Die Tödliche Doris

Die Tödliche Doris (Deadly Doris; a pun on tödliche Dosis, meaning lethal dose) was a German performance art and music group based in Berlin from 1980 to 1987. It was founded by band members Wolfgang Müller (1957–) and Nikolaus Utermöhlen (1958–1996) and later joined by Chris Dreier, Dagmar Dimitroff, Tabea Blumenschein and Käthe Kruse (1958–).

Die Tödliche Doris was part of the Geniale Dilettanten (Ingenious Dilettantes) movement, a merger of the new wave and post-punk scene, which combined influences like Frieder Butzmann, Einstürzende Neubauten and Malaria!. The head of the band, author, musician and artist Wolfgang Müller, wrote the book Geniale Dilettanten (Ingenious Dilettantes) for the MERVE publishing house. This was known for the first German publisher of French postmodern philosophers.

Rather than constructing a consistent identity, typically essential for pop music groups, Die Tödliche Doris challenged the notion of "convention" or "stereotype". Instead, they tried with each music piece and production not to follow a "style" or "image". Inspired by the post-structuralism of Baudrillard, Foucault, Guattarri and Lyotard, Die Tödliche Doris want to deConstruct ![sic] a sculpture, made by sounds. This musical, amusical or non-musical invisible sculpture should become the body of Doris itself.

The first 12-inch LP of Die Tödliche Doris has no title, but is known as 7 deadly accidents in household. Afterwards they published the LP "Die Tödliche Doris" (1981). On this LP are 13 tracks, which seems to have nothing in common: a "funny" song followed by a "serious" song, followed by a "banal" one, a "cruel" one, a "soft" one, a "noisy" one etc. Nothing seems to fit together, all styles or themes are strictly separated from one another. So Doris consists - like human beings - of a lot of different, contradictory characteristics, which exist in one body, but not co-instantaneously.

Because it is not possible, to re-enact this concept of a further LP, now the band begin to deConstruct the medium "vinyl-record" itself. With their following project, Die Tödliche Doris and her head, the philosopher and artist Wolfgang Müller broke the convention of a normal record-producing. Called, Chöre & Soli (1983–84), it looked like a five-vinyl-LP box, but contained eight small doll-records, a doll-record player with battery and a booklet. The songs lasted just 20 seconds and were of poor quality. This box is one of the most searched-for items among record collectors today. The plan of the band was that no reviewers would compare the music from their first LP with the second: "We want to become the most independent band of all independent bands–even independent from a usual record player," Wolfgang Müller said in an interview: "But also independent from music-reviews and critics, which want to put you in her sound- and identity-system."

...
Wikipedia