Rhythmic mastery straight from Germany is the reason for our offering for today; continuing our theme of ebm/techno this week.

Enter, Transponder-the German duo of Hanz Acid and Freund 424. Body Music (Back In Mind) contains a number of older tracks that have been re-worked and re-mastered.

From Transponder-music.de: “36 re-mastered and re-arranged songs including the new song “At The W-Festival” as collaboration with evo-lution and Tragic Error, 11 collaboration songs with Leaether Strip and collaboration songs with Zynik 14, Frontal, Human Nihil, Les Berrtas and Engelsstaub.”

Body Music (Back in Mind) is the first in a 3 title series which will be followed by Music, Beer & Stomping and Work. Each title will be a 2CD set. Don’t be deceived by Transponder’s simplicity aesthetically, thematically or sonically. Transponder’s strength isn’t falsely based upon countless layers so as to give off the appearance of complexity. Rather, the strength of Transponder lies in their rhythmic skills despite minimal layering. Everything plays a part from the beat, to the pulsating synth, to the lyrical execution, even the sample placement.

There aren’t a lot of key or part changes in Transponder’s songs. Once the track starts and establishes itself, that’s pretty much what you get until the end of the song but given the occasional beat break or drum fill. It’s the kind of music that can keep going and going but won’t get boring. Most of the tracks are fairly mid-paced but some like “Der Steifel” tend to go at a bit of a quicker pace.

Stylistically, I think Transponder lies somewhere between 90s ebm and synthpop. Some tracks such as the title track or “EBM Kamerad” (which has a bit of a Devo feel to it) may include a tiny salute towards industrial with the occasional metallic strike. There are also plenty of great samples included to remind us of the feel of late 80s-mid 90s ebm.

Body Music (Back In Mind) CD1&2 is currently available on digital format via the band’s Bandcamp site. The physical 2CD edition will be available sometime in January. The album contains a whopping 18 tracks on EACH disc. Special guests such as the almighty Leaether Strip appear on a few of the tracks as well.

Transponder: Yet another one of those bands that makes me proud to have a German lineage.

http://www.transponder-music.de/

https://www.facebook.com/transponder242/

https://transponder242.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClpaeRDdleWDURV9zsmHbrA

Follow The Noise Beneath The Snow on WordPress.com

Follow (Twitter)

https://www.facebook.com/The-Noise-Beneath-The-Snow-Blog-PR-160069624534353/