https://i.ibb.co/48CnVtK/uhbmc.jpg
German band Unhappybirthday have been around for a good few years now. Initial releases were enjoyable post-punk efforts that fused early Cure, Joy Division and Grauzone into something that sounded like a gothier version of Bedhead or Wild Nothing. They continued along this somewhat sullen trajectory on 2018's 'Schaum' which saw their sound slow right down and coagulate into a gloomy shadow music whose borders were maybe sketched out by the Cure on 'Faith' or maybe Codeine at their greyest.
But now we have 2020's 'Mondchateau', which is nothing like the above at all! Well, it is and it isn't - it sounds like they've packed their suitcases and gone on holiday somewhere bright and sunny, though of course they've taken their glummest frowns with them and retreated to the deepest of shade that the poolside umbrellas could offer, but now all of a sudden we have grooves of a sort, trumpets, vitamin d and the seabreezes rattling the windchimes of their fm synths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIXDQ5ixvVw
There's something to the vibe they've tapped into that reminds me of a different strand of 80's post-punk, some of those NDW groups that explored more pop adjacent terrain. I want to say Palais Schaumberg, but maybe that's not quite right. Andreas Dorau of Die Doraus Und Die Marina makes a couple of appearances on the record. And I'm kind of intrigued by the whole balearic goth proposition. 'Disintegration' and those Studio records seem relevant, though this record definitely does not have any dancefloor potential whatsoever. What else sounds like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqmO7NjwBM
Anyway, this is a good record imo and totally within my realm of interest. Maybe not a thrilling record but maybe that's half the point?
― this is my clean tone (NickB), Wednesday, 16 September 2020 19:29 (three years ago) link
interesting. its like if Neubauten / Madchester happened.
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Wednesday, 16 September 2020 19:31 (three years ago) link
yeah he has got a very blixa-esque mumble!
― this is my clean tone (NickB), Wednesday, 16 September 2020 19:35 (three years ago) link
Feeling this. It sounds like a long-lost obscurity from the 80s that Stroom might release.
― paolo, Thursday, 17 September 2020 08:30 (three years ago) link
He doesn't sound anything like Blixa Bargeld?!?!? Apart from speaking in German? Not even the same tonal range (Blixa has a surprisingly deep speaking voice) or the same resonant nasal quality?
That kind of Steven Reich drumming / marimba sound is a bit awkward to hear these days.
― Grebo Jones (Branwell with an N), Thursday, 17 September 2020 08:37 (three years ago) link
Oh I'm no neubauten expert, I only really know blixa well from his vocals on n*ck c*ve records like the weeping song and whatnot and the singing (in the first clip at least, not so much in the second one) does remind me a bit of that? But I'm happy to concede that my ears may not be correctly calibrated in that regard
― this is my clean tone (NickB), Thursday, 17 September 2020 09:09 (three years ago) link
Paolo otm, that's a good point of reference
― this is my clean tone (NickB), Thursday, 17 September 2020 09:10 (three years ago) link
I'm trying the first one, then, and basically - this is way too beachy! Come on man, this is 2020 none of us are going anywhere near a beach on account of the pox.
His voice reminds me of *someone*, that's for sure (maybe Gabi from DAF is a better reference point?) but come on, man, listen to how he sings "Lichterloh" on this track and then go and listen to how Blixa sings "Lichterloh" on Feurio - like Blixa has one of the most distinctive singing voices in the entire Deutsch-speaking world, and this guy... just does not?
Sorry, I will stop carping and not mess up your thread any more, I'm sure this is fine, just not what I want to be hearing in the year of our pox 2020.
― Grebo Jones (Branwell with an N), Thursday, 17 September 2020 09:24 (three years ago) link
Carping, grousing and any other form of bashing dull-witted creatures is totally appropriate for any thread I start, so fill yer boots. Empty beaches are my zone right now though. Think the band are from Hamburg so I'm imagining they're hitting the sand dunes an der nordsee themselves atm?
I think the things I'm liking about it sound like the things you don't like? Those chimey dx7 sounds are everywhere in most of the music I'm listening to this year so I think they're pretty on point for 2020? I only read the hippest of websites though obv (winky faces are not very 2020 so you'll have to mentally insert that yourself). But the beachy thing - I think it's an interesting way out of that goth pop cul de sac. I like the idea that it's a way of turning up the contrast and nudging the colour saturation on that sort of greyscale world, brighter light reveals deeper shadows and all that
― this is my clean tone (NickB), Thursday, 17 September 2020 10:49 (three years ago) link
It's been remiss of me to play up the miserablism of this record because there are some plain gorgeous moments on it. Plaza especially sounds like they're channeling Sade as much as anyone else
― this is my clean tone (NickB), Thursday, 17 September 2020 12:46 (three years ago) link
I'm listening to the first song and basically this is the German Destroyer?
― shout-out to his family (DJP), Thursday, 17 September 2020 13:06 (three years ago) link
I don't know enough about Destroyer to say. Is it a very bad thing?
― this is my clean tone (NickB), Thursday, 17 September 2020 13:14 (three years ago) link
It's more that it's a thing. A lot of people really love Destroyer but I kind of think of him as "Steely Dan for people who don't like virtuosity"
― shout-out to his family (DJP), Thursday, 17 September 2020 15:35 (three years ago) link
I feel like he's not really rooted in jazz and R&B the way Steely Dan is.
Year of the Cat by Al Stewart for hipsters basically
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 17 September 2020 16:44 (three years ago) link
Haha, okay! Not picking up any particular ambitions to be Steely Dan but I guess there are vague echoes of certain bands that might aspire to that - prefab, blue nile... I swear i keep hearing hints of 'communion' by swing out sister in there
― all cats are greys (NickB), Thursday, 17 September 2020 16:50 (three years ago) link
Also 'long hot summer' by the style council
― all cats are greys (NickB), Thursday, 17 September 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
vox aside - the song "Margo" upthread could be Goth Sade
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 17 September 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
Yeah there's a guitar sound on this that hits that mid-range jazzy chorus tone that kind of splits the difference between wes montgomery and robert smith and I'd never really consciously made the link between those sound worlds before. One of them played the blues, the other played the greys and this is maybe some faded turquoise middle ground
― kites aren't fun (NickB), Saturday, 19 September 2020 11:14 (three years ago) link