More self-conscious cleverness from Austria's answer to
They Might Be Giants.
Luft is a definite improvement over the band's debut, Most. There is a wider palette of sounds to choose from, the accordion is mixed lower in the overall scheme of things and the percussion is accented. Thank God they learned how to use synthesizers. There are some problems, however, the fact that all the lyrics this time out are rapped in a monotone voice to identical rhythms. There is also the irritating notion in places where songs seemingly end in the middle of themselves without warning. Is this a clever joke perhaps? Hardly. But there are moments that are very compelling here: "Schtroßn" which features a screaming, distorted electric guitar to take one's attention away from the rapping, and the tempo increases threefold before the track just grinds to a halt. Wherever vocal effects are used, such as on "Kosz," the effect is electric. Guitars, samples, furious percussion syncopated past the point of the tune's "melody," make it a mutant rock jam. Even when
Attwenger resorts to pulling the dead horse of German polkas out of the glue factory, they at least muck things up a bit, injecting a bit of anarchy and sonic trickery to make it interesting such as on "Paf." Overall,
Luft is a great improvement, but not quite there. ~ Thom Jurek