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‘Like Depeche Mode, but evil’: the sweaty, sexual music of 80s EBM

As documented in a new book, electronic body music swept Belgium and Germany as its artists strove to make something entirely new – but their militaristic look became controversial

“We said that everything that had come before was shit,” Delgado said, and he didn’t just mean Kraftwerk’s pioneering electronic pop, but also the cosmic rock of Neu!, Can, Ash Ra Tempel and other German bands: “Guitars were leftovers from the old world.” Today, Görl says their original mantra was: “We don’t copy anything. While initially Düsseldorf was a hotspot, boasting the likes of DAF, Die Krupps, Der Plan and Liaisons Dangereuses, Belgium’s Front 242 were also moving in this direction, as were Essex’s Nitzer Ebb. Die Krupps’ landmark single Wahre Arbeit, Wahrer Lohn would later be reworked in collaboration with Nitzer Ebb into The Machineries of Joy, which features impassioned howls about work, pain and muscle.

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