Carambolage

Carambolage never set out to be a "girl band" but they were one of the first German New Wave bands whose members were all female. The punk alliance comprising Britta Neander, Elfie-Esther Steitz and Angie Olbrich emerged organically from the environs of Ton Steine Scherben, friends united by a common interest in musical experimentation.

Britta’s passion for the drums ignited in 1974 in Fresenhagen, North Frisia, where she played percussion for Ton Steine Scherben. What she really wanted was her own band, so she looked around for kindred spirits. R.P.S. Lanrue’s little sister Elfie-Esther was an obvious candidate. Angie, a child from the streets who joined the commune in 1972, completed the line-up. If you think that they simply followed in the Scherben slipstream, you’d be wrong: Carambolage surfed on their very own »North Frisian Wave« - an epithet dreamed up for their distinctive sound. Shortly before her death in 2004, Britta was interviewed by music journalist Tine Plesch and described how the »girls gang« gave them the freedom to experiment and come up with »these really funny, filthy lyrics«. There is a childish, subversive charm to the songs, emboldened by the realization that »we could fool around as much as we wanted.«

Their sound was not the only aspect of the group which resulted from experimental tinkering. Keen to have their own space, away from a male-dominated environment, they used cardboard and carpets to build their own practice room inside an old grain silo. Strictly out of reach of the Scherben. It’s fair to say that Carambolage helped to shape the DIY approach which the Riot Grrrls of the 1990s would emulate.

Forty years later, it’s still mostly men standing on festival stages, but the Carambolage story ought not be consigned to the shelves marked nostalgia. On the contrary, it is a thread which most definitely needs to be picked up. As Julie Miess, who later joined Christiane Rösinger and Britta in the Lassie Singers offshoot Britta (the band) noted so succinctly in her Carambolage text (›Damaged Goods‹, Ventil Verlag): "Role models every seven-year-old girl should have!"

Carambolage (1980)

01 - Lampenfieber
02 - Tu Doch Nicht So
03 - City-Großmarkt
04 - Das Männlein
05 - Je T'aime
06 - Die Farbe War Mord
07 - Johnny
08 - Was Hat Das Für Einen Sinn
09 - Fußgängerzone
10 - Roxan
11 - Der Reigen
12 - 22 Rue Chenoise
13 - Bretter, Bretter, Bretter

Eilzustellung-Expres (1982)

01 - Vollgeturnt
02 - Eingeschneit
03 - Widerlich
04 - Was Mir Widerfuhr
05 - Gehirnwäsche
06 - Warum
07 - Maschine
08 - Die Zeit
09 - Psychoeintopf
10 - Was Ist Das
11 - Take Me
12 - Lisa
13 - I Remember You

Bon Voyage (1984)

01 - Auf Der Suche
02 - Laisse Moi Faire
03 - La Vie D'amour
04 - Schnuckelbaby
05 - Küss Mich
06 - Verdammte Welt
07 - Ich Verlier Mein Gesicht Doch Nicht
08 - Was Ich Brauche Ist Die Liebe
09 - Herrscherin
10 - Wo Bist Du?
11 - Das Meer

pass: freepunk77