Halt An

© Music by Neu Rot except „Sometimes“ (traditional) recorded Oktober 1988, Leipzig „Sometimes“ and „Bewegung“ were slightly shortened. Produced by – Mike Stolle, October 2 – 5 1988 Remastered by – Black Flag Mastering/ Friedemann Kootz Tape digital distribution via www.aufnahmeundwiedergabe.de Published by Henryk Gericke Liner notes by Henryk Gericke Vinyl artwork – Laireen & tapetopia Limitied to 100 Arabic and 10 Roman hand-numbered copies. In memory of Michael Pfaff. www.tapetopia.de NEU ROT (Leipzig 1988) Neu Rot represented a singular phenomenon within the alternative music reservoir of the GDR. With a remarkable rigour against itself, the band steadily worked its way towards post-rock over a period of several years. This thorough process came to fruition in 1988 with the production of the tape “Halt An”. It had been preceded by the band’s emancipation from punk and a struggle for its very own means and their technical feasibility. “Halt An” was also marked by mourning; Michael Pfaff, the band’s first bass player, had died in 1987. As with so many bands that cultivated a more sophisticated sound in the late 80s, Neu Rot’s beginnings had been in punk rock. Michael Pfaff, Jörg Stein and Henrik Eiler first appeared as Egacell in 1982 and performed live a few times in and around Leipzig. At a concert with punk legend Wutanfall, worlds collided within the same genre. In a flat where the punks quickly tore down a wall to make room for the ensuing melee, Egacell’s reflective punk met the affect-based punk of Wutanfall. Following the logical system break from punk to post-punk, Egacell was renamed Neu Rot. Initially, this break was marked by the lyrics of the new singer Klaus-Peter John, who in 1987 would turn his attention to his own project The Oval Language, and from 1984 by the violin of Anke Mehlhorn. In order to be able to perform more frequently, Neu Rot underwent the bizarre process of a so-called “Еinstufung” (classification for the purposes of a playing permit). The graciously granted “basic level”, with the simultaneous threat of its withdrawal, included both a permission and a ban; the band was declared legal, but its lyrics illegal. The state classification committee had reflexively left the room during the song “Wozu Grenzen ziehen” (“Why Draw up Borders”). And the band’s name was perceived by the committee as an erratic chain of associations between the suspicious word “Neu” and the ideological signal colour red. Even a year later, the band was told by a municipal authority: “You know very well that the music you make is undesirable in our state!” Neu Rot continued its pilgrimage to its own centre. The tape “Brot & Spiele” (“Bread & Games”), recorded in 1987, presented a sluggish version of Birthday Party, its dimmed impression due to a tape that ran a little too slowly during the recording. This welcome effect triggered a creative obsession to economise, which was to prove directional for “Halt An”. Jörg Stein’s vocals felt like he was talking to himself and were squashed by a guitar compressor through which the mic was routed. On his guitar, Stein only struck certain strings on recurring fret positions. Henrik Eiler deliberately reduced the dynamics of the songs by means of odd time signatures and eliminated the cymbals as far as possible or even replaced them with sheet metal from the production of printing plates. Neu Rot used its “basic level” and gigged frequently to develop its performance style. Karsten Maaß, a multi-instrumentalist and active in the project Das Messer, saw a Neu Rot show and intuitively understood the concept that was based on participation but not on unconditional commitment to the audience. The band and his bass merged, Maaß joined just in time for the recording of “Halt An” and remained an influential constant. The tape was produced by Mike Stolle, a gifted technician who would turn lead into gold, for instance by breathing stereo into a mono mixer. An empty flat served as the studio, its tenant apparently gone, either having fled the republic or simply disappeared. The name on the door was Lachmund (lit. “laughing mouth”), aptly contrasting the sounds coming from inside. An abandoned flat was also of significance for the tape cover. During his stationing near Görlitz as a conscript in an unarmed construction unit, the artist Daniel Schörnig had unceremoniously occupied a flat in the town for his off-hours. He wrote a breakdown of the tape’s titles and names on the walls of one room, then took a picture. The covers came from the darkroom, the prints were cut by hand. The edition of “Halt An” can no longer be reconstructed; it was somewhere between over fifty and under one hundred copies, most of which were sold at shows. From 1985 onwards, Henrik Eiler and Anke Mehlhorn also played in pffft...!, an industrial project by the former Wutanfall singer Chaos. Since Chaos was considered a pariah in the GDR, pffft...! with Eilers and Mehlhorn would perform using the alias Neu Rot II a few times; circumstances made it necessary to disguise themselves by using a real name. Jörg Stein and Karsten Maaß fled these circumstances in autumn 1989 and turned their backs on the GDR. Temporarily history, the band would reform in 1992 with Stein, Eiler and Maaß. Neu Rot is still active today.