They may have slipped out of the Neue Deutsche Welle limelight sometime ago, but this surprise newbie from Der Plan hits back with that familiar quirkiness that gave us “Du Bist Es Nicht”, “Gummitwist” and the sublime “Space Bob”. Yep, The boys Kurt Dahlke (of Pyrolator fame), Frank Fenstermacher and Moritz R have a fresh forty minutes to impart on this currently broken world.
What’s prompted this reawakening is shrouded in mystery, but since they had so much fun (always a major motivator in Der Plan’s world) as the house band at Andreas Dorau‘s recent fiftieth birthday celebrations, they’ve been itching to get back to tickling our fancy with their off-kilter charms.
Can they still cut the musical mustard? Well of course they can and do, delight in milking a childlike buffoonary once more . Boomerang a synth-tastic-ness (even a bit of dub reggae) that warms (or worms) the heart, quashing any grumpy spectres of doubt – yeah it’s mostly sung in German, but even a GCSE German dreamer like me can pick up on that eccen-trickery beaming about the place. That tune-filled joggle of knowing winks in the tailoring. The snigger-snaggle of the past smoothed to poppy perfection, replete with lovely hooks and tango-tangled melodies that weave gaudily amongst its tinselled mirror balls. “Lass Die Katze Stehn” with its big pink sunglasses and false wiggery, the suave Kraftwerkian enchantments of “Körperlos Im Cyberspace” ferreting the firament. The odd creepiness of “Gesicht Ohne Buch” with its frosted spirals of breath bed-fellowing the residents like itch of “Stille Hören”. The more easy listening leanings of the other tracks hinting they may still be up for riffling though silly costume closet of expectation.Overall, this is a absolute pleasure slightly unset by terrible cover arts — some post-Brexit subversion of Eugene Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading The People”, the union jack and stars’n’stripes trampled by the European flag-waving threesome.
-Michael Rodham-Heaps-
