Das Bierbeben

Disc: Near Mint / Very Good Plus

Cover: Very Good Plus

Tubular Bells? Hells Bells? High Noon? Bells, gong, strike and stroke … Das Bierbeben’s third full-length release ends with the second album’s (“Alles Fällt”) first sound: the strike of a gong. Heralding a new hour or age, or maybe even impending doom, the news stops here, with “a muffled sound.”
In this review and reuse of its past, the important third album returns to its roots and proudly wears its heart on its sleeve. A simple, self-titled affair, “Das Bierbeben” marks the culmination of a steady development.

Firmly ensconced in the context of pop history, the band churn out a deluge of faithful references, copy and recycle, mix and revive, cherish and celebrate the great protest movements of (German) pop music: protest folk, 70s, Ton Steine Scherben, German punk and Techno find themselves joined in (un)holy matrimony. And a dark, maudlin wedding it is, too: the subject shakes off its prolonged slumber to embark on a momentous journey into the abyss, into the realms of pain and beauty. Here, it forms alliances, flutters free as a bird and sets out to face the powers that be, ready to witness their epic failure.