Current music from Germany  Popcast #9/2024

With music by:

Chilly Gonzales | Gentle Threat
Gas Wasser Indiopop | Broken Silence Records
Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys | Unique Records
Yelka | Karaoke Kalk
Baby You Know | Tapete Records
Author: Ralf Summer
Speaker (English): David Creedon 
Speaker Female Voice-Overs (English): Louise Hollamby Kühr

The North German province is a no-frills place of dry humor and straightforward punk rock, as the Kiel trio Keine Zähne im Maul aber La Paloma pfeifen (No teeth in the mouth but whistling "La Paloma") proved with dedication. They disbanded, but guitarist Jochen Gäde couldn't rest for long and founded Gas Wasser Indiepop, a reference to typical North German plumbers, who like to add “Gas Wasser Heizung" (gas, water, heating) to their names in order to advertise their range of services. Now with the addition of a keyboard player, they have produced a flawless album full of driving pop-punk gems with Der Prominente im Sack (a game show on German TV many years ago). Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys is the project of South African singer Lucy Kruger from Berlin. With haunting vocals, accompanied by a rich and atmospheric soundscape of restrained guitars, strings, keyboards and always a few drones, the quintet realizes the dramatic compositions to great effect. The Art Noise project [self-description] is busy: they have released a good handful of albums in recent years, the latest of which, A Human Home, is presented here.
The Regensburg band Baby You Know are only known to an international audience, if at all, through their connection to the Australian cult band Go-Betweens: Violinist and part-time vocalist Karin Baumler was married to their frontman Robert Forster, who also contributed some tracks and produced some recordings. Their peculiar but thoroughly pleasing American sound, interspersed with European folk elements, found a dedicated fan base in Germany even without the support of Down Under. But after the band failed to achieve their declared goal of an American record deal, they disbanded and fell into oblivion. If it weren't for the friendly people at the Hamburg record label Tapete, who have now digitally reissued the two albums To Live Is To Fly (1990) and Clear Water (1992).
Daniel Meteo, Christian Obermaier and Yelka Wehmeier have been active in the Berlin music and club scene for years, as musicians, label operators and artists - but in 2022, they hit the jackpot with their joint project Yelka: they managed to get the manager of Berlin label Fun In The Church so excited about them that he (spontaneously...?!) offered them a 10-album deal. Whether that's true or not, it's already an achievement that their new album For is their fifth in as many years. They also announce the next steps on their website: Album No. 10 should be ready by 2026! Restrained and relaxed, yet tricky and serene, the three meander through their largely live improvisations, which are stylistically influenced by Chicago post-rock, all of which are so joyfully recorded and sound so routine that you might believe it after all. Maybe they will make it with the 10 albums after all.
After 12 years of instrumental albums (from two solo pianos to chamber music, joint albums with Boys Noize, Jarvis Cocker and Plastikman to a Christmas bestseller), Montreal-born and now Cologne-based Jason Beck aka Chilly Gonzales aka Gonzo has a lot to let go of: Underpinned by partly new, partly familiar beats and samples, the maestro ventures into the rap genre. Sometimes humorous, sometimes razor-sharp, Gonzo could be described as an experiment in unfamiliar territory by an established artist who owes nothing to anyone and has nothing more to prove. In his rap persona, Gonzales changes perspectives and language as it suits him and delivers further testimony to his outstanding talent as a composer and creative chameleon.