I will admit something: every year (well two, so far) previewing 16 songs for the Bundesvision Song Contest can get pretty monotonous. There are always a handful of ballads - both male and female, a handful of electronic or dance songs, a couple of soul songs, a couple of indie songs, and the show is wrapped up with one or two borderline novelty tunes. While many of these songs are quite good, very few of them stand out for their originality. Occasionally though, a band does something different. This year, Kraftklub is that band.
Kraftklub first crossed my radar a few months ago with their self-released free-download album "Adonis Maximus". Their music is a vibrant mix of hip-hop, punk rock, and disco - musical genres that one probably would not think would go together. Combine this with an eastern German "nerd chic" fashion sensibility, and you have a band that truly stands out from the pack. Kraftklub's song Berlin demonstrates their craft well - although it is by no means their best song.
Prediction: As with any band that blows away established genres, Kraftklub's success in the broader German marketplace is by no means assured. All things considered though, Berlin is a fun, energetic, and exciting song that should do well against the more cookie-cutter competition. I predict that Berlin will place somewhere in the top 3.
Peter--I am a German teacher in New England, and we "study" BuViSoCo every year. I discovered your blog last year, and we had a great time comparing our opinions to your far more refined thoughts. Will you be reviewing the rest of the bands this year? I know time is short, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the field.
ReplyDeleteHello, and thanks for your feedback. I am sorry I wasn't able to get around to the rest of the field. Knowing that there is actually somebody out there reading this, though, encourages me to be more thorough next year. Hopefully we'll have a little more time to review next year's entries.
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