FUNKERVOGT

Roaring kilobytes of northern waves, an icy electronic wind that shatters into crackle and sparks — this is roughly how, resorting to abstract imagery, one might describe the landscape seen through the thick porthole of FUNKERVOGT's latest work. Having smothered the natural cries of seagulls with the sawtooth shriek of inductance coils, the German musicians have reached the apex of crossbreeding techno-thunder with the naturalistic lyrics of soldiers' daily life. On "Navigator," aggressive dissonances clash with mournful minor keys, programming the listener's brain with uncomplicated, almost geometrically square melodies. This rhythmic disassembly of reality continues for just over an hour. Listening is slightly hampered by the near-total absence of memorable themes: "No Tomorrow," "Friendly Fire," the heartrending "Fur Dich"... That is about it. Yet the album wins you over with its integrity and genuinely high quality of synthesizer distortions. And one more thing. At the finale of a somewhat tedious sea voyage, the combative "Vorwarts!" rings out (combative in no small part thanks to its Rammstein-esque German lyrics). Amusingly, when I tried to feed that little word to Yandex, it led me to an article about a social-democratic party of the same name. Ah, this "Navigator" is not so simple after all. Recommended for those for whom variety in music is not the main thing.