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 Zusamm-Rottung:In the middle of a garage in DDR's Hennigsdorf, 4 punks played earsplitting music for about 15 people who listened with rapt attention. Whether it was one of the VoPo (Volkpolizei) who had come to break up the party or a punk trying to pull someone's leg, the words, "Ditt is ja 'ne Zusamm-Rottung hier" ("A mob is forming here"?), were announced & in that spring of 1989 a band name was created.A year before this, in spring of 1988, guitarrist Alex Kanze (aka: Kunz), his singer girlfriend, Liane & guitarrist Aldi had gotten together to start a band. They met Kloopfote in August & though still nameless, a band was formed. It was however hard to be a punk in the DDR. Anyone with multi-colored hair could count on being arrested & even have their hair cut in a "proper" fashion. There was even a database for punks, skins & metal fans, Kanze was "Punk Nr 164", & bands had to play before a commission & submit lyrics. Zusamm-Rottung had no desire to conform their lyrics to please the government so they played rarely. Therefore the real story of Zusamm-Rottung didn't begin until the fall of the Berlin Wall at the end of 1989. Exactly one year later their first demo, "Jetzt erst recht" appeared. Though Aldi quit he was quickly replaced with Smily who played guitar & sang. The demo-tape was a big success & two songs were heavily demanded on the popular youth radio, "DT 64". Through the manager of the band Sandow, Zusamm-Rottung came into contact with the label "Aggressive Rockproduktionen" ("AGR") and a contract was signed for 3 LP's by the band. The first LP, "Im Reich der Wilden Tiere" was a bit of a disappointment because the label had engaged a producer who's previous work had been in the Techno field, resulting in a sound not quite to the band's taste. The second LP, 1993's "Widerstand", came out better since the producer had worked with bands such as Die Ärzte... a sound much more consistent with Zusamm-Rottung's style. After this, however, line-up problems plagued the band constantly. For 3 years the only signs of life were contributions on Samplers such as "Schlachtrufe BRD III", "Gegen Nazi's" and "Sicher gibt es...". Both Smily and Kloopfote left in 1994 for musical reasons. Marco played drums for a year then quit to be replaced by Wolle. Aldi came back to the fold and in 1996 their 3rd and last album for AGR, "Systemstörung" was released. The line-up now consisted of Wolle, Aldi, Kanze, Liane and new singer, Holgi. But there were still problems... Aldi left again after "Systemstörung"'s release & replacement guitarrist, Ingo, lasted only a year. The remaining quartet made some more contributions to Samplers such as "Schlachtrufe BRD IV", "Sountracks zum Untergang" & "Punkinvasion" but that was about it... In 1998, their first demo, "Jetzt erst recht" was re-released when it was noticed that many fans still wanted to get their hands on it. With modern digital technology the sound was better than ever. Unfortunately this was their last release. On March 3, 2001 the band announced that they would no longer be playing together. Loosely translated from their bio page. Thanx to Alex Kanze for the pictures & info! -Mikki 11/02 More at: |
