Germania! (Der Siebte)

Kurt Dahlke is one of those people that just does and does and does. He's been a member of legendary bands DAF, Fehlfarben and Der Plan, produced as many as 150 records for scores of groups, and is the founder of one of my favorite German record labels, ATA TAK. And after 30 years in the biz, he's still going strong, performing with his crazy setup (see above), teaching, producing, remixing and being a man highly interested in pushing the boundaries of technology, he even has a blog documenting his experiments using the endlessly fascinating Tenori-On controller (check his blog here). Under his Pyrolator guise he's released some truly out there work, pushing the envelope and his gear to produce odd and beautiful music. Here's a little taste of what he does from 1980, Ein Weihnachtsmann Kommt In Die Disco (Babelfish says "Santa Claus comes into the Disco"). A meandering track built over a clicking drum machine, thick bass, tightly coiled funk guitars, twinkling bits of bells and yes, vocoder, the best invention ever.

Pyrolator- Ein Weihnachtsmann Kommt In Die Disco