Von Südenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions


Von Südenfed

Tromatic Reflexxions

You know what you’re going to get with German music, generally speaking. There’s something in the Teutonic soul that loves technology, blips and blobs, experimentation and free association. Either that, or they play industrial heavy generic rock going on about strange weather patterns.

Von Südenfed are two-thirds German and the remainder English, so there’s room for an injection of melody, something to make it chart-friendly and sensible. Unless you make a ridiculous choice of Englishman. In this case, Von Südenfed has gone for The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. Oh God.

The Fall are an acquired taste. Smith tends to sound like a tramp shouting into his coat between sips of Brasso at the best of times, but how will he cope with adding the lyrical impetus to the electronica supplied by Mouse on Mars’ Andi Toma and Jan St Werner? By being as obtuse as possible, of course.

Tromatic Reflexxions, when you’re not out of your head, is a nightmare of an album. This is largely due to Smith, of course, who removes any pleasure you might get from the largely atonal backing music. I can’t even imagine enjoying this in a club scenario. It’s a wasted effort.

It’s rare that studio experimentation is worth releasing, largely borne out with tracks like Wings cover of the Crossroads theme or The Style Council’s ‘The Stand-Up Comedian’s Instructions,’ and whoever thought they should waste their time releasing this album in hardcopy should get their head examined. If you must, download. But don’t. Really, don’t.

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