Demos

Ania et le Programmeur - Die Kir(s)che Auf Dem Kopf

Owain Paciuszko 21/12/2008

Rating: 4/5

Plunging you straight into a electro cacophony as unrelenting as speeding down the autobahn this two piece produce gloriously noisy, imaginative and fun machine rock. There's an air of Soulwax-remixed Raveonettes to the sleazy, fuzz of tunes like Ich habe eine kir(s)che auf dem kopf and a distinctive European flair which belies their Parisian/Berliner roots. Through the 80s synth wail you can catch glimpses of that laconic sense of humour that is distinctive of a lot of contemporary French, German and Italian bands.

It's one of those records that is consistently fun, each track managing to up the ante on the one before, delivering a beat, a synth-line or a guitar or vocal hook that catches you and makes you long to be going crazy to this in some dingey, indie basement bar. What impresses most is that this feels raw and live, especially on a track like Ohhh where the drums clatter against a wandering synth with occasional titular bursts from vocalist Hanri G.

Ania J. contributes vocals on tracks such as the duet I Bet You Stalk Me, which is a bellowed anthem of conflict and desire, the instrumentation oozing in and out over a none-more-New Order drum-beat. Though there is the odd dud over this record's twelve tracks, such as the dated-sounding J'ai Decoupe Dans Un Journal, it's usually swiftly followed something good, like the rock swagger of Juste Toi et Moi.

This is a record for putting on as you get ready to go out, much like - in my opinion - Soulwax's 2 Many DJs and deserves to be as lauded as the similarly machine-based Fuck Buttons record. I already know this album will precede many evenings in 2009.