ZickZack is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 based in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. Founded by former "Sounds" magazine journalist Alfred Hilsberg in 1980, it mainly distinguished itself by releasing acts from the underground side of Neue Deutsche Welle

Neue Deutsche Welle

Neue Deutsche Welle is a genre of German music originally derived from punk rock and New Wave music...

, a term coined by Hilsberg in his Sounds article "Neue Deutsche Welle - Aus grauer Städte Mauern".

Since then, the label has become a platform for many German independent bands. For example they promoted Blumfeld

Blumfeld

Blumfeld was an indie-pop band from Hamburg, Germany, formed by singer and songwriter Jochen Distelmeyer. The name of the band was coined by the main character of the short story "Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle" by Franz Kafka...

 and other influential bands of the Hamburger Schule

Hamburger Schule

The Hamburger Schule is a musical current in Germany during the 1980s and early 1990s. With some active bands and artists it is still present. It is encompassing elements from punk, grunge and experimental pop, and featuring intelligent lyrics...

during the early 1990s.

Other notable bands on this label include Abwärts

Abwärts

Abwärts is a West German post-punk group from Hamburg. Members Mark Chung and FM Einheit would leave the group in the early 1980s to join the Berlin-based band Einstürzende Neubauten....

, Xmal Deutschland

Xmal Deutschland

Xmal Deutschland , often written as X-Mal Deutschland, was a musical group from Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1980 with a completely female line-up, they became successful outside their native country. The lead singer of the band is vocalist Anja Huwe...

, Einstürzende Neubauten

Einstürzende Neubauten

Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...

, Die Krupps

Die Krupps

Die Krupps is a German industrial rock/EBM band, formed in 1980 by Jürgen Engler and Bernward Malaka in Düsseldorf.-History:Their initial sound throughout the 1980s combined synthesizers with metallic percussion...

, Palais Schaumburg

Palais Schaumburg (band)

Palais Schaumburg was a new wave band from Hamburg, Germany. The style was classified as Neue Deutsche Welle, and strongly characterized by their avant garde music and dadaistic attitude....

, F.S.K

FSK (band)

FSK is a German band that was formed in Munich in 1980. It became involved in the underground-part of the German New-Wave-Scene of the early 1980s. The band name is a reference to the German motion picture rating organisation Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft, which uses the same...

 and Die Tödliche Doris

Die Tödliche Doris

Die Tödliche Doris was a German performance art and music group based in Berlin from 1980 to 1987. It was founded by band members Wolfgang Müller and Nikolaus Utermöhlen and later joined by Chris Dreier, Dagmar Dimitroff, Tabea Blumenschein and Käthe Kruse .Die Tödliche Doris was part of the...

.