Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft

D.A.F.
D.A.F. (Delgado-López left, Görl right)
Background information
Origin	Düsseldorf, West Germany
Genres	Electropunk, NDW, EBM, industrial, minimalism
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Mute Records Virgin Records
Associated acts	DAF/DOS DAF.Partei
Members	Gabriel "Gabi" Delgado-López Robert Görl
Past members	Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke Michael Kemner Wolfgang Spelmans Christian Ludwig "Chrislo" Haas
Notable instruments
Korg MS-20

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃ ameʁiˈkaːnɪʃə ˈfʁɔʏntʃaft]) or D.A.F. is an influential German electropunk/Neue Deutsche Welle band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 featuring Gabriel "Gabi" Delgado-López (vocals), Robert Görl (drums, percussion, electronic instruments), Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke (electronic instruments), Michael Kemner (bass-guitar) and Wolfgang Spelmans (guitar). Kurt Dahlke was replaced by Chrislo Haas (electronic instruments, bass guitar, saxophone) in 1979. Since 1981, the band has consisted of Delgado-López and Görl.

D.A.F.'s most famous songs are "Kebab-Träume" and, from the album Alles ist gut, the grimly sarcastic "Der Mussolini", a pulsing dance song. The lyrics "Dance the Mussolini, move your behind, clap your hands, and now the Adolf Hitler, and now the Jesus Christ, and now the Communism", caused a scandal.

In interviews they claimed to not target anything or anyone specific while creating lyrics to be taken as a parody of words and phrases floating around in the public media. "Sato-Sato" and "Der Mussolini" are both examples of songs written around Delgado-López's fascination with the sound of a particular word. A few months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq D.A.F. released "The Sheriff (An Anti-American Song)".

The album Alles ist gut (Everything is fine) received the German "Schallplattenpreis" award by the "Deutsche Phono-Akademie", an association of the German recording industry.

Görl described their sound on Alles is gut in Melody Maker in 1981:

Delgado described his new vocal style in the same interview:

The band determined early on that they would not sing in English. As Delgado later said:

As a lyricist, Delgado's concerns throughout D.A.F.'s recording career have ranged from sardonic reflections on ideology and political violence, to journeys into a very physical, even brutal, sexuality, sometimes related from a child's point of view. Having grown up as the child of working class Spanish immigrants in Wuppertal, and coming of age in the politically polarized era of the German Autumn (his response the left wing extremism of that time being thematized in the 2003 song "Kinderzimmer (Heldenlied)" ["Childhood Bedroom (Hero Song)"], he was blunt and unromantically detached about social reality in West Germany, and unapologetic about the provocative potential of his songs.