a retrospective compilation of the bands history including songs from their first period of activities 1987-2000 and 3 new songs recorded after relaunching the band in 2010

+++ HERBST IN PEKING

Independence / Tolerance / Humor

"If you cannot convince them, confuse them." (Master P)

HERBST IN PEKING (AUTUMN IN BEIJING) is the title of a novel by Boris Vian, which is not playing in Beijing and not in the autumn too. HERBST IN PEKING is the name of a band, founded in 1987 in East Berlin. In the subcultural milieu of Prenzlauer Berg they produced anarchistic songs of death. With songs like "Movie stops tomorrow”, “You're already dead ?", "Parade", "The last waltz" or the satirical song "IMMORTALITY" about the Romanian dictator Ceaucescu the band reached a status in the underground world of the GDR.
After their performance at the official "Festivals des politischen Liedes" (Festival of political song) in February 1989 in East Berlin, there was a scandal behind the scenes due to the provocative program of the band.
In June 1989 the group was banned by state authorities because of their publicly expression of solidarity with the victims of the massacre in Beijing at an open air festival in East-Berlin with some thousand people in the audience.
To take revenge the members of HIP recorded the song "BAKSCHISCHREPUBLIK". It was the first single on their own label Peking Records and became a hit in autumn/winter 1989. The radio-DJ JOHN PEEL introduced the "BAKSCHISCHREPUBLIK" in his BBC show.
The song went on # 1 on the radio charts of the Berlin Radio Stations "RADIO DT64" and "RADIO 100". Unknowns sprayed graffity-lines of the refrain on the walls of big buildings in Berlin.
In 1990 the first album "To Be HIP" (KPM / Happy Valley) used to be released and sold 20,000 units. In the same year HERBST IN PEKING played at the World Congress of the Trotskyists in Paris. After the entry in the age of pop-music industry - in the packaging trade - a culture shock for the Band was following. The original line up broke up in the early 90ties. Just the singer Rex Joswig and the guitarist & producer Alex Istschenko remain. The band toured through Germany and several european countries (France, Belgium, Russia,
Switzerland etc.) Three more albums were released until 1999.

"TERRIBLE HERBST" (STAY HIP RECORDS) 1993
"FIRE, WATER AND TROMBONES" (MOLOKO +) 1997
"LES FLEURS DU MAL" (MOLOKO +) 1999
as well as several contributions to compilations and five EPs.

In 2000, the band released the song "JESUS WAS WAY COOL" on a ME Sounds Compilation. It became an underground hit and infiltrated the German radio stations.
In the first decade of 2000 it became quiet around the band. Descent. Creep speed.
2010 the band returned with the Dubreggaesong "GERMAN FOOL", used to be published on the sampler KING SIZE DUB Vol. 13 by the Hamburg label ECHO BEACH.
In autumn 2010 the band started the recordings for a new album "Lighthouse Madness", released under the name of THE HIDDEN SEA in November 2011 on the labels Moloko+/Peking Records.
The band's own label PEKING RECORDS published CDs in limited editions and as download since 2011:
GERMAN FOOL EP // SHAME EP // EX ORIENTE LUX (1987-2012).
In 2012 the band went back on tour again with a renewed line-up to promote their well compiled
BEST OF HIP-album "EX ORIENTE LUX (1987-2012)", a retrospective of their very beginnings in the anarchistic-R&R-Underground to electro-psychedelic eruptions of here & now.
At the BERLINALE Film Festival 2014 the documentary ANDERSON by Annekatrin Hendel had its world premiere in Berlin. One expressive ingredient of the soundtrack is the HIP-hit "SHAME".
In April 2014 the band released the EP “The Tyger & The Fly” with poems by William Blake,
the ingenious dark romantic poet and painter from Old England.
In April 2016 a new fulltime album went out by the title SPLITTER DER SCHÖFUNG (Splinters of Creation).
It shows the band following their very own way of being artists in the genre of contemporary rock.

Graufeld for PEKING RECORDS // MOLOKO +

The band:
Rex Joswig - Voices & Noises
Thor Sten Beckmann - Electric Guitars & Production
Mr Pegman aka King Snow - Electric Guitar & Backing Vox
Tom van Alp/Mircea Ionascu – Live Sound

Stay tuned, folks!