Crijevo, Jun 06, 2008
Nitzer Ebb alone should be responsible for hordes of faceless EBM imitators (themselves included) that continue to lean on the very same DAF pattern to this present day - however, the duo of Bon Harris and Douglas McCarthy (at first Dave Gooday was also a member) remain a unique language by which, unlike many after them, they had the luck to improve DAF's legacy, providing the original with a desired hardcore effect.
This very first demo cassette is typically raw and sounds too similar a flat reproduction of DAF's to be identified with any other band. However, a positive thing about it is, it continued exactly where DAF of the time left off into more disco-orientated territory (with 'First Step To Heaven').
Naive, predictable but already marking bits of sliding away from the Cologne's legendary twosome - McCarthy's vocals is powerful if not childish at times and alone informs the oncoming sound that fans will associate with as Nitzer Ebb's mid 80s finest 'funk aggression' examples ('Murderous', 'Let Your Body Learn' and of course, 'Join in the Chant').
While this tape of Nitzer's is indeed impossible to find or track down anywhere, even through Soulseek's or Torrent's wider range of individual MP3 collections, it is worth a listen for the fact it is truly the earliest Nitzer ever got into music. The sound of the tape is satisfactory albeit it betrays a typical demo of the time, the voices, drums, dub effects and synths fight between each other respectively - among the studio tracks taken, one is significant of surviving a transfer onto vinyl ('Crane', in a slightly different version, of course) while among the standout, predominantly DAF-esque tracks, 'The Pass' is a chilling, unique example of what Nitzer Ebb would become in their later days.
5.0/5 (