Gudrun Gut | I Put A Record On
Gudrun Gut has been an innovating figure of the underground German music scene since the late ‘70s. After playing in an early incarnation of Einstürzende Neubauten and founding Mania D, Gut formed the seminal German new wave band Malaria! in 1981 with Bettina Köster, who was also a member of Mania D (for more about Malaria!, read the “Trackback” post on the band). Godrun continues to run Mobiat Musik, the label she created around Malaria! and in 1997 founded Berlin’s Monika Enterprise, as a “home for a new generation of German musicians who have turned away both from the glossy world of corporate clubbing and the tired formulae of indie guitar rock.”
Gut’s second solo LP I Put A Record On marks her first studio release since Members of the Ocean Club which was originally released in 1996, but re-released in 2004. Songs from Members of the Ocean Club have seen remix work done by Paul Van Dyk, Thomas Fehlmann, The Orb and Ellen Allien early in her career.
The bizarrely eloquent I Put A Record On mixes dirty downtempo electronics with soft, half-spoken vocals and innovative electronic sounds. The record gives the listener a feeling of an alternate state of consciousness, hypnotized, yet somewhat aware of your surroundings, like seeing the world through hazy eyes and a clouded head, unable to fully focus either on any single thing. The world the listener is suspended in isn’t what you’d expect, it’s an eerie otherworldly place, dark and menacing, one where the skies are always overcast, the streets abandoned and covered with water-filled potholes while decaying buildings lurk in the shadows beyond the dimly lit sidewalks. Only toward the end of the album are we able to escape from this world as we’re sedated with sounds of trip-hop, dubtronica, and a piano lullaby on the last track (“Tip Tip”) to send us off to sleep, like the whole thing was one weird dream.
“Move Me” opens the record with dissected polka accordion samples that somehow find rhythm with shuffling techno beats as Gut softly sings in a sultry Marlene Dietrich-esque voice “I don’t know why I feel so strange / I don’t know why you make me feel so strange.” It’s the perfect song to start the album; the eerie atmosphere evoked by this song never fades and sets the tone for following ten tracks. The second track is a swinging take on Smog’s “Rock Bottom Riser.” Liner notes on the limited edition (only 1,000 printed) vinyl version of the record cite The Field as the inspiration behind the third track “The Land.” Like The Field’s From Here We Go Sublime, the tracks on Gut’s I Put A Record On are very loop orientated, but unlike The Field are much more warm and full. “Sweet,” one of the closing songs, starts off with an organ sample from what sounds like a German Funfair before falling off into sedated trip-hop.
I Put A Record On is certainly one of the most diverse and unique records I’ve heard this year, one that has its praise coming. The album is out now on Gut’s Monika Enterprise. A digital version of the record is available on Beatport, while Amazon has the CD, and vinyl copies can be ordered directly from the label.
[MP3]: Gudrun Gut ”Move Me”