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»Wilde Deutsche Prärie« (»Wild German Prairie«) is the title of Swutscher’s 2018 debut album for Staatsakt (see also our birthday special elsewhere in the programme). And who could have guessed that behind the title is the best Rio Reiser record since »Keine Macht für Niemand« (Rio Reiser was the lead singer of the band Ton Steine Scherben; »Keine Macht für Niemand« was one of their best-known albums). The Hamburg Sextett fuses the best of the Brechtian song style with low-key surf rock and weather-worn country straight from the waterkant. After all, that's where this music comes from, and that's why it also has a bit of a salty aftertaste, and why it’s concerned with the following: tears that flow upon watching sports, love for your own bike, and the general lunacy of life in the of a flatlands. This is music whose chord charts are written at the bar in village pubs, and music that’s fated to be played on big stages. To sum up: if Bruce Springsteen were a Pinneberger, he might be well suited as the opening act for Swutscher.
Swutscher 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.
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