Ton Steine Scherben directly translated into English means Clay Stones Shards, although Reiser is famous for telling journalists that it in fact was a description conjured up by pioneer archaeologist Heinrich Schliemannm, when he first saw the ancient ruins of Troy. On the 6th of September 1970 the group played their first major gig on the Fehmarn stage shortly after Jimi Hendrix had performed his last show on the exact same venue. The story goes that on the night of their gig, the house residing right next to the stage caught on fire during the show. Subsequent rumours will have you believe that the fire was instigated by the security personnel, because the organizers had fled with all the proceeds. Back then though, people thought the band had started the fire, which in turn gave them tons of credibility with the predominantly anarchistic population of their fan-base. This debut is however more than the overt in-your-face garage proto punk, as you additionally get small acoustic segments that take you gently by the hand and leads you through 60s like protest songs. Luckily so I might add, the bone crunching tempo that takes up most of this album benefits immensely from these quieter moments, where we really get to hear the imaginative playing from both guitarists. Especially Reise's brief gentle guitar sprees are a thing of beauty. In many ways he reminds me of a more reckless Manuel Göttsching.