How to Listen to Feeling B: A Beginner Guide

What Feeling B sounds like

His music from then sounds exactly what you imagine when you think 80s punk rock. Seriously. It's perfectly the genre and would fit on any playlist sitting next to Flipper or Swell Maps on shuffle. Yet have the bizarre fun angle of Pylon and Kleenex's energy. With the interesting additions of full band sounds you'd see in some Kleenex songs (ie Split or Wig-Wam). There's also elements of experimental rock. Towards the later years their music takes on elements of noise rock if you asked me and the guitar riffs turned more riff-y and less punk. The noisier, distorted, and more abrasive; the better to me.

Flake is a very unique element here in my view. Sometimes his Casio sounds like a child's toy. His additions often make these songs unique to the genre because it uses such baffling sound spaces and samples. Hence why my response is, "... it sounds like a child's toy in the middle of a punk track." Plus all of the full band sounds (we got brass in here! and sax), and a song like Du wirst den gipfel nie erreichen has like an entire Dadaism segment in the back half with clinking noises. Uhh typical punk doesn't do whatever that is. And that part in some albums on YouTube have higher than usual plays because people are replaying that. Seriously, many Feeling B songs actually tinge way past punk into experimental and noise. Tschaka immediately comes to mind. Excuse me, punk doesn't normally sound like that. At all. It's basically experimental and I fucking love it. The closest thing I can think of sometimes to their general vibe is something like The Work's Slow Crimes. Which is post-punk and experimental merged together. But kinda like the SNL skit, it "needs more Casio." (And brass.) Ich weiss nicht was soll es's ending half sounds like a very early form of industrial of all things. Yeah.

What I am getting at is, simply going "hehe it was a punk band" really doesn't even actually paint a proper image in the slightest. I hear numerous elements of: traditional punk, post-punk, experimental, avant rock, noise punk. At some point they used loose pieces of goddamn reggae, and the last album is medieval with fiddles and folk stapled on. The song Space Race is basically experimental stuff that is like... having a moment over Klaus Schulze. And would have made little sense to the core audience they had to listen to it.

Additionally, Feeling B songs are meant to be listened to WITHOUT earbuds or headphones. You are supposed to put the CD or cassette into your player and use the speakers. Several songs are mixed in L/R channels without panning. Sometimes Flake ends up on the Left. I have Paul guitar in the Right sometimes. Even vocals do that! Frusti machs gut / Kim Wilde are two very easy examples. It affects several many though. Certain ways it's heard in modern day is NOT meant to be heard in-ear like this. You can tell it's a modern problem. It's gotta be the saddest thing that this element is lost to time. If you can get a vinyl, CD, cassette, or have speakers and play it without in-ear - do it!!

Their compositions weren't always typical of how punk was extremely short. Some are 3-5 minutes when played live, they became longer than the formal versions. (Artig somehow is 4-5 minutes long for a 2:20 track.) Aljoscha's vocals take a hot minute to adjust to, but it's fine after like the third song and your brain desensitizes. If you can handle Swell Maps vocals though, it's normal. A huge portion of his music from this era did survive time. I do believe if they weren't holed up in the DDR, that yeah this would have definitely found a broader European audience for the genre. I don't know if they'd have been huge or whatever because a lot of this was very much controlled to English being prioritized, but I definitely think it wouldn't have been nothing either. It's simply too high quality. Even in the DDR alone, they were pretty decently known and shows the potential there. It's why Paul and Flake get asked about it over and over, and others in the band don't get this.

He contributes vocals to some songs if you'd want to hear. His vocal style is distinct (yeah that's him yelling around) and not Aljoscha's vibe at all. You'll know. When Flake sings, you're really really gonna know because he will sound out of tune. There's no other guitarist here either, so. In terms of lyrical content, the band has been described as "nonsense" and "Dadaism punk". Personally, I think that's only true for some songs. A lot of songs are perfectly lyrically understood and do have meaning too. Pay attention to the sound and energy instead. If you have been unable to understand his guitar work, start in the 80s here. Somehow it will make sense but you have to commit. I can't explain it. You just have to sit through it and feel it to know, yeah that's him for sure. Even now. It's still near that sound. You have to understand him that way through this. But many girls refuse to do it or don't 'get' the genre. Thank god I like the genre. It's not a hassle or chore to me go backward.

This meme is exactly how I feel. Fighting about projects and whatever? I'm good.

Albums to start

These are full links sitting on YouTube by a guy who had the right idea instead of a playlist.

Hea hoa hea hoa hea hoa hea (I have unfortunately memorized how to type this.)
This is also their strongest one from start to finish. Perfectly of the genre for some self-taught guys doing stuff. I highly suggest listening to this one through if you find yourself liking any of my selections below. It's a very strong album.
Wir krigen euch alle
This one shuffles between punk and elements of noise rock. This is my personal favorite because it's a bit experimental to show genre growth.
Die maske des roten todes (Paul does the intro/outro phone if you were curious.)
Aljoscha woke up one day and thought medieval needs to go with punk. This is what happened when he let Paul and Flake buy into this idea.
Grun & Blau (compilation of old tapes)

Selected Feeling B songs with commentary

Because none of you seem to know where to start or what to do with this genre. Finally, (points to a stack of Touch and Go CDs in a box), my time to shine.

Artig - If you want your most stereotypical punk genre song, here ya go. This is it, babe. We got that. There. That's why it's the first album's opener. You have been informed what this is all about in one song.

Unter dem Pflaster - Here's another pristine song that sounds like whatever your brain thinks this genre should be. Arguably, conceptually the strongest track between the two. I would consider this to be the perfect go-to example of a punk song by them. Even if it's not technically the most popular with the people. (It's up there though somewhere in top 10.)

Alles ist so dufte - I love how this sounds off this tape rip with this warm low feeling. But holy shit, the real version goes hard even if a little slower. This has no right being this good. Come on, click it. It's so good. I get this song stuck in my head.

Am Horizont - The guitar sits in my brain regularly. That is all. Flake's parts are chaotic.

Kim Wilde - This song is insane in how it starts on Paul doing whatever that is. Then Flake makes Casio toy noises and the vocal direction is everywhere. And then at the end, it turns into a totally different song. Dadaism for sure.

Ich weiss nicht was soll es - This is what I mean by Flake being a child's toy sometimes lol. I quite like the strange turn the song takes halfway through at 1:52 and listen to the whole thing just for the ending half. I don't know, there's something about how it cuts out 2:23 and back in. This back half has loose elements of what would become industrial. It's crazy.

Dumdum Geschoss - Dude give me the instrumental to this so I can listen to Paul do all that for a while. God. Some harder elements in the guitar riff but otherwise the rest of the song is standard punk. This song is fucking loud by the way. Like, my god I swear the music is louder than the vocal tracks. Is his guitar track at the top damn layer of the mix? Seriously omg. This is up my alley. I want this. Whatever this chaos is.

Frusti machs gut - Excuse me, sir, Paul... you can't just do all that here. Oh my god. I feel like this meme every time I hit play.

Space Race (This is the short different mixed version.) - It's this bafflingly good instrumental track. I can't explain it. Listening to his work is pleasurable for this one. It has a feel and I don't know what this song even is really. Yet I do like it and may be the best thing on this album conceptually. This is my "lofi chill beats to study and relax to". I use this song to time my showers + skincare routine as background noise sometimes. Seriously. Is this even punk anymore? What are they even doing in the early 90s? They seem directionless and splintered between two ideas of what to be doing. And somehow Space Race is like "neither" and some other left field thing. It's really good though. It makes sense to me because Paul said he would have liked to do soundtracks and scoring if he were to do any 'solo' thing. This song sort of reflects this potential.

Herzschrittmacher - You have to cope through Flake's vocals, I'm sorry he's out of tune but I will give him B+ for effort. This guitar work??? Damn okay, I'm listening. You got me. Sometimes, it wants to go harder with some riffs (0:28) but then loosens back up off that and starts sounding too goofy (0:45) to be. 1:22-1:53 is where you gotta go. Go look at that. It feels like everything Paul is doing should be on a different song that goes so much harder than this actually does. This really should be a much harder track. And like my god, the demo version of this song is so much better to me. I guess the raw tape grain vibe appeals to my ears. He's so... mechanical and sharp sounding. Shrill, distorted as hell, thin but like analog thick in a good way. And like I'm living through a transistor radio delivering guitar sounds. I like the feedback (2:15) sound on the demo more. I believe we were put on this earth to listen to punk music via cassette rips exclusively. I need the radio feeling stapled into it.

Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend - (Yes he's doing the vocals in the main verses.) Listen!! I need everyone to please stop listening to the 2001 cover version from Russia. That's not even a good version. The original > 2001. Half the guitar work and drum appeal is missing. Being someone who loves the original's guitar, 2001 is not cutting it. I don't think even having the raw recording not in a bootleg recorder would fix that for me either. The formal official version is superior in every way and utterly supreme. The guitar feels so disgustingly distorted, transistor, analog, absolutely PEAK. I'm OBSESSED with it. The guitar on the original is 10/10 and you gotta do the real thing.

Wieder keine Zeit - Yes yes yes. I like this version way more than the 'original' basis used to form it. That version is good enough though. Oh my god, yes a hundred times to this version. This is when they were incorporating pieces of noise punk sounds and I'm here for it. Play this loudly everyday until I'm deaf at age 40. His guitar work is so good, good, GOOD. I need this song at every cost. Thank you Flake for this blessing by having this song on some obscure tapes. This is the direction they should have taken with the emerging harder scene since we're at the cusp of grunge, before derailed with medieval noise. Very very distorted, transistor electrical fork-in-the-socket guitar, trashed mix, totally noise and the most insane song they got. I need this live in person and I want to have my ears ringing nearly deaf after. I need it so bad.

Tschaka - Excuse me, hold up on this one. It's so GOOD. I don't care what this is but I'm obsessed. It's experimental and has loose elements of goddamn early industrial on it. Oh yeah and Paul puts vocals into it. By the way, it's non-sense. It's not German. Something I have noticed is that songs with him more prominently end up being the most experimental and noisier songs. When the soft riff comes in at 2:22... such a move combined with the electronic elements coming in. It really does feel influenced by something else and isn't anything like any Feeling B song ever. I wonder often what he was thinking of when working on it or what influenced this idea. Actually, after a lot of thought and thinking about Space Race - I have realized the influences for these ambient segments in Feeling B songs and usage of peculiar synth directions is probably stuff like the works of Klaus Schulze. Such music would be contemporary to his time and something from youth to draw upon. Ambient and experimental stuff like that did have popularity back then with a much wider audience than now.

Izrael - oh my god? oh my god. This song has no right being this good and is starting to cross into noise punk again. Oh yeah and the vocals are done by our fool. Yep. That's him for this one. I am howling at how underrated and good this one is. The first time I heard this one lives in my mind because of the impression. I was sitting mindlessly playing the albums in the background and then I got to this one. And the lead into that riff, then it hits, I was like; okay Paul, fuck, you got me immediately to drop everything, turn my head to the screen in surprise, and to pay attention closely. Why is this song everything all at once, oh my fucking god click the song. 3:07? I am on my knees. God, yeah that's him all right. Fuck that's him yeah. Lyrically, nobody knows what this is either. It's very likely this is a loose cover of a Polish reggae song. Hence Paul can't pronounce anything or made parts up. The composition does indeed use the same riff but is executed so differently. It's incredible what a shift in the arrangement and pace can do to a simple sound. Man goes to Jarocin once and this is what happens to him. (I may actually be correct. That's what makes it even funnier.)

Me, in my mental fanfics: I don't like him until he's at least 32 minimum. Too young. Nah.
Me also: Okay you know what I can go to the late 80s just for this song live. One time. No blond allowed.

So somewhere in this chaos, Aljoscha wanted to incorporate elements of medieval sounds. This happened and was their last album. It's bizarre. And what we got was...

Mystisches Mysterium | Hammersong | Tod des Florio | Rumba Rai - These are stronger songs on this album for many reasons relying on the guitar. Especially Tod des Florio is being carried on a guitarist's back somehow. An issue faced by the concept is that it can cause songs to sound 'the same' in a bad way. When you get through that album in a listen through, you begin to notice this flaw where you suddenly realized it's a new track yet doesn't feel so. You will also realize your brain is like, 'put the guitar parts back on. go back.' whenever he stops. Rumba Rai specifically is about an edge away from his R+ style.

Die Pest - When you get past this intro, you will be greeted with more than enough guitar sounds from who you want. It's rather unique to even hear him in this composition style. Take note. I don't even know how this is punk anymore, either. It sounds more like it's somewhere lost in late 70s classic rock. Go to 1:30 and 3:05. Believe in me. Do it.

Veris Dulcis - Ditto above. It's the most unique state of Paul's guitar you could ever hear. I like how 'grand' this song feels thematically. This one and Die Pest feel like sister songs with a similar feeling. Go to 4:30. Trust me. If you think he can't play or compose a solo, oh please. Yes he can...

How do I get on the alternative timeline to reality of Feeling B's noise rock 90s arc?? Because with how much more riff aggressive his guitar work was on the insane kitsch folk album, he could have taken this route. The execution of Izrael live also shows this route is possible. Both the other tracks I singled out as noise genre are really good for that path. He could have totally shifted there. He seriously sounds like he's trying to almost make harder riffs by the last album and doesn't feel like prior work to me at all. It's starting to change sound. This is getting quite far from typical punk or anything he was doing before. It just needs the noisy distortion back on his tracks and fork-in-the-socket transistor thing he does to be emphasized more in the mix compared to all these fiddles and bagpipes. The punched rhythms and tight feel is already there. It's simply distracting to have the folk layers added on you can't quite perceive it, but it's there. Listen real good to Tod des Florio and Rumba Rai again. The latter song is very far from punk style at all anymore.

He has to have been listening to a lot of Pantera or maybe Sepultura or something by now. The album sounds like a clash of two totally different sound visions merged together. These two things are not compatible but that album is the result. How the fuck do I turn Die maske des roten todes's fiddles and bagpipes OFF? Press the off button. Because I swear to god if you just did this, you'd be like: why is Paul making such heavy riff work in Feeling B. Everything sounds so different about him on this album and unlike before. Did he have access to the PSA-1 for this? He has it by 1994 so I'm dying out here to know. The way his guitar sounds is just... different on this album. No idea what it is though. Could be just choices of mixing.

Remember the footage? Oh babe, what's that silver box? I know that thing.

He's mentally going another direction that sounds much more bass-y and driven sounding, but he has this folk kitsch stapled on top omg. It's starting to barely be punk. I am obsessed with the album's changes in his guitar direction and sound, but I have to go through hurdles. Because it's such phenomenal guitar work from him. Tragic.

Bonus: live recordings

The live version of Izrael is at the end at 50:30. I am OBSESSED with it ever since this was put online last year. Happy one year anniversary to this tape radicalizing my life. I didn't know this song could get better. The riff is so good. I can't get over this one. The lyrics appear to be improvised into a drunk man's song, and made over entirely. Since there's likely chance any of them could properly memorize Polish lyrics. It sounds like some sick fucking Scratch Acid / Jesus Lizard song when live like this. This is seriously breaching noise punk on so many levels.

And now, I will address the elephant in the room - you can't even listen to the CD version of Mix mir einen drink. You need to hear the live version in the above video. The riff is one of legends, like it's so good. The video is timestamped. That's what you need for that track. A live cut of Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend is also on the recording. I suggest it a lot. Much better than 2001 still. That link also has a live of Alles ist so dufte as the opener.

If the date of November 9th for that show seems meaningless, it's the fall of the Berlin wall. Paul and Flake were playing a live show in the West when it happened. As shown by this recording. By this point, border stuff was lax. Paul later said in an interview that when they were driving back to the East, the traffic was huge because of people wanting to leave the East but they were the guys driving into to go home. Yeah, I don't know how but that sounds perfect for something these men would do on such a day.

Here's more live cuts with timestamps in the description:

Now this is how you're supposed to listen to punk live music. On crazy cassette rips with no coherent mixing and a hiss static sound like god intended.

Some songs are scattered in live format here to get a feel for how it looked visually,

Oh there's a bit of talking in the middle of this (19:45) and it's so loud, two young men talking over each other that; this is borderline incomprehensible. The most audible thing here is wie bitte ("excuse me what?"), for real. By the way? It's an argument. This is the closest thing you'll have to seeing Paul mildly irritated. Amazingly? He doesn't raise a voice back which is crazy when this dude is louder and emotive. He takes being cut off mid-sentence multiple times and tries to give solutions when replying. Something about playing at certain times and other bands. There's words about standing around for 3-4 hours. And they were promised to play at 10 but somehow it's midnight? Something like a suggested resolution was, "play for half an hour"; it's so hard to hear this from the noise and overlapped speech. It looks like mishaps about band time slots and being irritated by delays somehow. That's the gist. The final repeated line sounds like an insult but I can't parse it out. It sort of sounds like schraub to me.