Rechenkönig

Here are Mego's original tycoons, Ramon and Andi, inviting unsuspecting listeners on a havoc- and mayhem-filled foray into the fun end of the Mego campus (where GM's Swedish labelmates, Sluta Leta, often engage in similar shenanigans).

The initial focus-group reactions to this CD are highly encouraging, with opinion so far evenly divided between "They're kidding, right?" and "You paid money for this?" (I didn't, they gave me a free copy so I could write this! ha ha!)

Much of this sounds like the amusement park rides were left to run, and run around, on their own a little too long, and in the meantime some of them have gotten into the medicine cabinet again, oh no, heavens!

Pieces of broken-down, abandoned Krautrock litter this digital-junkyard landscape like the refrigerators whose hums these guys first recorded in 1995 and then released as Mego's very first record. In the case of GM's Rechenkönig, however, the sound quality is in-your-face shiny-shiny&Mac247; no drones, fuzz, or Teutonic mist here!

Rhythms and patterns often suggest a troglodyte oompah sensibility gone berserk&Mac247; interestingly, the closest that Mego can ever get to being accused of social satire. Which means, by extension, that GM are probably the Mego act that uses "social space" in the most interesting ways (cf. nos. 14, 17, 26).

Repeated listenings &Mac247; to the extent that your roommates and neighbors will allow them&Mac247; yield new trick endings and new gems. Among them: the call and response that ends no.2; no.17, which is something Ralph Records could have come up with in their heyday; no.11, like taking the guitar sample from Underworld's "Blueski" and warping and crunching it even further; no.22, which sounds like zoviet*france being administered electroshock therapy; and no.24, a quasi-spy-movie theme seemingly played on a carousel.

And then there are the ones like no.15, that should appeal to fans of both John Zorn and Merzbow alike! ;-) And at least one moment that sounds like Farmers Manual and Voice Crack teaming up to demolish Granular Synthesis in a deadly video-arcade fight to the finish. And still others where GM seem to be "beating the Fen-man at his own game" (cf. nos. 5, 16)

If you're still not convinced, then pop this baby in the player and program up 25 - 10 - 21- 3 for the "Raw Beauty Tour". Or, for the Bangyahead-Busted-Appliance Tour, do 13 - 4 - 2 - 19 - 25. Whichever way you slice it up, Rechenkönig is a triumph. All hail the "Computer King"!