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Label Spotlight: Ata Tak
 One is led to believe that post-punk and new wave existed exclusively in the UK, and to some extent the United States, but there were vast amounts of amazing, and wholly unique, music made in many other countries. In Germany, the two leading labels of the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW for short) movement were Zick Zack and, the one we’re featuring here, Ata Tak.
The word on which of the Ata Tak records is the banner release might still be out, but I’d like to nominate Der Plan’s Geri Reig. Released in 1980, the Dusseldorf-based trio’s take on electronic music still sounds remarkably fresh. The are elements of the Residents in the playful experimentation, and Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle comparisons are inevitable, but, more than anything, Geri Reig is a surrealist take on classic pop music, which is what sets it apart. This version of the album comes coupled with 1981’s Normalette Surprise, which is also quite excellent, making this package indispensable.
Equally great is Pyrolator. Kurt Dahlke, who was also a member of Der Plan at one point, and featured in an early incarnation of DAF, presented a similarly futuristic vision on Ausland from 1981, but although he mined some of the same experimental veins, the best Pyrolator moments are understatedly dancey, and touches down on a sort of proto-techno at times. Check out “True Love,” “Elefantendisco,” and “Danger Cruising Part II” for music that is both cerebral and funky. The debut, Inland, from 1979 is also well worth checking out, although the sounds here are decidedly more out there, along the lines of the early Kraftwerk records.
For those willing to dig even deeper, I want to also recommend S.Y.P.H.’s Wieleicht, a massive double LP that fuses post-punk angst with traces of dub and psychedelia, and I’m going to go out on a limb and guess they’d heard a Can record or two. Someone called this “the White Album of German rock,” and I feel no need to disagree.
-Andreas Knutsen
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