SchnAAk - Wake Up Colossus

SchnAAk - Wake Up Colossus (Discorporate Records)
This time I am reviewing a CD by a band from Berlin called SchnAAk - It was sent to me in a package of CD's to review by Ed who runs Dense Promotions; a music promotions company also based in Berlin, it was very nice getting the CD's in the post and I am liking listening to them very much.
         SchnAAk are Mathias Jähnig and Johannes Döpping from Berlin; Mathias plays guitar, keyboards, fx and sings and Johannes plays drums, percussion, xylophone, toys and also sings - Wake Up Colossus is their first LP and is very nice indeed.
           The first song is called Birds and Grains and starts of with fast guitars and drums and singing like a girl, there aren't any girls in the band so it must one of the men pretending to be a girl. The singing on this like on all the songs is in English even though they are a German band but I can't make out what they are singing about. The next song is called Whoop Whoop and reminds me a bit of T-Rex who I like very much - I've got all their hits on a CD at home. The drumming is very good on this song, in the letter I was sent about this record it says that as well a drum-kit the drummer uses plastic buckets and pieces of metal to drum on and this makes it very interesting to listen to. The singer is singing like a girl again on this song and there is lots of noisy electric guitars and other noises like whistling and the sound of a gaming machine - I sometimes go on the fruit machines and I once won a fiver in an Arcade in Waldorf Street, Soho but most of the time I lose.

SchnAAK in Times Square, New York.

         The next song on the CD is called Tiki and reminds me a bit of Cars by Gary Numan, the singing sounds a bit more like a man singing. I think it reminds me of Cars because there are lots of keyboard sounds on it, It is a very good song. After Tiki is Knuus which I think is a made up word and not German, this song sounds a bit like the music improvisation group we have here at The Gate because we use xylophones and drums here too like on this track. At music improvisation people sing whatever they want and other people play on keyboards and drums and guitars and other stuff - we all like music improvisation very much.
         This is Life Bubbly Hog is the next song and it has even louder guitars than the other songs so far but the same girly voice, they sing and play on this one like they are alcoholics who have had too much to drink - I only drink Coke with ice when I go out, I've never really drunk much but I wouldn't mind getting into drinking some day.

         My Robot Garden is next and starts off very loud with more singing like a girl but it slows down in parts and the vocals get like a man's voice might sound if you slowed it down which is a very interesting way of singing, it sounds a bit like when you play a record at the wrong speed. Next song is called Herero and begins very softly with clapping noises and xylophone or keyboard played quietly and quiet singing, then the electric guitars come in sounding very noisy like an ambulance siren and the song becomes very fast and noisy.

          The next song is called Ping Pong Miracle and has very strange singing on it that sounds like an old record I used to know that I forget the name of, it is an even noisier track than the last one and I liked it a lot because I like noisy music and at home I like to have my CD's turned up very loud - sometimes my support workers tell me to turn it down and I do but I turn it up again when they're not there.

          The second to last song is a mostly quiet one and is sung mainly in the high, girly voice again but there are also bits where the also a voice which is more normal and like a man's. There are lots of interesting noises and sounds in this song, sometimes they reminded me of the noise water makes and sometime of cars and sometimes of a cat stuck in some bushes - I liked listening to all these noises and working out what they reminded me of.  The last song starts of with violin and then gets very noisy indeed and it reminded me of T-rex again but then started sounding like a radio breaking down which is an interesting way to end the song and also the record. 

         Overall I thought this was a good noisy record,  I liked it very much and will listen to it a lot when I take it home and if the guys from the band ever come to London I'd like to meet them; I would take them on the open-top guided bus tour to see the sites and then take them to Soho to my favourite coffee shop Aventi's for something to eat and maybe we could go to a peep show, we would have a nice time. I would give this record 10 out of 10.