Hundreds of garage bands came and went in the 80’s. Some left a burst of music on vinyl and sometimes that vinyl generates new interest. Like in our case, German band She Splinters Mortar.

She Splinters Mortar was founded around the time of the C86 movement which created new interest in guitar bands after the synth-dominated New Wave years. Named after a compilation cassette of 60’s flavoured guitar noise published by UK music mag NME, the C86 bands included Primal Scream, Pastels and the Wedding Present. You’ll find traces of all three in She Splinters Mortar music. It’s frantic, noisy guitar pop that careens along at (guitar) neck breaking speed.

Originally launched as a trio in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden, located on the Rhine river some 40km outside Frankfurt, the band released the cassette only ‘Tasty Tunes EP’ with four tracks in July 1986. Below you find all four tracks in glorious analogue lo-fi quality. It’s all very rough and ready, recorded in a converted concrete wine tank and mixed on a borrowed Tascam four-track.

She Splinters Mortar gigged extensively in the Frankfurt area, playing support to acts like Sonic Youth, Nick Cave sidekicks Crime & The City Solution and many more. The band added a second guitarist and recorded a four-track 7″ EP at Whitehouse studios in Cologne in 1987. The 7″ vinyl is trading on eBay these days but there is little information available online up to now. So here you go. All from the horse’s mouth as yours truly played a rather ropey bass in the band way back when.

She Splinters Mortar Line-Up
Harald Dawo - vocals, guitar
Walter Muscholl - guitar
Christian Lorenz - bass
Alfred Vorbrodt - drums

She Splinters Mortar - ‘Tasty Tunes EP’ (July 1986)
Click play to stream, click on RSS feed to download. Beware of the dodgy sound quality, straight from the only surviving C10 computer cassette tape.

Go To Town

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Won’t You

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Thunder Down Palace

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High Ethic

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