Thursday 20 April 2023

Posted by Gerry Hectic | File under : , ,

There's a new Ralf & Florian in town! Fred Und Luna are a strange double-act (in more ways than one) but if your looking for the sound of version (or more accurately of one the many versions) of Kraftwerk, this is it!

The new album, 'Im Fünfminutentakt' has lots of 'Fün' in it and if you've never heard Kraftwerks 1973 album 'Ralf & Florian' this is pretty exciting stuff and it's quite sparse electronics/synths but also includes bi-lingual vocals on some tracks; perhaps not as 'poppy' as Kraftwerks' big hits.

And then there's reflections of Kraftwerk in that most recently the "band" have been often computer generated whilst Fred Und Luna are, in fact, just "Sugar Ray" Buckmiller (aka Rainer Buchmüller) as Fred whilst Luna is a variety, from the extremes of a showroom dummy (sounds familiar?) to random "volunteers" from the audience at gigs!

This all sound like a modern day computer based Amon Düül II and to emphasis the digital craftwork (no pun etc), all of the tracks are around the 5 minute mark; three being 5:00 exactly.

And then, it sounds fun too and now boardering on the Prins Thomas remix of 'Im Klanggarten' (from 2016) which is all good and in keeping with the "Kraftwerkian edge" of "Krautelektro" and the instrumenatals to listen out for are 'Aurum C', 'Nur ein Viertelstündchen' and the vocals that work best are the unemotional, 'Tanz mit mir' and the two tracks featuring Luna(?!), the duet 'Es ist so schön' and the appropriately entitled, 'Wir atmen digital'.

What's not so representative is the beautiful piano/synth based 'Sommer' which will get picked up for some TV Theme/OST I bet or even 'Morgan' on some synth pop retro show.

I'm also getting some Bowie V2 Schneider going on with this so it's more than just a tribute act so that putting 'Im Fünfminutentakt' in with Compost's other 'leftfield', act Felix Laband (with some incredible remixes just out, see review HERE from his album, 'The Soft White Hand') and other electronic/synth early Cluster releases, you've definitly some worth more than a 0-1 soundscape.


Artist: Fred Und Luna

Title: Im Fünfminutentak

Release date: 21st April, 2023

Label: Compost Records

Cat. No: CPT 613

Format: Digital / Bandcamp

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