Over The Current’s 11 tracks there’s different expressions: a moody, cinematic feel; choirs and violins; electronic percussion; some of it melancholy and some perhaps more uplifting. hackedepicciotto’s two members, Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) and Danielle de Picciotto (Space Cowboys, Crime And The City Solution), create variety with the sounds on their fourth album, but none seem out of place. Some of it’s ambient (the title track) while other parts have an edge (“Petty Silver”).
The instrumental tracks, and the ones with a choir (see the video for “The Seventh Day” below), work better than the ones with vocals, but the album works really well overall. Fans of de Picciotto might hear her style on this album (one that D.U. can’t speak to), but Hacke’s guitar and bass style, and some of the melodies, will be familiar to Neubauten fans.
The bandmembers have an interesting outlook on The Current that helps to frame the record. “We wanted to absorb what a society feels and thinks that has been left behind by neo-liberalism. The working class, the forgotten, the ignored,” they wrote in a press release for the album. “If you live in an area that is poor, the noise of capitalism fades away and one is left with the reality of nature and simple human interaction. Our fast-paced societies have lost the touch of true companionship and empathy. It is destroying the planet and our civilization, and we need to go back to simple basics.”
Pick up The Current: it’s out now on Bandcamp and from Potomak Records on CD and LP. The band is on tour now; check out the dates at the band’s website.
