History Music / Fraktus

* AsHimself: Alex Christensen in TheMovie. Studio Braun were afraid that he wouldn't agree to being parodied so mercilessly, but he actually deliberately cranked the way he was portrayed UpToEleven.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: ''Automate'' is pronounced in a German rather than an English way. Otherwise you wouldn't get the [[PunBasedTitle pun]] (it translates to "automato").

* ListSong: "All die armen Menschen" lists a number of German towns and cities because humans live in them. It doesn't really make that much more sense in context.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Roger Dettner turns himself in to the police by the end of TheMovie and is convicted afterwards.]]

* ExecutiveMeddling: Fraktus' almost entire comeback, including the production of completely new music by RecordProducer Alex Christensen plus vocals by Yazz instead of Fraktus themselves—Alex (who plays and therefore parodies himself) doesn't even let Fraktus near the studio to not let them ruin the production by actually ''recording'' something.

* FollowTheLeader: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Fraktus are the leaders, and just about everyone followed them. It's just that [[AdaptationDisplacement nobody remembers this anymore]].

** The comeback single "Affe sucht Liebe 2.0" is even worse. It is yet another shallow euro-dance number sung by Yazz and otherwise "performed" by a studio crew. It sounds nothing like Fraktus because Fraktus were actually forbidden to enter the studio during the recordings, much less record anything.
* NoHitWonder: A short-lived one, even. Fraktus could have had [[OneHitWonder one hit]] with "Affe sucht Liebe" if it hadn't been prevented by certain people.

** Fraktus as a whole seem to be one to Music/{{Kraftwerk}} who did start out quite wacky (as did Freakazzée) but became successful after going mostly electronic. Also, the Beater — a mechanical drum machine — is a kind of reversion of Kraftwerk's hand-played electronic percussion. Not to mention Fraktus' affinity towards nuclear energy; they enjoyed living in a town with a nuclear power plant because they had some ''fresh'' electricity, and they always wanted to play directly at the Brunsbüttel power plant with electricity straight from the plant. ([[DontExplainTheJoke "Kraftwerk" translates to "power plant", by the way.]])

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: ''Automate'' is ''NOT'' pronounced the English way. It is (supposed to be) German and yet another PunBasedTitle, a pun on "Tomate" ("tomato").

The band that invented {{Techno}}. As early as 1980.

They started out as an experimental band named [[MyspeldRokband Freakazzée]] in Brunsbüttel, Germany (then known nationwide for its brand-new nuclear power plant and the accompanying protests against nuclear energy) in 1978. The members were:

* AnythingCanBeMusic: Freakazzée more than Fraktus. They even had a track named "Big Bell" which consisted of nothing but dog barking. Bernd Wand says people were shocked about the song because they expected bells. ("Bellen" is German for "to bark".)

* EverythingIsAnInstrument: During the first interview before the reunion, Dickie Schubert uses a kitchen tap as what he claims to be a beatbox.

* ItsPronouncedTroPAY: ''Automate'' is ''NOT'' pronounced the English way. It is (supposed to be) German and yet another PunBasedTitle, a pun on "Tomate" ("tomato").

Released on a small indie label, ''7353=057'' became a milestone in music history, the first album on which a four-to-the-floor beat was used in electronic music. However, [[Music/EinstuerzendeNeubauten Blixa Bargeld]] supposed that they simply couldn't do any better. ''7353=057'' didn't become a hit, so while it inspired many musicians and producers (many of whom actually ripped Fraktus off, certain not to be caught anyway), it became largely forgotten like the other Fraktus releases—the even bigger milestone ''Tut-Ench-Amour'' as well as their two major releases (which caused their fans to call them commercial sell-outs), ''Affe sucht Liebe'' whose title track was kept from charting higher than number 21, and ''Automate''. Fraktus' sound was still copied mercilessly [[AdaptationDisplacement while the originals fell into oblivion]].

** Stephan Remmler of Trio
** Blixa Bargeld of Music/EinstuerzendeNeubauten

** Dieter Meier of ''Yello.''

* TheCameo: ''[[TheRutles All You Need is Cash]]''-style. Lots of musicians appear in interviews and [[SincerestFormOfFlattery claim that Fraktus have influenced them]] including:

* XMeetsY: Fraktus are Music/{{Kraftwerk}} meets Music/DeutschAmerikanischeFreundschaft meets {{Techno}} with bits of Music/DaftPunk and Music/JethroTull thrown in. Yes, Music/JethroTull — like Ian Anderson and unlike Florian Schneider, Thorsten Bage plays his flute unprocessed.
** The film is ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' meets ''[[Music/TheRutles All You Need is Cash]]'' meets ''Film/VelvetGoldmine'' meets ''Film/BuenaVistaSocialClub'' meets ''Film/VerschwendeDeineJugend'' meets {{Techno}}.

** Dieter Meier of Music/{{Yello}}

Despite being a FakeBand, Fraktus went on a tour through Germany around the time of the film release.

* ShoutOut

** Actually, just about ''everyone'' reads it as "LSO=ESEL".
* ToiletHumour: The fart song which a little girl records at Thorsten Bage's Ibiza studio.

** Thorsten Bage wears a cap much like DJ Ötzi and produces similarly shallow music.

* XMeetsY: Fraktus are Music/{{Kraftwerk}} meets Music/DeutschAmerikanischeFreundschaft meets {{Techno}} with bits of Music/DaftPunk and Music/JethroTull thrown in. Yes, Music/JethroTull.

* {{Smiley}}: Fraktus also invented the Smirky (a smiley seen from the side, think {{Smiley}} [[XMeetsY meets]] {{Pacman}}). The Acid House scene stole it and changed it into the Smiley later.

* AnythingCanBeMusic: Freakazzée more than Fraktus. They even had a track which consisted of nothing but dog barking.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Fraktus' almost entire comeback, including the production of completely new music by RecordProducer Alex Christensen plus vocals by Yazz instead of Fraktus themselves—RecordProducer Alex (who plays and therefore parodies himself) doesn't even let Fraktus near the studio to not let them ruin the production by actually ''recording'' something.

One day in 1980, the young producer Thorsten Bage saw them at a disco in Brunsbüttel. He decided that while they were horrible, they had some potential, and they were partly ahead of their time. He joined them as keyboard and flute player and producer, and after some discussion about band names, the band renamed itself Fraktus and went through a change in style. Meinhard Gnom was removed from the band itself but mixes them for a while and remained their roadie. He was replaced by the Beater, an electro-mechanical rhythm machine and one of Bernd Wand's several inventions for the band.

* AdaptationDisplacement: With Fraktus always being the victims. See SuspiciouslySimilarSong.

* Determinator: Roger Dettner. Fraktus are a totally lost cause, but he tries his best to push their comeback through anyway. [[BerserkButton The worse it gets]] when he finally gives up.

* GeniusBonus: Synth-spotting.

* {{Hypochondria}}: Bernd Wand, oh so much. He believes he suffers from quite a number of sicknesses whose names he picked up somewhere such as Congo tongue.

** Bernd Wand is no better: "BezauBernd".

* {{Mockumentary}}[=/=]{{Rockumentary}}: The film.

* OlderThanTheyThink: So you think that {{Techno}} was invented in the late [[TheEighties 80s]] or early [[TheNineties 90s]]? Think again.
** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]: Neither was the Beater the first beatbox, even programmable electronic ones preceded it (EKO Computerhythm, Roland [=CR-78=]), nor did Fraktus invent four-to-the-floor electronic dance music (GiorgioMoroder did as early as 1977).

* {{Smiley}}: Fraktus also invented the Smirky (a smiley seen from the side, think {{Smiley}} [[XMeetsY meets]] {{Pacman}}). The Acid House scene changed it into the Smiley later.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: "Sonic Empire" by Westbam stole from "Supergau" by Fraktus, "Blue Monday" by Music/NewOrder stole from "Affe sucht Liebe", and the Telekom jingle stole from "Bombenalarm". Unfortunately, [[AdaptationDisplacement they're far more popular than the Fraktus originals]].

* BerserkButton: After Fraktus bombed on stage, their comeback single has been produced entirely without their involvement, and the band decide they have no future, Roger whose idea the entire reunion was runs amok. ItGetsWorse for quite a while from that point on.

The best part about Fraktus' history, however, is: [[FakeBand None of all this is true]]. Fraktus are actually a product of the Northern German comedy trio Studio Braun in a successful attempt at faking a SoBadItsGood and thoroughly dysfunctional electro band to be portrayed in a {{Mockumentary}} named ''Fraktus: Das letzte Kapitel der Musikgeschichte'' (translates to ''Fraktus: The last chapter of music history''). Heinz Strunk, the author of the semi-autobiographical ''Literature/FleischIstMeinGemuese'' and starring more or less AsHimself in TheMovie, is Thorsten Bage, Jacques Palminger is Bernd Wand, and Rocko Schamoni, author of ''Literature/{{Dorfpunks}}'', is Dickie Schubert.

* BizarreInstrument: Fraktus had several of these, including an "electric bagpipe" fashioned out of a hairdryer and a recorder, the "Beater", a mechanical rhythm machine which is claimed to be the first beatbox, and an esoteric rotary iron.