I love doing this website and here’s why: I’ve spent much of my life seeking out obscure music, and occasionally something comes along that I’ve never heard of that is astonishing however you look at it.
In fact I used the phrase “truly stunning” to describe KNFDM and their 23rd album “Hyena” and record 24 is as much of a head scratcher.
They weren’t a band I knew much about, but in honesty, it almost doesn’t matter because no one can really get a handle on a band this varied
“Let Go” is what I imagine an underground sex club to sound like in Berlin . “no time to waste on Bullshit or hate!” sings Sascha K (as an aside the band may get a smile out of the fact that the software I used to add my notes for the record saved it as “Berlin underground sex club”)
In truth “Push” does nothing to stop the hi NRG feel, but the guitar solo is a class above.
A feature of the album is how they use the guitar. “Next Move” has a touch of Ministry about it, but the guitar swings, and there’s a proper rap here too.
Airhead” sung by Lucia Cifarelli is one of the ones they do that is deceptively catchy. Namechecking Donkey Kong and Chuck Norris is excellent too, but if they were just airheads, they wouldn’t write such politically savvy stuff as the biting “Turn The Light On”, the power of the people, they intone “will overcome the people in power” – and they are one of the great sloganeering bands.
There’s something disorientating about the synth-heavy “Touch” – and the one sung in their own language “Erlkonig” is a proper journey too.
Even for this record – which is predictably bonkers and sensational in equal measure – “When The Bell Tolls” is a spot of class. Wednesday 13 is looking on enviously.
Techno is all over this, but not many techno albums have the lyric “apotheosis of bravado” in. “Totem E Eggs” does. For a song that concerns itself with 2024 and the apocalypse, “WW3” is appositely heavy, sounding like an ominous soundtrack with a dub reggae beat.
A couple of things, if you like records to follow a linear path, KMFDM are not the band for you, if you like something that’s a bit of a challenge, all washed down with a spoonful of politics and a catchy as hell chaser, then welcome to the family.
All records couldn’t be like this, perhaps, but only because most bands don’t think this big and don’t have these ideas.
Fancy a look? Let’s Go.
Rating 9/10
REVIEW: KMFDM – LET’S GO (2024)
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