B. Fleischmann
I'm Not Ready For The Grave Yet
Morr Music

The Berlin based Morr Music label has been a supplier of quality music for quite some years (counting The American Analog Set, Electric President, The Go Find, Isan, Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda, múm, The Notwist, Radical Face, Seabear, Styrofoam, Tarwater, Tied & Tickled Trio, etc. They've been providing acts out of the hybridization of, or border crossing between electronica and indie music genres, and Austrian B. Fleischmann has been working with the label since his Sidonie EP in 2000 (which followed his 1999 debut album Pop Loops for Breakfast on the Austrian Charhizma label).

It's been four years since Bernhard's, or B.'s latest studio album, Angst Is Not a Weltanschauung (Morr 2008). Well, 2011 saw the release of the live recording For M (Sound Of A Handshake) which was a tribute to the late Mark Linkous (of Sparklehorse, who died in 2010). I didn't get to know his music until his excellent 2006 album The Humbucking Coil (Morr). I've also picked up A Choir of Empty Beds (Morr 2000), which is also really good, but nowhere near the outstanding The Humbucking Coil. Anyway, I'm Not Ready For The Grave Yet is his 8th studio album, and it's indeed a good one, showing B. Fleischmann strengthening his position as a connoisseur inside the elctro-pop field.

B. Fleischmann create songs with warmth and soul, and this time he's added a wider spectre of instruments (read: guitars) into his musical landscapes. The opening track, "Don't Follow", makes me think of The Notwist, and that's not a bad thing. It's not even strange since he's been collaborating with the Notwist boys. "Tomorrow" is good but "Beat Us" is better, and stands out as one of the best songs on the album. Along with the noisier "Lemminge" and the up-tempo "Who Emptied The River", if noise and speed can be used as a description of Fleischmann's compositions. Anyhow, things are calmed and quieted down towards the end with the closing "At Night The Fox Comes" and "Your Bible Is Printed On Dollars", making I'm Not Ready For The Grave Yet a well-balanced album.

Yes, he's absolutely right: he's not ready for the grave yet, as an artist. Even if this is low-voiced and down tempo electronica, this is highly potent stuff.

Copyright © 2013 Håvard Oppøyen