release date: Nov. 1980
format: cd (1990 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Klaus D. Müller
label: WEA - nationality: Germany
Track highlights: 1. "Berlin" - 2. "Irre" - 3. "Telepathie" - 4. "Blaue Augen" - 6. "Luxus" - 7. "Rote Liebe"
Studio album debut by Berlin quartet Ideal originally released on the independent label Innovative Communication founded by German artist Klaus Schultze and Michael Haentjes. The band consists of vocalist, keyboardist and songwriter Annette Humpe, guitarist Frank Jürgen 'Eff Jott' Krüger, bassist Ernst Ulrich Deuker, and drummer Hans-Joachim 'Hansi' Behrendt. Both Humpe and Krüger had previously played together in X-Pectors, and Humpe was also a member of Neonbabies where she figured alongside her younger sister Inga before leaving that band to concentrate on Ideal.
Ideal counts ten compositions of which three have music credited all members, two are credited Humpe and Krüger, whereas the five remainders are credited Humpe alone.
Stylistically, this is one of the earliest examples of the German variation of new wave that came to be known as Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW), a style based on British and American new wave and art rock (think Talking Heads, Devo, Pere Ubu, David Bowie, XTC). The style may be regarded as the fuse of energy transformed from punk rock with inspiration from a simplistic and experimental rock style with that of a strong social dimension - a trait that later fell in the background on the expense of melodic pop arrangements - here you may think of a musical progression from early Ideal (this album) and Nina Hagen Band via Spliff, Extrabreit, Fehlfarben and DAF to Nena, Trio and DÖF.
Despite being released on a small independent label, the album went as high as to number #3 on the national albums chart list, and the band made way for a general interest, as well as that from more established labels, in other artists playing NDW.
I vividly recall watching the band on TV transmissions on (German) Rockpalast back in the early 80s, and I really enjoyed their sound but at the same time witnessed how little interest they garnered in the English music press. This very album stands as their perhaps best effort as a cornerstone, not only in Germany but as an important pioneers of European music that has inspired many more artists to follow. I hear much of their music in later Danish acts like Warm Guns, Voxpop, TV2, and Clinic Q.
Highly recommended.
