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: :
Robin Taylor -
Deutche Schule! : : |
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Band/artist: Robin Taylor
Title: Deutche Schule!
Released: 2006
Label: Marvel of Beauty Records |
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Track
listing:
1. Misch Musch
2. Eisenbahn mit Sauerkraut
3. Karl spielt Klavier
4. Noch ein Zahnartzt
5. Neue Stimmen
6. Gesang der Tauben
7. Das Experiment |
: : The Players : :
Robin Taylor
(keyboards, synth, piano, hammond, guitar, percussion, samples, voice),
Karsten Vogel (saxophones), Louise Nipper (voice), Rasmus Grosell
(drums) |
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: : Deutche
Schule! : :
 Robin
Taylor is a Danish multi-instrumentalist residing in Copenhagen, and has
taken part in a large number of releases since 1985. Currently he has
two regular band projects besides making CDs as a solo artist, and
Deutsche Schule is the 10th release he issues under his own name alone.
The CD cover states that this CD was inspired by "some of the freakier
German krautrock artists of the 70s". If that makes for a record
sounding much different from Taylor's previous releases I'll leave for
others to decide though, as I am blatantly unaware of Taylor's earlier
recordings as a solo artist as well as in a band setup.
The first thing you'll notice about this album is that it seems to have
large amounts of tongue-in-cheek humor though. The record cover is
funny, and anyone slightly familiar with the German language will
chuckle a bit when they see the song titles on this album. As a German
colleague of mine said: "They managed to include most of the cliches
here".
Musically most of the songs here sound like electronica pioneers
Kraftwerk having added Jan Garbarek to their ranks in the late 70's, and
then taking a slight approach in the direction of krautrock
stylistically. There's lots of electronic sounds and rhythms reminding a
lot of Kraftwerk as they sounded on Trans-Europe Express, Vogels
saxophone can be mellow as well as frenzied - like the Garbarek material
I'm familiar with, and the sound structures and soundscapes at times
takes on the psychedelic and experimental moods like you'll find in the
classic krautrock releases issued in the early to mid 70s.
And although this mix may sound rather weird, it actually sounds rather
nice. The most off-putting aspect of this release is listening to the
saxophone being played in a rather jazzy way on top of electronic music;
which will sound very wrong in many ears. A basic prerequisite for
enjoying this music is to be rather fond of the saxophone as an
instrument; and accepting that it takes the place of guitar soloing
and/or synth soloing as most other artists would have chosen to use for
these songs.
As for the songs themselves, most of them has a hypnotic and intriguing
quality. If you accept the basic premises for listening to this music,
this is a CD that will be played over and over - at least the first 5 or
6 tracks. All of them are good, and a couple truly brilliant in my
opinion.
The last track on this album is the one hardest to grasp though. A 9
minute track being more or less a sound collage and sonic experiment,
being comparable with the least accessible krautrock releases 3 decades
ago. Fans of these sound experiments will have a trip to heaven
listening to that track, others might see that one as a soundtrack from
hell.
Personal favourites on this release: Misch Musch, Karl spielt Klavier,
Neue Stimmen.
Rating: 8 (out of 10)
Reviewer: Olav Björnsen
: : Visit the Artist’s
Website :
:
: : Discography : :
Deutsche Schule!
(2006)
X Position Vol. 2 (2005)
X Position vol.1 (2004)
November (2003)
Samplicity (2001)
Edge of Darkness (2000)
Heart Disc (1999)
Cloze Test Terror (1992)
Essay (1991)
The Båndbix Tapes (1985 - rereleased 2000)
(originally written for
www.progressiveears.com ) |
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