A Million Keys

ZNS Tapes Archive

ZNS Tapes was a cassette label active in the late 1980s begun by Andreas Scholz and Andreaz Vogel. Operated out of the city of Bochum in Germany, every release on this dark and thoroughly bizarre label is now freely available and archived online. With twelve full lengths, fifteen split releases, ten compilations and two box sets, there’s quite a bit of material to dig through here. Below I’ve provided a few tracks off of their first compilation cortisol :

Listen to liquid g. + under pressure

Listen to enema och gejonte + vivalla revolution

Listen to vidna obmana + cools the blood for six

The label spanned the territory of early industrial and/or power electronics (MOHR, Vulture’s Eye, Bestattungsinstitut) to minimal synth (Nostalgie Eternelle) to not-so straight ahead punk (Flagrants D’eli). Notably, ZNS put out Suicide Commando’s first two releases Suicide Commando and This is Hate. Vogel discontinued the label in 1993 but still produces music and art under Gewalt am Objekt.