The Notwist
Neon Golden

Distributed by
City Slang

• Year: 2002
• Rating: 10/10
• Cat. No: 8109102

Track listing:

1. One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand
2. Pilot
3. Pick Up The Phone
4. Trashing Days
5. This Room
6. Solitaire
7. One With The Freaks
8. Neon Golden
9. Off The Rail
10. Consequence

No longer the laughing stock of mainstream pop music, Europe is proving to be the source of this fledgling millennium's most enchanting releases. Along with Kings Of Convenience, Royksopp and the Mylene Farmer protegee Alizee, Germany's The Notwist are offering a glistening alternative soundtrack to the dumbed-down mass culture fodder trotted out by the UK and US.

The Notwist have, in fact, been knocking around for some time, but this sixth album has been their real breakthrough and the one to bring them to more widespread notice.

Neon Golden fuses a pop/rock sensibility to a range of eclectic, experimental soundscapes that recall the likes of The Church, A-Ha, Talk Talk and R.E.M.. while simultaneously forging its own unique style courtesy of fractured beats and bleeps which are seamlessly integrated without drawing attention away from the songs themselves.

When it gels quite perfectly, as on singles Pilot and Pick Up The Phone, there's a compelling melancholia amidst the addictively insistent rhythms and melodic motifs.

This Room may employ drum'n'bass breakdowns, distorted drum machines underpin Solitaire, while the title track takes a low-fi route, yet Neon Golden retains a unity throughout. It's music unfazed and unencumbered by the demands of a fickle, for-the-moment industry.

One With The Freaks strikes a more orthodox alt.rock pose, as though Weezer had taken a holiday in Berlin, and could end up on countless American alternative teen shows before long. The closing track, Consequence, is a stunningly beautiful ballad and the album's true highlight.

Oh, and they appear to be preoccupied with trains. How very European.

Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2002.