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Review by E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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This is the second release of KMFDM catalogue cuts this fall/winter (1998). That is usually a bad sign. When music companies start dumping Best of and Greatest Hits on us, it often means that the band is dead or soon will be. On the KMFDM website, there has been talk of ending the band or reforming. Considering that KMFDM has long been a soup of new musicians, this feels weird. You know that feeling you get when a long time favorite band breaks up? That's the feeling that I'm getting here. Still, fifteen years of music is nothing to sneeze at.
For those of you who might be hearing KMFDM for the first time, this is a
pretty good sampler. It starts out with 1995's XTORT song POWER. A good
rocking, danceable tune combined with KMFDM's typical humor. Like
many of the KMFDM songs written by Sascha and Gunter Schulz, the
song is little more than a diatribe of emotionally charged words without
connection.
"UNDER A STONE / SKIN AND BONE / THE CHILDREN OF FEAR / ARE NOT ALONE
/ RIVERS OF TEARS / FLESH & BLOOD / AN EYE FOR AN EYE / THAT'S ALL
WE GOT."
Still, what the words sometimes lack, the music makes up for, with catchy
riffs and rhythms that energize you like few can. Techno pop is often
worthless to listen to unless you can be doing something energetic while
you are hearing it. Not so with KMFDM. I like to play it at work
while I'm busy setting up new graphics on the computer all day.
RETRO starts out fine with POWER, JUKE-JOINT JEZEBEL, BRUTE, and right on through to VOGUE. After that comes GODLIKE-DOGLIKE which contains the overabused KMFDM "RIP THE SYSTEM" chant. Why they keep skipping on this line is anybody's guess. At this point I almost feel like it is prosyletizing, and I don't particularly like being preached to. This chant is repeated in the rap songs of MORE & FASTER and of course, RIP THE SYSTEM.
Overall this is a good representation of what KMFDM offered us over the course of their career. Between the two collections, I prefer AGOGO, but KMFDM: RETRO ain't bad.
This review copyright 1998 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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E.C. McMullen Jr. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
| FEO AMANTE'S HORROR THRILLER Created by: E.C.MULLEN JR. |
| COME FOLLOW ME - AMAZON BLOG DEVIANT ART ECMJR - PORTFOLIO IMDB PANDORA ROTTEN TOMATOES STAGE32 YOUTUBE |
| CD TRIVIA Since this review was written in 1998, the April 1999 Columbine High School Massacre in Littleton, Colorado occurred. Among the music that the two murderers were said to enjoy, Marilyn Manson and KMFDM topped the list. The two murderers also built bombs in the house where they lived with their parents, and had so many guns in their bedroom that they were unable to take them all to the school. The U.S. media, largely chose to ignore the fact that both Marilyn Manson and KMFDM are anti-hate songs, If the two murderers had not had such easy access to illegally obtained firearms, |
| FROM E.C. McMullen Jr. WILLOW BLUE KINDLE "'Willow Blue' will burrow under your skin and stay there long after you've put the book down." - Jeffrey Reddick, Creator of FINAL DESTINATION PERPETUAL BULLET ALSO E.C. McMullen Jr.'sshort story CEDO LOOKED LIKE PEOPLE in the anthology FEAR THE REAPER PAPERBACK "This Ray Bradbury-esque is one of the most memorable and one of the more original stories I've read in a long time." - Reviewer, Amazon HORROR 201: The Silver Scream |
