Achtung Baby! KMFDM Will Rock Your World!

KMFDM- Blitz (KMFDM.com)

KMFDM started out in Hamburg, Germany in 1986 making soundtracks for friends' performance art in Paris, and their music has maintained a certain European vibe (Kraftwerk, Raminstein, etc.) ever since.

Often tagged as an industrial dance band, KMFDM (whose acronym is most frequently explained as Kein Mitleid Fur Die Mehrheit , which translates as “No pity for the majority” - or as legend has it, “Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode”) do indeed produce a dark, throbbing post-modern noise. They also toy with heavy metal, disco, hip-hop, and a wide variety of samplings- often within the same song.

Once you get past the industrial dance beats after a few listens, you’ll find KMFDM’s political awareness and fondness for found sound in songs like “People of the Lie,” and “Me & My Gun,” is still intact as they brutally blitz Krieg through these new favorites.

Verging on dub as much as on hard rock, and the afore mentioned genres, the synthesizers and guitars are pushed right up front, adding electronic accents, occasional vocals, and embracing them all with excellent effect. Elsewhere, the group either rocks out like metal maniacs, or just hammer home an intense dance beat with inspiration. “People of the Lie” adds female vocals to a time warped disco beat. Like Nine Inch Nails’ monster hit “Head Like a Hole,” “Being Boiled’s” rhythm section digs in for the duration of the song spewing out some of the nastiest, catchiest, aggressively brain-draining beat since KMFDM’s German counterpart, Nitzer Ebb.

“Blitz” is one of KMFDM’s most accomplished records to date. It benefits from the band’s overheated attention to the full sound of the music, and strict attention to the beat!