For some reason, this has become a football chant. In fairness, the reason isn’t entirely mysterious. The main hook is a fantastically catchy piece of work.
The little beeping solo is also an amazing thing to hear.
The song is perfectly executed, with a lo-fi and industrial texture which is instantly recognisable as being German. I had a feeling the song was German before I checked; they excel at this sort of gritty techno trance, somewhere in between the two genres (both of which are strongly Deutsch themselves!).
The melody sits at the end of a chain of fairly dubious borrowings and re-imaginings. The first link in the chain is the weird 1980 “It Happened Then” by Electronic Ensemble.
That melody is slightly further removed from the next link, which is instantly recognisable as the jagged saw synth in “Kernkraft 400”.
That song is the 1984 Commodore computer game soundtrack song “Star Dust” from Lazy Jones. So really, the song is more of a remix.
“Kernkraft 400” was released in 1999, and reached number 2 on the U.K. Singles chart, and is certified Gold in the U.K.
An anthem!