and more recently Moderat, which he released on BPitch Control, another top label, as a collaboration with Modeselektor (www.modeselektor.de, in German). The latter churns out IDM (intelligent dance music) influenced by electro and hip hop.
* * *
‘These guys are the greatest German bubblegum-neo-glam-goth-emo boy band. Ever.’
Rolling Stone magazine, reviewing the Tokio Hotel album Scream
* * *
A founder and main act of the BPitch Control label is Ellen Allien (b 1969) (www.ellenallien.de, in German), a DJane who lives in Berlin and has been on the scene since its earliest days. Monika Kruse (b 1971), another of the DJanes, was born in Berlin and grew up in Munich. Her Changes of Perception album from