KMFDM: AGOGO
Wax Trax Records/TVT Records
Good Website, put together by Sascha Konietzo himself. |
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This CD is
a review of KMFDM's throw away's. Songs and mixes that for reasons
remembered and forgotten, were never included on the final cut of their
albums. A catalogue of almost 15 years of KMFDM's Punk/Industrial/Techno
/House/Heavy aw hell: I'm running out of hype monikers here. Suffice it
to say that KMFDM is their own band with their own sound. Some
people I know have always taken KMFDM too seriously. KMFDM
frightens some while pissing off others. Many who have heard them are
just not sure how to take them. This is usually the case with those who
can have a sense of humor about serious subjects. MAD Magazine has been
around for nearly 50 years and they are still being confiscated from kids
at school!
While Sascha and crew often have a point to make, they can't resist poking fun, not
even at themselves. These are not boring politically correct Mind control
fascists, they are satirists. As it says in the linear notes to the first
track THANK YOU,
" Never forget, KMFDM are Germans with a sense of humor."
The only song I skipped past was RIP THE SYSTEM, but as a long time fan of KMFDM I have heard far too many mixes of this song already and am just tired of it. For those of you who have never heard it before, you just might
get tickled by listening to a German accent trying to imitate a Jamaican
accent as singer/ drummer En Esch implores " BLACK MON, WHITE MON,
RIP THE SYSTEM."
These are harder rocking songs. A less produced, edgier sound than KMFDM
fans may be used to hearing. I like it a lot.
With lyrical inspiration from none other than the late Frank Zappa, KMFDM always
seemed to be more interested in fun than a crushing political stance,
the few exceptions being their albums ANGST and (SYMBOLS).
Of special note on this album is 1993's HOLE IN THE WALL from ANGST. According to
the linear notes, Sascha Konietzo hated the fact that remix artist Scott
Burns had hired "real" musicians to supply the additional guitar
tracks. He felt that they gave the song a cheesy Heavy Metal feel. Considering
the time, I can understand how Sascha felt. Hollywood had been spawning
one hell of a lot of cheesy, hair band heavy metal at that time. Fortunately,
Mike Judge thinned the Mousse Hair Herd on MTV by having his Beavis and
Butthead characters berate their pathetic videos and music. None-the-less,
Scott's HOLE IN THE WALL mix is the best version I've heard. With the
ever growing distance from the pablum metal of the eighties and early
nineties, Konietzo himself is able to admire the track.
KMFDM: AGOGO is heavier than normal for this band, and I'm glad they
released it. This is a good album to have in your collection.
This review copyright 1998 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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