Remember the British Invasion of the mid-60s when (metric) tons of British bands gained huge popularity in the United States? Me neither because I wasn’t around back then, but I have definitely heard plenty about it. This year, it looks like the next platoon of bands to invade America will be from Germany. And the first wave has already landed, straight out of Berlin.

The electronic group Jeans Team has already started their sonic assault a few days ago in San Francisco and will be advancing towards the East coast over the next few weeks. Next to reach America will be De/Vision, one of the most famous synthpop bands around, which will start their first ever tour this side of the Atlantic on February 6th starting in Philadelphia. Shortly after, in an aggressive move, And One will infiltrate Washington D.C. and begin their tour from the nation’s capital. Finally, Canada will be the target of several German industrial and EBM acts in May during the Festival Kinetik in Montreal.

In all seriousness, the sudden influx of German bands playing concerts in the USA and Canada is purely coincidental. While there does seem to be a lot of interest in German music as the internet introduces people to obscure bands from around the world, I really don’t think this “invasion” is going to be nearly as popular as the famed British Invasion. We probably aren’t going to see a German band become as popular as The Beatles in the next few years, but it’s still definitely worth paying attention to.

These first few months of 2008 present American fans of German music with a unique opportunity to see some of our favorite bands. Take advantage of this opportunity. Even if you don’t know who these bands are, I would still urge you to support them for taking the (very expensive) risk of coming over here to America. If they are received with large, enthusiastic crowds, it will send the message to other bands and their labels that touring in America could be a good idea for them, too.

First up, tour dates for Jeans Team. I will post the dates for De/Vision and And One in the next few days.

Jan 04 - San Francisco, California at Loaded
Jan 05 - Los Angeles, California at The COG
Jan 10 - New York, New York at The Grasslands Gallery
Jan 11 - Montreal, Canada at Zoo Bizarre
Jan 13 - Toronto, Canada at Drake Hotel
Jan 15 - Detroit, Michigan at Scrummage
Jan 16 - Chicago, Illinois at Empty Bottle
Jan 18 - New York, New York at Ruff Club

Listen to Jeans Team
You can visit the Jeans Team MySpace page to listen to some of their older, more experimental music, but I would recommend downloading the special interview that Radio Goethe just did with the band a few days ago. Not only will you learn a lot about the band and their history, but this interview is also filled with lots of their more current electronica music. You can download this interview here.

The German Invasion has begun. Prepare yourselves.

Updates
And One tourdates have been updated here

New album, Werk 80 II
As I reported a few months ago, Atrocity has been working on a bunch of cover songs for a follow-up to their nostalgic Werk 80 album. Werk 80 II was originally said to be released on February 8th, but the release has since been pushed back to February 29th (yes, 2008 is a leap year). The album’s cover artwork was first presented in an email newsletter last month, and the tracklisting was posted on the band’s website on Christmas Eve. There are a lot of titles I recognize, like “Relax” (originally by Frankie Goes To Hollywood) or “Don’t You Forget About Me” (by Simple Minds for the soundtrack of The Breakfast Club) and I am looking forward to hearing Atrocity’s metal covers of these classics.

New single and album samples
“Smalltown Boy” (originally by the British trio Bronski Beat) will be Werk 80 II’s first single. It will be exclusively released online this Friday, January 11th, and will also contain “Relax”. Building up to this release, Atrocity is uploading an MP3 sample of a new song from the album every day on their website, along with a piece of an interview with lead singer Alex Krull. So far, 5 samples have been posted, so head on over to the News section on Atrocity.de to download them and preview Werk 80 II. You can also listen a medley of songs from the album on Atrocity’s MySpace page.

Werk 80 II Release Dates:
February 27 - Finland
February 29 - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden
March 03 - Europe
March 04 - USA and Canada

Werk 80 II tracklisting:
01. People Are People
02. Smalltown Boy
03. Relax
04. Hey Little Girl
05. Don’t You Forget About Me
06. Fade To Grey
07. Such A Shame
08. The Sun Always Shines On TV
09. Keine Heimat
10. Here Comes The Rain
11. Forever Young
12. Feels Like Heaven (bonus track on the limited edition only)

There’s a new compilation coming out tomorrow, October 16th, and it’s called Hellfire. This CD brings together several bands from the Van Richter label and ranges in style from industrial-metal to synthpop with some darker sounds in between. A lot of the songs come from albums that are starting to become hard to find and a few have never been released. Hellfire also presents a few unique coversongs, including a Motorhead cover done by the Plastic Noise Experience and Ministry’s “Everyday is Halloween” by the Underwater Pilots.

You can download a bunch of different MP3s and samples by the artists featured on Hellfire on Van Richter’s Audio page.

Hellfire compilation tracklist:
01. Testify - Future Lust
02. Testify - Seeds of Wrath (Die Warzau silence as a weapon mix)
03. The Fair Sex - Cold Contempt
04. Plastic Noise Experience - Hellraiser
05. Sielfwolf - The Guns Eye
06. Death and Horror, Inc. - New Vision
07. Girls Under Glass - New World Order
08. Trauma - The Last Rose
09. Underwater Pilots - Everyday is Halloween
10. Underwater Pilots - I prepare
11. Underwater Pilots - Flood
12. The Fair Sex - Woe

De/Vision released their best music last year on The Best of De/Vision, and this year they’re releasing their worst songs on Da*Mals. A logical explanation for the name could be that the CD contains all of their oldest music from 1988 to 1992, and typically as a band develops, they grow away from their old sound to like their newest music best. But I’m sure it’s really just a joke. Much of the material on Da*Mals has not been released to date, and there are some early demos and seldom-heard remixes of old De/Vision songs as well. You even get a bonus disc with the limited edition which has never before heard music by ex-band member Stefan Blender.

Da*Mals will be released in exactly one week from today on October 19th. American synthpop fans can rejoice in knowing that Isotank.com has the CD ready to pre-order. If you’re not quite ready to get the CD yet, you can always listen to some of De/Vision’s music on their MySpace page, although it does contain mostly music from their new album Noob.

De/Vision - Da*Mals tracklist:
01. Try to forget (demo try)
02. Ignore me
03. You want to kill me
04. Skin mix
05. Boy on the Street (Hello-high-mix)
06. The Scenery Deludes (tranquilizer-mix)
07. Plight (SOS-mix)
08. What we have to learn (faster-mix)
09. Boy on the Street (Disjointed-mix)
10. Your hands on my skin (ur-version)
11. Always proved

The synthpop trio Camouflage is bringing together a host of rare songs and remixes they have amassed during two decades of producing music. On a double-disc compilation called Archive #01 you will find 26 tracks, some of which I’d bet not even the biggest Camouflage fans have heard before. Each song found on the 2 CDs are from releases that are either out of print now or were simply never published. This is a real treasure for collectors as well as anyone looking to expand their tastes into these smooth electronic sounds.

Archive #01 will be released in digipack format by Universal Records so the distribution should be pretty good, at least in Europe. Fans in Germany will be able to find the compilation in stores on the last day of November, the 30th. The UK has a release date set 10 days earlier, on the 20th. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything about it being released in the USA, but that probably won’t stop American-based webshops from importing it for us.

As the name suggests, Archive #01 is just the first in what is to be a series of these rare track compilations. Camouflage really seems to be treating their fans well with so much rare music. I haven’t come across any samples from the compilation yet, but you can always head over to Camouflage’s MySpace page and listen to some of the music there. You will find a medley from their 2006 album Relocated, their classic ’80s hit “The Great Commandment” and 2 other songs. There’s also a lot of songs you can listen to on the band’s website.

Camouflage - Archive #1 tracklist:

Disc 1:
01. The Great Commandment (Original US 12″ Mix)
02. Love Is A Shield (Lexy & K-Paul Remix)
03. Me And You (Kaycee’s Downbeat Mix)
04. Every Now And Then
05. Strangers’ Thoughts (Longer)
06. The Story Of The Falling Fighters (Extended Version)
07. Handsome (Mosaic Mix)
08. Computer Liebe (Live 1989)
09. Heaven (I Want You) (Club Mix)
10. In Cold Blood
11. Kling Klang
12. Crime (Ray & Ito Version)
13. Mr. X (Demo Version)

Disc 2:
01. Love Is A Shield (Orbit Dub Mix)
02. The Great Commandment 2.0 (Very. Mix)
03. That Smiling Face (German Band Version)
04. Isolation
05. Perfect (Huntemann & Bodzin Mix)
06. Winter
07. Thief (Der Dritte Raum Mix)
08. One Fine Day (Daylight-Mix)
09. Telephone Sensor
10. They Catch Secrets (They Catch More Secrets)
11. Suspicious Love (Live At Bear Music Days)
12. Wet Electronics
13. Camou Says Abdulu

It’s the last day of August, the 31st, and that means there are a whole bunch of incredible new albums being released in Germany today. As you’ve read over the past few weeks, hopefully you saw some you might like. Let’s just take a quick look back to remember what albums are out today…

• Joachim Witt - Auf Ewig-Meisterwerke
  Witt is wrapping up the Bayreuth Trilogy with his magnum opus, Auf Ewig. This album features all the greatest songs from his 25+ year music career, remade in a more modern sound. This is sure to be one of the highlights of the year.
• Emigrate - Emigrate
  After many years as a guitarist with Rammstein, Richard Kruspe found the need for a new outlet to release the songs he had stuck in his mind that didn’t match Rammstein’s direction. He formed the band Emigrate, recorded his songs, and now they’re out on CD. A definite must-have for Rammstein fans.
• mind.in.a.box - Crossroads
  mind.in.a.box is a successful Austrian electronic group and Crossroads is their new album. The European version is out today, but the CD will be released in America on September 25th on Metropolis Records.
• Schallfaktor - End of Love
  This latest EP from Schallfaktor includes several new songs plus a slew of remixes by other great harsh electro groups like Suicide Commando and Grendel. With 12 songs, it’s basically an entire album.
• Saltatio Mortis - Aus Der Asche
  Saltatio Mortis continues the trend of combining medieval instruments with modern day rock music. Fans have waited 3 years for this new album, but it has been well worth it. Check it out, if only for the awesome album cover.

Synthpop wizards De/Vision are preparing to release their latest masterpiece, an album called Noob. It will be released on August 24th and has already proven to be one of the most anticipated releases this year among synth and electro fans. American fans will have the opportunity to buy the album from the band’s US distributor, Dancing Ferret.

For this new album, De/Vision has taken on a bit of a retro sound, hinting at their past work. The band may have been inspired to do this after releasing their best-of compilation last year. There are 5 lengthy samples available on their MySpace page, so go have a listen.

Noob
01. What You Deserve
02. Obsolete
03. Nine Lives
04. Life Is Suffering
05. Death Of Me
06. Flavour Of The Week
07. Deep Blue
08. Love Will Find A Way (Noob-Version)
09. See What I See
10. Living Fast, Dying Young
11. The Far Side Of The Moon
12. What It Feels Like
13. The Enemy Inside