As I watched the woman struggle with the lock I could tell she was having a rough morning. Eventually it popped open and she was able to pull up the metal barrier protecting the storefront. While she left the front door open, I gave her a couple of minutes to get situated (I too once worked retail…) before I quietly walked into the record shop. She was already sitting in a chair nursing her coffee, looking like the previous night had been a long one. If she noticed me come in, didn’t acknowledge my presence. Which is fair enough, because she probably deals with middle aged record nerds a lot and can never be sure what kind of weird energy we might bring.
After about 45 minutes of exploring, which was enough time to basically take in the entire shop, I went up to the counter with this album. Which earned me a raised eyebrow. “Have you heard this before?” I admitted I hadn’t heard of the band, but streamed a few tracks after the cover caught my eye. She nodded sagely. “You’re going to like this record.”
It turns out she was right.
Amok Koma is Abwärts’ debut album, which followed fast on the heels of their very successful (in their native Germany at least) 7″ Computerstaat, the title track of which camped out near the top of the German indie charts for quite some time. Sonically there are elements of early punk rock, post-punk, and absurdist futurism that make Abwärts difficult to pin down. Perhaps the oddest surprise on the record is “Monday On My Mind”, a cover of The Easybeats’ “Friday On My Mind”, a Devo-esque approach that tweaks the lyrics to give the song a different feel, changing I’ve got Friday on my mind to I’ve got Monday on my mind. “Karo 1/4 08/15 Hoch 2” shows off their punk chops, while “Shanghai Stinker” gives you some of that post-punk feel, though flavored with frigid guitars and a brief surf solo just to keep you on your toes. The entire record fantastic start-to-finish.
Amok Koma remained fairly unknown in the US until recently. The German label Zickzack put out a CD version in 1988 and repressed the vinyl in 1993, but it didn’t make its way across the Atlantic until Neat Neat Neat Records gave us a new vinyl limited edition of 1,000 in 2019, copies of which are quite a bit more affordable than original pressings. It’s also available on various streaming services if you want to give it a listen.