Artist: Kontrast
Title: Balance
Genre: Electro
Release Date: 24th October 2014
Label: Danse Macabre
Album Review
Anybody remembering "Einheitsschritt", that track that occupied foggy dance floors all over the land sometime in the mid-nineties? Curiously enough I do, but I have to confess that I had to consult some virtual sources for getting the performers name, ISECS, which didn't rang a bell at all. One reason could be that the trio changed their name to KONTRAST at the end of the millennium (or let's say in 1999 to do justice to all the mathematicians out there) for continuing to release a handful of outputs, obviously failing to live up to their earlier success. ‘Balance’ is the title of their latest release, seeing the light of the day last October and after a few disciplined listening I really struggle to get a scheme, a concept or even my head around the 12 tracks.
Musically they offer a carpet of several electronic varieties, ranging from retro synth pop to harsh EBM, from spherical sounds to generated orchestral pattern, but somehow it all sounds to constructed, to confined and claustrophobic for making it multifaceted, on the contrary, the style-hopping risks a lack of believability for there is no comprehensible cohesion between the tracks, no perceptible signature. Despite all the envisaged ideas it sounds aimless and somehow random. Lyrically the band's name says it all. Roberto Lindner, mostly practising a kind of sprechgesang somewhere between Witt and this guy naming himself Der Graf, is textually oscillating between emotional pathos (‘Am Fenster’, ‘Balance’ i.e.), simplistic paroles (‘Die Nacht wird unser sein’) and some kind of gibberish you can generously interpret as Dada (‘Jeanette’, ‘Die Elite’), perfecting the sentiment of confusion and perplexity, meeting its climax with the setting of Fontane's ‘John Maynard’, whose vividness and tragedy get lost between stomping beats and the rhythmic clumsiness of the recitation.
I don't want to forget to point out that there is also a female voice taking the leading role now and then. These are the moments when we slowly glide in the territories of electro-schlager à la ROSENSTOLZ, not only by the similar timbre of NEBELGEIST (more I couldn't find out about the signorina's identity), but also by the conforming content (just take a look at the lyrics of ‘Liebe Light’!). So let me propitiatory finish with the fact that one track is rising above the electronic ground fog - the weird, DAF-like ‘Jeanette’, whose silly play with rhymes reminds of the humour Max Goldt celebrated with Foyer Des Arts then. But unfortunately it feels like a cactus on the north pole...
Tracklist
01. Die Nacht wird unser sein
02. John Maynard
03. Am Fenster
04. Europareise
05. Nothing As It seems
06. Karussell
07. Liebe Light
08. Jeanette
09. Der Schöpfer der Zukunft
10. Ich bin es nicht
11. Balance
12. Die Elite
Line-up
Dirk Heinrich - Music
Roberto Lindner - Lyrics, Vocals
Falko Heinbokel - Music, Programmings
Nebelgeist - Vocals
Website
http://www.einheitsschritt.de
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 5
Sound: 5
Total: 5 / 10
Comments powered by CComment