As a teenager, I used to seek out new music with a kind of fervour that is perhaps only borne of having nothing much else to do with your time. I realised recently that a) it’s been a long time since I was a teenager (wow) and b) my music library has really stagnated since those heady days of teenagehood. And no-one wants to be stuck with their teenage taste in music forever. Also, discovering new music makes me really happy. So I have devised a challange for myself: every month for the next year I will try to discover a new band (preferably one I’ve never even heard the name of, but certainly one with an unfamiliar back-catalogue) and I will blog about them on here.
So, September’s Artist of the Month is maybe cheating a little bit, because I actually discovered Schmieds Puls in August, but given that this is the inaugural AotM post I’ll cut myself a little slack. I discovered this astounding Austrian band at a small music festival in Lunz, called More Ohr Less which is organised by the rather wonderful Hans-Joachim Roedelius (he worked with Bowie and Eno in the 70s which should surely convince you that he’s pretty cool). My uncle, a musician who occasionally collaborates with Achim, attends the festival annually, and given that my parents have now moved to Vienna it seemed like a nice idea to have a big extended-family trip to the festival. Anyway, I really didn’t know what to expect from this festival but I was surprised in the best possible way. Schmieds Puls, a three-piece band fronted by the slightly ethereal Mira Lu Kovacs (who I did fall a little bit in love with), absolutely blew me away when they took to the stage (did I mention that the stage was floating on the lake?).
Their music is a stunning blend of stark, stripped-back rhythms layered with haunting melodies (Kovacs’ voice reminds me of Björk) and their sound is really refreshing in a musical landscape that often over-produces to make up for lack of basic talent. The only instruments are Kovacs’ acoustic guitar (and voice), Walter Singer’s double bass (yes, the double bass – trust me, it’s great) and Christian Grobauer’s drums. The drumming is sparse and very precise; it really caught my attention when I saw them perform in Austria. Despite (or perhaps because of) their minimalist musical set-up, the music is intricate and incredibly interesting – never dull.
Really, this has just been a long-winded attempt to get you to press ‘play’ on the embedded video (surely a better way to ascertain if you like them than reading any review) – and if you do like them, please consider supporting them by buying their debut album (I bought it from the merch stand straight after their set, and it was the best impulse-buy I’ve made in years). They’re a small and relatively unknown band, and I’m sure they could really do with the support … and you could do with having their music in your library, I guarantee.
Amphitrite Reviews 