This is an album of 14 concise, insanely fun pop instrumentals. Admittedly
Herr Hausmeister (Christian Przygodda) has assembled them electronically
for the most part, with squelchy synths and fuzzy samples allowed to
distort and warp whoozily as it happens. Rhythm sections pop and click,
drum kit sounds on one track, electronic sounds on the next, and sound
effects sweep by.
Nonetheless, these are great little pop songs, nothing more nothing less.
The centre track, “Nitten”, is simply layers of acoustic guitar, shifting
deftly through a bunch of great melodic and harmonic changes, with
Przygodda singing wordlessly along with the main melody. If this sounds
like a touch on the easy listening side for your taste, when this kind of
genuine song-writing is translated back into the electronic realm, what you
get is much more like Mouse On Mars than a slow number off a Beach Boys
record. But be warned – summery strumming and distant “nah nah nah” vocals
do turn up on several other tracks.
The Hausmeister album is certainly a beautiful debut, but may be a touch
too unassuming to get the attention I believe it deserves. It makes a great
antidote to the often dour world of electronic minimalism, as well as to
the clean synthesized arrangement of a lot of recent melodic electronic
releases.
