„This is Punk, this is Rock’n’Roll,
this is modern Music!
After Oh Ah, Monokini, Juke-Box-Alarm, My Melody, Musique
Automatique, Do The Bambi, Discothèque und Party Anticonformiste
– The Bungalow Years now coming up is Stereo Total’s
new record: Paris-Berlin.
Paris-Berlin is both - a Rock’n’Roll- and a Chanson-Album.
At the same time it’s more dynamic as well as more romantic
than Stereo Total’s previous productions. On the CD-cover
you can see Brezel Göring and Françoise Cactus
shown as naked lovers. The recordings sound very naturally
and pretty ’rough’. There are no superfluous sound
effects, resulting in a production evoking intimacy und warmth.
The songs are for the most part very melodic, the lyrics deal
with topics like LOVE, REBELLION and NOSTALGIA.
The way
from the Primitive to the Complex to the finally Simple. Why
the hack do Stereo Total not only write songs like ’Liebe
zu dritt’? Why don’t they just sign a deal with
a major record company (stuffing them in an appropriate box,
doing the usual kind of marketing and promotion)? Why don’t
they play big stadiums and care about chart rankings? ”We
could do that, but...“ (what follows now is ear-deafening
noise from the ’Prolog’ of Einstürzende Neubauten).
Instead of all that they once more return to their roots,
to Lo-Fi, 4-track recording, guitar – drums –
and monophonic-synthesizer-minimalism, to their beloved ’give
a shit’-attitude, humour, to subversion, to the specific
Françoise-Cactus-definition of feminism and to pop
music everyone and everywhere around the world understands
immediately (stylistic and linguistic borders don’t
exist anymore) and knows, that this kind of music does NOT
have anything to do (anything) with terms like maximization
of profit(s), music industry, music television (MTV), mobile
ringtones and exploitation.
Like
Horses on cheap drugs
Stereo Total have constantly been on tour all around the world
for the last six years: North and South America, Japan, Russia,
Europe, China, Turkey.
The new record represents the concerts in a good way: minimalist
electro-chansons right between Punkrock, Rock’n’Roll,
Disco and New Wave, played on guitar, drums and Sampler, played
by two people sounding like a hord of horses on cheap drugs.
Although best-known as „Electro-Duo“ Stereo Total
always used drums and guitar on stage, a rarity in most clubs
the past years (where „live-set“ mainly meant
CD-Playback), but Stereo Total have always played both: the
clubs and the rock venues (where on the other hand apart from
them – almost nobody performed with sampler and synthesizer).
The
SONGS ”EN DETAIL”
1
MISS RÉBELLION DES HORMONES
(„Miss Hormonrebellion“). A rebellious teenage-girl’s
got the devil in her body. That’s nothing more than
the October Revolution in the world of hormones.
2
ICH BIN DER STRICHERJUNGE
Françoise has received a special gift for Christmas:
a trumpet, and it sounds like the young gay hustler with his
smoker’s lung is playing the trumpet. Even though the
sound really reminds some people (at least Brezel) of Miles
Davis (ahem!). Brezel himself performs the song in an unbelievably
laconic way.
3
PLASTIC
The pure desire for an absolutely materialistic, superficial
and senseless life. ”Let’s spruce up our disgusting
lifes with a little bit of plastic beauty.“
4
KOMPLEX MIT DEM SEX
The lyrics of this song are a bit cryptical and - well yes
- profound. Performed with sugar-coated voice. In a world
everything spinning around SEX, the girl doesn’t know
where to position herself anymore. Is she a woman? Is she
a man? Is she an animal?
5
LOLITA FANTÔME
Françoise has always been fascinated by the Lolita
theme. Her first band was named „Les Lolitas“,
she even crocheted a lifesize doll called „Wollita“
(means Woolita). This song is about a „Lolita“-phantom.
The beautiful girl lingers the streets at night, driving all
the men crazy. But in the moment presuming they could get
hold of her, she disappears in a cloud of smoke.
6
KÜSSE AUS DER HÖLLE DER MUSIK
This is a song about dead rockstars. And who knows, how many
of them were killed by taking drugs and alcohol or cruising
around way too fast?
7
PLUS MINUS NULL
Now it’s the time to put all the positive and negative
aspects of love and relationships on a lists. All summed up
with a calculator. Result: Plus minus zero!
8
MEHR LICHT
What is described here are dark cinematic scenes including
dangerous night cruises by car. Everything has to become a
bit more brighter. „More light!“
9
TA VOIX AU TÉLÉPHONE
2000 km separate them. He’s standing in a phone booth
and is calling his girlfriend. But they can’t really
hear each other. He’s deeply concerned - and jealous.
She feels very distant from him. ”There are too much
birds sitting on the wires“.
10
PATTY HEARST*
Last year Stereo Total hosted a Patty-Hearst-Evening at Berliner
Volksbühne. The comedy musical with numerous star guests
tells the story of Patty Hearst. In the 70ies this US-American
daughter of a billionaire was kidnapped by the ”S.L.A.“
(a terrorist group) in California, afterwards becoming a terrorist
herself. Later she wore T-Shirts saying „Pardon me“
and acted as cop in John Waters movies. A song about her.
11
BABY REVOLUTION*
The lyrics of this „soft rock-track“ is a collage
of textlines taken from the gay porno movie „Raspberry
Reich“ by Bruce La Bruce. ”Sex is the opium of
the masses.“
12
RELAX BABY BE COOL
An extreme minimalistic version of Serge Gainsbourg’s
song. However the lyrics were changed a little bit („Sorry,
Serge!“). The original text covers the Ku-Klux-Klan,
this version of the song tells the story of a slightly paranoid
woman, getting lost in a crowd of people trying to calm down
herself.
13
CHEWINGGUM
In Singapur chewing gum is forbidden by law. As soon as Françoise
saw a police man there, she stopped chewing immediately. She
has been loving chewing gum all her lifetime. In kindergarten
she found old ones, sticking under the school tables, and
chewed them again. But the explosion of the „bubbles“
at the end of the song rather sounds like the detonation of
an H-Bomb anyway.
14
MODERNE MUSIK
This Punk- & Rock’n’Roll-smasher is performed
by San Reimo and Angie Reed, who formerly supported Stereo
Total on stage as Casio-player and woman on bass. It rocks!
Kicks Asses! This is modern music!
* The
songs “Baby Revolution“ and “Patty Hearst“
are taken from the radio play „Patty Hearst - Sooner
or later we all become terrorists” produced by Stereo
Total and Bayrischer Rundfunk (having its premiere August,
24th 2007 on BR).
Tracklisting CD :
1. MISS RÉBELLION DES HORMONES
2. ICH BIN DER STRICHERJUNGE
3. PLASTIC
4. KOMPLEX MIT DEM SEX
5. LOLITA FANTÔME
6. KÜSSE AUS DER HÖLLE DER MUSIK
7. PLUS MINUS NULL
8. MEHR LICHT
9. TA VOIX AU TÉLÉPHONE
10. PATTY HEARST *
11. BABY REVOLUTION *
12. RELAX BABY BE COOL
13. CHEWINGGUM
14. MODERNE MUSIK
