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

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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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