Feline & Strange - Trigger Warning (Album Review)

Feline & Strange - Trigger Warning

01.Ouverture
02.Inappropriate
03.tw: Radio Apocalypse
04.Pretty Please
05.I Am An Iceberg
06.tw: A Secret
07.Castle In The Woods
08.tw: We´re Fucked
09.Restart From Zero
10.tw: Happy Little Island Dance
11.Another Dream
12.tw: The Last Show On Earth
13.Lobotomy
14.tw: Monster In The Dark
15.Night
16.tw: A Tea Party
17.Medusa
18.tw: One Of Us
19.Not A Man
20.tw: The Neighbours
21.Please Die
22.tw: Help
23.Can`t Breathe
24.Apocalypse
25.Vanity Fair

Feline Lang (Vocals/Piano/Synths/Ukulele)
Christoph Klemke (Cello/Percussion)
Rah Hel (Drums)

Guest Musicians

Taylor KouqJ Bull (Bass/Upright/Hammer on stone)
Matt Miller (Tuba)
Mishkin Fitzgerald (Accordion)
Matthew Victor "Ghastly" Rogers (Additional Ukulele)
Sam Lee (Announcements)
Sam Lee, Julie Zakar, Cameron Ellis Lamberson, Taylor KouqJ Bull, Christoph Klemke, Rah Hell (Additional Vocals)

It is clear from the albums cover, seemingly more suited to Sunn 0))) or Ulver, that they are taking a trip to the darker side, 'Trigger Warning' is Feline & Strange’s most political album so far.
At times heart-wrenching, furious and tragic. Sometimes sarcastically silly, feminist and humanist.
It is depressing and disturbing, Just as the world is these days.

The message is both simple yet complex:
“You are not alone with all these emotions. We are here, and we hear you. We see you and we lend you our voices.”

The songs show no mercy to any human abyss. Feline is addressing war, despair, abuse, rape, hate, discrimination, depression, madness and suicide, as directly as ever.

The work is also deeply connected to Taylor´s coming out as a trans woman. After a nearly lethal fight against society, expectations, and work related prejudice, she opened up to Feline as literally the first person on the world besides her partner, less than two months before pre-production in Berlin was scheduled. She kept saying: “I must remember this album is not about me.” And Feline kept responding: “It is. It´s about everyone.”
This work is the culmination of 18 months writing and recording and may be their most ambitious and inspiring output to date.

We begin with 'Ouverture', a couple of minutes of pure musical madness, mournful cello and piano join with frantic drumming and disturbing vocal effects, quickly this moves to the avant jazz/electronic sounds reminiscent of Delia Derbyshires 1969 masterpiece An Electric Storm In Hell.

Moving to a more modern electronic sound 'Inappropriate' has a wonderful near sarcastic vocal style, this takes us to the first of a number of spoken links, 'Radio Apocalypse'.
 
'Pretty Please' is that unusual mixture of dark cabaret and punk of which the band excel in, has a very catchy piano riff running throughout.
 
Heavy as hell 'I Am An Iceberg' mixes angry vocals with a solid drum rhythm, weird musical notes bring the avant garde element, yet somehow this could almost be anthemic, you just know that live everybody will be chanting "I am an Iceberg you only see part of me, when i melt down i will take you down with me".

Clever horror film ambience with 'A Secret' leads us to the beautiful piano opening to 'Castle In The Woods' a downbeat folkish ballad that gets more theatrical as it progresses.

Haha 'We´re Fucked' is one twisted little ditty end with distortion that flows into the classic awesome synth pulses of  'Restart From Zero', it moves darkly, almost menacing then explodes into "Faust" like experimental jazz rock.

'Happy Little Island Dance' acts as the introduction to 'Another Dream' which sounds like an 80's style electro pop song, really upbeat and yet slightly unsettling.
 
'The Last Show On Earth' is followed by 'Lobotomy' a happy little tune with an early 60's cheesy Rock N Roll vibe, could have been on the Rocky Horror soundtrack!

Getting freaky again with the f/x for 'Monster In The Dark' which appropriately you find during the 'Night'. Brooding, operatic and Gothic, this has all the quality of a symphonic rock classic, beautiful cello playing, perfect arrangements, perfect song!

You get the feeling that something not good is happening with 'A Tea Party', maybe one of the other links will give a happy ending?
Loving the harpsichord on 'Medusa', another dark ambient piece with more outstanding vocals and cello once more the song ends with a little experimental madness.

'One Of Us' has a nasty streak in it, placing a mirror in front of prejudice and ignorance.

Very clever lyrics on 'Not A Man', smashing stereotypes left, right and centre with humour and aggression.
The piano riff from 'Pretty Please' returns briefly for 'The Neighbours'.

I get the feeling that this is a very serious song about sexual abuse, yet whilst listening to 'Please Die' I can't help but smile, I suppose it's just the way Feline shouts all the ways she wants the person to die, but then maybe I should smile at the demise of an abuser!

Electronic treatments, disturbing cello and spoken word, seems 'Help' does not give these little links a happy ending after-all.

Another heavy and dark musical mixture, blending strange drum rhythms and timing changes with electronic pulses, 'Can`t Breathe' creates an unnerving aural nightmare, Feline screaming "I can't breathe' as if she were suffocating for real.

'Apocalypse' and 'Vanity Fair' bring this album to a close, another exemplary mixture of styles, musical ability and strong vocal performance.

The band have matured, never standing still they continue to push their own unique sounds forward. They care about their music and their fans, not content with making great music they also care about how it is made available, not just the "download" option which is the rather boring standard for many musicians these days, this album comes in a variety of well packaged and thought out formats, details of which can be found by following the link below to their Bandcamp page.

Rating: 10/10
For Fans Of: Nina Hagen, Faust, Tomorrows Gift, Dresden Dolls, Nico & John Cale

Feline & Strange Bandcamp

Feline & Strange Facebook

Various Artists - Steampunk Records Sampler 1 (CD Review)

Steampunk Records Sampler 1

01. Victor and the Bully – Butterfly Effect

02. Professor Elemental & Tom Caruana – Mectoria

03. The Wattingers – Dead Man’s Hat

04. The Heaven and Hell Orchestra – The Bad Vision

05. BB Blackdog – Thousand Years

06. Off Limits – Calling Witchcraft

07. Aeronautica – Pech and Schwefel

08. Feline & Strange with Mishkin Fitzgerald – Cassandras Twin

09. Darwin Project – Run Red Run

10. Gurdybird – Papa Zulu

11. Capt Roswell & The Lost Alien Tribe – Alien Eye

12. LM Cooke Music – Moon Song

13. Miss Von Trapp - Do Your Gears Hang Low

14. Cabaret Berlin – Beautiful Berlin

15. The Big Fibbers – Steam Tramp Blues

16. Victor Sierra – El Mundo Superior

17. The Dark Design – Haggard Rider

18. Kiss Like Ether – Heaven Can Wait

19. Montague Jacques Fromage with Victor & The Bully – Walk A Little Lopside

20. My Wooden Leg – Cop City

21. Lies Of The Machine – Psychocircus

22. New Jacobin Club – Angel MMXIV

Trying to review a 22 track sampler cd that you cannot buy is a bit of a bugger, however it does act as a good guide to what the record label is offering on a selection of Various Artists compilations you can buy as well as releases from many of the individual acts.

I have said this before and I will say it again, the notion of Steampunk as a music genre is a nonstarter, there is music performed in numerous styles by people who identify with the Steampunk culture, this can influence their writing style and their appearance and the way they market their image.

Some music here is clearly influenced from a different age and for any pedants amongst you would no doubt identify some chosen genres as ‘Dieselpunk’ or even ‘Cyberpunk’, personally I prefer to take the music as I hear it regardless of what it is or isn’t supposed to be.

That said I will now attempt to put some of these acts into an identifiable music genre which I hope will make the review easier to digest.

Well just spent the best part of an hour hunting down these bands on good old Facebook, so I think I have a bit of an idea what to expect from some of the acts, some seem quite interesting others slightly disturbing.

Kicking off with ‘Victor and the Bully’ a great upbeat neo rock n roll sounding song, a bit like Rocket From The Crypt. The band also return in collaboration with American Steampunk legend Montague Jacques Fromage, this time a completely different sound, more poppy, upbeat and happy with Mr Fromage delivering, as ever, a superb tongue in cheek funky rap.

The ‘Wattingers’, have a super sleazy swamp blues vibe, defiantly one for Nick Cave fans, need to hear some more to get an overall idea of what they about.

Not too sure what to make of ‘The Heaven and Hell Orchestra’, I suppose if Therion had been around in the 1930’s they may have sounded a bit like this.

As ever ‘BB Blackdog’ blow the hell out of the speakers with their strange eclectic mix of Psychedelic rock and the bass crazed antics of Primus!

Totally stunning mix of neo folk and hard rock comes ‘Off Limits’, great vocal style and loving the use of violin, one for Skyclad fans.

Accordion into Celtic rock and sung in German, I feel that we have in ‘Aeronautica’ a band who like Turisas, Alestorm and Rammstein.

Want a totally breath-taking four minutes? Then ’Feline & Strange with Mishkin Fitzgerald’ song “Cassandras Twin” will do just that. Amazing operatic performance with simple piano and electronic backing, could be from the soundtrack to “Repo! The Genetic Opera”.

Taking a complex instrument the Hurdy Gurdy and bringing it into the 21^st century with a slight techno backing, may seem a hard thing to pull off with class, but ‘Gurdybird’ seem to do this with ease.

If you like post 1980’s Hawkwind then ‘Capt Roswell & The Lost Alien Tribe’ with its drums n synths backing to some Hillage inspired riffery then this is the band for you.

Dark and atmospheric Acid Folk is on offer from ‘LM Cooke Music’ I highly recommend her album ‘Nursery Rhymes for the Apocalypse’.

Time for some modern interpretation of classic British music hall from ‘Miss Von Trapp’ in the style of legends such as Lily Morris and Marie Lloyd.

From the music halls of Britain to the clubs of Weimar era of the early 1930’s and ‘Cabaret Berlin’ bring us a perfect recreation of singer and pianist as if they had somehow time travelled to the here and now.

‘The Big Fibbers’ with their “Steam Tramp Blues” is an oddity almost as if John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett were doing a version of the Stray Cats!

I have no idea what ‘Victor Sierra’ are on, but if Rob Zombie did a slow and weird cover of a Brujeria song it might sound like this?

‘The Dark Design’ have a cowpunk vibe, if that’s not a term you have heard before, well back in the early 1980’s there was a brief and strange mix of post punk and country & western music.

Some industrial tinged proto cyberpunk from ‘Kiss Like Ether’, very 80’s but the mix is quite thin.

‘My Wooden Leg’ great name for a band, this is a bit quirky, touch of Primus in there and some Zappa like guitar work.

With a song called “Psychocircus” I was expecting perhaps a cover of the Kiss song, but strangely ‘Lies Of The Machine’ have some interesting elements of Death and Black Metal, nice clean vocals and then deth growls, then throw in some symphonic vocals, needs more investigating but if you like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth then check this band out.

Finally ‘New Jacobin Club’ with a sound that seems to blend 70’s Blondie with 90’s metalcore, again another band I feel the need to check out.

So as you can see plenty of different music styles to get your interest going and next time you see the word ‘Steampunk’, well don’t be put off, there really is some stunning music out there!

Steampunk Records Facebook Page

Feline & Strange - Science Fiction (CD Review)

Feline & Strange – Science Fiction

01.Science Fiction (A Space Opera)

02.Hello World

03.Because (A Wedding Waltz)

04.Why Me

05.I See You

06.Leaving For The Seaside

07.Love Is (Utterly Overrated)

08.I Should Have Told You Before

09.Anybody

10.You Said

11.Going Away (Farewell Letter)

12.End Of The World

13.Lost In The Moon

14.Epilogue

Feline Lang (Vocals/Programming/Accordion/Castanets)

Christoph Klemke (Drums/Percussion/Violincello)

Matthias Haecker (Keyboards)

Ulrich Christenn (Trombone/Trumpet/Alto Saxophone/Tuba/Flute)

Marc Andre Haller (Bass/Double Bass/Chapman Stick)

Guest Musicians

Timothy Beuther (Drums)

Stefan Kelber (Violin)

Brigitte Langnickel-Kohler (Concert Harp)

Feline is the daughter of harpist Brigitte Langnickel-Köhler and pianist Reinhard Langnickel, Brigitte first appeared on record in 1975 backing the Hannover Boys Choir on the LP ‘Ein Kind Ist Uns Geboren’.

Growing up with a musical family Feline went on to study acting and singing in Berlin.

By 2003 she released her debut album ‘Tango L’Che!, performed in theatre productions including ‘Kabale and Liebe’ and appeared in the 2004 movie by Marcus Mittermeier called ‘Muxmäuschenstill’. There have also been television appearances and operatic performances in ‘Carmen’ and ‘Dulcinea’.

In 2009 whilst working with an operatic ensemble she decided to go in a new direction and formed a duo named " Feline and Strange ", the idea was to mix Jazz with electropop influences and at various times the duo were joined by numerous different musicians for live performances, eventually releasing an album in 2011 called ‘Behavior!

Moving forward and aided by new musicians including Marc Andre Haller former bassist with folk/psych band Habakuk, the band take a slight change in musical direction and start to pick up a cult following with the steampunk community based in Berlin.

From that point on their reputation grew and the word spread, it was in fact Radio presenter and Steampunk author Steven C. Davis who at a recent meeting handed me this CD to review.

Though I am not quite sure that this style of Cabaret Noir could be classed as Steampunk, surely due to its historical time frame it would be Dieselpunk, I won’t let such things cloud my review and pour myself a nice glass of absinthe and then press play.

The album begins with ‘Science Fiction (A Space Opera)’ and we begin the journey through this concept album with the lyrics taking the form of a novelette written by Feline and included in very small writing in the booklet.

With a subtle electronic backing and laid back brass arrangements Feline delivers a semi operatic and tone perfect vocal.

‘Hello World’ is slightly more upbeat, again it is the brass arrangements that come through the mix, reminiscent at times of the less Avant-Garde moments of legendary German band Vampires Sound Incorporation.

After a nice waltz we get something slightly more dadaesque with ‘Why Me’ mixing as it does quirky little keyboard sounds with changing rhythms, the vocal is a little more playful and some really nice synth work towards the end.

‘Leaving For The Seaside’ has the opening lyric of: “I woke up in a dusty town (Somebody should have come with a vacuum cleaner)” what a line!

Something darker with strange flute and some other slightly disturbing instruments with ‘I Should Have Told You Before’, a nice mixture of vocal styles and wolf howls all help create an atmospheric piece of outstanding music.

Back to some nice electronics with a jazz influence, ‘Anybody’ begins with a quiet vocal and just builds as it goes along, a gentle song that gets the toes tapping and when that drum and keyboard gets going towards the middle I can seriously get a vision of Densmore and Manzarek of the Doors then joined by Lol Coxhill, by far my favourite track so far, could do with another ten minutes or so to really let the musicians go wild.

‘You Said’ is given the old fashioned treatment of sounding like a 78RPM polka recording.

This is followed by a melancholic performance, perhaps to be expected with a piece titled ‘Going Away (Farewell Letter).

‘Lost In The Moon’ throws into the mix little moments of inspired Avant Garde madness in an otherwise mature sounding smooth jazz piece, we then end with the unlisted track ‘Epilogue’ which is an upbeat danceable song resplendent with whistles!

This is an album that far exceeds its given genre limitations, it is vibrant full of interesting styles and has a wide appeal, whatever music you like this deserves your attention.

Rating 10/10

For Fans Of: Nico & John Cale, Marianne Faithfull, Siegfried Schwab, Dagmar Krause, Ute Lemper, Annexus Quam, Tomorrow’s Gift, The Dresden Dolls.

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