Kebabträume

November 9, 1989: In the day of the fall of the Berlin wall, KEBABTRÄUME is born in Bari, Apulia, south of Italy. The band was already active since autumn 1986 with some different names, founded by Diego Loporcaro (D. Loop), Vincenzo DP, Joe Di Giuseppe and Gianfranco Di Lillo. The videomaker Antonello Polito completes the team for the visual part of the project in late 1992, while Gianfranco Ferrulli joins the project in March 1993 replacing Gianfranco Di Lillo. The name KEBABTRÄUME, ironically chosen by D. Loop after the fall of the Berlin wall, comes from the title of one of the most politicised song by the German electropunk band Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft "Kebab traeume in der mauerstadt" (Kebab dreams in the city of the wall): it's clearly a tribute to one of the earliest musical influences for these Italian sound alchemists and a reference to the Turkish blood that flows in Apulian people's veins because of the Turk domination of the Apulian lands during the 9th century. During its thirteen years of activity, KT evolves its style from electro-industrial / EBM of the early years to a personal mixture of industrial, EBM, trance and sometimes techno, becoming one of the precursors of the current trend of using trance and techno sounds/rhythms in EBM / electro-industrial music. The intuitions of KT are fully revealed in the debut album NEURAL EARTHQUAKE, a collection of KT's best demo tracks written between 1988 and 1995 in a reworked form, summary of the first seven years of sonic experimentation. The album is released on the 6th of March 1996 by the Italian cult label Minus Habens Records (which also released CDs by Clock DVA, Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Pankow, Dive, Nightmare Lodge, Sigillum S, just to mention few names) and soon is acclaimed as a “cult” record both in Europe and America. In 1996 KT is credited as the best Italian electronic newcomer of the year (together with L.I.N.) by various music magazines as Vertigo (Ger), Side-Line (Bel), Industrial Nation (USA), Rumore (Ita), just to mention the most important ones. The release of the record is followed by an extensive Italian tour (from October 1996 to March 1998), which sees KT performing in many important clubs of the main Italian towns like Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, Turin, Bologna… At the end of the first tour, Vincenzo DP, Joe Di Giuseppe and Antonello Polito leave KT: D. Loop becomes the only singer and frontman of KT and Aureliano De Iacovo (from Technique Over Line) steps into the band as keyboard player and “dub master”. With this line-up the second KT album HUMAN DISEASE is finished and self-released in a limited edition of 300 copies in early September 1998, promoted in three open air festivals (one in Rome, one in Bozen and one at the Arena Delle Vittorie in Bari with Subsonica, Kirlian Camera, Science Force and others). In the following months the band searches for a contract with a reputation label to give a proper release to HUMAN DISEASE and in the meanwhile D. Loop and Aureliano De Iacovo are busy in remixing some tracks of the new album and in arranging material for the LIMBO albums CONTINUUM and COSPIRATORIUM. After some months of waiting, the well known German EBM label Zoth Ommog is at last available to release the second KT album in an adequate print for the international market, but the record, announced for November 1999, isn’t released because of the unexpected collapse of the label. A first European tour was already planned to support the new (deleted) release: anyway KT decides to start the tour in promotion of HUMAN DISEASE. Among the various concerts, worth of mention are the two prestigious festivals as MUSICA IN NERO at Teatro Miela in Trieste (with Kirlian Camera, Sol Invictus and many others) and the German WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN 2000 in Lipsia (on the “Italian stage” at Parkbuehne together with Limbo and many other artists). Following this new tour, the band splits in summer 2000 and D. Loop continues alone as KT (helped in the live performances by Nick Barah from Godyva on keyboards and backing vocals), performing live until August 2002 as headliner or supporting bands like DAS ICH and L’AME IMMORTELLE. After a summer tour in the countries of the ex-Yugoslavia, in October 2002 Vincenzo DP joins D. Loop on stage for a last concert of KEBABTRÄUME in Taranto, Apulia.