The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
i just bought this album from Amoeba, still think it's really good.
― Bee OK, Sunday, 6 July 2008 18:12 (fifteen years ago) link
still can't believe the singer's a dude
― kamerad, Sunday, 6 July 2008 18:46 (fifteen years ago) link
I found this odd Notwist soundtrack on emusic that apparently came out last year. Its called "Sturm". Dont know anything at all about it (ie what movie/show/thing is it for?) but it is utterly lovely! Completely ambient with calm little glitchy fiddles, reminds me of a more serene Ryuchi Sakamoto. No singing.
― demiurge overkill (Trayce), Wednesday, 26 May 2010 06:42 (thirteen years ago) link
i listened to this for the first time in 10 years today. it's instantly likable, having good tunes and inventive arrangements, but strangely, it's not very compelling and it will probably be another 10 years before I return to it.
― Poliopolice, Sunday, 2 September 2012 17:44 (eleven years ago) link
http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/the-notwist-neon-golden-round-39-nicks-choice/
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 7 November 2012 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
A few days ago, Sub Pop posted an intriguing teaser on its website: In a “glorious and career-justifying event,” they’d signed a mysterious new artist, an artist they’d been “HUGE fans of for years.” They also posted a 15-second clip of new music and held a contest asking fans to guess the artist. Most of the serious guesses were some variation on Thom Yorke or Panda Bear, but it turns out to be the Notwist, the German electronic-prog band who hasn’t released an album since 2008.Depending on where you’re sitting, the news of a new Notwist album on Sub Pop is either a tremendous anticlimax or a badass piece of news — or maybe it’s both. Either way, the label will release Close To The Glass, the first new Notwist album in nearly six years, early in 2014. And below, you can hear the skittery, minimal title track and check out the album’s tracklist.
― ArchCarrier, Friday, 13 December 2013 14:17 (ten years ago) link
badass piece of news imo. that console solo album from a couple of years ago was really great.
― a beef supreme (dog latin), Friday, 13 December 2013 14:20 (ten years ago) link
wow. the new one is really good. much, much better than their last one. "Into Another Tune" is especially nice.
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 03:19 (ten years ago) link
oops, by "their last one" i meant the devil, you+me. i haven't heard Sturm (apparently for the best)
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 03:21 (ten years ago) link
Great, cause I loved The Devil, You + Me!
― Evan, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 03:52 (ten years ago) link
Has anyone heard the new album?
― crowhurst, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 06:09 (ten years ago) link
Only once, but at least half of the record is really solid.
― Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 19 February 2014 06:11 (ten years ago) link
I've heard it a few times. I think it's pretty damn good, and the tracks released so far are some of the weakest on it.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 06:16 (ten years ago) link
http://www.npr.org/2014/02/17/274773323/first-listen-the-notwist-close-to-the-glass
― MV, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 06:24 (ten years ago) link
Oh this is just great. Really good.
― the drummer is a monster (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 25 February 2014 20:52 (ten years ago) link
Oh, man, this is good!
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 25 February 2014 23:29 (ten years ago) link
Love it!
― Evan, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 00:08 (ten years ago) link
I like some of it but not all...Can't decide whether I like that one song with a real heavy shoegaze MBV feel to it; but others nicely blend motorik and German '80s and Velvets and electronic accents
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 15:13 (ten years ago) link
I liked that song a lot (though I didn't listen too closely). But I don't have any problems with heavy shoegazey vibes.
― Evan, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 15:27 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, 7-Hour-Drive is straight-up Loveless-pastiche. But they get that sound much more than people normally do, normally people just put on a layer of noise and calls it shoegaze, but this has all the weird bended sounds pat down. I like it.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 16:14 (ten years ago) link
http://www.spin.com/#reviews/the-notwist-close-to-the-glass/
I only know Neon Golden, but xhchuckxx eddy wants them to go back to their even earlier album approach that he says had more metal
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 16:30 (ten years ago) link
I LOVE that early metal stuff too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXtN2qP5Ok
― Evan, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 16:36 (ten years ago) link
That song is probably not the best representation of their metal roots but it's incredible.
― Evan, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 16:37 (ten years ago) link
Xchuckxx says check the intricate distorto-chug thrashing on 1992's Nook and 1995's 12 if you're skeptical. Those are still their most exciting albums.
Will have to check those out
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 17:24 (ten years ago) link
_Shrink_ was my first, and loved that so much, went online to go back catalog. Found a German fanpage, and a hilarious lofty disavowal of the band, having changed their style from their heavier earlier sound to his dismay. For me, one of those bands that has a quality core, so have enjoyed their evolving style.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Wednesday, 26 February 2014 17:38 (ten years ago) link
I listened to this on my morning commute and I went from "eh okay this is p good" to like "holy shit this is fantastic" over the course of the album. It reminded me of how much I used to listen to Neon Golden when it came out and how important it was to me at that time, and made me consider how skillfully they blended these sounds that are both very organic folksy type stuff and very synthetic IDM type stuff but in a really unified way that doesn't at all feel stark or contrived, and how they kinda pioneered this whole "indietronica" thing but in a way that was not at all precious or cutesy, and how if Neon Golden had come out like 3 years later it probably would have been much, much bigger than it was.
― "Jiggle It" - 2 in a Zoo (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 28 February 2014 15:38 (ten years ago) link
i love u Notwist
I'm still puzzling over this and need to listen to it some more (plus finally discover their catalogue). I continue to like some but not all. Am also curious what those folks disecting the St. Vincent production approach and criticing the rhythm section there, think of this one. I haven't made up my mind on that one either.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 28 February 2014 16:13 (ten years ago) link
Yes, I love the new Notwist. I used to listen to them a lot a really long time ago, so if memory serves, their production seems to be pretty consistent with the rest of their stuff. It has this DIY-electronic sound with more organic vocals, with just some being processed/filtered. It has a small-studio/home-studio production quality to it that I really loved mainly because I was trying to do the same thing at one point.
I've not read everything everyone has said on that St Vincent thread, but re-listening to the new SV album, like someone said on that thread, this has a much more polished, large studio sound to it. Very loud. The drums, the synths. Vocals are a lot more filtered.
To be honest, they sound different to me. The treated sounds on the Notwist album sound like they were mixed with smaller monitors and just to be a quieter album, while the SV album sounds really expansive and big. Notwist sounds 'introverted', while St Vincent is more bombastic, large, extroverted, and forcibly eccentric. SV's album sounds melodramatic/theatrical to be, with a wider vocal dynamic.
But that's just to my ears :)
― ∞, Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:32 (ten years ago) link
to be = to me*
― ∞, Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:34 (ten years ago) link
love and light
― love and light (Karl Malone), Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:35 (ten years ago) link
Oh, I should mention I used my Klipsch Image X10s to listen to both of those albums.
― ∞, Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:39 (ten years ago) link
When the new album, "Close To The Glass", begins, i'm very engaged and interested; by the end i can't wait for it to end. While not quite in the same vein, the remind me of Miike Snow, which i like quite a bit more.
― bodacious ignoramus, Saturday, 22 March 2014 17:16 (ten years ago) link
I still need to listen to this more (if only to more completely decide which cuts I like and which ones I don't), plus 1992's Nook and 1995's 12
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 22 March 2014 17:21 (ten years ago) link
The remixes on the Run Run Run E.P. are far superior than those on "Close to the Glass"; especially the Nuel remix of Into Another Tune which turns the base material into an 8+ minute hypnotic groove.
― bodacious ignoramus, Friday, 30 May 2014 01:04 (nine years ago) link
it's weird to say so, but the live album from a couple years ago is actually great
― mookieproof, Saturday, 11 August 2018 01:17 (five years ago) link
New EP
https://thenotwist.bandcamp.com/album/ship
― djh, Friday, 21 August 2020 08:09 (three years ago) link
New album in January. Like this a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj2SPhGtL4c
― djh, Monday, 16 November 2020 20:43 (three years ago) link
I've been playing this a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJEyR0C5Aok
... while wondering if they make a living as musicians or if they work in graphic design or similar?
(It's a very good live show).
― djh, Sunday, 22 November 2020 21:59 (three years ago) link
New one out today!
― black dice live ft. jerry garcia (rizzx), Friday, 29 January 2021 08:32 (three years ago) link
First impression is that it lacks the poppy punch of Neon Golden, less hooks, more atmosphere.
― black dice live ft. jerry garcia (rizzx), Friday, 29 January 2021 09:12 (three years ago) link
Barely listened to them since the '00s, but will give this a whirl. Just saw 'Neon Golden' is not streaming on Apple Music - huh?!
― cooldix, Friday, 29 January 2021 09:27 (three years ago) link
It's sounding good, to me.
― djh, Friday, 29 January 2021 13:58 (three years ago) link
This is very nice, feels like a good update on their post-Neon Golden sound with the tasteful collabs and transitions. Some of it feels really familiar - actually, thanks to 'Where You Find Me' I was ambushed with unexpected emotion on the back of my motorcycle taxi home from work. Suddenly it was 2002 again.
The album made me dig up a few songs I loved from previous records, and the comments above re. stilted English hit me in ways I hadn't thought about before. Take the use of 'hell' from 'Boneless' and 'Men of Station':
BonelessThis town is all in hell
We are men of stationWe are troubled men just the sameBut we're not as hell as you
― cooldix, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 13:54 (three years ago) link
'sans soleil' is their prettiest song since neon golden. this is all i want from them
― ciderpress, Saturday, 28 August 2021 00:13 (two years ago) link
I've gone back to that Pop Kultur show posted above and am enjoying immensely with a bottle of red. It's awesome.
― djh, Friday, 8 October 2021 18:16 (two years ago) link
Just booked tickets for London shows and a bit giddy.
― djh, Friday, 2 February 2024 20:38 (three months ago) link
Mailing list swap years ago turned me onto this song's existence, and stunningly, found the album in a Seattle record store on Broadway that same week. Love Markus' voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjZsH6n_Pt4
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 2 February 2024 22:18 (three months ago) link
London gig a week today! Genuinely excited!
― djh, Sunday, 12 May 2024 15:05 (one week ago) link