Liaisons Dangereuses

Formed in Germany in 1981, the brief-lived outfit Liaisons Dangereuses helped originate industrial dance music even though its sole album, issued that year under the group’s name after sessions at Conny Plank’s studio, could equally be filed under post-punk or no wave. Beate Bartel of DAF and Chris Haas of Mania D. assembled the project alongside vocalist Krishna Goineau, producing four ten-minute cassettes whose contents were later assembled into the album. The band played a number of concerts through the balance of 1981 and all of 1982, at times augmented by Anita Lane of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and by Hideto Sasaki. Teldec Import Services handled the original pressing, after which a pair of additional labels acquired rights. When supplies of the 1985 Roadrunner edition ran out, the album became a prized collector’s object, driven in large measure by repeated spins of “Los Niños del Parque” from leading DJs active in Chicago’s house and Detroit’s techno scenes. Hit Thing returned the recording to compact disc in early 2003.