Unmodern was the second album by Hannover based Neu Wave Kraut punks Der Moderne Man originally released in 1982 on No Fun Records. The band this time round were E.K.T., M. Simons, Mattus, Tonio Scorpo and the album was produced by the band with help from Thomas Rugel.
The album opens with some cymbal crashes to welcome us to the world of the Anakonda, with whispered spoken word vocals telling us what that snake has been up too over a slow bassline, sparse guitar and drums this sounds like a desperate tale.
The single Blaue Matrosen is an unholy marriage of a classical riff, some very John Cale style guitar pauses and spoken word vocals, the central synth riff is super catchy. Not sure if this album version is different to the version on Toncoop ep or not.
Nur Die is a very rare thing a song about socks, this skanks along like a Kraut Beat in love with the latest sock designs, it being 1982 it was probably argyle patterns, I wonder if the sock were as expensive as the Dore Dore ones I was selling at the time. This is all about the sax solo though.
Nicht Warten has them telling us they can't wait for change to come, the synths are expansive with dubbed out drums and lots of odd noises, this is compelling.
Gurus Und Geheimagenten may well be about a German TV spy movie about an inn keeper who is a spy and finds gurus in his inn, this has a heavy Honi Soit John Cale influence, sharing similar paranoia and use of sound. I wonder if the film is available on Netflix.
Bis Ans Ende Der Welt is the bands single about The End of the World a very cold war subject for any German band with that loping sax and rather cool central bassline, No wave guitars.
Das Tier is it about The Animal or is it a tribute to the at the time recently issued album by Boogie Army, this has some miltante drumming, slow clubby sax solo and guitars that build in wave after wave to attack us. As it seems that animal has by the end of the song.
Unmodern has that cold war paranoia of wanting to go back to a time when things weren't so fraught and World War three wasn't impending, this is slow kraut dub punk and sounds different to the version on Jugend Forscht the effects seem heavier and the chanted chorus more forceful.
Laut is certainly not about the phone accessories company, but a loud and clattering indie neu wave song for the joys of living loud.
The album closes with Roter Mond has dark cadence that seem more suggestive of a Russian cider apple than a red moon, this is almost goth punk.
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