KMFDM
What Do You Know, Deutschland?

THE REVIEW

Sascha Konietzko is one of the most important and probably underrated figures in the Industrial Metal scene. He influenced 80s Cyberpunk, pushed the development of EBM to its limits, and was one of the precursors and later exponents of the genre. This album is the first official testimony of his band, the renowned KMFDM (Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid), and it's a good record, showcasing all the elements that would define the band's sound in the following years.

However, I chose to review this record not for its musical value, though it is of good quality, as KMFDM themselves reached higher peaks (with the albums Naïve, Angst, and Nihil), but for its historical significance. Indeed, in my opinion, this album represents, in 1986, a sort of recap of the development of Industrial and EBM music up to that point. In this album, KMFDM seem to retrace the path experimented by Throbbing Gristle at the end of the '70s, by D.A.F. in the early '80s and to anticipate by about a year Ministry's "The Land Of Rape And Honey," thus heralding the formation of Industrial Metal.

With the first track, "Kickin Ass", the group demonstrates that they have learned the lesson taught by Cabaret Voltaire with "Red Mecca" about six years earlier: to the rhythmic and minimal electronics are added prominent bass and cadenced drums, all "adorned" with some pleasant guitar passages. The following "Me I Funk" is, in my opinion, the most original and interesting offering of the album: at eight minutes long, it begins with about a minute of drum machine accompanied by pounding synthesizers, continues with a long verse sung aggressively and impetuously, paired with a driving bass line, progresses with a guitar-led section, which is interrupted by a moment of calm governed by bass, leading to a splendid almost symphonic part, in which drum machine and synthesizer sounds overlay the violins, before returning to the initial rhythm.

The title-track showcases a primordial Industrial; it is, in fact, a sort of collage of voices and testimonies forming a text denouncing U.S. politics, supported by a relaxed rhythmic synthesized base and a refrain composed of the phrase "what do you, what do you know?". Another noteworthy piece is certainly "Itchy Bitchy", a song with Techno-EBM sounds, featuring an ironic text that is danceable thanks also to the usual excellent bass work. The rest of the tracks are mostly instrumental, and result from significant effort by each of the members (practically each of these songs was designed by one of the four musicians), and musically once again reiterate a canonical Industrial accompanied by bass and drums, rhythmic, repetitive, purposefully provocative.

This album is thus a transitional album, musically proposing no revolution but rather a slow development in the transition between Industrial and Industrial Metal, almost as a forerunner of the genre's advent.