PRIVAT - Ein Gedachtnis Rollt Sich Auf Der Zunge Aus

Debut album from the Vienna-based duo of Robert Pawliczek and Robert Schwarz, who between them boast some impressive credentials within the new European underground - ties to both Quality Music and Ultra Eczema, links to various outerlying manifestations of the worlds of art and architecture, stints in Bobby Would, Heavy Metal, Itchy Bugger... No surprise, then, that as PRIVAT  they conjure a sound both art-damaged and razor sharp (that front cover aint no accident). There's an obvious nod to the long history of minimal wave, reinterpreted in that early Cold Cave/Hospital manner, noise and industrial aesthetics darkening the edges, ushering in the night. Loads of precedent for this kind of thing - the aforementioned Cold Cave of course, but going further back, the murky world of S.M. Nurse or a more blown out, slo-mo take on the abstract cold wave of In Aeternam Vale or Sympathy Nervous- but to hear it reimagined anew like this is a rare thrill, even more so as a debut record. Used to hearing this sort of business dredged up from an unremembered past. For it to be new in the world right now is nothing short of a gift.