Does utility belong to the realm of art? The latest long-player by German outfit Greie Gut Fraktion may offer some hints. Released on Monika Enterprise Records and entitled
Baustelle (trans. construction site), this collaborative effort by “electronic poet” Antye Greie and label head Gudrun Gut is an ambitious and intriguing attempt to blend field recordings from construction sites with more conventional sonic components ranging from synth sounds, downtempo beats to spoken words.
The album kicks off with
Cutting Trees, on which the solid tech beats and sharp chainsaw samples pierce through the deep and eerie atmosphere created by the mysterious vox and guitar distortions.
Wir Bauen Eine Neue Stadt (a cover of the song by the '80s German band Palais Schaumburg, in which Moritz von Oswald and Thomas Fehlmann were involved) then raises the energy level with its upbeat percussions, industrial stabs and energetic vocal, before
Drilling An Ocean probes back into the pensive soundscape where vocal snippets interlock with the mechanical sonic devices in a minimalist and suspenseful manner.
Carrying on with the dark flavour but with a touch of dreaminess from the synths,
Mischmaschine has a proper minimal techno vibe, which is then followed by the bold, festive drums and vocals on
Make It Work, arguably the most cheerful cut of the album. Next up
Betongiessen is a mellow and psychedelic piece featuring some erotic lyrics:
“A man in full bloom/ his legs wide open”, whilst the two tracks after it, namely
Grossgrundbesitzer and
Baustein, enrich the deep and gloomy flavours through the haunting FX and vocal parts.
China Memories is one of the most interesting tracks here, as some Mandarin dialogues and oriental instruments are fluidly juxtaposed with the mechanical beats, rendering a breath of fresh air. The stomping percussions and brooding synth riffs on
White Oak then inject a fair amount of industrial energy to the progression, before
We Matter finally rounds off the album in a deep and mysterious fashion.
Back to the question in the beginning of this review: “does utility belong to the realm of art?” In the case of this album, whilst the origin of the field recordings is the utilitarian operation of the construction sites, here the samples mingle with the conventional sonic components in such an intricate and complex manner that the former are transformed into aesthetic devices, and thus their use-value into aesthetic-value. Indeed this is a reversal of what is happening in the global dance scene nowadays: dance tracks become more and more like disposable information, rather than art pieces,
used by the DJ. Regardless of whether this is a message conveyed by Greie Gut Fraktion themselves, this album is both conceptually and technically outstanding. Highly recommended.