The Notwist
Superheroes, Ghostvillains + Stuff
Sub Pop
2016
Rating: 8 museum debts out of 10
I didn't really have any intentions of writing about a live Notwist album - honestly, I've not paid a ton of attention to them since "Neon Golden," though there probably aren't a ton of albums in my collection that I've listened to more than that one. Thing is, even though live records are often write-offs in my book, this is good - really fucking good. The "Neon Golden" songs are why I decided to give "Superheroes, Ghostvillians + Stuff" a listen, but the recording sounds so fantastic that I've even enjoyed the tracks I don't know and it's inspired me to spend some time listening to their last couple of records. There is an energy & life here that is hard to really describe or quantify but it makes for an album that's even more engaging than their studio output, and that's rarely the case (at least for my ears). Built to Spill's "Live" from 2000 might be the last release of this nature to make me feel this way, and like on that record the band really lets the songs "stretch their legs" if you will...quite a few are twice or even three times longer than their studio counterpart. This doesn't always work, in fact it rarely works, but it definitely works here.
The Notwist The Devil, You + Me Domino
2008
Rating: 9 electrorock Germans out of 10 The last record the Notwist released was “Neon Golden” in early 2003 (though most everyone was actually listening to the European import of the album for a good chunk of 2002). That was a perfect record – one of my favorite records of all time, easily. I have hemmed and hawed for years, waiting for that next record; and while I'm not happy it took this long, “The Devil, You + Me” is about as perfect a follow-up album to that masterpiece as anyone could hope for. Not a bad track in the bunch – in fact, it would be tough picking out a favorite song as there were so many worthy recipients. Their unique electro-glitchy-indie-pop sound is still there in spades, though somehow lusher and more full, and I'm not sure I would have thought that possible for them.
The Notwist
Neon Golden
Domino
2002
Rating: 10 hairy pits out of 10
I know it’s early yet to be making such claims, and I’ll probably
change my mind a half dozen times, but this could be the album of the year. It is most certainly my favorite
album to come out so far, and I would be highly surprised if it wasn’t at least in my top five at year’s end. The Notwist come from Germany, and have been around for a while, having released two or three albums on the Zero Hour
label (that has since shut down), and maybe a couple more or so before that. Early in their career, they
started out as a metal/punk/hardcore band of some kind, but as time progressed, so did they. in the mid-nineties,
they added Martin Gretschmann to the band, who is known to some as Console, his electronic-music-noodling alter
ego. With his addition came a new sound, one that relied more on computer-generated sounds that would mesh with
the organic sounds they were already producing.
With Neon Golden, we have their first album of the new millenium, and a
sound that fits. Their sound could be best described as a combination of the following: beats and
noises that would fit in with the IDM set of Autechre and Squarepusher; music that consists of a wide variety of instruments
at times, from banjos to strings to acoustic guitar, at times having the feeling of something that might
have come from Red House Painters or someone similar; and the vocals, if they remind me of anything, remind
me of Trembling Blue Stars or something along those lines. But The Notwist are most definitely much
bigger and better than the sum of their parts, and really don’t sound like anything else; and I would almost bet money
that it will only be a matter of time before there are a lot of people who sound like them. Track highlights include
‘pilot’, ‘this room’, and my favorite ‘one with the freaks’. I honestly don’t think there is a weak track on the
album though. If you are at all interested in this type of music, hunt yourself out a copy of this album, and you too will be
singing it’s praises to anyone who will listen.
