Ausgang Verboten – Entertainment

Remarkably good album that cries to be reissued again! Anyone can explain why this isn´t happening yet?

Thrilling album and it sounds a lot like Kraftwerk. Amazing analogue synth. Couldn't get any better.

Though hopelessly derivative of Kraftwerk, Ausgang Verboten are undeniably good fun. Their brand of repetitive, robotic minimal wave electronica is borne of the same flesh as iconic electronic records such as "Die Mensch·Maschine" and "Computerwelt", only with considerably less variation (particularly with regards to vocals) and, by coming much later than those records, lacking the element of surprise that made the genre's pioneers famous.

"Entertainment" is one of many records to have suddenly found renewed interest in the new millennium, owing to its part in the underground DIY synth-wave movement that existed in Europe throughout the '80s and '90s. Its master-form likely being cassette-tape, "Entertainment" sounds amateurish and fudged - in places, the arpeggiators speed up; there's an occasional bum-note, even. This is the charm of the movement, however: the cottage-industry aesthetic, the hiss, the distortion, the wow and the flutter... the sense that this is a genuine everyman's music, that anyone might have made. That, and the listener's chances of happening across a chirpy little melody buried by obscurity ("Consumer"), but which is, arguably, as good as something else that really made it ("Trans-Europe Express" (1977)).

Occasionally overly repetitive and long in their execution (the clock on "Interkontinental" runs needlessly to 9:49), the group's best cuts are the shortest: "Programming and Composing" with its three-note blips, and the chiming yet sinister closer "Emptyness", are particular highlights. The deadpan delivery and catechistic lyrics of the former play straight into the cliché of monotone Germanic pop, whilst the throbbing bass textures, sound - for all the common criticisms of synth-pop as cold - incredibly warm.

Fans of early electronica should give this record a go. Whilst no "Replicas", it has its moments; if only the 'archeology' of listening to something produced with such small intentions, so far away and so long ago.

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1. "Light of Humanity" - ★★★☆☆
2. "Programming and Composing" - ★★★★☆
3. "Amusement" - ★★★★☆
4. "Consumer" - ★★★★☆
5. "Interkontinental" - ★★★☆☆
6. "Joy and Ease" - ★★★★☆
7. "Boy Toy" - ★★☆☆☆
8. "Emptyness" - ★★★☆☆