Systems of Romance

Here’s another minimal synth classic that I believe has disappeared from the blogosphere, but also wasn’t ever shared in its complete form, as far as I can recall.  You can still hear this track at various clubs across the globe, and it was certainly in regular rotation in my own sets over the years. It also begs the question- who the hell is Christine and why does she have so many songs written about her?

Inbase was a studio project between three German musicians, Andreas Von Holst, Stefan Telegdy, and Herbert Böhme. They recorded this classic single in 1984, chock full of stabby guitar liness, driving electronic drums, and synth hooks at every turn (fans of Xoris Perideraio’s “48 Siopes” or Cinema 90’s “In Ultra Violet” should love this one, too). The single did fairly well at the time, garnering a pantomimed appearance on a German television show (linked below), but I don’t believe the trio ever performed live or recorded any further material together. Böhme would go on to record under several different monikers into the 90s, while I believe Von Holst is still active in Die Toten Hosen (under the name Kuddel), a punk band he joined in 1983.

There are three versions of “Christine” spread across various formats. I’ve included both 12” versions as well as the 7” single mix. I don’t happen to have the 7” instrumental edit, but if I come across it, I’ll be sure to include it in an update. That begs the question however- does anyone truly crave instrumental b-sides? It’s generally an italo phenomenon but I’ve seen it a few other times. I generally don’t listen to them myself, but I’ve always been tempted to make minimal synth/italo karaoke files with the handful of straightforward instrumental mixes I’ve acquired over the years… Any New Yorkers up for this? Anyway, I digress. Here come the downloads:

Inbase- Christine 12”
1. Christine
2. Christine (Instrumental)

bonus- Christine (7” Mix)

*download it here*

As promised, here’s an edited TV appearance of the track:

This entry was posted on January 28, 2014 at 5:00 pm and is filed under 1980s, 1984, die toten hosen, german, inbase, minimal, minimal synth, new wave, synthpop . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.