Der Expander des Fortschritts was founded in 1986. The “risk group” described itself as pop musique concrète or abstract pop. Der Expander des Fortschritts relied on disharmony and ruptures, which resulted in radio plays in a song format; the GDR as a real-socialist satire provided its material. Even the band’s name was a cultural appropriation of the superstructure by the substructure: ‘progress’ was a fetishized word in the GDR, factory sports clubs would add it to their name, solidarity concerts would use it as a motto. The title Urknall · Horde · Mensch resulted from an Expander-typical translation of Weltall, Erde, Mensch, a compendium ceremoniously presented to each initiator on the occasion of their socialist youth initiation. In 1988, the band released the tape album on their own label Irrmenschkassette, a big bang in a tiny edition. (Henryk Gericke)
The cassette comes with more extensive liner notes by Robert Mießner.
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.