tapetopia is a series of releases based on cassettes from East Germany’s 80s underground, particularly from the East Berlin Mauerstadt music scene, featuring original layouts and track lists. For over 30 years after their initial “release” the music on these tapes was neither available on vinyl nor CD, but they were important statements in the canon of the GDR subculture. Despite the miniscule number of original cassettes in circulation at the time many of the bands were popular in countercultural circles, a factor that made them highly suspect among the government’s own inner circles. tapetopia is run from Berlin by Henryk Gericke.
“…The Leipzig band Neu Rot represented a singular phenomenon within the alternative music reservoir of the GDR. As with so many bands that cultivated a more sophisticated sound in the late 80s, Neu Rot’s beginnings had been in punk rock. But, with a remarkable rigour against itself, the band steadily worked its way towards post-rock. This thorough process came to fruition in 1988 with the production of the tape “Halt An”. It had been preceded by the band’s struggle for its very own means and their technical feasibility. Neu Rot’s pilgrimage to its own centre was not unimpeded. The band’s name was perceived by the GDR’s cultural watchdogs as an erratic chain of associations between the suspicious word “Neu” and the ideological signal colour red. The band was legal, but its lyrics were deemed illegal. The edition of “Halt An” was somewhere between over fifty and under one hundred copies…”
(from the liner notes by Henryk Gericke)
The original Neu Rot cassette Halt An has now been re-released on C40 by tapetopia and aufnahme + wiedergabe accompanied by extensive English liner notes by Henryk Gericke, not only on the band and its releases but also on the broader historical background of underground taping in the GDR. Edition of 100 hand numbered copies.