Menschenleere (translating as 'free of humans') is the latest album from Berlin based Vlimmer, a follow up to his debut album Nebenkörper which released late last year. If I had any musical integrity I would have headed back and gave his previous album a listen to see how different this sounded, but I didn't. From my ears this sounded more synthy, and even a little lighter in parts, with some catchy tunes among the off kilter darkness.
The press release states this album 'offers a blend of apocalyptic but danceable industrial, tribal-driven post-punk, and bittersweet new wave'. That sums up the album better than I ever could. Most tracks are full of eighties sounding synth, something which always appeals to me. There also felt like a lot of emotion to the songs, with the 'bittersweet' description being apt. Despite not knowing German I could still infer the emotion coming across in the singing, such as with third track Zielzweifel that sounded to my ears like the type of music that would be playing during a road trip montage in a post-apocalyptic movie.
The album opens on Erdgeruch, a pulsating eighties synth opener that sets the tone for the rest to follow. It leads into the wonderfully discordant Mathematik that has a goth-dance vibe to it. As a whole the album has a heavy industrial feel, something that I'm sure helped get it to top place in Bandcamp's industrial chart. Noposition is a prime example of the more heavy industrial side, while follow up track Schädelhitze is a good example of the more airy dancey style, with a hauntingly chilled feel to it.
There are plenty of tracks on the album that had catchy tunes to it, I often found myself humming along to the main musical beats. Kronzeuge had another melancholic tone to it with a light feel at times despite a heavy sound. Probably my favourite track was Schwimmhand that had a hypnotic quality to it, was another that I could imagine as a great backing track in an eighties post apocalyptic sci-fi B-movie. Despite the repetitive beats and the abundance of synth, each track stood apart from each other. With ones like Stimmriss you had Vlimmer at his more slow and brooding, while Fatigo was almost cheerful, relatively of course. The electronic based Menschenleere is the penultimate one with some Terminator style drums echoing in the background, nearly my favourite. Finally is Raynaud which closes the album to a sombre finish.
I enjoyed my time listening to Menschenleere, it is an album that felt cold and dark, but is emotive with it, less an album of anger, more one that had a feel of reflective regret to the sound. This released on November 4th from Blackjack Illuminist Records.
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