Blauerosen

1. Nevermore/ 2. Farewell/ 3. Forever And A Day/ 4. The Ride/ 5. Where The Winds Don’t Blow/ 6. Crystal Palace/7. Why The Stars/ 8. The Lights Of Our Street/ 9. Those Hills/ 10.Eternal Sun/11.The Swan Song/12. Portuguese Trails/13. Pilgrim

Chrom Records, August 2014

An album which can be perceived as being the ‘mould’ that was used for the creation of all the previous albums

They say that everyone goes out into the streets they say that spring is back in Town. And people looking at each other and no one will be left alone…

It is true that the biggest ‘enemy’ of bands with such a long discography, as Deine Lakaien, is themselves. It’s been 4 years since the release of their previous album ‘Indicator’ and even though I didn’t expect something specific from this album, I was looking forward to its release. At the same time, ‘Indicator’ had reassured me that Deine Lakaien haven’t exhausted their creativity, nor their sources of inspiration. After that album I wouldn’t be surprised if we listened to something equally dynamic and interesting as ‘ Dark Star ’ and ‘ Love Me To The End ’.

‘Crystal Palace’ borrows the name of the homonymous building which was constructed in 1851 in London, in order to host the ‘Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations’. Even though the band doesn’t seem to have any intention to refer to this building, the fact that this album is entitled ‘Crystal Palace’ creates confusion.

‘Crystal Palace’ or else static darkwave music

Nevermore will I fall in love…

The album begins with the song ‘ Nevermore ’ whose title, melody, dynamic electro alterations (e.g. from 3.38 to 3.55) and lyrics, summarize everything that I personally love about Deine Lakaien. Being reminiscent of the older ‘ Reincarnation ’ this song, couldn’t be a better introduction for the album.

…they say that I should better leave my dungeon so I can breathe again and I pretend not to hear not to see…

‘ Omnis Mundi Creatura ’ by Helium Vola is clearly a reference point for the song ‘ Farewell ’ which sounds as a slower, less interesting version of this older song by Helium Vola and takes me back to 2001. My initial enthusiasm for this album lasts until the end of ‘ Forever And A Day ’ where the sitar which defines the music’s theme, places this song closer to the music tradition of India. It is interesting how this song seems to borrow some aesthetic elements from the Japanese tradition, as it is revealed by the sound of the various percussion instruments. I didn’t like the connection between the sound of the sitar and the dynamic parts played in piano and the synthesizer. If the style of the song didn’t incorporate minimal rhythms after the first two minutes, it would have been irritatingly monotonous. These stylistic changes create the impression that this song is an early version of ‘ Supermarket My Angel ’ even though it doesn’t surpass this song.

Throughout this album, as was the case with ‘Indicator’, Ernst Horn adds different sounds which have common elements with Asian music. This is more obvious in the instrumental parts of the songs (e.g. after 2.5 minutes in ‘ Where The Winds Don’t Blow ’, at the introduction of ‘ Crystal Palace ’). At this point I realized that everything that I was feeling while listening to this album had more to do with the past of this band and the periods of my life that I have associated with Veljanov’s voice, than with the essence of this album. It isn’t easy to ignore the resemblance of ‘ The Ride ’ with the older ‘ Over And Done ’, which is far more interesting. Around the beginning of ‘ Where The Winds Don’t Blow ’ (that sounds as an early version of ‘ The Game ’ and ‘ Frühlingstraum ’ combined) my hopes for something better than the first song of this album, were beginning to vanish. The song ‘ Crystal Palace ’ echoes the older ‘ Walk To The Moon’ and ‘ Lonely’ and doesn’t offer anything more interesting than these two songs. Just before the chorus, the sound of harpsichord dominates and creates an almost archaic sound whose basis is found at the classical music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Especially after the song ‘ Those Hills’ which is the next more interesting song after ‘ Nevermore’, the music is hypotonic, piano is hardly noticeable and the rhythm almost static. Until the last song ‘ Pilgrim’, the music is almost devoid of any other melody apart from the one ascribed to it by the sensitive voice of Alexander Veljanov.

The shared constraint of Deine Lakaien, Diary of Dreams and Die Form

Once the first listening of the album came to an end, I understood the reasons for not retaining anything significant from its music. Having read a recent interview (one of the very few) that Deine Lakaien have provided about this album in German, the band expresses nervousness on what concerns the receptivity of this album by the young audience that frequents the clubs, the promoters and the djs. Ernst Horn and Alexander Veljanov imply that the opinion of these people has a strong significance on the choice of songs that are included in an album. When the two musicians were talking about a few specific songs of ‘Crystal Palace’ I could conclude that they knew very well the negative aspects of it even before its release. The fact that they didn’t do anything in order to improve these songs (as their aim to create songs that would be listened to the dancefloors was stronger) is very worrying as a choice from such experienced musicians. As you might have noticed, if you are visiting any of the clubs, none of the songs of ‘Crystal Palace’ has reached these coveted dancefloors after all!

‘…just because the listening habits of younger generations become more and more corrupt, we want to know that Crystal Palace is understood as a whole’(extract from a recent interview by Deine Lakaien)

I’ve found that ‘Crystal Palace’ has a similarity with ‘Elegies In Darkness’ by Diary Of Dreams and ‘Rayon X’ by Die Form. It seems that all three bands have felt some sort of nervousness towards their younger audiences. By using their already established individual ‘musical recipes’ all three bands, attempted though their latest albums, to renew the interest of younger audiences in them. Even though Diary Of Dreams and Deine Lakaien seem to have used the positive elements of their ‘recipe’, Die Form seemed to be stripping their music of all those elements that made it unique. The songs in ‘Crystal Palace’ seem like early versions or else the moulds of older favourite songs. For this reason they only make us recollect the past and listen to any of their earlier albums. Maybe Deine Lakaien were ‘forced’ to release an album quicker than they wanted, maybe their nervousness overcame their strong criterion of quality. In any case I personally remain very optimistic for their next release which I already wait impatiently.

So far Deine Lakaien have announced the dates of their tour in Germany but we hope more European dates will be added soon. You can purchase ‘Crystal Palace’ directly from the official online shop of the band by visiting this link  http://deinelakaien.merchcowboy.com/

7.5/10

Blaue Rosen