If you like the brutalist proto-electro of German duo Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft, you’ll love Liaisons Dangereuses, whose one and only album, mixed in legendary producer Conny Plank’s studio in June 1981, finally makes it onto CD. This primitive electronic body music, performed by Chrislo Haas (ex-DAF), barked in Spanish, French and German by Beate Bartel (from Mania D) and with shrieks courtesy of Krishna Goineau, would have featured alongside Soft Cell’s “Memorabilia” and Japan’s “Art Of Parties” in all the best clubs that summer, but my God if it doesn’t totally chime with today’s electroclash, especially Miss Kittin and The Hacker’s pervy synth-pop and Felix Da Housecat’s Kittenz And Thee Glitz.
Liaisons’ “Peut Etre…Pas” appears on A Secret History and Serie Noire 2. The latter makes connections between early-’80s and early-’00s underground dance, from Savage Process to Green Velvet, but also includes examples of micro-genres in between:punk-funk, dub-rock, Hi-NRG, new beat, acid house and EBM.
A Secret History sees Throbbing Gristle rub up alongside Visage, Telex, Riuchi Sakamoto… Oh, and Paul McCartney’s “Temporary Secretary”.