Plastic Noise Experience- Maschinenmusik

Artist: Plastic Noise Experience
CD Title: Maschinenmusik
Label: Metropolis Records
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 3/1/05

Plastic Noise Experience is quintessential German dance music, cold and mechanical, yet paradoxically funky. It’s the kind of stuff you can picture Dieter dancing to in those old “Sprockets” sketches on Saturday Night Live. Vocalist and producer Claus Kruse sticks with classic minimalism, recalling Kraftwerk on chirpy electronic songs like “VAD” or the title track “Maschinenmusik.” Though the lyrics are done entirely in German, even a non-speaker can recognize the major theme. After all, the most pop-oriented song on the disk, “Heimcomputer,” is a love song to a piece of electronic equipment. Kruse also offers much to fans of a darker, more aggressive style of music. “Koma” is electro worthy of break-dancing to, but it’s atmospheric and hard, while “Plastik Fantastik” and “Neue Welt” reflect back to the early days of EBM. There are also some great remixes, particularly Wumpscut’s creepy, echoing version of “Monoton Synchron” and the classic stomping beats of the Solitary Experiments mix of “Maschinen.”The disk finishes off with “Schlafmodus,” a two-part electro classical composition that’s more Karlheinz Stockhausen than Nitzer Ebb. At its heart, this is music made more for nerds than fans of heavy industrial, but diehard electro enthusiasts and anyone with a thing for German electronics in particular should enjoy this a great deal.

Visit Claus Kruse online at www.plasticnoise.de