Herzog Herzog is out to confuse me. In 2012, Exitab released a four-track EP entitled Sitzfleisch! A bit further on down the line comes Sitzfleisch. Note the punctuation. The one with the period at the end of its title is a full-length album, the one being reviewed here.
Sitzfleisch. is a real show from the get-go, spanning (parodying? improving?) a host of genres from a handful of decades, some dormant, some still twitching. The show opens with the overture to a mad, medieval Punch and Judy called ´Ursulla´ before abruptly switching gears to kick into ´Ibiza 2079,´ a daft punky herk-a-jerk from the not-too-distant retro future. Joined by singer Johana Švarcová, ´Lost Lost Lost´ is something that would have been performed back in the early eighties by a synthpop band dolled up in dayglo pleather and spiked hair and no smiles. ´Run´ on the other hand is a little rococo go-go gone pleasantly koo-koo. ´Don Salamander´ is a Keystone Kops chase scene through a Lego version of Bladerunner LA.
But then it changes, not gears but personality. Sometimes the succeeding tracks wobble too much and don´t get a laugh. Which they might not be meant to, I´m not sure. Probably because this is the part that, at least in my ears, fulfils Herzog Herzog´s remit of a ‘hardware based analogue synth investigation into classical music’. I would have preferred the pie-throwing of the first five tracks, which slots neatly nearby The Residents, Tuxedomoon, even Pere Ubu, on its own EP. As a full-length album, it is two things for two different audiences, the second half sort of a twist on the switched-on bachiness of early pop-classical electronica. Two of these tracks in fact appeared on Sitzfleisch!
So I´m divided. The jesterish first half of Sitzfleisch. makes me very happy – what else to expect from something that means, among other things, ´ants in your pants´? – but the second half is not my meat. I am however fully impressed with the gorgeous, linocut album art on quality stock, giving it that early-printing woodblock look.
Stephen Fruitman
