Workmanship

More from our German friends today – in this case two specimens of mid-1990s indie-rock. Blumfeld sang mostly in their native tongue and never got released in North America, I don’t think; 18th Dye were with Matador for some fine English-friendly records.

This Blumfeld track is the hookiest tuneless song I know. No melody to speak of. An antichorus that represents collapse rather than climax. Vocals that are essentially spoken-word. Lyrics that are of course meaningless, at least to a monolinguist like me.* And yet the guitar & drum sound on the “verses” absolutely glistens, and soon enough you’d swear that those clipped Teutonic tones are glistening, too.

• Blumfeld, “Verstärker”

And then there’s 18th Dye. I remember really digging both their full-length albums** in their entirety when they were fresh & new, but the intervening years have distilled my grasp & appreciation of their work down to a representative couple tracks. (Funny how that happens.) Love the dynamics here, not because they’re mindblowing or anything but in fact the opposite. The song’s soft-loud-medium building blocks become predictable after a few listens … and then become inevitable & seamless rather than just predictable. I get caught up in it every time, the same way you get caught up in the carpentry of a well-made chair or the curve & climb of a lovely building – for their beauty & functionality alike.

• 18th Dye, “Poolhouse Blue”

* I’m pretty sure my friend John, who introduced me to Blumfeld, once told me that “Verstärker” is actually a brand of German amplifier. (Correction: It's just German for “amplifier.” Thanks to commenter.)

** This one is from their second, Tribute to a Bus, and I really must throw it on again sometime soon.