100BLUMEN unexpectedly release an album with “Shut Up Hope!”. Unexpectedly, because 100BLUMEN actually wanted to take a break, but then the virus with C came along and everything changed. So did the plans of the four from Düsseldorf.
What else can you do when you’re stuck in your room all the time?
100BLUMEN started as a one-man project and then grew into a band. This growth also brought about a change in style. The current and perhaps final style can be described as industrial electro-punk, which does not shy away from occasional excursions into crust, hardcore, and (cold) wave.
Songs like “Yes No Maybe” or “Broken” that remind of Love A in their roughness can be found on the only nine-song long record, just like songs that recall Abwärts, such as “No Sleep”.
It’s a versatile sound that the four gentlemen have created. Between anger and resignation, between hardness and feeling... they are caught between the chairs.
The band plays a very unique sound that cannot really be categorized. This is, of course, very good, because creating something of your own, even something unique, is definitely preferable to a clumsy imitation. On the other hand, it makes listening a bit more challenging, as it is something new. The sound wants to be discovered. It’s not industrial punk or synth crust, but 100BLUMEN.
The sound may not appeal to everyone, and the lyrics are not always catchy, but they want to be actively listened to. I can imagine that the band even wants you to find yourself in it and think about why some things are the way they are. Here, the epic piece “Slaughterhouse” should also be mentioned, which does without human vocals and yet says so much.
Be that as it may, 100BLUMEN have created a work with “Shut Up Hope!” that will not reach everyone and probably doesn’t want to. The work “Shut Up Hope!” is aimed at those who find themselves in it. Nothing more and nothing less.
