DAF – Alles ist gut (1981): A Psycho-Erotic and Totalitarian Masterpiece

Forget Kraftwerk and Can, because here they are: DAF (Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft), the most exciting and influental German band of all times, with the second of their golden run of four albums*: Alles ist Gut (1981) – a unique marriage of sex and totalitarian attitude that remains timeless and fascinating to this day.

DAF is a mutation of most unlikely factors that deny every common recipe for success: on the one hand we have the enigmatic Robert Görl, an orphan who works his way up to becoming a classical Jazz-drummer with an unhuman discipline and passion, only to give up the achievement and security in order to pioneer electronic music and lay down the world’s best sequences. Görl is responsible for the music of DAF, and a drummer who relearned to play the drums after he suffered a serious car accident in 1989 where his right arm got almost completely severed from his body. Triumph of the will.

On the other hand there is singer and lyricist Gabi Delgado (*read our interview here), son of Spanish immigrants leaving Franco’s Spain for Germany, and heading into a descent from middle-class wealth to German factories and working class. Delgado grew up as a fearless street dog who knew how to assert himself. He is a highly politicized and sexualized immigrant son, a strict anti-americanist and anti-capitalist with an obsession for sadomasochism and sexual fetishes of all kinds.

DAF was founded in Wuppertal, a city close to both epicenters of German post-war music, Cologne and Düsseldorf, and later emerged as a five-piece band from the rich scene around the Ratinger Hof in Düsseldorf. The pioneers of Electropunk, Electronic Body Music and Techno are the proud occupants of the Mute catalogue number ‘Stumm 1‘, with DAF’s Die Kleinen und die Bösen (1980) being the first album that Daniel Miller released on his legendary label. Miller invited the band to London, where they took the city in storm, deconstructing post-punk legends Wire as their support band. Legend has it that an overwhelming number of Wire fans left the gig after DAF were finished with their intensive set- a fact that made Wire swear to never, ever play with DAF again. DAF immortalized this concert and pressed it onto the B-side of their second record Die Kleinen und Die Bösen as an irrefutable monument for posterity. The A-Side, like their upcoming three albums, were produced by a well-known German name: Conny Plank.

Now a minimalist two-piece formation, Gabi Delgado and Robert Görl arrived in Conny Plank’s studio near Cologne in January 1981, and lived and recorded there for six weeks. Plank would give the duo time, space, and infrastructure to develop their songs and sequences, and only come in in the evenings to listen to the progress and intervene if necessary. Conny Plank’s biggest influence on DAF’s sound was to run the synthesizers through regular rock amps, which gave it a brutal and organic sound. Plank and Krautrock-obsessed collectors often pay little to no attention to DAF, which is why the collaboration is still an obscurity in the producer’s catalogue. The result, the highly influental Alles ist gut (Everything Is Good), made DAF the 5^th biggest band in Germany in 1981, and charted for 46 weeks.

I will never forget the moment when I dropped the needle on Alles ist Gut for the first time, and it has the same chilling effect to this day: no shiny and glorious opener, no crescendo, no preparation, no light- but a sinister vibe taking over from the first second and a menacing motivation being forced on you: „Don’t be afraid / Don’t be afraid / Sweat my children / Burn your hands / fight for the sun / sato-sato“. A song unlike anything else that you have heard, with an agonizing pace and lyrics reflective of the iconic and intense record cover, showing bare-chested Görl and Delgado covered in sweat and illuminated by golden light.

Despite’s DAF’s reputation, the combat and defense- theme is only picked up one other time during the album, on ‘Alle gegen Alle‘, a vivid fascist dance that denies ultimate interpretation: „Our gear is so black / Our boots so beautiful / The red blitz on the left / The black star on the right / Our shouting so loud / Our dance so wild / A new evil dance / Everybody fights everybody“.

The album’s biggest hit, „Der Mussolini“ serves as one of the biggest misunderstandings in art reception. The song is a collection of tight imperatives under a driving and relentless synth beat: “Shake your hips! Clap your hands! Dance the Mussolini! Dance the Adolf Hitler! Move your ass! Dance the Jesus Christ! And now communism!” The mere mention of the three names Hitler- Mussolini- Jesus Christus has provided the band a vague yet persistent fascistic image, with Delgado’s order to „Dance the Adolf Hitler!“ being especially too much for listeners, and putting a stop to the further investigation of the song. One explanation for the use of the imperative is Delgado’s immigrant background and therefore simplified language, using the easiest form in language with the imperative. But truth can probably also be found in the fact that Delgado was an erotic renegade who spent his time in sex- and especially BDSM clubs, and uses the language of domination and submission, the common denominator of sadomasochism and faschism.

Listening to DAF in German is a genuinely intimidating experience, Delgado’s sexuality is completely unleashed and he starts obsessing on long-player, like on the track ‘Rote Lippen‘ „Your dress so red (5x) Your lips are so red my Schatz (5x) The whole world is red for me.“ Delgado can barely complete the repetition of the red scenes flashing up in his mind, his voice constantly breaking due to the lust that washes over him and interrupts his vocal delivery. Robert Görl is also not innocent, moaning quietly but hysterically in the background, thus intensifying the primitive lust. It is something unheard of, introspective male porn making Je T’aime Moi Non Plus sound like the most innocent and fake song in the universe.

Delgado’s messages are primarily two things: very urgent and total. And so in ‘Als wär’s das letzte Mal‘, he also presses out words of pure love and longing: “Kiss me, mein Liebling. As much as you can / Press your body against mine / Give me as much as you can / Love me Liebling / As if it were the last time”, the yearning congenially completed by Robert Görl’s restless sequences. DAF is love & lust, with all attached feelings, as totalitarian system.

‘Der Räuber und Der Prinz‘ takes us straight into German forests and the darkness and strange sexuality lurking underneath the Grimm’s Fairytales. The song is a menacing lullaby about a beautiful young prince getting lost in the woods, when „suddenly night fell“ being caught by robbers, and falling in love with one of the robbers. A glockenspiel’d homo-erotic invocation from a strangely twisted and disturbed mind, with typically sparse lyrics that leave room for imagination, for all the unsaid things that go on in this forest.

An underestimated aspect in faschism is its paternal qualities. Succesful dictators and faschists will serve as a substitute father in some aspects, especially for the young men. Don’t think that Hitler didn’t have empathic and tender words of pathos for the young men of Germany, which is maybe where the popular ‘homo-erotic Nazi’ satire derives from, as simplistic pick-up of this phenomenon. Inhabiting this ability- the warmth and kindness of the iron hand- DAF can at times sound like the father that you always wished for, but never had. ‘Verlier Nicht den Kopf‘ (Don’t Lose Your Head) is this Über-father’s request and strength-infusion to you which rises above the everyday small-small:

“Never turn around / Never look back / Always look forward / You are so young / Stay young forever / You are so strong / You are so beautiful / Never look back / Don’t loose your head“

Words that are as captivating as the best propaganda in their simplicity and effect.

The psycho-erotic and totalitarian masterpiece Alles ist Gut keeps messing you up until the very end, closing with the warped title-track, an anesthetized fever-dream that does not provide any relief but gives you the final blow. Delgado’s words come in a sweet disguise, yet still sound like the menacing white light of a psycho. Words that keep penetrating your thick cloud of numbness, and comfort a diffuse fear that was triggered by them in the first place.

“Be still / Be still / Please think of nothing / Be still / Still / Close your eyes / Be still / Still / Think of nothing / Believe me / Everything is good / Everything is good”

As a monument to total exhaustion and consumption, the best and worst time to listen to ‘Alles ist Gut‘ is at three o’clock in the morning with a frozen body and a nervously racing heart. A sound turning you into one of the strangely one-dimensional Grimm’s characters, a deranged Sleeping Beauty. Sounds turning into signals that keep reaching the ravaged psyche. Nothing is good. All is good.

By Saliha Enzenauer

(Read our interview with Gabi Delgado here)

*Die Kleinen und die Bösen (1980)
Alles ist gut (1981)
Gold und Liebe (1981)
Für immer (1982)
buy at Grönland Records