HINTERLANDT – Automatic Teller Machine

(CD, Sopot)

Surprise, suprise – Hinterlandt present a collection of wonderfully poignant and honeylike grown up pop music that jangles between indie/tronica and C86 in a very modern and interestingly lo-fi approach. Where with the last album by Hinterlandt reviewed within these pages, “poprekordt” (Dhyana record) the question wether we are talking about popmusic or a very original form of composition towards a pop context was still one to be discussed, and finally decided in the direction of pop-music, the question doesn’t even come up anymore. Which means their experimental days are behind them. Or at least, for the moment it seems as such. But we’ll get to that later. It is still highly original, though. Moreover, mind you, lo-fi has become a very lose term ever since the global penetration of ProTools and the like, so that “Automatic Teller Machine” sounds really well-produced.

I guess, my lo-fi association comes more from the background of Hinterlandt (I still have them pegged with, the unfortunately on hiatus, Dhyana-records) and the missing of overdone producer-parts on this record, which is something a lot of popmusic always has problems with. Wallowing in its smallness and focusing on the beauty that lies in glimmering the tiniest parts of a small goodie until it shines in the sun, sort of, though with the grandeur of british pop music in the back. The way a good British popper wants to lead his life, perfected in style even if nobody will ever notice. Just in time for the comeback of old pop-heroes like Scritti Politti or The Divine Comedy, and we are all still waiting for that next genius record by Prefap Sprout. Well, it won’t come. Get used to it. “Automatic Teller Machine” might proof to be the next best thing as a substitute drug and in its own right.

And no, I won’t be starting a “perfect record for the summer”-rant here, though it is, the lightness and ease of many a songs proves it (e.g. the soft electronic pluckering of “c’est bizarr”” or the lost in time spaceousness of the epic “about a book”). Even when Jochen Gutsch, because for real Hinterlandt is, was and will be a one-man-project, no matter how many disguises or monikers it will appear in, dares for a longwinding guitar solo straight from mid Eighties guitar school white blues hell, it still sounds laid back and relaxed. Maybe that is the new Hinterlandt pose: lounging in a sun chair where it is quiet. Except for the music, of course. After all, Gutsch is not at all the good British popper mentioned above. Actually, in his personal and artistical history he has taken more turns and twists than most other musicians (I guess the oldest formation I know that he played in are German hyperfast metal/core legends Suckspeed – if I remember correctly. Though I don’t remember the man as such but just that I know this band. Things have changed a lot since then.)

The track “wind in your hair” has a chorus line any decent emo-pop / indie-guitar songwriter between Maritime and Jets to Brazil would kill for. “Perfect Match” opens with an easy listening latino beat. And there is more to come what other musicians would avoid at any cost. Here it works well. The dreaded hitsingle / poprecord format is still a lot of ways off to the side between some wonderful electro beats and songs that go way beyond the five minute mark at several times; one time even over the ten minute mark. So, if Gutsch keeps on doing the main thing, which is: exactly what he wants to, the that is something to account for no matter what direction he takes. In the extensive discography there are quite a number of suprising elements and numbers, so nothing is for granted except the past.