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"Pick up the phone and answer me at last. Today I will step out of your past"
The Notwist are Markus Acher, Micha Acher, Martin Messerschmid, and Martin Gretschmann, and they are from Weilheim, a town of 20,000 inhabitants, 45 kilometers from Munich.
From the same Weilheim also come the Tied and Tickled Trio, Village of Savoonga, Potawatomi, and Lali Puna.
Too many bands for such a small town? The explanation is simple; they are all side projects or bands in which the Notwist themselves or their closest collaborators are involved.
The Notwist's journey began at the end of the '80s when they were playing metal and evolved through the cover of "Johnny and Mary" by Robert Palmer in 1993 to their current form. The Notwist produce songs through the successive addition of parts and fragments carefully sought out, among samples and real guitars, managing to synthesize a totally original form.
"Pick up The Phone": a clarinet, then a rustle or screech of a volume knob with oxidized contacts, sampled becoming the rhythmic base, then a delicate percussion from an analog drum machine. The guitar enters; a single note on a single string, slow and inexorable, then Markus Acher's melancholic and disenchanted, resigned and hypnotic voice. Then a distorted bass. And the beauty is that all these elements are introduced one at a time. Then I hear the clarinet submerged in the mix again, with each listen discovering another of the countless instruments they use in the background.
They do not hide the rustles brought by the microphones, a technical error in theory, but it serves to give depth and atmosphere, treated like a sample. The attention to detail is manic; the overall effect is minimalist.
Other things must be discovered and sought out. "Out With The Freaks" is pure pop as I understand it, and for once they also turn up the volume; "have you ever been all messed up?"
An intimate, delicate album, turned in on itself, that spins on itself, talking about rooms from which one will never leave.
And yesterday I spent the whole day trying to understand what "today I will step out of your past" means. Maybe nothing, but I made the line my own. "You're the color, you're the movement and the spin..." from "Consequence," too.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Pilot (04:30)
He's living next the rails.
He can tell you things of different cars and trains.
Now he's trying the whole day
to SWITCH off time by causing train-delay.
Could be enough
if only he's the pilot
once a day.
Could be enough
if only he's the pilot
once a day.
Not a word to compensate.
Not a sentence to describe this
desperate state. Not a picture to
compare. We step into a room of
opaque air.
Could be enough
if only we are pilots
once a day.
03 Pick Up the Phone (03:58)
You know this place,
you know this gloom?
We've been here before.
When life is a loop,
you're in a room without a door.
Pick up the phone and answer me at last.
Today I will step out of your past.
""Trouble that we've come to know will stay with us"",
with every step it slowly grows.
Rub off the rust.
Pick up the phone and answer me at last.
Today I will step out of your past.
04 Trashing Days (03:26)
Then i come in,
they go mad, hit my nose and
hit my back, break me every
single bone, throw me out just
like a stone. It's the corner. it's
the dress, small the town and
big the mess, that I cause with
every step, but still I walk,
nonetheless. They're skipping
backwards, they're thrashing
days, is that all they're
believing in? Smash my head
to make it spin. It won't change
so come with me, just with your
eyes I will see. just with your
arms I can hold, and keep
away them dump and cold.
06 Solitaire (03:31)
We're more than
overwhelmed
by hundreds of hugs and
a million good words.
We are
satisfied
from monday til friday
and on sunday we cry.
But we like it
from that point of view,
so we stay here and bare until dawn everyday.
And we stay here and bare everyday.
We never ever lie.
From ten in the morning
we are honest til nine.
We are overcute.
We never will manage to be rude only twice.
But we like it from
that point of view.
So we stay here and bare until dawn
everyday. And we stay
here and bare everyday.
07 One With the Freaks (03:40)
You'll no longer be kissed and kind
as you long for intuition
as you have to learn the lesson twice
You'll no longer be kissed and kind
as you long for intuition
as you have to say the password twice
have you ever?
have you ever been all messed up?
have you ever?
Have you ever?
Have you ever been all messed up?
Have You ever?
You're the pincard
You're the lifeguard
You're the information guide
Things look much bigger on your knees
on your knees
Miss the signal
Miss the signpost
Miss the exits to it all
And all of a sudden
you were one with the freaks
Have you ever?
Have you ever been all messed up?
Have You ever?
Have you ever?
Have you ever been all messed up?
Have You ever?
08 Neon Golden (05:56)
Neon golden like all the lights.
Neon Golden. Don't leave me
here for I glow. Neon golden.
09 Off the Rails (03:30)
We're off the rails. Now we are
trains ourselves. No wait and see
We're off this place doesn't mean
we're somewhere else. This is all
I know: keeping still to watch the
engines cone and go.
10 Consequence (05:13)
You're the colour,
you're the movement and the spin.
Never could it stay with me
the whole day long.
Fail with consequence, lose with eloquence and smile.
I'm not in this movie
I'm not in this song.
Never leave me paralyzed, love,
leave me hypnotized, love.
You're the colour,
you're the movement and the spin.
Never could it stay with me
the whole day long.
Fail with consequence, lose with eloquence and smile.
You're not in this movie
You're not in this song.
Never leave me paralyzed, love,
leave me hypnotized, love.
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Other reviews
By Mellon
The way in which these ten tracks fuse completely opposite genres is simply astounding.
"This Room," the track we all would have expected from Yorke and company if in 2000 they hadn’t ventured into the experimentation of "Kid A."
By RinaldiACHTUNG
"Cold electronics and existential dilemma. The two sides that the Notwist have managed to blend with class."
"The ending Consequence summarizes and amplifies this sensation, the mood silently explodes with the words ‘I’m not in this movie, I’m not in this song.’"
