Date: 17/10/2025
Mood: focused
Listening to: Kill the Sexplayer - Girls Against Boys
How to Listen to Feeling B: A Beginner Guide
Time and time again, I realize women don't know how to listen to this music. Or where to 'start'. Or how to even process what this is. So they miss out on numerous layers and ways to enjoy Paul. Or understand anything about what his guitar sounds like. Okay, well your resident bunny here will help you get started and parse all of this. As someone who enjoys noise rock, this was actually "easy" for me and my music palette. I suspect it's not like that for everyone. I can help this. I can mend this. I got commentary for days.
What Feeling B sounds like
His music from then sounds exactly what you imagine when you think 80s punk rock. Seriously. It's perfectly the genre and would fit on any playlist sitting next to Flipper or Swell Maps on shuffle. Yet have the bizarre fun angle of Pylon and Kleenex's energy. With the interesting additions of full band sounds you'd see in some Kleenex songs (eg Split or Wig-Wam). There's also elements of experimental rock. Towards the later years their music takes on elements of noise rock if you asked me and the guitar riffs turned more metal riff-y and less punk. So Paul's transition to metal wasn't a surprise to anyone paying attention.
Flake is a very unique element here in my view. Sometimes his Casio sounds like a child's toy. His additions often make these songs unique to the genre because it uses such baffling sound spaces and samples. Hence why my response is, "... it sounds like a child's toy in the middle of a punk track". Plus all of the full band sounds (we got brass in here and sax), and a song like Du wirst den gipfel nie erreichen has like an entire Dadaism segment in the back half with clinking noises. Uhh, typical punk doesn't do whatever that is. And that part in some albums on YouTube have higher than usual plays because people are replaying that. Seriously, many Feeling B songs actually tinge way past punk into experimental and noise. Tschaka immediately comes to mind. Excuse me, punk doesn't normally sound like that either. At all. So what is the extra genre put on it? Likely tinges of influence from NDW is the main culprit we can point to. This is something you cannot get in another country's punk scene. So yes, this will not sound exactly like American or England punk stereotypes.
It's basically experimentally playing with NDW for fun, and I fucking love it. The closest thing I can think of sometimes to their general vibe is something like The Work's Slow Crimes. Which is post-punk and experimental merged together. But kinda like the SNL skit, it "needs more Casio." (And brass.) Ich weiß nicht was soll es's ending half sounds like a very early form of industrial of all things. Yeah.
What I am getting at is, simply going "hehe it was a punk band" really doesn't even actually paint a proper image in the slightest. I hear numerous elements of: traditional punk, post-punk, experimental, avant rock, noise punk. With of course the NDW on it. At some point they used loose pieces of goddamn reggae, and the last album is medieval with fiddles and folk stapled on. The song Space Race is experimental that is like... having a moment over Klaus Schulze. Yet another Germany centric influence you can't find in other English based punk.
Additionally, Feeling B songs are meant to be listened to WITHOUT earbuds or headphones. You are supposed to put the CD or cassette into your player and use the speakers. Several songs are mixed in L/R channels without panning. Sometimes Flake ends up on the Left. I have Paul guitar in the Right sometimes. Even vocals do that! Frusti machs gut and Kim Wilde are two very easy examples. It affects several many though. Certain ways it's heard in modern day is NOT meant to be heard in-ear. It's gotta be the saddest thing that this element is lost to time. If you can get a vinyl, CD, cassette, or have speakers and play it without in-ear - do it!!
Their compositions weren't always typical of how punk was extremely short. Some are 3-5 minutes when played live. (Artig somehow is 4-5 minutes long for a 2:20 track.) Aljoscha's vocals take a hot minute to adjust to, but it's fine after like the third song and your brain desensitizes. If you can handle Swell Maps vocals though, it's normal. He contributes vocals to some songs if you'd want to hear. Paul's vocal style is distinctly deeper and not Aljoscha's vibe at all. You'll know. When Flake sings, you're really gonna know because he will sound out of tune. Most of his songs are found on Grün & Blau.
A huge portion of his music from this era did survive time and is available. I do believe if they weren't holed up in the DDR, that yeah this would have definitely found a broader European audience for the genre. I don't know if they'd have been huge or whatever because a lot was very much controlled to English language being prioritized. However, I definitely believe it wouldn't have been nothing either. It's simply too high quality and strong. Feeling B wasn't popular for no reason. Even in the DDR alone, they were decently known and shows the potential to have gone beyond if the circumstances were different. It's why Paul and Flake get asked about it over and over, and others in the band don't.
In terms of lyrical content, the band has been described as "nonsense" and "Dadaism punk". Personally, that's only true for some songs. A lot of songs are perfectly lyrically understood and do have meaning too. Pay attention to the sound and energy instead if the lyrics aren't to your tastes. If you have been unable to understand Paul's guitar work or general sound to identify his guitar by ear, start in the 80s. You will walk out of the Feeling B rabbit hole very enlightened. Somehow it will make sense yet you have to commit. You have to sit through it and feel it to know, yeah that's him for sure. Even now. It's still near that sound. You have to understand him that way. But many girls refuse to do it or don't 'get' the genre. Thank god I like the genre. It's not a hassle or chore go backward. I'm here to help someone else demystify this genre and make it approachable.
This meme is exactly how I feel. Fighting about projects and whatever? I'm good.
Albums to start
These are full album links sitting on YouTube by a guy who had the right idea instead of making a playlist.
best full album entry point
Hea Hoa Hoa Hea Hea Hoa
This is their strongest from start to finish. Perfectly of the genre for some self-taught guys doing stuff. I highly suggest listening to this one through if you find yourself liking any of my selections below. If you let me, I will end up dumping this entire album into the selected songs list. You can tell the best of the best ideas and attempt was put on this album. I can hear extreme effort. It shows, trust me. God, it shows.
Quick suggestions: Artig, Geh zurück in dein Buch, Alles ist so unununheimlich dufte
noise rock / punk hybrid leanings
Wir kriegen euch alle
This one shuffles between punk and elements of noise rock. This is my personal favorite because it shows genre growth and gets more experimental. This album is more driven by loudness, guitars, and taking the foundation of the first album other places.
Quick suggestions: Du findest keine Ruh, Unter dem Pflaster, Schlendrian
medieval punk with metal riffs and classic rock
Die Maske des roten Todes
Aljoscha woke up one day and thought medieval needed to go with punk. This is what happened when he let Paul and Flake buy into this idea. Paul also does the intro/outro phone bit, if you were curious. The album ends on a 30 minute long Oxygène impression. I don't know what this album is either.
Quick suggestions: Hammersong, Veris Dulcis
old tape compilation
Grün & Blau
A compilation of older tape material. Good for hearing the messier, rawer side of the band once the main albums have clicked or you are seeking alternative takes or feels to the songs. There are also some hidden gems here I will suggest below.
Quick suggestions: Wieder keine Zeit, Häßlich
Selected Feeling B songs with commentary
Because none of you seem to know where to start or what to do with this genre. Finally, (points to a stack of Touch and Go CDs in a box), my time to shine. When you want to try a song, click the thumbnail to open it on YouTube. Trust me, you do not want 15+ iframe embeds loading on your device.
Starter punk
start here
Artig
If you want your most stereotypical punk genre song, here ya go. We got that. That's why it's the first album's opener. You have been informed what this is all about in one song.
best punk example
Unter dem Pflaster
Another pristine song that sounds like whatever your brain thinks this genre should be. Conceptually, this may be the strongest base example of them as a punk band. If I put this one before Artig, I'd probably get roasted though. So it's second.
odd lyrics
Alles ist so unununheimlich dufte
I love how this sounds off this tape rip with this warm low feeling. But woah, the real version goes hard even if a little slower. This has no right being this good. Come on, click it. It's so good. I get this song stuck in my head. Worth checking out the Grün & Blau version too.
punk at its core
Am Horizont
The guitar sits in my brain regularly. That is all. Flake's parts are chaotic in a good way. This song is definitely... eclectic.
mismatched
Herzschrittmacher
You have to cope through Flake's vocals, I'm sorry he's out of tune but I will give him B+ for effort. This guitar work??? Damn okay, I'm listening. You got me. Sometimes, it wants to go harder with some riffs (0:28) but then loosens back up off that and starts sounding too goofy (0:45) to be. 1:22-1:53 is where you gotta go. Go look at that. It feels like everything Paul is doing should be on a different song that goes so much harder than this actually does. This really should be a much harder track. And like my god, the demo version of this song is so much better to me. I guess the raw tape grain vibe appeals to my ears. He's so... mechanical and sharp sounding. Shrill, distorted as hell, thin but like analog thick in a good way. And like I'm living through a transistor radio delivering guitar sounds. I like the feedback (2:15) sound on the demo more. I believe we were put on this earth to listen to punk music via cassette rips exclusively. I need the radio feeling stapled into it.
best listened via CD
Frusti machs gut
Excuse me, sir, Paul... you can't just do all that here. Oh my god. I feel like this meme every time I hit play.
Experimental
chaos
Kim Wilde
This song is insane in how it starts on Paul doing whatever that is. Then Flake makes Casio toy noises and the vocal direction is everywhere. Then at the end, it turns into a totally different song. Dadaism for sure.
peculiar
Ich weiß nicht was soll es
This is what I mean by Flake being a child's toy sometimes. I quite like the strange turn the song takes halfway through at 1:52 and listen to the whole thing just for the ending half. I don't know, there's something about how it cuts out 2:23 and back in. This back half has loose elements of what would become industrial. It's crazy.
Dadaism
Tschaka
Excuse me, hold up on this one. It's so GOOD. I don't care what this is but I'm obsessed. It's experimental and has loose elements of goddamn early industrial on it. Oh yeah and Paul puts vocals into it. By the way, it's non-sense. It's not German. Something I have noticed is that songs with him more prominently end up being the most experimental and noisier songs. When the soft riff comes in at 2:22... such a move combined with the electronic elements coming in. It really does feel influenced by something else and isn't anything like any Feeling B song ever. I wonder often what he was thinking of when working on it or what influenced this idea. Actually, after a lot of thought and thinking about Space Race - I have realized the influences for these ambient segments in Feeling B songs and usage of peculiar synth directions is probably stuff like the works of Klaus Schulze. Such music would be contemporary to his time and something from youth to draw upon. Ambient and experimental stuff like that did have popularity back then with a much wider audience than now.
Paul's Oxygène impression
Space Race
This is the short different mixed version. - It's this bafflingly good instrumental track. I can't explain it. Listening to his work is pleasurable. It has a feel and I don't know what this song even is really. Yet I do like it and may be the best thing on this album conceptually. I use this song to time my showers + skincare routine as background noise sometimes. Seriously. Is this even punk anymore? What are they even doing in the early 90s? They seem directionless and splintered between two ideas of what to be doing. Somehow Space Race is like "neither" and some other left field thing. It's really good though. It makes sense to me because Paul said he would have liked to do soundtracks and scoring if he were to do any 'solo' thing. This song sort of reflects this potential.
noise punk with elements of industrial
Wieder keine Zeit
Yes yes yes. I like this version way more than the 'original' basis used to form it. That version is good enough though too. Oh my god, yes a hundred times to this version. This is when they were incorporating pieces of noise punk sounds and I'm here for it. Thank you Flake for this blessing by having this song on some obscure tapes. This is the direction they should have taken with the emerging harder scene since we're at the cusp of grunge, before derailed with medieval noise. Very very distorted, transistor electrical fork-in-the-socket guitar, trashed mix, totally noise and the most insane song they got. I need this live in person and I want to have my ears ringing nearly deaf after. I need it so bad.
Paul guitar highlights
LOUD
Dumdum Geschoss
Give me the instrumental to this so I can listen to Paul do all that for a while. God. Some harder elements in the guitar riff but otherwise the rest of the song is standard punk. This song is fucking loud by the way. Like, my god I swear the music is louder than the vocal tracks. Is his guitar track at the top damn layer of the mix? Seriously omg. This is up my alley. I want this. Whatever this chaos is.
my beloved
Izrael
Oh my god? oh my god. This song has no right being this good and is starting to cross into noise punk again. Oh yeah and the vocals are done by our fool. Yep. That's him for this one. I am howling at how underrated and good this one is. The first time I heard this one lives in my mind because of the impression.
I was sitting mindlessly playing the albums in the background and then I got to this one. And the lead into that riff, then it hits, I was like; okay Paul, fuck, you got me immediately to drop everything, turn my head to the screen in surprise, and to pay attention closely. Why is this song everything all at once? 3:07? I am on my knees. God, yeah that's him all right. Lyrically, nobody knows what this is either. It's very likely this is a loose cover of a Polish reggae song. Hence Paul can't pronounce anything or made parts up. The composition does indeed use the same riff but is executed so differently. It's incredible what a shift in the arrangement and pace can do to a simple sound. Man goes to Jarocin once and this is what happens to him. (I may actually be correct. That's what makes it even funnier.)
Me, in my mental fanfics: I don't like him until he's at least 32 minimum. Too young. Nah.
Me also: Okay you know what I can go to the late 80s just for this song live. One time. No blond allowed.
recognizable to R+ fans
Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend
(Yes he's doing the vocals in the main verses.) Listen!! I need everyone to please stop listening to the 2001 cover version from Russia. That's not even a good version. The original > 2001. Half the guitar work and drum appeal is missing. Being someone who loves the original's guitar, 2001 is not cutting it. I don't think even having the raw recording not in a bootleg recorder would fix that for me either. The formal official version is superior in every way and utterly supreme. The guitar feels so disgustingly distorted, transistor, analog, absolutely PEAK. I'm OBSESSED with it. The guitar on the original is 10/10 and you gotta do the real thing.
peculiar ambiance
Die Pest
When you get past this intro that lulls you falsely to the tone of the song, you will be greeted with more than enough guitar sounds from who you want. It's rather unique to even hear him in this composition style. Take note. I don't even know how this is punk anymore, either. It sounds more like it's somewhere lost in late 70s classic rock. Go to 1:30 and 3:05. Believe in me. Do it. This is why I am telling you, to understand Paul's guitar sound you have to go back to Feeling B and just "get" it.
click play trust me
Veris Dulcis
Ditto above. It's the most unique state of Paul's guitar you could ever hear. I like how 'grand' this song feels thematically. This one and Die Pest feel like sister songs with a similar feeling. Go to 4:30. Trust me. If you think he can't play or compose a solo, oh please. Yes he can. What I find most important about all Feeling B music is that it sounds unmistakably like his guitar. Transistor, distorted, shrill, a tad light or thin, a bit mechanical. Lovely. You will recognize this Paul sound once you get through the discography.
Aljoscha's Medieval detour
get used to the folk kitsch now
Mystisches Mysterium
This is by far a stronger song on this album. For many reasons pertaining melody and pacing. I would start here and if you can handle it, continue the album.
very heavy
Hammersong
So, the wall coming down has basically resulted in Paul picking up many metal album CDs and going, "I'mma do that but my way" and somehow there's 10 layers of folk Medieval stapled on top of that. Welcome to this album carrying too many genres. It's metal riffs, kitsch folk, classic rock, experimental, and punk at once. This song is barely punk. Paul sounds like a metal guitarist here who got lost somewhere in World Music at the CD store. I don't know what's going on anymore.
fast and catchy
Tod des Florio
Tod des Florio is being carried on a guitarist's back somehow. An issue faced by the concept is that it can cause songs to sound 'the same' in a bad way. When you get through the album in a listen through, you begin to notice this flaw where you suddenly realized it's a new track yet doesn't feel so. You will realize your brain is like, 'put the guitar parts back on' whenever he stops.
metal riffs again
Rumba Rai
Somewhere around this song, you will finally throw your hands up in the air and yell, "steal the masters to these songs. we need to turn the fiddles OFF. right now." You have gone too far forcing this meme upon us.
Bonus: live recordings
Pike Club Berlin 9 November 1989
The live version of Izrael is at the end at 50:30. I am OBSESSED with it ever since this was put online last year. Happy one year anniversary to this tape radicalizing my life. I didn't know this song could get better. The riff is so good. I can't get over this one. The lyrics appear to be improvised into a drunk man's song, and made over entirely. Since there's likely chance any of them could properly memorize Polish lyrics. It sounds like some sick fucking Scratch Acid / Jesus Lizard song when live like this. This is seriously breaching noise punk on so many levels.
And now, I will address the elephant in the room - you can't even listen to the CD version of Mix mir einen drink. You need to hear the live version in the above video. The riff is one of legends, like it's so good. The video is timestamped. That's what you need for that track. A live cut of Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend is also on the recording. I suggest it a lot. Much better than 2001 still. That link also has a live of Alles ist so dufte as the opener.
If the date of November 9th for that show seems meaningless, Paul and Flake were playing a live show in the West when it happened. As shown by this recording. By this point, border stuff was lax. Paul later said in an interview that when they were driving back to the East, the traffic was huge because of people wanting to leave the East but they were the guys driving in to go home. Yeah, I don't know how but that sounds perfect for something these men would do on such a day. It's so fascinating to watch important history happen around Paul like this date and Zionskirche.
Live full cassette rip
Here's more live cuts with timestamps in the description. Now this is how you're supposed to listen to punk live music. On crazy cassette rips with no coherent mixing and a hiss static sound like god intended.
Von Anfang An
Oh there's a bit of talking in the middle of this (19:45) and it's so loud, two young men talking over each other that; this is borderline incomprehensible. The most audible thing here is wie bitte ("excuse me what?"), for real. By the way? It's an argument. This is the closest thing you'll have to seeing Paul mildly irritated. Amazingly? He doesn't raise a voice back which is crazy when this dude is louder and emotive. He takes being cut off mid-sentence multiple times and tries to give solutions when replying. Something about playing at certain times and other bands. There's words about standing around for 3-4 hours. And they were promised to play at 10 but somehow it's midnight? Something like a suggested resolution was, "play for half an hour"; it's so hard to hear this from the noise and overlapped speech. The final repeated line sounds like an insult but I can't parse it out. It sort of sounds like schraub.
