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The greatest strength of Kaizers Orchestra, beyond their exceptional musical skill, is the lack of electronics in their sound. It’s not what we expect so we can’t look away. Even a song that wears it’s structure on it’s sleeve, like Christiania (coincidentally one of the most accessible and beautiful on the album) adds unexpected (and utterly joyous) guitar crunches between the chorus and verse. I don’t know about you but that just makes hearing them all the more satisfying. We can hear them there but can’t quite make them out, causing us to listen closer and focus on precisely what is happening. These forms are all present in Maestro, but they are heavily obscured and toyed with. The typical music listener will search for verses and choruses and melodies that always return to a root, patterns ingrained in our subconscious and often dictate our likes. The flip side is that when you come across a group that plays with our expectation in the way Kaizers Orchestra do, our brain is kept engaged as we relentlessly hunt for familiar patterns amongst the waves. Our brains are wired to notice the inconsistencies in expected outcomes, it’s what keeps us sharp and safe from danger. I suppose this is entirely the charm and skill of the band, they’re not aiming so much for a specific genre with their music, more an encompassing feeling using what instruments they have available to them.
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‘ Blitzregn Baby‘, ‘ Delikatessen‘ and the title track all provide solid driving downbeats that have more in common with pop than concept rock. Maestro in particular has more danceable tunes than you can shake a stick at. Yup, Kaizers Orchestra deal in concept albums concept albums that leave behind the musically thematic complexity of prog for drunken rhythms and sleazy arrangements. There’s such a glorious sense of unease and disquiet running through the album which, admittedly, fits with the concept of Dieter Meyer’s post-war mental hospital. A huge hunk of caberet-polka-alt-rock’n’roll that is always one step away from maliciously cutting you whilst holding you like a close friend. Of the many albums to dwell on (and there are many), Maestro is the closest to perfection in a canon that skirts it constantly. Why must the good ones always break up? Especially when they have such an exciting and euphoric live show. Enter Kaizers Orchestra, the phenomenal Norwegian band who ( in what is fast becoming a pattern for the bands I like the most) broke up a year after I invested in them in earnest. Still, hitting shuffle always brings up gems that deserve more love than previously afforded. It’s always an adventure listening to my iTunes, over the years I’ve filled it with some pretty random stuff and most of it was forgotten as I spread my listening wings about 5 years ago. It somehow feels like the artists get a poorer deal from it, yet listen to it I had to so I could satisfy my musical needs. Not that I rely on Spotify, I just always feel a little dirty listening to iTunes. A fault that prevents Spotify from detecting the internet even though my computer quite happily accepts chain viewing of Parks and Recreation via Netflix. My Spotify has been playing silly buggers recently.