The group was initiated in 1981 by Bruno W, after various ‘Punk-activities’ (e.g. articles for fanzines, production of the first Swiss-Punk LP). As a typical post-punk band mittageisen developed an individual music style (based on analogue synthesizer, coupled with drum machine & bass amplifier, plus guitar and bass guitar) and became one of the first darkwave band.
Among various concerts (the first one on March 6th 1981 as 7C0 = 1984 in Hex-Code) mittageisen became mittageisen, not least by the release of their LP one of the most profiled german-speaking post-punk band. Their album became ‘Record of the Week’ on the Swiss radio show Sounds!, which is specialised in new sounds, and not least often played on radio stations in Germany, Holland, Japan. The reviews in various music magazines were equally positive! Besides the music, it was the expressive lyrics, which together with the melodies created a special atmosphere, that made the songs and the group famous!
band-members:1981 – Daniel S: guitar / Markus S: guitar, voice / Bruno W: synthesizer, rhythm – 1982 – Daniel S: guitar / Markus S: guitar, voice / Ursula S: bass / Bruno W: synthesizer, rhythm – 1982/83 – Daniel S: Gitarre / Markus S: Gitarre / Bruno W: Synthesizer, Rhythmus – 1983 – Daniel S: guitar / Markus S: guitar, voice / Markus St: bass / Manuela H: synthesizer / Bruno W: synthesizer, voice, rhythm – 1984 – Daniel S: guitar, bass / Manuela H: synthesizer / Bruno W: synthesizer, voice, rhythm – 1985 – Daniel S: guitar / Markus St: bass / Manuela H: synthesizer / Bruno W: synthesizer, voice, rhythm – 1986
The name ‘mittageisen’ means iron-meal and is based on a photomontage by John Heartfield from 1934. The illustration was published on the frontpage of the ‘Arbeiter Illustrierten Zeitung’ (Workers Illustrated Journal), published on December 19th 1935. Heartfield (1891-1968) was an early member of Club Dada, which started 1916 as Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich.
The picture, originally titled ‘Hurrah, the butter is out’, shows a family eating various pieces of metal! It was inspired by the following sentence from a Göring speech: “Iron has always made a nation strong, butter and lard have only made people fat.”
Siouxsie and the Banshees published 1979 the single ‘metal postcard / mittageisen’, which they dedicated to John Heartfield.
After several changes of musicians mittageisen developed musically and released in January 1985 a maxi-single with the songs ‘automaten’ and ‘neues china’. The danceable song automaten, with a new electro sound for the time, was again ‘Record of the Week’ on various radio stations and music magazines. The single also found its way onto the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1 and became an indie disco hit in the UK and other countries. The video for ‘automaten’, produced in 1984, can be watched furthermore on YouTube.
After some concerts – among others together with bands like LiLiPUT, The Vyllies, Propaganda – and last demo recordings the band split up in 1986. Bruno W published some years later under the name mittageisen v2 (mev2) the single ‘geld – arbeit’ (money – work), which was published in two editions with different versions. On the second edition he worked together with Marco Repetto, a member of the famous NDW-band GRAUZONE, Techno and Ambient DJ, musician and producer.
The double CD mittageisen 1981-1986 remastered offers a comprehensive insight into the musical work of mittageisen, with 19 digitally remastered tracks (including 6 previously unreleased) and a 24-page booklet.
In 2022, 40 years after the first release, mital-U released three previously unreleased songs as MP3 download demo-tape 1981 remastered.