Album Review: Die Silberfische - Die Mauer (2022)
Die Silberfische - Die Mauer
Release Date: February 22, 2022
Label: Rocketfuel Releases
Format: Digital
Length: 43:34
Genre: Future Retro Sound / NDW / Indietronic
Origin: Aachen, Germany
About one-and-a-half years ago, Die Silberfische (German: The Fishmoths) from Aachen in the very West of the German Federal Republic have released their debut album "Vorsicht! Die Silberfische kommen" ("Caution! The Fishmoths are coming"). You can get to my review on this album by clicking here. The debut album was a very colourful release that breathed new life into the 1980s Neue Deutsche Welle genre and combined it with melancholic Punk and Post Punk. Now, the sophomore full length release by Die Silberfische "Die Mauer" ("The Wall") is out, and it marks some serious development in sound, mood, and atmosphere.
"Die Mauer" is the result of a two-hour recording session during lockdown. All songs are one-takes which makes the fifteen-track album as honest, direct, and authentic as it can be - a legit zeitgeist document.
Music-wise, Die Silberfische have not abandoned their roots in NDW, Electropunk, Post Punk and pre-90s melancholia. The progress that defines this album's sound appears like a movement towards minimalism on the surface. Rhythms and arrangements are fuzzier, easy to grasp, and therefore mesmerizing. Further, Die Silberfische tend to become more electronic and glitchy in sound, and thus gradually leave the Punk Rock paths of the debut album. Connaisseurs of the German NDW and Punk history might be reminded of the band Abwärts and their excursions into the realms of Electronica.
But below the surface, "Die Mauer" presents its musical versatility. Between the layers of the Indietronic sounds, Die Silberfische create a thrilling atmosphere, and with 'Macht kaputt' (plural imperative: 'Destroy'), even some Jazz floats into the various sonic themes.
The fifteen songs on "Die Mauer" tell the manifold tales that can occur around a great wall. Isolation and loneliness as in the title track or 'Die Mauer wird immer länger' ('The wall keeps getting longer') play a role here, but also escapism or diversion are topics of the album as in the track 'Heute Abend is Technoparty' ('Techno party tonight'). These tales about isolation and the emotions, feelings, moods that come with it may refer to German history, they may refer to the current situation with the virus, and they may also refer to human history in general. Whenever sensual beings are separated from each other against their will, the soundscapes on "Die Mauer" apply. And therefore, the spectrum of emotions here goes from sadness and desolation over to anger and frustration up to manic joy and escapist compensation through hedonism.
"Die Mauer" is an album that could have been written and recorded in the era of the Cold War. But it is a product of our current days, the early 20s of the 21st century. And it is an album that drips with zeitgeist and topicality. With great dynamics, impressive sonic imagery and thrilling soundscapes, Die Silberfische present an honest and authentic album.
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