* In 1989, the band released the demo CD "Satanische Verse" and after another year their debut album "Die Propheten" on Bruno Kramm's own label, Danse Macabre.
Das Ich skillfully mixed electronic, symphonic and early industrial elements into an explosive cocktail unprecedented in the often cliche ridden German music culture. Das Ich established itself with a fixed position in the scene and became the very epitome of experimental and electronic music.
They are celebrated as the starting spark of a new genre of post wave, post Kraftwerk, post Neubauten era, and successfully led the way in the charts of the independent scene. Tours all over Europe strengthened the position of Das Ich, who quickly got a reputation for being "apocalyptic eccentrics", since their concerts appear to be evil and bone-jarring spectacles.
* After the release of their maxi CD "Stigma" in 1993, Das Ich went off on an extended tour through all of Europe and the U.S., and in addition played at various festivals, for example the Peter Gabriel WOMAD in Hamburg, as well as at the Documenta in Kassel.
* After that followed what up to now is their most compressed work as well as their least accessible, "Staub". Its success underpined their precedence. Released right at Christmas time, "Staub" was on the waiting list of the German Media Control Charts for 11 weeks.
It took about 2 years to create this work, in which both the innovation that characterized their debut, and modern industrial-elements (comp. "Das Ich im Ich") were amalgamated. Harsh noise-loops bedded into symphonic arrangements and combined thematically with the Holocaust of self-contempt in modern human society rendered "Staub" a milestone for electronic music of the nineties. 8 tracks, which catapulted Das Ich to international significance and which carried on the importance of the German industrial-electro-scene. With "Staub" Das Ich played a tour containing more than 60 shows whole over the world. "Staub" was also released domestically in the USA on the Californian label Tess Records, ran by William Faith of Faith and the Muse, while "Die Propheten" was re-released on Black Orchid Records from Miami.
* After the band recruited the drummer Chad Blinman on the U.S. tour, Das Ich grew into a genuine live band. In 1995 they put the live album "Feuer" out on the market to question the term "canned music", which all electronic bands have to deal with sooner or later.
* Immediately after that, a project done together with the famous metal band "Atrocity" was released. The album "Die Liebe" was a successful attention-getter for both bands and is still numbered among the first representatives of the successful metal/gothic crossover movement of the time.
Until today, many of these crossover bands refer to this album as initial innovation and influence.
* At the end of 1996 Das Ich began the early work on their new album "Egodram".
* However, the work had to be interrupted for half a year in order to compose the soundtrack album "Das Innere Ich" for the underground movie "Das Ewige Licht". After a further successful tour in the U.S. in May of 1997 with the new drummer Jakob Lang, the work on "Egodram" could finally begin again and be completed at the end of 1997. While all the previous releases appeared on the Danse Macabre label, Das Ich decided in the summer of 1997 to sign a worldwide recording contract with Edel Records for "Egodram".
* The first single "Kindgott" which was out taken from the new album was released in December 1997.
* In February 1998 the successful "Egodram" album and the second single "Destillat" with a stunning videoclip, directed by the wellknown Qfilm company, were released.
* From March to April 1998 Das Ich toured Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In May they played the International Wave Gothik Treffen in Leipzig.
* After touring for the first time Spain and Mexico they finished the work on their literal work in June, "Morgue" which features songs to the poems of the famous German expressionist writer "Gottfried Benn" in an extreme diversity which brought them also a fantastic feedback from cultural institutions whole over Europe. In November 98 Das Ich toured France and Germany again to present some of their new songs.
* In 1999 it was time to celebrate ten years of Das Ich with "Re_Laborat" and the big USA Totentanz Tour 99. This album was a successful hit on the dance floor. It offers various remixes from well-known bands like Deine Lakaien, Atrocity, VNV Nation, And One and many others. The smashing dance floor hit "Destillat", remixed by VNV Nation became a club hymn for the summer of 2000 worldwide. The dark romantic track "Reanimat", only available on a limited double CD was transferred to a videoclip, directed by Hans Helmut HдЯler, with whom the band worked on "Das Ewige Licht" before. "Re_Laborat" was also brought to France on XIII Bis Records domestically, while their online archives www.dasich.de found birth on the internet.
* *In 2003 "Das Ich" released a double CD box, a Best Of called "Relikt" with a 48 page booklet. They also toured again the USA and Russia for the first time with a tremendous effort and success.
*In the middle of the burning summer 2004, Das Ich released their breathtaking new album, called Lava which focuses on emotional issues. For the first time in the bands outspanning history, love, hate, greed and other human feelings struggle against the ratio, the understanding of the human being. It is the fight of the Freudian "Es" (it) against the moral "Ich" (Ego)
* In 2006 Das Ich released Cabaret, a gothic album based on theatrics.
* In 2008 Das Ich released the EP Kannibale, which they call their harshest and most brutal endeavour yet.
Cabaret
Das Ich Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Soll leid uns tun nicht diese Narbe, Vergangenheit der alten Zeit.
Soll Freund und Laster uns egal, und Hochmut lange schon vergessen
Wenn wir verlassen dies Theater, uns wieder finden im Alltagsfluss.
Denken wir zurück nur, ab und zu oder schau'n uns uns're Hände an, wie kräftig wandelbar gebaut.
So werden wir uns geistig wiederseh'n.
Doch wer weiß... Doch wer weiß, ob das real.
Eine ungewollte Laune der Natur, am Ende einer Nabelschnur.
Das Zuchtvieh auf dem Gottesacker, am Wegesrand zum Menschenschlächter.
Ein sterbend' Drache im Höllenkäfig, zur Zierde in des Jägers Hort.
Wir sind verdammt, uns're Welt ist nur ein Traum.
Wir sind verdammt, unser Traum ist Ironie.
The lyrics to Das Ich's song Cabaret are dark and contemplative, questioning the very nature of existence and our place within it. The song begins by acknowledging the end of the day and the desire for release and relief. The scar of the past is something that should not cause us pain, but rather be viewed as a relic of a time gone by. The values of our friends and the vices that we may have once held dear are now irrelevant, as they have been forgotten and left behind in the theater.
The singer then encourages the listener to look back occasionally, and examine their hands as a reminder of their own strength and adaptability. Through this introspection, it is suggested that we may reunite with our own souls, highlighting a sense of disjointedness that exists within us. However, the song concludes with the realization that we cannot know for sure whether this reunion is real or simply a part of a greater dream.
Line by Line Meaning
Der Vorhang neigt sich nun dem Ende, der Tag strebt nach Erlösung.
The day is coming to an end, and we long for peace and rest.
Soll leid uns tun nicht diese Narbe, Vergangenheit der alten Zeit.
Let's not be hurt by this scar from a past that's long gone.
Soll Freund und Laster uns egal, und Hochmut lange schon vergessen
Let's not care about friends or vices, and forget about our pride.
Wenn wir verlassen dies Theater, uns wieder finden im Alltagsfluss.
When we leave this theater, we'll return to the flow of daily life.
Denken wir zurück nur, ab und zu oder schau'n uns uns're Hände an, wie kräftig wandelbar gebaut.
Let's reminisce from time to time or look at our hands, which are strong and adaptable.
So werden wir uns geistig wiederseh'n.
In this way, we'll meet again in our minds.
Doch wer weiß... Doch wer weiß, ob das real.
But who knows... who knows if it's real.
Ob wir nicht doch ein Teil nur sind, eines fremden Kindes Traum.
Maybe we're just a part of a stranger's dream.
Eine ungewollte Laune der Natur, am Ende einer Nabelschnur.
An unintended whim of nature, at the end of an umbilical cord.
Das Zuchtvieh auf dem Gottesacker, am Wegesrand zum Menschenschlächter.
Like cattle in a godly slaughterhouse, at the side of the road to the human butcher.
Ein sterbend' Drache im Höllenkäfig, zur Zierde in des Jägers Hort.
A dying dragon in a hellish cage, as a decoration in the hunter's treasure trove.
Wir sind verdammt, uns're Welt ist nur ein Traum.
We are cursed, and our world is just a dream.
Wir sind verdammt, unser Traum ist Ironie.
We are cursed, and our dream is irony.
Contributed by William S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.