Contemporary Synth Music par excellence.
A mixed assortment of music is always guaranteed when Kernkrach is involved. Synth wave is always at the core of the imprint but the wealth of variety is incredible. The German label has not disappointed with its spread of styles with its latest.
Monster Apparat are the team of Daniel Svraka and Johan Sturesson, veterans of Kernkrach. Sturesson is perhaps the stand-out name of the partnership, the Swede also releases as Kord and is part of the prolific Frak. I was lucky enough to catch Monster Apparat live in Madrid, a stunning show of up-beat electronics and robot dancers. This could sum up the duo’s return to vinyl. Apparat! is a smile a second synth speedrace. Bleeps and plinks are clad in neon for the uplifting “Bonnasynth Lost’n Found (Hillbilly Mix)” before the laserguns are drawn for “Captain Of Mars.” One of my favourites from the twosome has been included. “Humans” is a sci-fi retro-future disco destroyer, crisp snapping beats and vocoders to boot. There’s a wonderful lack of pretension to Monster Apparat’s sound, their doing their thing and simple as. “Tricky Ricky (Shower Version)” is cruelly catchy, sounding as though it might have been used for a technology TV show in the 1980s. At times the melodies ache with the memories of Skanfrom, as in the quirky “Shiny New Dancing Shoes (Disco Mix).” But this isn’t pastiche, just cracking Synth Pop. The machine have taken over for the finale. Bars are beamed to earth, pulses shooting through the stratosphere for the lightning quick “Eternal Cabaret’s.”
Soundlego are an unknown entity, to me anyway. But the unknown has never been a source of fear for Kernkrach and this new name have been picked up for a full album; Draußen. It’s quite difficult to get a footing on Soundlego. They are tethered in Synth but styles dance and dodge, refusing to be pigeon holed. C64 charm is present but races away, as in the plink and video game antics of “Betrug.” There is an outright refusal to conform and this can have you asking yourself, “what the fuck is this?” Tracks like “Die Grosse Ruhe” are emblematic of this, structures chopping and changes as bpms race before dipping out. There’s a blatant disregard for accepted styles, but this doesn’t mean outright experimentation. Instead structures are bent and reshaped. Live elements are soldered to recorded. Woozy electric sounds are blurred by rebuilt acoustics. This is an album that belongs to almost none of your usual genre tags. At times it’s frustrating, at others heart melting; a seriously diverse first outing.
Hertz-Schrittmacher, Kernkrach, F.K.K.- Musik (Förderung Kosmischer Kunst) or whatever sublabel is going to be used as the platform, there’s always one guarantee with this German based music factory: quality. Contemporary Synth Music par excellence.
Both releases are available on Kernkrach.
