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CD
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WHATNE 003
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"When socialists get on their soapboxes... as part of their campaign for the 1928 Reichstag elections, the German Social Democratic Party SPD handed out pieces of soap imprinted with the words 'Vote SPD'. The accompanying flyer bore the ditty 'Nimm dieses Stückchen Seife, auf daß es Dich erfreu' und schenke deine Stimme der SPD-Partei.' (roughly: Take this piece of soap from me, enjoy it, and vote for the SPD). Not everyone in the socialist workers' movement appreciated such offbeat humor. It spawned the 'Soap Song' which audiences never tired of requesting from the singer, actor and later communist Ernst Busch. It was one of the songs that firmly established Busch's reputation as the 'Tauber of the Barricades' -- alluding to 1920s operetta star Richard Tauber. In December 2000 Ekkehard Ehlers and Markus Weisbeck asked Stephen Galloway, one of the most scintillating figures in the German pop scene, to interpret the famous workers' revolutionary songs of Ernst Busch on the occasion of an exhibition curated by Liam Gillick at MAK Vienna. This legendary champagne-fuelled recording was presented as an installation in Vienna (very loud, at night). Some six months later, Marcus Schmickler set about compiling this CD on the basis of those recordings. On Ernst Busch opens up a new dimension in polit-funk with a blend of exhilarating techno and house tracks based on Mr Galloway's absurd cultural achievement. This CD pays homage to Ernst Busch and begs the question of how to interpret a text one does not understand."
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