kreidler: abc

2014 marks twenty years of Kreidler. The band has outgrown adolescence, but remains juvenile, reckless, impetuous. They recorded their new album ABC in Tbilisi, Georgia. And there will also be a film by Heinz Emigholz, who accompanied the last album Den with film clips. Six tracks characterized by elliptical shifts, where suddenly the bass and drums take over the helm -- or a choir appears. Kreidler worked together with Georgian singers: either hovering freely in the meditative pop piece "Ceramic," or defining a new space within a space, as in "Nino." Nino perhaps most clearly suggests that the album was recorded in Tbilisi, Europe's southeasternmost metropolis, on the former Silk Road at the intersection of East and West. "Nino" opens the album -- a piece made for setting off in a convertible with the top down, moving at the steady pace through the speed-limited traffic zones with the speakers pumping. A female voice takes over for "Alphabet" and the mood rises. It rocks as only Kreidler can rock. Then a short pause with "Destino," which displays a melancholy longing that leads to abstract no wave funk. "Modul" is similar to Nino, yet even more relentless. "Tornado" concludes ABC. A scruffy smoothness unifies the tracks, which rely less on layers or the shifting of variable patterns, and more on riffs. Yes, riffs. But not hashed-out on guitar or bass -- Alex Paulick is more the sequencer, the lead sound, or the cloud. It is the synthesizers of Andreas Reihse and Detlef Weinrich that provide the definitive propulsion. And wasn't it the case with Den that Kreidler even considered making a record without drums? What a peculiar endeavor. Once again, Thomas Klein's distinctive playing was destined to press the songs further forward, onward, ahead. As always with Kreidler, ABC is about the exploration of freedoms within a previously determined framework. It is a formulation of convergences, of possibilities within a procedural movement, based on a notion of democracy, with socialism in mind, where one understands that restraint is not merely a strategy of a conceptually inclined band, but that it serves to strengthen the validity, precision and majestic authority of expression. The cover uses photographic works by Thea Djordjadze. The Georgian artist usually works directly within a space, combining sculpture, painting and found objects into ensembles. Many of her photographic works are comparable, arranging diverse elements in a black (or white) box. Her works reflect art and cultural history, refer to Georgian folk art, or even Soviet modernity.