Klee
Issue #28
Honeysuckle (Minty Fresh)
By Anne Johnson
Published: June 1st, 2006 | 11:07am
Named after Swiss Expressionist painter Paul Klee, this German trio hails from one of Switzerland’s most thriving art centers, Cologne. Their latest and first U.S. release, Honeysuckle, or Jelangerjelieber, shares its name with one of Paul Klee’s works and and is unapologetically recorded in the band’s mother tongue.
Klee is a part of a new wave of German pop music that borrows heavily from various artists of the ’80s. “Gold” melds the sounds of Berlin and Frankie Goes to Hollywood with guitarist Tom Deininger’s reverently lifted New Order riff. The spirits of INXS, the Cure, the Church (“A Thousand Times”), and Echo and the Bunnymen (“With You”) also periodically weave in and out on this musical Autobahn. Though quite derivative the result is not unpleasant. Singer Suzie Kurgstens’ girlish vocals are just raspy enough to remain interesting throughout and the German language itself adds a textual richness. The music almost suffers from a certain sameness that is saved by the flourishes added by Sten Servaes, whose piano and keyboards suitably fill out the landscape.
“We Go Against the Flow” rightly sums up Klee’s ballsy decision to have their first U.S. release recorded entirely in their band’s native language. It makes you wonder if this signifies the end of the arrogant stronghold of the English language on the rest of the world.
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