Karaoke Kalk Germany 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Hanno Leichtmann's "Nuit du Plomb" arises memories of days when every party, besides the obligatory dancefloor, had an ambient floor, too. Days when ambient served as a niche for creating music that just wouldn't have been possible in a band's collective and when musicians together with their entire electronic parc crouched on the floor and started jamming. Those where the days when every month you could make startling discoveries within an almost inexhaustible repertoire of electronic music. And yet Hanno Leichtmann's new album has nothing to do with a glorification of the past. This is not least due to the fact that the music on "Nuit Du Plomb" was originally made for a scenic lecture of Hans Henny Jahnn's novel "The Night Of Lead". It is thus rather a soundtrack recorded to illustrate the various scenes of the relatively unknown novel, the music supporting the sensation of images and spatiality. So although it wasn't his aim to make an ambient album Hanno Leichtmann pushes this very diversified musical genre a little more to the fore again. But the fact that Hanno Leichtmann uses the niche ambient once provided today shows that it is still there existing and that it survives despite all musical trends and tendencies. Above all it proves that it hasn't been exhausted in all its possibilities. Hanno Leichtmann is best known through his current solo projects Static (City Centre Offices, Earsugar) and Vulva String Quartett (Combination Rec). Leichtmann lives and works in Berlin.

Review: There seems to be quite a penchant for Germanic pop music at the moment. What with Morr Music owning things right now and Barbera Morgernstern making waves again, it seems Germany has finally been forgiven and allowed back into the pop music club. Maybe it's something to do with the football, who didn't feel Germany's pain when they were knocked out of the World Cup? Now it's time for Leichtmetall to bring us even further into the world of Deutsch-pop with "Wir Sind Blumen" (it means "We Are Flowers" for those of you less familiar with the language), an album of dainty and whimsical summertime sounds. Lucky then that we've had quite an extended summer this year (well some people call it summer, others call it torture) and have time to let "Wir Sind Blumen" soak into our consciousness while we picnic on the common. One for fans of Lali Puna, Komeit, Contriva or Masha Qrella. Very nice indeed.