Hallo Welt, ich weiß es geht mich nichts an
Aber kann es sein, dass dein Lächeln dir früher viel besser stand?
[Hello world, I know it's none of my business, but could it be that your smile used to suit you much better?] Die Höchste Eisenbahn, "Was machst du dann"
From the first notes of his new album, it's clear that categorizing Raz O'Hara as an electronic musician is incomplete. While he remains largely faithful to the melancholic downbeat of his early years, it is the acoustic loops, scratchy guitar touches, solemn voice, and blurred brass sections emerging from offstage that give the songs on Memories of Tomorrow their warmth and soulful style.
They masterfully stage laid-back funk reminiscent of the '70s, complete with bone-dry drumming, a bass that sounds like driftwood, and retro-sounding organ. Add to that syncopated guitar, various flutes and brass instruments, the occasional synthesizer, and Turkish vocals. The Hamburg native Peki Momés' "Turkish Discodelic" sound, released on the small label Mocambo Records, is sensational. This idiosyncratic blend of dreamy vocals, dirty disco, and Japanese city pop creates a distinctive, ethereal, international sound that is new and entirely her own.
Hermione Frank, originally from Montpellier and Paris, then Berlin, and now Mexico City, makes abstract, mischievous, and playful electronic music under the name rRoxymore. Her small, delicate masterpieces are generally pleasant and harmonious but always have an experimental side. Rhythms emerge from the interweaving of various instruments, and the tracks are largely created live on a laptop using a wide variety of digital and analog sound sources. However, their delicate beauty makes them unsuitable for peak time in the club. The eight quiet tracks on Juggling Dualities are better suited to the hours after a long night.
Die Höchste Eisenbahn are the guardians of German indie pop. They've been around for a while, and when their mature pop sound floats pleasantly through the room, the word "perfection" comes to mind. They don't make any mistakes, nor do they have any rough edges. Instead, they have dedicated themselves to setting the ordinary to music: the poetry of everyday life — office days, life in general, and the morning weather — held together by the distinctive voice of mastermind Francesco Wilking. Their amusingly titled album Wenn wir uns wieder sehen schreien wir uns wieder an (When We See Each Other Again, We'll Yell at Each Other Again) was released on their own label, and each of the fourteen short pop songs bursts with joy.
As one half of the famous indie pop duo GURR, Laura Gertken won an Impala Award, the annual prize of the European independent music industry. In 2021, however, she decided to continue as a solo artist with her own band. Under the name Laura Lee & The Jettes, they released their debut album, Wasteland, and toured worldwide. After receiving an invitation to the prestigious SXSW Festival in spring 2025, they released their second album, Tough Love Paradigm, a collection of lively rock-pop songs that tell personal stories in German and English about love, life, beginnings and endings, happiness, anger, and sadness. Musically, the album is rooted in trendy 90s indie rock, falling somewhere between rock and smooth pop. The band self-produced the album, executing it flawlessly.
