Deine Lakaien – Dual+ (Album – Chrom Records / Prophecy Productions)
Genre/Influences: Dark Wave-Pop, Cinematographic-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Set up in 1985, Deine Lakaien rapidly became a renowned name in the wider fields of Dark Wave-Pop and Gothic music. Alexander Veljanov and
Ernst Horn are a totally complementary duo. They released multiple albums and songs, which became history. Early this year they struck back with the “Dual” album, which was the first new studio work in seven years. A special album on which Deine Lakaien presented cover versions. By the end of this year we now get “Dual+” featuring ten new songs and more cover versions.
Content: The album is not just a ‘classic’ cover album, but also a way to adapt some of the band’s influences into their own songs. Cover versions have been made of Pink Floyd, REM and DEVO while there’s also a personal interpretation/adaptation of Michail Iwanowitsch Glinka. Just listen to “Losing My Religion” –originally written by REM, to realize the work the duo accomplished. “Dual+” is a very personal and intimate work, moving from reverie and delicate sound arrangements to more bombastic and harder passages. The album features Neo-Classic piano arrangements, but still more nervous passages with on top of the creation, the charismatic vocals of Veljanov.
+ + + : “Dual+” sounds to me like a true intimate work and also a very personal interpretation of some influential artists and covers. “Run 2nd Version” is a really beautiful piece; an artistic exposure transposed into sonic reverie. I also want to mention the brilliant transformation of “Losing My Religion”, which sounds just like Deine Lakaien would have been the original composers. I also like the delicacy emerging from the opening track “Cradle Song” and the cover version of Pink Floyd’s “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, which reveals less sound layers to reach a maximum effect. A last cut I want to mention is the more bombastic “Fork”.
– – – : “Dual+” is maybe not the most accessible album of Deine Lakaien, but it has to be seen as an album, which means a lot to the artists.
Conclusion: I think I might say that I missed Deine Lakaien, this band remains a very unique experience in sound and impossible to compare with another formation.
Best songs: . “Run 2nd Version”, “Losing My Religion”, “Cradle Song”, “Set the Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, “Fork”, “Wiegenlied”.
Rate: 8.
Artist: www.deine-lakaien.com / www.facebook.com/DeineLakaien
Labels: https://www.chrom.de/en / https://en.prophecy.de / www.facebook.com/prophecyproductions Read the news on ‘Dual+’.
About Deine Lakaien
Deine Lakaien is a German duo founded in 1985 in Munich by vocalist Alexander Veljanov and composer and multi-instrumentalist Ernst Horn. The pair released several demo tapes before signing their first record contract in 1990.
Discogs lists the self-titled debut “Deine Lakaien” in 1986, followed by “Dark Star” in 1991, “Forest Enter Exit” in 1993, “Mindmachine” in 1994, “Acoustic” in 1995, “Winter Fish Testosterone” in 1996, “Kasmodiah” in 1999, “White Lies” in 2001, “April Skies” in 2005, “Indicator” in 2010, “Acoustic II” in 2013 and “Crystal Palace” in 2014. The retrospective “XXX. The 30 Years Retrospective” appeared in 2016.
“Dual” arrived in 2021 as a double album pairing cover versions with new songs written in response to them. “Dual +” followed on 26 November 2021 through Chrom Records and Prophecy Productions, described by the label as the duo’s eleventh studio album. It holds ten tracks: “Cradle Song”, “Nightfall”, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, “Self Seeker”, “Run (2nd Version)”, “Losing My Religion”, “Mr. DNA”, “Altruist”, “Fork” and “Wiegenlied”.
The album was previewed by a first single and video in September 2021 and by a lyric video for the Pink Floyd cover “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” in October 2021. The duo discussed both records in Click Interview with Deine Lakaien in January 2022.
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