ΙΠΤΑΜΕΝΟΣ ΔΙΣΚΟΣ

For over 20 years, Kalipo has operated in the dynamic space between electronics and emotion, club culture and songwriting, politics and poetry. As a producer and co-founder of projects like the legendary electro-punk band Frittenbude – with whom he won the 1LIVE Krone, Germany’s most prestigious radio award – and the dark-disco trio Dina Summer, he is one of the key figures of the  German electropunk scene.

With “Alles”, Kalipo releases his fifth solo album – and perhaps his most personal to date. Blending dark club energy, playful indie songwriting, and analog DIY production, the album boldly continues his artistic journey: rougher, edgier, yet always heartfelt. The warm melancholy of earlier works meets cool beats, analog grit, inner turmoil, and a significantly increased vocal presence. It sounds like a new beginning.

Here, Kalipo emerges as songwriter, producer, and performer all in one. His sound – which he describes as Psychedelic Disco Punk – merges punk’s attitude with the force of club music and the emotional depth of classic song structures. Stylistically, he moves between dark disco, post-punk, EBM, indie sleaze, techno, electroclash, and songwriting. Again and again, he combines synth arpeggios, pounding four-on-the-floor drums, and shimmering guitars with catchy vocal hooks, distilling the essence of a sound deeply rooted in Berlin.

The title track “Alles” captures this tension right from the start: a dark disco track that begins with typical heaviness and gradually dissolves into lightness. Driven by a propulsive beat echoing retro textures, deep electronic basslines and dragging synth sequences unfold, while the guitar glimmers intermittently – like a light showing the way out.

At the core: “And the fear you carry in your heart – have you lost it today? Anything can happen.” This play between lightness and gravity runs throughout the entire album. “Alles” tells of departure and new beginnings, of inner conflict, depression, desire, and love – while also bidding farewell to hegemonic masculinity. Despite the weight of its themes, the album radiates strength and confidence.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” wrote Mark Twain. Kalipo makes that rhyme audible. Just as the songs of the 1980s offered counter-narratives to the leaden heaviness of their time, “Alles” seeks expression in today’s hazy present. Music as attitude, as movement, as an invitation to surrender control. Not just nostalgic, but firmly anchored in the now.

Vintage drum machines meet modern, punchy snares on tracks like “Crimson Rain.” Raw synth basslines and floating chorus guitars shape songs like “Geister” and “All Things Must Come to an End.” The often laconic vocals add a depth usually found in classic songwriting. “Sparkling Tears,” “Deine Worte,” and “My Laboratory” hit hard, pulling us back onto the dance floors of Berlin’s dark, smoky clubs.

It’s precisely this intersection between club and indie where Kalipo feels most at home – moving freely between genres while always retaining his signature style.

“Alles” will be released on September 19, 2025, via Iptamenos Discos, the Berlin-based label founded by Local Suicide, which has long been established as one of the central platforms of the international dark disco scene.