DAS ICH - Cabaret
Das Ich, a duo formed by Bruno Kramm and Stefan Ackermann, have been showing since 1989 that gothic and dark music can be more exciting than cliché ridden music by The Bloodline (which I had the sad duty to review) and that this may be much more professional than what former comedian Frank Zander did on his two last records.
Cabaret is not only the name of the meanwhile 15th Das Ich album, but is also a combination of songs, dance, theatre and humour, which gets perfectly reflected on this record. The opener Moritat gives the album a perfectly dark start. It's followed by Atemlos, a strange song where accordion meets electronica. This track and the next one Macht show parallels to Witt. Even humour finds its place in Das Ich's music, with Paradigma making me think of German dark metal clowns Knorkator. Fluch contains a lot of samples creating a dramatic and threatening atmosphere while Opferzeit is a tribute to techno music. Schwarzes Gift is the album's darkest track, and Nahe is the most melodic one with especially clean vocals. Zuckerbrot & Peitsche is a more classic dark wave song and the album finally comes to an end with the eight minute title track, a real goth masterpiece.
I have so far not been very fond of Das Ich, but I appreciate that they are open to such different musical genres on Cabaret. This is much more than just a simple goth record and although the songs differ so much, there is a clear line guiding you from song to song. This has been a positive surprise to me.