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Das Moped – Erstaunlich Klar

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Das Moped - Erstaunlich klar

Das Moped - Erstaunlich klar
3.4

Rating

 3.4/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Cool German Electro-Pop
  • Sounds quite a lot like the 1980's
  • Might not be the biggest musical talents out there, but they do a very characteristic sound

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Vocals are not always precise
  • Some of the songs are not above average

Sometimes, life as a music blogger is strange. Scanning the new releases (as every Friday) on 22nd May 2020 made me run into the German pop musicians Das Moped (yeah, it is the same word as in English: “The Moped”). Spotify suggested their just published album Erstaunlich Klar to me. I am just very straight about you: after the first two minutes, I should have just put the album away, it felt crappy to me. The more I listened to it, the more I liked it, though… And finally, I share it with you.

 

Das Moped – About The Artists

I unfortunately could just find very limited bio about Das Moped: the band, which is active since 2010, originally did English Indie-Pop. In 2015, the trio decided to change their name to Das Moped and do German pop, which mainly deals with love without being too close to the German Schlager genre. Ali Batz, Augustin Zimmer and Martin Brunner, who are coming from Bad Kreuznach, some 70 kilometers West of Frankfurt, released their debut EP Alle wollen Liebe (“Everybody wants love”) in April 2019. Another EP release was Niemand Sonst in February 2020 – however, three out of four songs of this EP are now part of Erstaunlich Klar.

 

Das Moped – Erstaunlich Klar – Track By Track

The twelve song album lasts 43 minutes.

1. Lucky Luke

The album starts with the squeaky Lucky Luke sample. I somehow fell in love with this song very early, the vocals and sound just reminds me too much of Münchener Freiheit, a band, which was big in the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) and German Schlager of the 1980’s. The vocals do not sound too precise and the song on one of the most schmaltzy ones of the album – but I definitely like it!

2. Eng

Gib mir nur ein bisschen Love
Ein kleines bisschen Love
(“Give me just a little bit of love
Just a little bit of Love”)

Das Moped does not move too much away from that Münchener Freiheit NDW sound. The high vocals are just a bit too painful to listen, and the electric samples are a bit too much maybe – but the song just got something which makes me listen to it. I have to admit it – I like Eng (“narrow”).

3. Niemand Sonst

Niemand Sonst (“Nobody else”) is quite a contrast to the two songs before: the track is significantly faster, and the vocals do have that strong falsetto touch. On the one hand, this leads to a sound, which is more mainstream-alike – on the other hand, the first two songs just had a very unique character.

4. Hab ich bloß geträumt

This one (“Did I just dreamed that”) is so much 1980’s German pop, German Schlager. I feel Das Moped turns back the time, to my childhood years. Yeah, and there is that Münchener Freiheit touch again. Lovely!

5. Es ist schon ok

Guitar sounds, with some additional rhythm and electric keyboard sounds, very accentuated lyrics (“It is okay”). I would not name the fifth song as one of my favorites of the album, but it has its own style, feels like a good dance as well.

6. Sina

The keyboard is very strong in Sina (which is a German first name). The song is a nice crossover: on the one hand I still feel this travel back in time – on the other hand, it has very nice modern German pop elements. Cool sound.

7. Karussell

Karrussell (“Carousel”) feels very modern. The electric pop elements are quite strong in this song. Gib mir mehr Zeit, es geht so schnell vorbei (“Give me more time, time is passing so quickly”) – these 3:26 minutes are definitely enjoyable, maybe a bit too repetitive.

8. Flaneur

The falsetto is very accentuated here – and thus gives a very intense and aching sound. On the other hand, other parts of the vocal duet are very nice to listen to. One of the weakest tracks of the album.

9. Viel zu lang

In Amazon Music, which I typically use to review albums, Viel zu lang (“Absolutely too long”) has the best rating. I would agree that this is one of the top tracks. Very speedy, this lovely mix of modern sounds and 1980’s references and a catching chorus.  Dare to listen to this one, please!

10. Traurig

Back to the ballads – Traurig (“Sad”) is a very intense track. And it makes you listen to the song (which is maybe just the main thing about music…). Sometimes you feel that Das Moped does not hit the notes in the vocals. But who cares? It works – at least for me.

11. Ich lös’ mich auf

The melody of Ich lös’ mich auf (“I am dissolving”) reminds be very much of Lucky Luke. However, there are less rhythmic elements in major parts of the song. Average.

12. Erstaunlich klar

Das Moped finishes their album with the title track, which translated means “Surprisingly clear”. I feel some Indie-style in here. The song is very electronic. A very new facette compared to the other songs on the album, also due to quite significant instrumentally dominated parts. A bit too overdone for me.

 

Das Moped – Erstaunlich Klar – Spotify

Here is the Spotify preview of the album:

 

Das Moped – Erstaunlich Klar – My View

I see a lot of potential in Das Moped. Even if their vocals don’t hit every tone and they (by concept) do very one-sided lyrics, I just cannot deny they got some appeal in their music. I feel that Erstaunlich Klar is only showing scattered spotlights of their potential and that it will be interesting to follow the project over the next years. Their debut album is not yet ready for the top ratings, unfortunately.

 

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