Sturm Café – Fernes Land (Album – SCR)
Genre/Influences: EBM , Body-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassette.
Background/Info: Swedish EBM duo Strum Café this year celebrates their twentieth anniversary. “Fernes Land” is the band’s third full length and the first one in six years.
Content: Sturm Café has been always linked with old-school EBM and that’s for sure the main source of inspiration, which comes back to “Fernes Land”. But the songs also feature an explicit Electro-Pop influence. The mix of both Electro genres resulted in an original result, which in a way is the trademark of this band. The songs are well-crafted and elaborated, but still revealing great sound treatments. All vocals are once again sung in German and reveal funny lyrics.
+ + + : Sturm Café stands for old-school EBM polished with Electro-Pop arrangements. There are not many formations with a similar approach and that’s what makes this band unique. But the album is much more than simply mixing different genres together; the songs are masterly written and accomplished with great, vintage sound treatments. The EBM sound formula sounds often simple, but Sturm Café transposed it into a higher artistic level. The songs are accomplished and there’re numerous great passages among the tracklist. “Funkbereit“ is for sure a potential hit, but I also have to mention the somewhat harder “Schauspiel” and “Spielzeit” revealing funny lyrics. The songs are driven by deep bass lines. Some bleeping sequences are a bit reminding me of Welle:Erdball, but no doubt about it, Sturm Café is a band with a very unique sound and approach.
– – – : I regret the album only features 9 songs, the opening track being a kind of intro. But it’s better to get a short, but qualitative album instead of an album with an endless and poorly inspired tracklist.
Conclusion: Sturm Café is a band that never deceives and will still appeal for lovers of EBM and Electro-Pop.
Best songs: “Funkbereit“, “Schauspiel”, “Spielzeit”, “So Lange Es Geht”, “Männer Gegen Männer”.
Rate: (8½).
Artist & Label: www.sturmcafe.se / www.facebook.com/sturmcafe
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
