Kontrolle – Zwei LP (Holy Goat Records / Cargo Records)

Today, I would like to introduce another great band that caught my attention a while ago. I wasn’t familiar with their sound before, but luckily, Jürgen of Rookie Records sent me their latest material for review. Kontrolle is a premium German post-punk trio that not only explores the depths of this genre but also goes even further by exploring some other complementary genres. The group has a couple of recordings in their catalog, such as a self-titled demo tape, Egal LP, and Mein Platz Bleibt Leer EP. Their debut demo tape also received a vinyl treatment last year by Holy Goat Records. Nevertheless, it seems that none of these recordings come close to their newest release.

Zwei represents their most advanced recording that carries twelve marvelous post-punk compositions. Both Kontrolle and Holy Goat Records heavily promoted this material with a couple of extended plays, such as Mein Platz Bleibt Leer and Zugang Zu Informationen (The Marquis Remix). Perhaps Kontrolle exploits post-punk as a genre to the max, but their music bursts with some other elements as well. Post-punk serves as a binding element, while the group experiments with post-hardcore, punk rock, industrial, darkwave and coldwave. These ingredients are enhancing and decorating the detailed sound of the band, but also adding the generous servings of melancholy, sadness, darkness, and other recognizable elements of post-punk sound.

Kontrolle continuously balances between sophisticated melodies and sheer aggression without losing consistency. Each melodic segment contains generous dosages of reverb and echo effect, so the guitars are mainly responsible for the echoic atmosphere that pervades from all possible sides. Still, there’s a decent amount of studio reverb covering the remaining orchestrations, so each instrument sounds colossal. The band also pays a lot of attention to some leading themes and accentuations delivered by keyboards, synths, and other electronic instruments, so you’ll vividly hear another layer of sound over the top. The tenor lead vocals are transitioning from heavy clean chants to more aggressive shoutouts with such ease. These transitions are notable when the band goes from calmy post-punk sound to more punk rock/post-hardcore acrobatics.

Zwei is not another regular post-punk recording you would expect. Quite the contrary, Kontrolle keeps these sonic maneuvers aggressive as much as possible and does crossovers to the beforementioned genres whenever they feel the urge to do so. Zwei is currently up for pre-order at Cargo Records, and you can choose between a regular vinyl record or a special bundle that contains vinyl records and a 7″. Head over to Cargo Records for more detailed information about ordering.