F.S.K.

 

F.S.K. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle, German meaning "voluntary self control") is a German band that formed in Munich in 1980 by Wilfred Petzi, Thomas Meinecke, Justin Hoffman and Michaela Melian, contributors to the underground magazine "Mode & Verzweiflung" (Fashion & Despair). The band name is a reference to the German motion picture rating organisation Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft, which uses the same acronym. The band has been associated with avant-garde fringes of Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) of the early 1980s and with techno and house music since the mid 1990s. 

 

From 1985 the band was championed by British disc jockey John Peel, recording six sessions for his BBC radio show, and were themselves strongly influenced by the independent British music scene of the time, such as by the unusual interpretation of country music by The Mekons. F.S.K. records were released on Zickzack, a record label owned by German music journalist and punk rock advocate Alfred Hilsberg. F.S.K. frequently played with David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker and recorded in his studio in Richmond, Virginia. In the mid-1990s the band recorded Techno and House music, recording in Uphon Studios in Weilheim, Bavaria. On their album 'First Take Then Shake' they worked with Detroit producer Anthony Shake Shakir. The band members are active in the arts, Thomas Meinecke as a successful novelist, Michaela Melián as a professor at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg, Justin Hoffmann as director of the Wolfsburg Art Society and Wilfried Petzi as a photographer. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]