(Credits: Far Out / marinaamonaco / Cosey Mueller / Pink Stiletto / fraukejoana)
Of all the original pioneers of Germany’s Neue Deutsche Welle, the DAF duo likely stands as the scene’s most exemplary force.
Emerging concurrently with the broader post-punk firing off across Europe and the States, Gabi Delgado-López and Robert Görl struck a captivatingly frantic intersection between disco and the electronic avant-garde.
An acronym for Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft and initially an experimental industrial ensemble, the so-called ‘Virgin Trilogy’ would burnish in the punk world the enduring image of the pair. Brawny, primal, and oiled radiations of testosterone and alien sexuality, López’s unabashed physical on-stage pummel in weird, visceral synergy with Görl’s martial percussion duties.
The sounds crafted were equally as sinewy. Taut, vascular sequencers convulse with proto-techno panic, atonal synths rushing and surging against bizarre drum patterns and sputtering keyboards. With studio assistance from famed producer Conny Plank, Alles ist Gut, Gold und Liebe, and Für Immer would stand as DAF’s crowning triptych, strange gems of the synthpop explosion that radiated illicit energy and uniquely askance popcraft.
DAF, and the wider NDW movement, has left an impression on vast swathes of music in Germany and beyond. But naturally, the pair’s wry brashness has its fingerprints on much of today’s electronic punk scene, including even many in their home country. Celebrating DAF’s legacy while also lifting the veil on the vanguard of synthpunk’s latest permutation, we take a look at five artists any DAF fan missing their old magic must hear immediately.
Five new artists lighting DAF’s new wave fire:
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