Dagmar Krause - Tank Battles: The Songs Of Hanns Eisler (1988) (@256)

This post suits perfectly in order to continue the Island records tribute, since it is also connected with the previous post. Dagmar Krause along with Fred Frith (who collaborated in the fist lp of the Golden Palominos presented just before) worked together in Henry Cow and in the Art Bears; both groups are among the very few that combined progressive with a strong political agenda in their lyrics. Be sure to check them out; given the opportunity, I'll also choose one of their albums to upload.
Krause is one of the best voices of the last 35 years, full stop. As it is brilliantly described in allmusic, "admittedly, Dagmar Krause's quasi-operatic, very German style can take some getting used to, but she is a daring singer, unafraid to bend and twist her voice into knots or screech with uncontrolled passion and exuberance."
For the lp that is offered here, she covers songs of Hanns Eisler. It wasn't the first time she did so, since the Art Bears' first lp (Hopes and Fears) opening track "On Suicide" (originally "Über den Selbstmord") is written by Eisler and Brecht.
Although Eisler's ability as a songwriter was tremendous, his name is somehow overshadowed by that of Kurt Weil, with whom he shares a common history. They are both Germans, they acted in the same era and had a similar songwriting style, they both worked with Bertol Brecht and shared common strong anti-nazi beliefs which forced them to exile from Germany in 1933, to, finally, continue their careers in the US.

review link: here

download link: here (mirrorcreator) or here (rapidshare)