Blimey, talk about banging them out? Industrialists KMFDM are back with their 23rd studio album snapping at the heels of 2022 release Hyëna and like its predecessor it’s another diverse listening experience with all manner of musical tropes coming at you hard and fast. Vocally, jousting tracks between Sascha and Lucia makes it all the more varied and as the band prepare a substantial tour across the USA in March what can fans expect from the new songs? Without further ado Let’s Go!
The title track starts off with a synth line reminiscent of Dead Or Alive and spins things right round baby right round. Stock Aitken and Waterman would be proud and no doubt the late Pete Burns would approve as Sascha shouts out the track title to the songs catchy as hell beat. After determining that the sample on ‘Push!’ is actually from footage captured of a mountain lion stalking a hiker we get a track full of body popping beats and weird sonic sounds. Lucia takes over and prowls with sassy vocals on a track that has a Wax-Trax pounding backbone guaranteed to get you grooving. ‘Next Move’ has a bit of a robotic feel due to vocoder vocals and synth lines that are reminiscent of Kraftwerk along with a smattering of Lipps Inc classic ‘Funky Town’ about them. Recent single ‘Airhead’ is sugar coated, sinuous pop and the political ‘Turn The Light On’ is a brash funky bopper urging revolution via Disposable Heroes agit-prop samples. ‘Touch’ with its cheeky “touch me” vocal lines has a cheesy Eurovision flavour which probably will get a veritable Army Of Lovers queuing up behind Lucia’s sultry vocals.
By now it is pretty obvious that no two songs are the same and the band are keeping things fresh as well as a lot of fun dissecting the various musical tropes on display. Erlkönig is seemingly based on a Goethe poem about a child being terrorised by the King Of The Fairies. Here Sascha takes a Teutonic vocal route over some juddering guitars and fantasy laden keyboard parts. Although the album isn’t exactly full of “bangers” and takes a subtler route it’s probably the closest we get due to the vigorous guitar lines. No girly pop on ‘When The Bell Turns’ but grit and riot from the more venomous delivery and although I haven’t a clue what ‘Totem E Eggs’ is all about it’s a compulsive groover. What haven’t we had yet? How about some hefty dub and brassy ska as we head to ‘WW 2023?’ Yep it’s pretty much the end of the album and the world. A fitting finale to 44-mins of music which has really kept us on our toes. There’s not a duff number here and how the hell the band are going to choose what to play from here along with material from their sprawling career on tour is going to mean some tough choices have to be made. Shame it’s not in Europe and on the strength of recent material if they manage some dates here (the first since 2017) consider me there with bells on!
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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