Discovered / rediscovered music thread

[Mister Pops]

The Chats are angry kids from the back-arse of Australia and are also proper punk-rockers. They had a minor viral hit about 5 years ago with Smoko, which showed up on a random playlist, so I delved into their back catalogue.

This caught my attention because of all the stuff over in America right now.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

rediscovering the pistols today, what with the danny boyle series n all - and an extremely reluctant (but interesting) steve jones hitting the interview trail.

starting, obviously, with their timely and touching tribute to the beloved monarchy.

no future.

[Funt Solo]

sleaford mods jobseeker jools holland

[Jim_Campbell]

I've mentioned previously my discovery of the wealth of German NDH bands as perfect music for a workout playlist, but this has led to me trawling the fairly extensive back catalogue of Eisbrecher, in particular, because they're really good. If you've any familiarity/fondness for Rammstein, I find it hard to imagine that you won't like Eisbrecher.

Which isn't to say that they're Rammstein clones (in fact, both the vocalist and lead guitarist of Eisbrecher were originally in Megaherz, contemporaries of Rammstein) — one of the things that's impressed me the most is the way they slide between different styles whilst retaining the band's signature sound.

They can shift from thunderous NDH like Was ist hier los? to something positively dancey like So oder so, from the industrial grind of Phosphor to Prototyp, which opens in a deceptively goth-adjacent style before smacking you round the head with a decidedly un-goth chorus.

They're massive in Germany and headline huge festivals all over mainland Europe, yet remain practically unknown in the English-speaking world. They're playing an almost-unheard-of UK date next year — I've already got my ticket! :-)

If you only click one link in this post, though, make it this one, just don't do it at work…

[JWare]

I find it hard to imagine that you won't like Eisbrecher.

This normally isn’t my kind of thing at all, but idle curiosity led me to follow the link.
Now Was Ist Hier Los? is my Christmas song.

[Jim_Campbell]

Now Was Ist Hier Los? is my Christmas song.

Excellent! Do try the last link in my post — it's sweary, but very earwormy… :-)

[JWare]

Do try the last link in my post

I listened to it, but it didn’t speak to me the way 'Was Ist Hier Los?' did.
(That said, I found it a little unsettling to see the black and silver, the cross insignia, the pretty girls in military headgear, and a field full of young Germans making enthusiastic arm gestures in unison. Oh, well – I’m sure it’s all harmless good fun.)

[Jim_Campbell]

I listened to it, but it didn’t speak to me the way 'Was Ist Hier Los?' did.

Fair enough! It is a belter.

(That said, I found it a little unsettling to see the black and silver, the cross insignia, the pretty girls in military headgear, and a field full of young Germans making enthusiastic arm gestures in unison. Oh, well – I’m sure it’s all harmless good fun.)

Like you, I was a little concerned when I first started listening to this stuff, so I did a little research and it seems that bands which embrace more nationalist/right-wing sentiments tend to get rejected by fans in short order.

The NDH scene, when it's political at all, tends to skew quite strongly to the left. Rammstein are basically old-school East German socialists — they run their band as a collective and literally nothing happens unless they all agree (hence the lack of an album for ten years between 2009 and 2019). Plus, famously, Links 2 3 4 which references Brecht's communist party anthem from the 1930s, and has the refrain "they want my heart on the right, but when I look down, it beats on the left."

Ludicrously entertaining NDH/thrash crossover loons Hämatom released FCK CRN, celebrating the collective efforts of the German people during the pandemic and made a rallying call to use that example to establish a socialist utopia.

I only found one band that had a history of anything genuinely iffy… I can't remember the name now (they got deleted from the playlist in short order!) but it came to light when they were playing some festival and the band that followed them on stage used the video backdrop to basically do a Powerpoint presentation identifying all the questionable elements of the preceding band's material and imagery before they started their set!

Eisbrecher are fond of naval imagery ("ice breaker", y'see) hence the uniforms… in fact, there's an oddly-recurring maritime theme with a lot of NDH bands. We don't tend to think of Germany as a sea-faring nation, but I suspect that's just my ignorance as an Englishman having been taught my whole life that no one else's navy was ever worth a damn at any time in history…

(I'm not saying there aren't any wrong 'uns in the scene, just that I've only found references to one when I looked into it.)

[JWare]

On a related note, I remember my big sister – who has no truck at all with national socialism – getting this for her birthday one year.



She’d heard of it from a DJ on Irish radio who occasionally liked to play upbeat German folk songs as performed by the 11th Panzer Grenadiers.
Honestly – it’s all very jolly, and doesn't mention the Polish Corridor even once.

[JWare]

Oh – and regarding Eisbrecher, I now find myself harbouring certain ardent feelings for the actress in the video for ‘Zwischen Uns’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVTvrzjQAGY

[Jim_Campbell]

Oh – and regarding Eisbrecher, I now find myself harbouring certain ardent feelings for the actress in the video for ‘Zwischen Uns’.

Ha! I'd avoid the official video for Was Ist Hier Los (as opposed to the 'live' video I linked upthread), BTW, since it'll have a very different effect! It's a pretty unpleasant watch — I get the point it's going for, making explicit some of the things vocals are railing against in the song, but (personally) I don't need to see that stuff.