Kosmonautentraum - Juri Gagarin (1982)

Kosmonautentraum was a German new wave band founded in 1980 by the singer Ziggy XY (Michael Jarick) and drummer EKT (both part of "Der Moderne Mann") in Hannover. This music project had a strong closeness to the Geniale Dilletanten ("genial dilletants") from Berlin (Die Tödliche Doris, Einstürzende Neubauten, etc.). Kosmonautentraum published mostly on cassettes and Zigzag Records with changing accompanying musicians until the mid-1980s.

Their debut "Juri Gagarin" was a key album from the "Neue Deutsche Welle". "Kosmonaut" is one of the most powerful opening tracks ever: You have the mercilessly pummeling drums and the sneering vocals, but what other bands would have killed for is that deranged, tortured synth lead. The track gets a great piano-led reprise with "Juri Gagarin" (two reprises if you count the five-second "Epilog"). The rest of the album simply can't live up to the opener, it's fairly good NDW/post punk with mad, harrowing ("Hoffnung", "Deutsche Nacht"), but also surprisingly lackadaisical, sloppy ("Gierig", "Neugier") moments.

Tracklist:

Kosmonaut 3:40

Stolze Menschen 3:51

Schattenboxen 3:14

Gierig 1:19

Juri Gagarin 2:32

Epilog 0:05

Hoffnung 3:22

Du bist nicht gut 3:19

1971-1976-198 13:34

Deutsche Nacht 2:38

Süßes Leben 2:16

Neugier 7:51

Kosmonautentraum - Juri Gagarin (1982)

(192 kpbs, cover art included)