The king of Shitkatapult has gone pop. While T.Raumschmiere is undoubtedly one of the most marketable and cross-over capable artists to come out of the hard, broken dance scene in Germany, his leap into mainstream whine-rock is still a little unexpected.Novamute
Blitzkrieg Pop (the single) is a classic verse/chorus/verse kind of tune layered with ditzy power chord guitar and straight-ahead heavy metal drumming. If I didn't know better, I would swear this was one of the myriad Nine Inch Nails imposters from the mid nineties, and not a bit more interesting. T.Raumschmiere's punk approach to laptop dance music has been genuinely catchy up to this point, but in an attempt to broaden his sound, he's churned out one of the most regrettable lead singles I can remember. It's all macho chants and riff rock nonsense that rekindles a flame that I thought had died with KMFDM. What's unfortunate is that he's unable to capture the punk energy of his instrumental work, thanks to an over-produced and glossy mix that will please kids reared on a steady diet of Industrial Pop music playing at the mall. Thankfully, the remixes on this single make up somewhat for the lackluster, by-the-numbers original. That's not to say that the remixes are going to set heads on fire by any means, but somehow they neuter the arena pop vibe from the source material while techno-ing everything up a few notches. Considering the pedigree on display here, the remixes are no surprise, but they are all that's worth remembering from this disc. The 7" version of the single comes with an Ellen Alien fronted B-Side, but the 12" and CD releases are stuck trying to make sense out of T.Raumschmeire's turn at the mic. The single does however make me nostalgic for the days when labels released singles with club remixes as supplements to full length albums, so it's not a total loss.
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