Stripped down to the core duo of
Robert Goerl and
Gabi Delgado and with
Conny Plank again behind the boards with crisp, focused production, with
Alles Ist Gut (Everything Is Fine)
DAF turned into an honest-to-goodness German hit machine, as detailed in the 1998
Mute reissue's liner notes by
Biba Kopf. Even more important and impressive was how they did it -- keeping the
electronic brutality that characterized them, but stripped down to nothing but
Goerl's massive drumming,
electronic bass and synth tones, and
Delgado's deep, commanding singing. The result was and remains massively influential --
Nitzer Ebb, to mention one later
industrial disciple, would be nothing without this album as a template, while the genre of
electronic body music, or EBM, got its undisputed start with the doom-laden death
disco here. It isn't all just because of machines and politics, either.
Delgado's lyrical fascination seems to be as much with sex as with power, thus the grunting sounds throughout
"Mein Herz Macht Bum" (My Heart Goes Boom), to pick one point. Add to that the striking, simple cover design --
Delgado on the front,
Goerl on the back, stripped to the skin and covered in sweat -- and maybe
Wax Trax never needed to exist in the first place.
"Der Mussolini," DAF's breakthrough hit, still sounds fantastic years later. A perfect case could be made for it as the ultimate
industrial music song, with
Delgado's at once insistent and sensual singing, lyrics referencing not just
Mussolini but any number of fascist figures (as titles of dance crazes, no less!), and
Goerl's astonishing percussion crunch and bassline.
DAF wisely vary things at points, thus the slow, deliberate pulse of
"Rote Lippen" or the twinkly keyboard line throughout
"Der Raeuber und der Prinz." With songs like
"Als Waer's das Letzte Mal" and
"Alle Gegen Alle" leading the way, though,
DAF mainly concentrate on head-on assaults to brilliant effect. ~ Ned Raggett
![Atomic Blonde [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0851147006932_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Atomic Blonde [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]")
