Heart of a Punk - Soul of a Rasta

Choice No.4
Robocop Kraus Uber Maximo Park.
Ed & Bigot in conversation

Ed:
So it's the 19th May and Maximo Park are playing at Birmingham Academy so can you explain to our reader(s) why am I m here in your flat Bigot.

Bgt:
Noisettes.

Ed:
And that is the sum total of your explanation is it.

Bgt:
Yep.

Ed:
So allow me to elaborate slightly. You have stopped me going to see Maximo Park because of the support band.

Bgt:
Yep.

(I look at the woodchip. Bigot looks at his tea.
An unspecified amount of time passes.)

Bgt:
Look the Noisettes supporting Maximo Park it's just an offence.

Ed:
An offence?!

Bgt:
Yes a fuckin' offence. Birds of a feather should flock together and never the twain should meet.

Ed:
Eh?!

Bgt:
Look surely I don't need to rub your nose in it. These offensive miss marriages of convenience should have been stamped years ago. I still haven't forgiven the Stranglers for supporting that train jumping old fucking hippy Patti Smith. Its the thin end of the wedge Ed. Because when these miss marriages go on to infiltrate a bands music it just becomes evil.

Ed:
Evil?! Come on John.

Bgt:
Yes an evil offence. Maximo Park covering Natalie fucking Umbrulia. The Manic Street Preachers covering Rhiannon - it's all just total wank! Did The Clash cover the Bee Gees? Did the Smiths cover A-Ha? - did they FUCK.

(We both look at different areas of woodchip, time passes - slowly)

Bgt:
Anyway how many times have you seen Maximo live?

Ed:
Well if you include as a support band five or six.

Bgt:
Five or six times eh. Well don't you think that is less than appropriate for a 45 year old man?
I mean how many times did you see the Smiths?

Ed:
Not that many times John.
(Pitiful little voice used)

Bgt:
Exactly and how many times did you see the Clash?

Ed:
Not that many times John.
(Apologetic and pitiful little voice)

Bgt:
Exactly - so you can bloody well grow up and do without!

Ed:
Ok, ok, but what are we going to put in the Fanzine in place of the Maximo Park live/new album review.

Bgt:
Easy. Why don't you tell me and our good reader(s) about the Robocop Kraus album you bought when you went to see them supporting Art Brut.

Ed:
Oh you like "Blunders & Mistakes" do you?

Bgt:
Yeah, so much so I'm seriously considering buying my own copy.

Ed:
That's all good John, but before I begin you do know that Robocop Kraus are German?

Bgt:
Yes I do. "But we're all friends now, I didn't vote for it myself but we're in the Common Market together, old differences forgotten and there's no reason for anyone to mention the war".

Ed:
Ahhhhh!


"Blunders & Mistakes" Robocop Kraus 2007 Anti
When I saw Robocop Kraus live last month supporting Art Brut they were simply a joy to behold. So I quickly parted with some KA$H in the half hearted hope that their 2007 "Blunders & Mistakes" album would be a bundle of the same. And do you know what? It is! "Blunders & Mistakes" by Robocop Kraus is a big bundle of joy and mild insanity from beginning to end.

On "B&M" chief Cop Thomas Lang's voice seems to morph at will. For a moment he sounds like Mark E Smith, and then with a twitch of the tonsils he sounds like Joe Jackson. For a moment there's a trace of Phil Oakey and a whole dollop of Mick Lynch (Stump), now a smattering of Elvis Costello before it's all becomes an uncanny amalgam of all five. Musically I suppose most people would describe Robocop as "indie art house electro guitar new wave post punk rockers second generation twice removed" But personally I don't like this sort of over defined pigeon holing. The music does what it should and the whole LP is driven along in exemplary fashion by Matthias Wendl on guitar, Markus Steckert on keyboards, Hans Christian Fuss on drums and Peter Tiedeken on bass.

The lyrics on "Blunders" have a personal feel and this makes the whole thing charmingly truthful and at times amusing. We hear of a looming threat of alien attack in "Waiting above the Ocean" and of friends and family complications in "Standing on the Punchline" and "Minions of Satan". But the recurring theme of the album seems to be Man's relationship with animals. There are human Hyenas in "Hyenas", Barbary Apes in "Striates of Gibraltar". In "Automotive Man" Lang says "Man is talking to animals. But are the animals talking back?" And in "Snake" he recalls being bitten by……… a snake. "Blunders and Mistakes" seems to be a big bloomin aural menagerie! The final track carries on in a similar vein with the wonderfully tongue in cheek power ballad "Ease the Pain". It's truly touching. The story of a faithful Dog. Or is it?

I'm going to keep on saying it until everyone agrees with me - "Robocop Kraus are a big bundle of musical joy!"

These fine Burghers of Nuremburg have been plying their trade for over ten years now. So why did no one tell me about them! Do I have to do everything myself?
HOAP SOAR has stumbled across Robocop Kraus far too late in the day that's for sure. But even so we believe we can predict with great certainty the artwork that will adorn their next release.

Talkng Heads'78 LP cover for "More Songs About Buildings and Food"

Robocop's 2005 LP cover for "They think they are the Robocop Kraus"

Talking Heads'85 album cover for "Little Creatures"

Robocop's'07 album cover for "Blunders and Mistakes"

Can you see the pattern developing?
Or is it just me?

Talking Heads'88 album cover for "Naked"

The cover of the next Robocop album?

Are we wrong?
Only time will tell!