| CD REVIEW Die Krupps |
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Band: Die Krupps We’re still waiting for a new studio album from German EBM/ Industrial act Die Krupps! Following the October 2007 release of their retrospective Too Much History (which was released both as two separete entities with the subtitles Vol. 1: The Electro Years and Vol. 2: The Metal Years (review of the latter, by yours truly, was posted 28/10/2007), and a box set including the two discs), the band has not only been the road, playing gigs allover Europe, but they also re-issued their classic albums Volle Kraft Voraus (from 1982) and I (from 1992), both with bonus discs including tons of previously unreleased and released remixes, during August of 2008! And now that we’re talking remixes…Die Krupps have always been interested with working with other people, not only remixing music of other artists and giving that the Krupps touch, but frequently asking other people to give songs of theirs a working over, fascinated with what they might make of their original material! The idea for Volle Kraft Null Acht was born when the band was working on the re-issues of the above mentioned albums, the band re-discovering their epic EBM/ Electronic Pop album of 1982, while also having the complete I album remixed in an Atom H version (the re-issue also contained a total of 8 bonus tracks, 3 of which in an Electro Version). An idea taken from the past, when artists such as NIN, Clawfinger, Revolting Cocks, and Sisters Of Mercy gave Die Krupps’ material on their first two albums of the ‘90s (again I, and 1993’s The Final Option…and I already mentioned this in my review of the 2007 compilation) a working over for the 1994 remix album The Final Remixes. So, the guys felt it would be a good idea to have the Volle Kraft Voraus album remixed in such a way as well! Artists invited to work on the stuff were (in order of appearance on the album, which does not concur with the track-list order of the original album) Spetznat (for “Volle Kraft Voraus”), Funker Vogt (“Das End der Träume”), KMFDM (“Wahre Arbeit, wahre Lohn”), Stormtrooper (“Lärm macht Spass”), Inertia (“Für einen Augenblick”), The Horrorist (“Tod & Teufel”), Thomas P. Heckmann (a “2008” version of “Volle Kraft Voraus”), again Stormtrooper (“2 Harzen, 1 Rhythmus”), Modulate (“Du lebst nur einmal”), Girls Under Glass (“Neue Helden”), and Project Pitchfork (another version of “Das Ende der Träume”). Needless to say, the resulting material results mostly under the dance music monicker! A couple of the tracks still have a slight Industrial touch, and in the case of “Für einen Augenblick” and “Neue Helden”, there’s still some guitar present (it might be added to the original though…as I have no knowledge of Die Krupps material that old). Actually, three more artists were slated to make remixes: Kiesgroup was to make their version of “Tod & Teufel”, Client was to remix “2 Herzen, 1 Rhythmus”, and Vigilante was to rework “Neue Helden”. Their versions were to be added as bonus tracks in the original planning, but eventually there’s only the latter (an electrified version with added guitar work) available on the disc, and that in a somewhat special hidden way: start the disc, then push the fast rewind button until it doesn’t go further anymore…now release the button and let play! Nice stuff, but I wouldn’t recommend it to our usual readers! Nevertheless, if a bit of Industrial and EBM is to your liking, by all means pick up this album, okay! As for me not rating the album, keep in mind that this IS a remix album…and although that could be considered “original” material in the end, it’s still a re-work of somebody else’s music! As you can see above, I’m uncertain of the album’s release date in our area, and only certain of the German release date! Tony. |