Brannten Schnüre - Das Glück Vermeiden

So much of what comprises Brannten Schnure's aesthetic seems tied to an imagined past, which makes this latest record, something like their seventh in total and first in three/four years (look, who knows with these guys!) an intriguing shift in approach. In short, Das Gluck Vermeiden is concerned with the desire to forget. Just as much as nostalgia feels an instinctive aspect of the human experience, isn't the very act of forgetting a necessary means of survival? Imagine being able to recall every trauma, every violence, every moment of a busied existence. The prospect is overwhelming. It's a pertinent point of address in these current times, and telling, too, given this is the first post-pandemic music we've heard from the pair. Their characteristic process of layered synths, indistinguishable loops and samples, and Katie Rich's sing-song vocal, both childlike and sinister, remains intact, though this time out their music feels less tied to the pre-modern Volksmusik of previous outings. They're not so much conjuring a lost world as reflecting on the troubling one we're alive in right now. Post-industrial neo-folk is a convenient shorthand way of understanding what Brannten Schnure do so well and so consistently, though i do wonder if that undermines just how unique what they're achieving is. They're certainly part of that very European tradition, and they're by no means a million miles removed from Gothenburg, but it's really only Hype Williams that i can think to compare them to. Not so much in terms of sound (though that is there, at times, too), as process. The past inside the present. Shadow without origin. Noon at two o'clock. That it still remains a challenge to source their records and they continue to wear mystery like a winter coat not only adds layers to the intrigue, but is another device in their aesthetic, completing the conceptual circle. Edition of 500. Likely to be sold out before you get to the end of these words, my apologies.