Safe and Sound

Almost three years after the release of Doppelleben (which many credit as triggering the still-raging neo-disco/Balearic craze), Germany's Justus Köhncke delivers his third album for Kompakt. With Safe and Sound, Justus delivers a product that represents a disjunction of his two lives... from now on we'll have to address the electronic discoteer Justus Köhncke and the troubadour/songwriter Kinky Justice as separate entities. While Kinky Justice's debut Music and Lyrics was recently released on the re-activated ICI Records label, Köhncke focuses his work on the instrumental, floor-friendly side of things. The 10 tracks on Safe and Sound resonate with the screams of today's dancefloor, while also featuring Justus' long history of enigmatic dancefloor wisdom. Right from the album opener "Yacht," Justus' trademark disco universe rips wide open, thanks to it's brilliant "Slave to the Rhythm" references. Three more pure disco bangers follow with "Molybdän," "Love And Dancing" and the ecstatic "Parage." What's new is a certain technoid rigor, a vehement approach to his music that is new to Justus Köhncke's oeuvre. But wherever Justus takes you, his music never loses that soulful humanity that emanates throughout his music. Beyond the disco crackers and floor shakers, "(It's Gonna Be) Alright," "Tilda," "Spukhafte Fernwirkung" and the title track all confront the overall euphoric vibe with a special enigmatic melancholy you may find in many Kompakt releases and which lays a foundation for the album's undisputed highlight, "Feuerland," a cover version based on an original from 1974 by Michael Rother who some of you might know for his legendary recordings with Kraftwerk, Harmonia and Neu!. Justus beams Rother's synthetic Kraut sound smack dab in the middle of today's contemporary dancefloors, certain to hit you like a vitamin injection and serving as an affirmation that change is in the air... something big, something new.