Egoexpress – We Do Wie Du / Hot Wire My Heart
There are two superb German words that spring to mind: namely steamrollers and hit steamrollers. Actually, they were coined by Germany’s third best singer, Andreas Dorau, and used in connection with his excellent record “Ich bin der eine von uns beiden”. But what can you do if they lend themselves so well to describe the tracks on the two new Egoexpress albums?
Of course we talking about steamrollers and hit steamrollers in a different sense, in the Egoexpress sense of the word. Mense Reents and Jimi Siebels from Hamburg spend their time… – well, what exactly do they do? “Oh my God, it’s techno music!” says the voice on KNARTZ 4, and so I suppose we’re allowed to call it that. But Reents and Siebels aren’t robot heads, which is why it can easily take five years before the time has come for a new album – after all, there’s plenty of other music to listen to and invent. And when the moment finally comes, they’re quite capable of writing a piece in next to no time between four and eight in the morning, because the only thing that counts for Egoexpress is now. You gotta do what you gotta do.
HOT WIRE MY HEART, released as a separate record at the end of the summer 2005, is a declaration of love to the club, to the moments when you’re living on the edge, to the drama of brilliant nights in four-four time that naturally always include the hours before and after.
WE DO WIE DU is the aftershock of this record. The tracks were written or churned through the remixer in the weeks and months that followed the release of HOT WIRE MY HEART; some are also available in a slightly different version on the 12”s mentioned above. All in all, the finished product is not quite as heavy; one could even say more psychedelic. Nevertheless it includes everything that makes Egoexpress concoctions so idiosyncratic: for example, the nice breaks that nonchalantly sneak their way in when you least expect them – such as halfway through on the JaKönigJa song DON’T PRAY WHERE YOU SLAY; the funny text blocks in the lyrics that mean more at night than during the day; the way they take crossing the limits to extremes, as can also be heard in the slightly quieter passages; their passion for midget music, as can also be heard in the not so quiet passages; or the way they make fun of themselves: FOOL OF THE NEW CITY, for example, is about the big new docklands being built right in front of Mense Reent’s doorstep without him even noticing in his small sub-cultural niche.
And there’s this special energy that evolves from the friction between supposed opposites. This works particularly well on HOT WIRE MY HEART and WE DO WIE DU: rough edges and round curves. Sweat and sophistication. Liberating banging and filigree whirring. Straight yet tripping itself up. Five years of waiting and four hours of exhilaration. Mathew Jonson and Sonic Youth. Detroit and East Friesland. Crackers with cheese and… Alright, that’s enough.
By the way: did I mention that these are steamrollers and hit steamrollers? That’s got to be said. Right, let’s go. What are we waiting for?
