Nicht Nicht

LP version. Hamburg-based Love-Songs' newest output Nicht Nicht continues the band's striving to mesh defined grids with improvisatory snapshots to create their very own take on organic electronica. Since 2012, the electro-acoustic trio were able to explore the possibilities of their free-flowing interplay through the course of several EPs and the mini-album Inselbegabung (2018), which was released on Kame House. Now they are ready to submit their debut album Nicht Nicht on Bureau B. Meandering through it's seven tracks, Nicht Nicht contains the trio's most aerially shimmering tracks to date flanked by tribal bouncers. The record begins with a live recording of the band. The transparent and crisp "Proxy I" almost sculpturally rotates through the space it occupies. Sublime ripples. Meditative clusters of Chinese cymbals define the percussion, delayed waves of bass break, as gently pulsating synths weave their way through the sonosphere. "Selbstauflöser Teil II" and "Das Labyrinth" are percussive bouncers and serve a contemporary club appeal that has always been a feature in the band's oeuvre. Love-Songs have found their way into the setlists of DJs such as Phuong Dan and John Talabot and also live their music works in clubby situations. The reprise "Nicht Nicht" takes the intensity level down a notch, nervously, restlessly lurching towards the A-side's runout groove. "Tisch mit drei Weinen" is the pop song on the record. Staccato bass, pumping arpeggios, and, again, Chinese cymbals, but this time processed and treated, roll out a canvas for Thomas Korf's lyrics. "Proxy II" begins with dotted, open jazz drums before unraveling in a meditative rumble. Frothing up without losing it's pulse, the track ends abruptly in a shimmering clangor. Synthetic choirs at the end evoke the processed, outernational sounds of so called "fourth world music", an influence that can also be ascertained on the final track, the dubby "OG". An organic groove runs through the album's closer, switching up to an atmospheric, jazzy vibe. With the work on Nicht Nicht, Love-Songs continue to place more emphasis on the studio itself as an instrument. Ideas are elicited from live improvisations, then processed and arranged on the computer, not infrequently translated back into an intimate interplay of instruments and yet the individual elements display a disciplined awareness of the whole. Electronics assume dual roles in terms of structure and ornamentation: rendering form and embellishing with melody and noise.