Vlimmer – Nebenkörper (Album – Blackjack Illuminist Records)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave, Gothic.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassette.
Background/Info: Alexander Donat moves on with Vlimmer. The prolific German artist who this year achieved the impressive EP-series, releasing 18 EP’s over the past five years –and who’s still active with a few other projects plus running his own label, is already back on track unleashing the first Vlimmer album. He used other instruments and composed twelve new songs.
Content: Vlimmer’s influences remain pretty recognizable, but the sound has evolved towards a darker and harder result. The rhythms become more dynamic while the rest of the music is characterized by blasting Electro sounds next to guitar play and low bass lines. The songs are still sung in German, sometimes in a rather exclaiming way.
+ + + : Vlimmer has accomplished a new tour de force. The focus has been clearly different although the influences are still dominated by good-old Cold-Wave and Post-Punk. Some passages remind me of The Cure, but this work sounds more violent. The rhythms are impressive, but I also noticed some irresistible icy synth leads –“I.P.A.” is a great song in the genre. Some other parts are like controlled chaos, revealing a totally different approach than what we’ve been used to hearing from this artist.
– – – : I often said that Vlimmer was missing potential hits. I don’t know if some songs of the album will become hits, but I noticed some interesting cuts like “I.P.A.” and “Minusgesicht”. My only regret is that the songs remain pretty short; only 2 tracks are going over the 4 minutes.
Conclusion: Vlimmer is constantly evolving in sound and production and is a band to discover if you’re into Cold-Wave and Post-Punk. What will be the next step? An album sung in English…?
Best songs: “I.P.A.”, “Minusgesicht”, “Meter”, “Fensteraus”.
Rate: 8.
Artist: www.facebook.com/VlimmerMusic
Label: www.facebook.com/Blackjack.Illuminist
About Vlimmer
Vlimmer is the project of German musician Alexander Leonard Donat, based in Berlin. Donat also runs the label Blackjack Illuminist Records.
Discogs dates the first Vlimmer EP, “I”, to 2015. The numbered series ran to “XIIIIIIII”, eighteen EPs in total, and Side-Line reported that Donat finished the EP series in March 2021. Side-Line reviewed several of them, among them “X”, “Pulmo” and “XIIIIIIII”.
“Nebenkörper” is the first Vlimmer album. Blackjack Illuminist Records released it on 24 September 2021 in digital, CD, vinyl and cassette formats. Donat wrote and mixed the music and supplied the artwork, and Pete Burns of Kill Shelter mastered it. The twelve tracks are “Farbenmüde”, “Fensteraus”, “Mutem”, “Restfall”, “Meter”, “Minusgesicht”, “I.P.A.”, “Ad Astra”, “Wangendruck”, “Kartenwarten”, “Kron” and “Nebenbei”.
Side-Line covered the second single ahead of the album in August 2021 and Vlimmer’s contribution to the Nirvana covers set “Nevermind Reworks” in October 2021. The albums “Menschenleere” and “Zerschöpfung” followed in 2023.
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