Fehlfarben

It's never been easy to define the boundaries of a movement that made experimentation its banner, borrowing the aesthetics of punk and steering them toward new wave, but with such diversification that it left very few common reference points (among them, the almost exclusive use of the German language). We're nearing the end of the Seventies, and we're talking about the Neue Deutsche Welle, a movement rooted in key locations such as West Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Hagen.

This geography of sound gave rise to diametrically opposed scenes: there was indeed a world of difference between the körpermusik of Daf and the post-punk of Xmal Deutschland, just as there was between the raw output of Abwärts and the lighter drifts of the movement (think of the rise of Extrabreit, but above all the chart-topping success of acts like Trio, Nena and Peter Schilling). It's a list that could go on with many other names (Ideal, Nina Hagen, Malaria!, Rheingold), extending beyond national borders too (from Swiss outfit Grauzone to the late Viennese popstar Falco): the NDW encompassed an army of artists united by a shared language and, at times, an explosively strong personality.

Fehlfarben formed in 1979 between Düsseldorf and Wuppertal. Within a year, they wrote and recorded (during the summer of 1980) an album destined to leave an indelible mark on the fate of German-style post-punk. The line-up is the classic one: Peter Hein on vocals (he left the band just a few months later), Thomas Schwebel on guitar, Michael Kemner on bass, and then Frank Fenstermacher (saxophone), Uwe Bauer (drums) and George Nicolaidis (synth).

The record draws on the most disparate influences – it's no coincidence that the idea of forming a band was born during a holiday in England, homeland of the punk and new wave revolutions but also a sacred site for the renewed ska movement (Fehlfarben's very first single, "Große Liebe/Abenteuer & Freiheit", seemed almost aimed at 2 Tone Records followers!). Having duly absorbed the essence of those sounds, all that remained was to filter them through their own specific social and cultural identity – that of a Germany still split in two by the Cold War and by the contradictions of an era of great change, technological upheaval included.

The clearest emblem of this is found right on the album cover: a retouched photograph of an anonymous suburban building, on the side of which hangs an advertising poster. "Ten million viewers can't be wrong", the sign reads, showing the image of an elderly couple sitting on a sofa holding a remote control. The monotony of everyday life is here set against a technicolor regime (hence the album's title), a cathode-ray monarchy capable of bursting into the grey urban routine of countless people.

"Monarchie und Alltag" saves its most celebrated gems for the second half of the record. We have to start with two tracks that have rightfully entered the history of German rock: the first is "Ein Jahr (Es geht voran)", an obsessive anthem driven by a disco-funk-inspired riff. It sounds almost like a Chic track adapted to the explosive charge of the Neue Deutsche Welle (a pairing that looks unthinkable on paper, yet worked so well that it became a huge hit at home, both in mainstream circles and among the squatter scene). This is precisely why Fehlfarben often confused, and even divided, the audience following them. The disputes were further fuelled by EMI, which leaned on the song's appeal by releasing it as a single a full two years later (against the band's wishes), in order to make the most of the NDW's peak commercial moment. A path that was in some ways contradictory yet ultimately successful, considering that the trail left by the bitter historical snapshot of "Monarchie und Alltag" found its definitive consecration in 2000, the year the album was certified gold in Germany, having sold a remarkable 250,000 copies.

Speaking of bitterness, it's with the closing "Paul ist tot" that the band writes its true masterpiece. Eight minutes of disillusionment and pure existentialism, essentially a meditation on the ruins of a society obsessed with hollow mass attractions ("Where are we going? Where? What I want I can't get, and whatever I can get, I don't like. I don't want what I see, I want what I dream"). While the instrumental backbone might recall the early Cure, the saxophone intervention and the composition's overall dark mood reveal the shadowy side of a band perfectly embedded in its own era.

The most curious track on the album is undoubtedly "Militürk", whose lyrics were written by Gabi Delgado of Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft (this essential duo from Düsseldorf had begun their career with a highly experimental approach and an expanded line-up, which also included Michael Kemner, the aforementioned Fehlfarben bassist). The track in question – originally written in 1979 by Mittagspause, a punk-rooted band in which both Delgado and Peter Hein played – is here literally deconstructed and rearranged with a danceable feel, becoming another key piece in the album's fortunes. A further curious detail: the line "Wir sind die Türken von morgen" was later quoted by Cccp, great admirers of the NDW, in their much-loved "Punk Islam". Already a destination for Turkish immigration since the early Sixties, West Germany had to face a second major wave starting in 1974, when new family reunification laws allowed many Turkish workers to be joined in the country by their families. It was, then, a highly sensitive subject – not by chance, Daf themselves used almost the same lyrics for their single "Kebabträume" (1980), not to mention another song on the same theme released around the same time, Abwärts' "Türkenblues" (featured on their debut "Amok Koma").

"Monarchie und Alltag" never stops surprising, and not so much in its understated opener "Hier und jetzt", but rather in the bouncy "Grauschleier" that follows, a track where the band manages to blend the spirit of the Clash with that of the Cure's "Play For Today" (that bassline in the middle section). After all, "Seventeen Seconds" had come out only a few months earlier and had already bewitched a multitude of fans, just like Simon Gallup's basslines, whose influence becomes almost overwhelming in the dark hypnosis of "Das sind Geschichten".

Originality returns to peak levels with "All That Heaven Allows", a more sophisticated and in some ways experimental passage, ahead of the livelier "Gottseidank nicht in England", where Fehlfarben make no secret of their love for certain British musical landmarks (Wire, Gang Of Four and other acts that helped the natural handover between punk and new wave). Similar sensations return in the neurotic "Apokalypse" (another standout track on the record), in the airier "Angst" and in the merciless analysis of "Das war vor Jahren", whose lyrics take aim at rampant capitalism ("The Coca-Cola sun shines once again over our republic. Here there are people who think it's beautiful, and we danced until the very end, to the best music. Every evening, every day, we thought this would be the victory").

It's a shame that "Monarchie und Alltag" is a relatively overlooked album in Italy, unlike other NDW-rooted records that instead found significant traction, especially within dark/goth circles. The reason is simple: while, for instance, Xmal Deutschland (who soon ended up recording for 4AD) were much easier to place within a post-punk universe closely related to Siouxsie, Fehlfarben have always been perceived as a band bridging different sounds together, on top of the fact that they proved to be one-hit wonders, unable to replicate the success of their debut. But "Monarchie Und Alltag" remains one of the undisputed cornerstones of the Neue Deutsche Welle, a record that is different, eclectic, and a vivid yet bitter protest against the surrounding society.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

16/03/2025