Xao Seffcheque - Ja, nein, vielleicht kommt sehr gut; A Selection of Electronic Beats 1980-82 (2017)

Subtitled "A SELECTION OF ELECTRONIC BEATS 1980-82". Austrian national XAO SEFFCHEQUE was at the right place at the right time: Düsseldorf at the end of the 70s was not only the nucleus of German punk but also enjoyed a fruitful symbiosis with the parallel development of a synthesizer-supported side-line. However, in historical retrospective, forty years after the punk big-bang and 35 years after the electronic substitute-revolution in Germany, there is the question: What impact did PALAIS SCHAUMBURG, DAF, LIAISONS DANGEREUSES or DER PLAN expect from their music? Objet d'art? Material for archaeologists rummaging around for the mind-set of our age under contaminated rubble? Xao Seffcheque's music - same same but different later on with FAMILY*5 - was all that and more: always great everyday-stuff to listen to, still the object of engagement and discourse because of its impact and the marks it left behind. And only now we begin to find out that Xao's music is so much less fashionable than really and agelessly modern. The compilation at hand, Xao Seffcheque's electronic phase in the early 80s from both his albums SEHR GUT KOMMT SEHR GUT (1980) and JA - NEIN - VIELLEICHT (1981) (plus unreleased Tracks from 1982) comes in two parts: The songs of SEHR GUT KOMMT SEHR GUT are always satire, persiflage, paraphrase altogether: Reflecting his contemporaries with 80s analogue equipment, this discourse always adds something new and unheard of. The fact that Seffcheque released that (fake) album as an anticipation of the NEUE DEUTSCHE WELLE sell-out did shape those songs audibly by deconstructing the music of essential German bands at that time in order to reassemble them in a very sarcastic way into a whole new context. Whereas the following album, JA - NEIN - VIELLEICHT was of a very different kind 2017: BUREAU B releases a completely restored and remastered (Tom Morgenstern) compilation of Xao's best songs from his solo phase; Coverphoto by Richie Gleim, taken during one of the original recording sessions in 1981: furious nonchalance, regardless-of-the-consequences-lunacy and indestructible musical talent. The spirit of that time.