Gotta Get it All: Build a Komplete, Khronologically Korrect KMFDM Kollection - Part I

You need a complete KMFDM collection. Nothing less will do. That Brute artwork and those Krautrock beats and driving guitars must be gathered in one spot or the fabric of the universe may disintegrate. I know the feeling. I needed it all and still do. Everytime I think I've got it, something else pops up that I'm missing. I love to listen to it, sure - but collecting it is nearly as fun. So start here:

The Unrestrained Use of Excessive Force - The 1980s

1984 introduced Sascha Konietzko's baby via Opium. Udo Sturm, 1/2 of the project at that time, left shortly after the album's release to be replaced by the enigmatic then-drummer, En Esch, and What Do You Know Deutschland followed in 1986, marking the beginning of the band's longstanding relationships with both cover artist Brute and Wax Trax! Records.

1988 saw the release of Don't Blow Your Top and 1989 brought the full-length UAIOE and the first of many collectible singles, the excellent Virus.

Sex on the Flag - The 1990s

1990 brought the superb Naive, now ultra-collectible in its original orange cover incarnation as uncleared samples forced the album to be pulled from shelves shortly after its release. The single Godlike came out in '91 along with Split / Piggybank, Naive (split with thh Thrill Kill Kult), as well as the single Money / Bargeld, whose full-length album of the same name, Money, followed in '92.

 

Vogue and Help Us Save Us Take Us Away were also released as singles from 'Money' in '92.

 

1993's Angst is a definite high point in the band's career, with the excellent singles, Sucks, A Drug Against War, and Light bringing the band into 1994, which saw a re-release of a remixed Naive, Naive / Hell to Go, with all of the contested samples removed (and some tracks remixed).

 

1995 saw the release of another winner, Nihil, and the band's biggest chart performance yet came with the single Juke-Joint Jezebel (also available in a Morodor-remixes-only version: Juke-Joint Jezebel: The Giorgio Moroder Mixes (w/ Kraut)). Brute followed as another single and Glory came along in '96, three years after its parent album, Angst.

 

By 1996, Nine Inch Nails had brought industrial into the mainstream but KMFDM remained unapologetically unchanged, unleashing Xtort and its smashing single, Rules, upon the world. '97's "Symbols" found electronic sounds washing over the once-dominant guitars, but tracks such as"Megalomaniac" from the MDFMK EP rocked as hard as ever.

 

'98 found KMFDM finally anthologized with Retro representing the "Best-Of" and Agogo collecting b-sides, compilation tracks and remix rarities. In 1999, KMFDM roared away with Adios, but not for long...

 

(The brief breakup produced the one-off similar side-project, Mdfmk and, in the meantime, much of the Wax Trax! era can also be sampled video-wise on Beat By Beat By Beat)

 

Check in tomorrow for Back in the U.S.S.A. - The New Millennium and onward...