Peter Plate
Schuchtern Ist Mein Gluck

Good morning.

Today we're keeping it simple, on the mainstream radio pop without tricks and deception: a treacherous territory, full of clowns and dancers, trumpets and snake oil salesmen, where finding valid proposals requires commitment, passion, broad horizons, and originality. Never limit yourself to the dominant Anglo-American offerings, never think that Pop is only what passes through various Italian generalist radios and TV ; never, ever, ever. So, in a chaos of assorted rubbish and scams of various kinds, it's nice and also useful to have stable references, people you trust who rarely disappoint, of proven seriousness and reliability; Peter Plate is certainly among them. Peter who? the former "brains" of Rosenstolz who, after about twenty years of honorable career, decided to continue on his own. Right so in the end, over time the eclecticism, brilliance, and vibrancy that distinguished them in the early years had gradually faded; a shame, but these are things that can happen when "growing up". And so each went their own way, the singer AnNa R. founded her band, Gleis 8, offering a decent/good quality pop rock enhanced by the unchanged class and incisiveness of her voice, while Peter... well, let's see, that's what we're here for, isn't it?

Peter is a softie: it was him, over time, who led Rosenstolz to a drift too tilted towards the "heart-wrenching" ballads, towards the schlager as the Teutons say and, consistently, he continues on this path even alone, and with absolutely commendable results, which is far from easy. But Peter Plate is also a great pop writer as well as a producer and remixer of remarkable capacities, boasting an important pedigree even outside the Rosenstolz context, having collaborated in various roles with great artists; Marc Almond and Nina Hagen, even if the operation itself was what it was, then Elton John, Agnetha Faltskog, Melanie C just to name the most famous, in short, he's someone who knows what he's doing, and it shows. Alone, in my opinion, he does better compared to the last production duo with AnNa, or at least he has started on the right foot, given that "Schuchtern Ist Mein Gluck" is still a fresh debut (2013). So, simple radio-friendly and sentimental pop, that's the proposal, without any mystification: nothing innovative, nothing indispensable, nothing ambitious, and yet the simplicity, honesty, purity, and in its way also the brilliance of this work really impressed me. In such a context, a powerful voice like AnNa's can also be a disadvantage, creating an unpleasant tacky and redundant effect, instead Peter is perfect; an elegant and pleasant interpreter, for the first time he proves it over the distance of a whole album, and then besides the obvious piano ballads and electronic reminiscences, he also engages with R'n'B sounds, not exactly my thing but which, in this form and proposed in this context, are truly fitting, giving a certain liveliness and "eclecticism" to the album.

So let's get a little sentimental, ballads like "Blauer Sonntag" and "Schuechtern Ist Mein Gluck", candid and sincere self-portrait, at first listening may not seem like much, but with the right mindset and especially an open heart <3 one just gets swept away, without too many stories: Peter Plate demonstrates that mellowness isn't necessarily a flaw, and he proves it with style, over and over: this isn't about a piano line and some stale orchestration thrown at random for show, there's considerable care in sound, arrangements, atmospheres as well as easy and catchy choruses. Sometimes they rely on effective blends of electronics and guitar phrasings, as in "Kapitan" or "Die Nacht Dehnt Sich Haus", or electro-orchestral like in "Ausgang Leider Unbekannt", which with its lingering and plush instrumental intro vaguely recalls Hooverphonic during the "No More Sweet Music" period, or indeed the midtempo R'n'B "Schoner Wars Mit Dir", of great intensity and atmosphere, probably the stylistic pinnacle of the whole work. In any case the sound is always enveloping, the interpretations heartfelt and never over the top, the melodies inspired and convincing; there is sincerity and beauty, regardless of the proposed genre.

And anyway, there's no shortage of a good dose of cheer, "Wir Beide Sind Musik", the semi-acoustic "Gefallen In Love" and especially "Sturm", a delightful retro-synth worthy of the early Rosenstolz, agile and light tunes, arranged without exceeding in particular baroques precisely for perfect integration with the rest of the album; something that instead doesn't happen with "Elektrisch" which, a bit surprisingly, turns out to be the only partial disappointment, partly because as a sound (electroclash) it stands quite noticeably out of context and then it nullifies a pulsating and engaging rhythm with a rather flat and stale chorus, evidently confirming that good old Peter is no longer inclined to certain things. Then what can I say, well, Rosenstolz are dead, long live Rosenstolz, but these Rosenstolz, the ones capable of writing songs like this and covering Nina precisely with THIS piece, but those are things of the past now, and Peter rightly opened a new chapter, with great class and intelligence, and not everyone can do that.