TrümmerWelten

In any genre, finding a "true" sound is incredibly difficult. However, the production team of Chris Pohl (Blutengel) and Louis Manke (Staubkind, Terminal Choice), and the artists in Truemmerwelten (Arne and Katharina), have done just that.
This is electro at, alternately, it's most basic, advanced, and emotional. As opposed to so much of what is called "new synthpop", "Optimiertes Leiden" is more like genuine, vintage 80's synthpop, updated with the most modern of beats.
It begins with singer Katharina emoting over thick rhythms, who is eventually replaced with what sounds like a sample of an old horror movie. "Cage of Love" brings back the synth, with an unpredictable melody which strikes one as Kraftwerkian in tone. "Bleed" is a prime example of the vintage sound, as with its female-male interaction between Katharina and Arne (vocals, composing), it is like the best song that the Human League never wrote.
Even though this album is replete with good dance songs, "Right Now" and "All I Got" are the best among them, and could easily become the staples that DJ's play to their last gasp.
"Gottesschuld" is a song with the insistence of a battering ram, where a cool-voiced man and frantic woman create tension within a four-minute frame. A short track, "Cutting" is Arne's vicious vocals being skipped around by an off-key melody. The "thump-thump" of a heartbeat starts out "Engelsleiche", is an electro track of the Wumpscut variety.
Both "Love Virus" and "I am Nothing" show off Arne's more sensitive side of his range, the latter track hovering over an existential abyss, while affirming "I am not what you want me to be." Katharina lends pure sultriness to "Inside of Me", creating background music for the darkest of seductions. "Dilemma" is pure, pounding electro. "Egal" continues the theme of losing all control, as the track deliriously whips about, like slowed-down gabber with every bit of its fierce intensity.
If Front 242 had invented trip hop, it would sound very much like "Breakfree", and the rhythm carries into the final track "Complaint Against." With this song, Katharina closes it all out with an emotional honesty in her voice that few vocalists ever achieve, and leaves an impression which will last long after it's all over.
Source: Haakon Nelson, Virus! magazine
www.virus-mag.com