DIE GOLDENEN ZITRONEN • Die Entstehung der Nacht • LP

Flight 13

Deluxe reissue as a colored 180g pressing, housed in a thick sleeve with a padded inner sleeve, including a four-color insert and a DVD (in a separate sleeve) with over two hours of runtime. The DVD (FSK 12, DVD 1 of the material double DVD) features the documentary “Übriggebliebene ausgereifte Haltungen” by Peter Ott (88 minutes), plus 10 music videos spanning the years 1987 to 2006.

Three years after Lenin, Die Goldenen Zitronen send out a new musical sign of life. And after 25 years of Zitronen, we know there are always surprises — three years during which they’ve been even more irritated than usual by capitalism, which, since its nervous breakdown, has been behaving ever more shamelessly. But instead of turning darker, they deliver a confident artistic incident shot through with honking electronics and threatening backdrops — an album that still grooves and actually contains proper hits again (“Zeitschleifen,” “Positionen,” “Des Landeshauptmanns letzter Weg,” “Drop the Stylist,” “Lied der Medienpartner”).

Die Entstehung der Nacht is neither a repetition of critique nor do Die Goldenen Zitronen place themselves above the circumstances. Rather, as seasoned observers of consumer society, they let their reflexes run free and, damn it, still hold a mirror right up to our faces, indulging in their uncompromising persistence. Built up through a variety of instruments (including harmonium, prepared piano, bongos, flutes, and double bass) as well as mechanical means of pressure (often analog synthesizers instead of drums), the album creates its own conditions somewhere between krautrock and techno, between Can and F.S.K.

The lyrics, self-evidently, remain the primary instrument — without losing their sense of humor. Featuring contributions from Michaela Melián (F.S.K.), Melissa Logan (Chicks on Speed), Jakobus Siebels (JaKönigJa), and Mark Stewart.