My first bilingual EP in English and German.

The title track 'Wagenknecht' is a continuation of my quest to explore sounds and styles I have enjoyed throughout my life but never before personally embraced. It is brand new and is a musical tribute to Yugoslav industrial pioneers/satirists Laibach, an inspiration to me since I first met them at Cherry Red Records in the mid 80s. I was lucky to be offered a collaboration by electronic composer Sherlock, who interpreted my ideas perfectly. There will be more.

Here we have two pieces about the former GDR, thirty four years apart, the first bilingual, the second in two separate language versions. It's about what happened in the immediate days, months and years after those joyous pictures of people dancing on the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 - and what's happening now. I toured the GDR four times before the Wall came down, twice shortly afterwards, and have now done many hundreds of gigs all over Germany and mastered the language. (Thanks to long time comrade Steve from East Berlin for a bit of help in that department.)

The title track 'Wagenknecht' is brand new and very topical. It's about the anger and betrayal so many working class Germans, above all East Germans, feel at the course of the last three decades, and a reflection on (current) Left Party (Die Linke) politician and former GDR citizen Sahra Wagenknecht's response.

Wageknecht has written a book, 'Die Selbstgerechten' (The Self Righteous) in which she accuses the Left - the Left Party and the left in general - of having abandoned its historical task (supporting working class and neglected communities and alleviating poverty) in favour of modern issues (gender, identity, climate) allowing the far right to channel the anger of the 'left behind'. She is determined to reclaim them for the Left - and in doing so is accused by some of 'red-brown nationalism'.

Getting the balance right in this area is a vital question for the European left in general, one which many people shy away from, and I present what I hope is a balanced response to her ideas, interesting but fraught with dangers and problems. There is further material on this in the notes on the title track itself, along with the lyrics of course.

Wagenknecht, one of the most popular politicians in Germany who takes a lot of inspiration from Jean-Luc Melanchon and Jeremy Corbyn, may well about to be launching a new political movement which will gain considerable support from both radical Left and 'populist' Right. (Corbyn supporters have been talking about doing that here - but it is impossible under our First Past The Post electoral system without splitting the left vote and letting the Tories in. Under PR, the electoral system used everywhere else in Europe apart from Belarus, that isn't an issue. Start a new party, get the votes you're given, join a coalition. It's called democracy. We need PR! But that's another issue.)

The other two tracks here are English and German versions of my 1990 mandola-based song 'Market Sector One', written about the decimation and brutalisation of GDR property and culture by extreme market forces which I witnessed first hand on my return to East Berlin just after the fall of the Wall. Some of you will know them already.

Two visions, 34 years apart.


See individual tracks for further explanations, lyrics and credits.
Feedback is very welcome.