The Formative Years
Chaos Z
Inspired by the recent acquisition of the enhance version of Joy Division’s Juvenes book, I revisited the oeuvre of one of my favourite German punk bands of all time, i.e. Chaos Z.
During their short-lived existence from 1980 to 1983, they channeled both the raw, rudimentary and explosive force of early hardcore punk a la Discharge with New Wave inspired and Joy Division tinged sentiments of despair and an underlying, unique sense of melancholia, which created an idiosyncratic melange that remains unrivalled to this day.
The fact that all constituents of the band were in their early teens, which I only became aware of decades after being first exposed to them due to the fact that no information was provided on their actual releases and the difficulty to find any footage of them, only adds to the appeal. Nothing like finding out that what you perceived to be the wise and informed emissions of seasoned adult punks to have originated from a source of the same prepubescent age as yours. It reminds me of a time when I was roughing up my voice with cigarettes before talking to older scenesters on the phone to pretend that I was as old as them, along with the classic stunt that when my mum picked up the phone when they called, I pretended that it was my ole missus.
Now, for the trained ear in 2021, the appeal of Chaos Z might not become instantly apparent due to a distinct lack of musical virtuosity and the monotonous staccato rhythms, but there was never a time when I did not enjoy every single song from Chaos Z’s first 7” ”Abmarsch” and especially their fantastic full-length “Ohne Gnade”, which was released on the controversial Rock-O-Rama label.
The core of Chaos Z went on to form the band Fliehende-Stürme, another fantastic band that continued in a dedicated manner to further explore personal experiences via gloomy, dark wavey compositions in the vein of Killing Joke and Bauhaus, which are at times still reminiscent of Chaos Z, despite being enriched with electronical additions and synths.
