Punk rock from one of the most totalitarian states ever, Easy Germany! The guys in Sau-Kerle made the wise choice to change their name from Schleimkeim for this release to avoid problems with Stasi, but it didn’t really make a difference as Switscher-Machines’ singer was in fact an agent for Stasi, and the bands worries about having “illegal contact with enemy forces” when releasing a record on a West-German label turned out to be correct. The third band who was supposed to be on the LP got a visit from the secret police  during their record session and decieded to leave the project, while Sau-Kerle had to wait til the album was released before they were taken in for questioning. As a result the members had to get used to being locked up from time to time and constant harassment for their rude and primitive music as well as their anti GDR lyric. Probably mainly for their lyrics, but today it would probably been for their music. As a Swede I can actually compare them to a primitive version of Bizex-B, and as I’m sure most of you know, Bizex-B had a pretty primitive sound.
I wish I could say lots of stuff about Switscher-Machine, but most of the info I can find about them is in German, but I really like their side of the record, and their artiness. Too bad the Stasi connection puts a shadow over their music, but on the other hand, being a Stasi agent in former GDR was pretty damn common I guess. None the less they managed to crank out some fine tunes on their side of this split LP, even if the most hardcore of you punk downloaders will find it a bit too arty.
And with this post I leave this around the world trip more or less. Got an update to do as soon as possible, but I’ve posted 31 countries in a row now, and with that I say thank you for flying with KBD Airlines and I hope you have enjoyed the ride and that we will see you soon again.
And some final words; I know some countries have been left out, but it’s been on purpose. Czechoslovakia had a few great bands that ended up on vinyl in 84, but as that’s on comps with some crap on as well I choose to not post it. I might post a few of the songs in the future though. Someone might say “What about Dragons?” Well, I know they used to be labeled as a Chinese band, but in my opinion they were a French band as they were all living there, even if some of them as imigrants from China. Israel had a few 12″ releases pretty early, but more on a new wave basis or punk pranksters. Turkey had a 7″ release as early as 78 which boasts the word “PUNK” on the sleeve, and despite being a great record, calling it punk is stretching it a bit too much in my opinion as it’s more or less a pretty sweet 60’s tune released at least 10 years too late. Uruguay and Peru hade some really amazing bands, but the few songs I’ve heard from before 85 are all crude tape releases as far as I know. Bulgaria had a few tapes as well, which was yet another country I didn’t expect to have a punk scene during this period of time, but some of the bands have proper vinyl releases of old stuff out now. If anyone knows something I’ve totally missed out on, please let me know as I’m interested in a follow up in the future, but now it’s back to the usual crap, but with quite a few different countries lined up of course.
Country: East-Germany
Year: 1983
Label:Aggressive Rockproduktionen
Format:12″
Songs:
Switscher Machine – Jeder satellit hat einen Killersatellit.mp3
Switscher Machine – Alles oder nichts und noch viel mehr.mp3
Switscher Machine – Geh ubern Fluss.mp3
Switscher Machine – Wills du mein Killersattelit sein.mp3
Switscher Machine – Geh uber die Grenze.mp3
