{"id":429,"date":"2019-07-01T11:08:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T09:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricdawn.com\/wordpress\/?p=429"},"modified":"2019-07-27T14:08:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T12:08:32","slug":"2019-july-roundup-my-favourites-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricdawn.com\/wordpress\/?p=429","title":{"rendered":"2019 July roundup! My favourites (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Ein Leben ohne Grenzen<\/em><\/sub>
Eine Freedom zu verschenken<\/em><\/sub>
Eine Freiheit, nicht zu denken<\/em><\/sub>
I better open my eyes<\/em><\/sub>
Ich mach’ die Augen auf”<\/em><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been listening to lots of very good stuff lately (right now I have Erika de Casier’s Essentials<\/em> on deck) but so far my favourites from 2019 aren’t new personal discoveries but rather three new offerings from acts that I already knew and loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First we got the new album from Austrian genius kids Bilderbuch<\/strong>, Vernissage my heart<\/em>. An ideal continuation of 2018 Mea Culpa<\/em>, it’s so obnoxiously inventive… can’t they just make two songs alike?! For once!<\/p>\n

Although the record doesn’t have disarmingly perfect songs such as Gibraltar<\/em> or Checkpoint,\u00a0<\/em>it’s a very charming thing. You get the opening triptych of Kids Im Park \/ Frisbeee \/Led Go\u00a0<\/em>that take you somewhere weird: heavy guitars, shouted choruses, low-fi vocal samples, oblique structures. They are not going for catchy here but rather multifaceted. Then you get the catchier stuff:\u00a0Ich hab Gef\u00fchle<\/em>, Vernissage<\/em> and Europa 22<\/em>. And here is what I like about Maurice Ernst & Co., the rhythms, the (keyboard) riffs, the bass… the bass!!! Funksters from Kremsm\u00fcnster… yeah right!\u00a0<\/p>\n

No, it’s real. You listen to the verse of\u00a0Vernissage my heart\u00a0<\/em> and it’s driven by just drums and bass, groovy and melodic, it feels like you don’t need anything else. And you don’t. But they give it to you anyway, like guitarist Michael Krammer does. What he plays is so subtle, smart, so bent on servicing the song that it would almost be self-effacing if not for the fact that you can’t help but notice every single note he churns out of his guitar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lyrics can be silly, like\u00a0Frisbee<\/em>, but some of them, like Europa 22<\/em>, can really resonate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bilderbuch is beautiful soundscapes that you can make your own. I was listening to this record in the snows of the Dolomites and I’ll listen to it again lying on a beach somewhere this summer. Equally appropriate, equally enticing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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