Conrad Schnitzler - Auf Dem Schwarzen Kanal

Looooong time coming reissue of Conny Schniz's much thirsted for 1980 four track EP, his one and only flirtation with the majors. Funny how it's always the major label records that end up going out of print, isn't it... Schnitzler was somewhat breaking from his past here, and responding to the sounds and aesthetic of the Neue Deutsche Welle movement, while, in typical fashion, also signalling its way forward. He's in full robot disco (not disco) mode, vocoder-ed up and looking straight at a new kind of dancefloor that was being built right in front of him. Not a far stretch to see the roots of both EBM and New Beat in Elektroklang, and with it a song so aptly titled i'm surprised there's not a whole genre that shares that name. Of course, this is still Conrad Schnitzler, so it's hardly a straightforward affair, Fabrik (is that where the club name comes from? Don't bet against it) a brilliantly abrasive Metal Dance that hits with an unexpected industrial intensity. If i said this was brand new, you'd not bat an eyelid. And so another Foundational Text to add to the list...