»Berlin is loud and stupid and stinks / Is it any wonder that people drink?« Wiglaf Droste once penned. Whether Anna Ersatz and Ole Cassette, as the musicians in the duo like to call themselves, took this big-city poetry as a model for their project’s début release is hard to say. Their supposed pseudonyms make it just as hard to say whether this is their first release ever. In any case, their electro style is not half as ridiculous as the staging around the people who drink with them. Drink milk, mind you. You think you’re listening to experienced musicians at work, disguising themselves with a bit of eyewash. And in those terms, it would fit in with the Droste poem, who himself was anything but a dilettante in his profession.
»Les Hommes Boivent« stands out with its voluminous, slightly distorted bass, bitchy hissing hi-hats and mini-melodic polyphony, over which the lyrics about the drinking crowd are delivered in standard bored French diction. »The Rainbow Sponge« comes with a sample of the title phrase and is altogether more varied and introspective, with a dreamy B-part between the machine-like funk. The label Rat Life is known for its surprises, and this is another one. Hopefully this won’t be the first and only release from Das A&O.
Les Hommes Boivent
