Carambolage

With the first demo tapes in circulation, Burkhardt Zensor Seiler organized a gig for Carambolage in the hip Kreuzberg club SO36. At a time when anything that could be labelled Neuen Deutschen Welle (German New Wave) was stamped accordingly, the trio played by their own rules. The eponymous debut album Carambolage, produced by Rio Reiser and R.P.S. Lanrue in the summer of 1980 and released on the Scherben label David Volksmund Produktion, could not be cons-trained by NDW marketing concepts. Instead, the disc was defined by its colossal, inventive sound which fed on Elfies curiously autodidactic Fantasiegriffen guitar style and her Fresenhagen sparrow voice, counter-balanced by Angies organ and inimitable basslines and energized by Brittas relentless drumming.Backed by quirky organ and ragged drums, Elfie spits her lyrics with emphatic simplicity. Once her words are in your head, they stay there. Tracks like >Die Farbe war Mord< hint at a sense of feminist awareness. Carambolage may not have coined the phrase, but lipstick feminism became a thing, consciously playing with feminine clichs and hammering them home in performative fashion, rather than boxing them off.