Neumusik: The Complete Edition
★★★★
David Elliott
KORM PLASTICS. £15
Complete early-’80s ’zine on ‘European, experimental and electronic music’.
Arriving at Sussex university in autumn ’79, Elliott was part of a new generation of Kraut/prog fans and musicians keen to carry punk’s DIY energy across into their experimental subculture. In his Neumusik’s first issue, enthusiastic reviews of Steve Hillage, Cluster and the Woolworths-stocked Wasp synthesizer ran alongside guidance on how to make music with a pocket calculator. A pilgrimage to Berlin yielded issue two’s remarkably savvy Q&As with three ex-members of Tangerine Dream, Conrad Schnitzler swingingly dissing contemporary TD as “background music”, with the amusing payoff “I cannot do this, because I cannot play”. As the publication grew to 60-plus pages, chief writer/ editor Elliott got deeper into the French and German scenes (he worshipped Heldon’s Richard Pinhas), particularly once he relocated to border town Strasbourg. Packed with synth-love, historical detail and curiosity for every shade of weirdness, the six issues anthologised here constitute a remarkable first-hand resource on an otherwise sketchily documented musical domain.