DAF

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft

During my High-school years weekends were spent mostly club-hopping in the Hillbrow area.

My buddies and our girls would meet at someone's house at round about 7pm, after which we'd go to a pub or restaurant and chat away till about 10pm or so. Then it's off to Hillbrow where we'd start our evening off by going to the Chelsea hotel to listen to live bands and warm-up for the night ahead.

One club stood out amongst the rest and that was San Lorenzo in Kotze street, Hillbrow. During the period, the music we listened to was combination of Depeche Mode, Human League, Soft cell and so forth. It was not long after a trip of mine to Durban that I returned having heard some awesome music being played in the clubs at the coast. One of the bands that transformed our thinking from disco to 'club music' was to be DAF(Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft). A five-piece band playing Electro punk music which Depeche played in a more subdued form in later years. The music is recognisable by strong metalic-type sounds created with synthesizers. DAF were arguably the grandfathers of techno, and had a huge influence on the music of the later Soft Cell and Pet Shop boys.

So during an off period here at work I did some searching and managed to download some of their music from the 80's. I was immediately transformed back in time, and realised how timeless the music of the era was. DAF could easily re-emerge on the music scene at this time and be equally as popular as they were then.

Listen to 'Der Mussolini' and 'Kebabtraume'. Excellent shit!