FUNKSTöRUNG – FUNKSTöRUNG

‘Funkstörung’ is Funkstörung’s 4th long-player. After a ten-year break the duo of Michael Fakesch and Chris de Luca deliver an album that comes along like a twisted Janus head on a perfectly toned body. It’s everything you’ve expected from glitch hop’s inventors and everything you have not.

For those eagerly awaiting the moment Funkstörung would come around the corner (their many fans including the likes of RZA, Björk and Mouse on Mars) with a new innovation of electronic music, just like they did with their first record: this time they did not. Instead they do what they do best and take up the path they started to carve with ‘Disconnected’: luscious pop songs with heavy backbones and illustrious guests adding heartfelt vocals to a bed of fizzing basslines. It is a very vocal album – there are guest singers on nearly every song on the record – but they do not dominate the overall sound. They all just contribute to a fresh version of Funkstörung that has ripened a bit and has seasoned with a hell lot of flavour.

Some of the voices on ‘Funkstörung’ have been part of the family for a while, some of them, like Jamie Lidell, are new collaborators. But whether with old friends or newfound partners all of the 14 songs on the album get to the heart of electronic pop. As a whole, the record seems so well balanced it’s ready to be an instant classic.

Each of the songs transports a timeless quality of content, sunny vibes which would go just as well with an expensive wine in front of a fireplace, as with a plastic cup of beer and rubber boots in a muddy festival. Instead of concentrating on glitches and breaks the effort of the two producers has gone into growing every sound into perfection. One can feel that no time pressure gave more time to delve into the details. Like the duo say, the record is ‘evolution not revolution’.

The album comes in a beautiful sleeve design by lauded graphic artists Zeitguised and Sebastian Onufszak. All of the tracks on ‘Funkstörung’ have a magnetic quality and some of the tracks stick out immediately like the free DL ‘Laid Out’ feat Anothr coming with a hookline so big even your granny you won’t get it out of her head for a week. Or ‘So Simple’ the collaborative effort with Jamie Lidell whose smooth soul crooning fits the chrome glistening hip hop beat like a velvet glove. ‘Funkstörung’ is a very confident record not desperately trying fit the zeitgeist but most certainly up to date.