I had enjoyed all of Andreas Dorau’s albums that I had bought as re-issued by Bureau B. This was the last one of his first four albums to get the DLX RM treatment from the Hamburg label. This one was originally his third album after a five year layoff after the second Marinas album whereupon Dorau pursued a film degree. Where would this album surface on the eclectic map of pop that Dorau had begun assembling in his youth?

Bureau B | GER | CD | 2012 | BB113

#2 • Andreas Dorau Und Die Brüderschaft Der Kleinen Sorgen: Demokratie GER CD RM [2012]

1. Immer Nur Warten
2. Sei Steif!
3. Demokratie
4. Sucht Euer Tat
5. Taxi Nach Shibuya
6. Blume ’86
7. Tradition
8. Frauenfüsse
9. Stehst Du An Der Himmelspforte
10. Na, Du Alte Kuh
11. Ein Liebesraum
12. Ein Fall Für Dr. D
13. Immer Noch Warten
14. Willi Im Busch
15. Ein Tropfen Geht An Land
16. Menschenschicksale (1. Version)
17. Ein Liebesraum (Remix)

Gott Im Himmell!! This is an incredible album of updated pre-psych pop redolent of the mid-60s zeitgeist; replete with pizzicato strings, harpsichords, clarinets, and a host of baroque pop instrumentation! One would be forgiven for thinking that the songs were Left Banke outtakes with… some German guy singing? The word is that Dorau had wanted to enlist The Move’s Roy Wood to produce the album but Wood was otherwise engaged at the time. Dorau was set to produce himself with his stalwart cohort from Der Plan, Frank Fenstermacher when David Cunningham of Flying Lizards got Dorau in touch with Michael Nyman and with Nyman on board for arrangements, the resulting album is an exploding cornucopia of melodic pop tropes from 1964-1966, with a few excursions to the disco sound added like some exotic spice to the mix.

The album has no rock guitars, but plenty of glockenspiel. It’s that sort of album, and for lovers of pop, it’s a feast!! “Immer Nur Warten” is baroque chamber pop perfection with delicate harpsichord gracing a waltz-time ballad. “Sei Steif” adds an insistent disco pulse to the horn driven tune for a fascinating, and compelling pop hybrid. Dorau is throwing the rule book out for this album, except in his eschewing of contemporary sounds.

The brilliant title cut has rolling harpsichord with sweet strings and perfect “bop-bop-bop” backing vocals for a rollicking good time, even as it features many sound bites of stern German politicians intercut into the mix for emphasis. The juxtaposition of the good-time music and the very serious politicians makes me wish I were conversant in German, but I can’t knock success in any language. This is a magnificent sound!

By the third track in I was convinced that Dorau had hit upon a work of genius. The rest does nothing to dispel that notion. Every decade or so, one can be exposed to a pop album that is world’s ahead of the competition. Little did I know in 1988 that Andreas Dorau was releasing a time bomb that would hit me this powerfully 25 years later! Just listen to those lush pizzicato strings on “Taxi Nach Shibuya” and be swept away by the perfection of the playing and arrangement.

Following the more modern synth-pop of “Ein Leibestraum,” “Ein Fall Für Dr. D” comes hot on its heels for a spot on injection of Ye-Ye pop, complete with insanely catchy “la-la” vocals that were interjected only by Dorau’s “Ein/Zwei/Drei/Vier!” at the climax of the middle eight. The fingersnaps alone would surely melt your heart upon hearing this track and I can only assume that April March was insanely jealous that Dorau had beaten her to the Ye-Ye punch by a good five years.

In case it’s not immediately apparent, this is now my favorite Andreas Dorau album… by far! I strongly urge all connoisseurs of pop to investigate as long as they don’t have an aversion to baroque, retro chamber pop that simply reeks of 1966. Michael Nyman’s arrangements are a far cry from the Glassy minimalism that I associate with his name. I am eager to hear the subsequent four albums that followed the quartet that Bureau B have reissued. But I find it impossible to believe, on the face of this one, that he ever made a stronger album than “Demokratie.”

CONCLUSION: enjoy… a lot

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