Photo: Alfred Jansen
International Music have formidable facial hair and a contract with Berlin insider label Staatsakt (see our birthday special elsewhere in the programme), which is already half the battle. It does not matter, if they’ve won that half, that nobody can find the trio on the internet. Starting recently, they’ve been reaching out into the world from their homebase of Essen—after all, the trio must slowly live up to its name. After a self-titled demo tape (and when we say tape, we really mean cassette tape), the song »Mama, Warum?« appeared on the second part of Staatsakt’s »Keine Bewegung« compilation. Their album »Die Besten Jahre« is scheduled to hit the streets via vinyl, CD, and even digital means (for those slower to the punch). This is International Music for the living room, the basement club, and the big stage, with Velvet Underground vibes, Pixies pathos, and word art in the vein of the Krautrock legacy.
International Music on Facebook»Quinceañera Staatsakt«
The most inspired German indie label to emerge since the mid-noughties is called Staatsakt. Founded in 2003 by Gunther Osburg and Maurice Summen, two members of the group Die Türen, hardly any time passed before they released their own first independent, i.e. ›indie‹ album, »Das Herz war Nihilismus«. Meanwhile, Summen runs the label alone, supported by Henrietta Bauer, who is also manager of the group Isolation Berlin; Markus Göres, who takes care of press work; and Sebastian Pobot, who is responsible for sales. For the label’s 15th anniversary, we’ve revived Die Türen, and they’ll play us all-new material (»Exoterik«). We’ll also converse with CEO Summen and flip through the Staatsakt music video clip collection (»Does Streaming Kill the Video Star?«) with various illustrious guests. In addition, we’ll present two new groups from the Staatsakt establishment that are off-the-cuff among the most interesting German-language rock and pop we’ve heard in recent years. Both of these bands, International Music and Swutscher, will release their debut albums this year.