Singles

Emigrate - New York City

Matt Harrold 28/10/2007

Rating: 3/5

Think Rammstein and the sounds of hard rocking industrial metal is bound to filter through your brain. So when it turns out that their guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe has a little side project called Emigrate and that there first single 'New York City' is ”heavy rock” then you might be forgiven for thinking there's more of the same on the way. Also the terms “Lazy” and “Fuck” along with “Lack of Imagination” might spring to mind, after all there's nothing like a musician moving away from his/her comfort zone is there?

Inspired by the city he lives in 'New York City' is an ode to the city that never sleeps and easily puts in a claim for being one of the party capitals of the world. Which seems to have rubbed off on Kruspe and his song writing producing a track which combines that stadium rock stylings of Bon Jovi with the fine tuned German Kraut rock where not a thread is left out of place. It's polished, catchy and possibly with the influence of New York Scissors Sisters style, ever so slightly camp. Enough to put the hardcore Rammstein fans off? Maybe. Does it make for appalling bad music? No.

Even if you find the A side itself a less then appetising prospect then there's the electro-clash B side remix by Alec Empire which manages to avoid the deep dark pitfall of being all filler and no substance. So scrap the terms “Lazy” and “Fuck” (along with “Lack of Imagination”) and instead replace with the following: “It isn't death metal but it's no Bon Jovi either”.