KUMPELBASIS have released their second album!
What? Only their second album? The band has been around forever.
True, KUMPELBASIS took ten years to create their second album. Longer than many bands even exist. The Kreuzberg group took their time but has always been present in Berlin. They have played in the relevant clubs of the city from time to time and have tried to have some money over the last ten years; otherwise, they would be dead. What am I talking about? Well, I’m loosely quoting the band’s most famous song from Kreuzberg. The chorus of “Hundstage” is probably the most well-known thing about the band outside the city. “…better to be dead than to be without money…”.
This song is considered by experts to be the soundtrack of the 2000s. Sometimes you just need to bring songs back from obscurity to realize that they are good. This one is good. Even if it cannot fully negate for me the heretical cover version of the Slime song “Alptraum” (the song is also featured in a new version as the last track on this CD).
Transforming this song into a stoner anthem is like… I lack the words.
Let’s see what “The Luxury Among Wild Animals” has to offer.
A cryptic title that continues with the first song “Zyprinus.” A song that you need to read carefully to understand. Abstract realism, I would say.
“Dunkle Bilder” is somewhat easier to understand. I don’t want to keep the wonderful chorus from anyone.
“…and the pictures get darker,
every day a little more.
On your skateboard sits a flower pot,
that was quite a while ago”
Anyone who has lost friends to everyday life, career, or family will feel these lines as if they were written for them.
The band’s lyrics are, as one can easily see, intelligent, observant, and drawn from real life, reality. Sometimes they might even be a bit too real, with a concise choice of words, so that the lyrics might seem cumbersome at first. Then you should read the lyrics again and listen to the song once more. You’ll get into it.
With the song “Der Tag,” they venture again into reggae territory. But it sounds better than in “Alptraum,” especially lyrically it leans towards Peter Fox (“Haus am See” and “Schwarz zu blau”) and “Zu Heiss” by Farin Urlaub. Cool track, I wouldn’t have expected that from the band.
The other songs also fit well into the ears. They occasionally remind one of bands like Terrorgruppe, The Bottrops, Die Skeptiker, and Dritte Wahl.
Especially “Keine Zeit” goes extremely in the direction of Die Skeptiker or the new Dritte Wahl. As if Eugen or Gunnar were singing along.
“Sag bloß nicht deutsch (zu mir)” goes extremely in the direction of Terrorgruppe. A super song against the newly emerging nationalism. As Archi from Terrorgruppe once beautifully said, “Prevent German life.”
The more you listen to the album, the more multifaceted it opens up to you. Like a flower by the roadside trying all day to fight against garbage and dirt with its splendor. This also exists in Berlin, and with “Berlin,” there’s a nearly touching homage to this city. If I ever move away from this city, I will listen to this song far beyond the city limits.
With “The Luxury Among Wild Animals,” KUMPELBASIS has almost reconciled with me.
German punk rock, made in Kreuzberg, different and with depth, that’s KUMPELBASIS.
By the way, KUMPELBASIS will also be seen at the “25 Years Franken” celebration in this Kreuzberg institution with The Bottrops and Radio Dead Ones on 09.07.2011.
