aaamusic | On 01, May 2012

Katzenjammer are set to release their second album, ’A Kiss Before You Go’ on May 7^th through Propeller Records. The album is their first UK release and follows the incredible commercial and critical success of their debut album ‘Le Pop’, not to mention their relentless touring across Europe, Scandinavia and the US.

 

The band are a four-piece, all-girl outfit of multi-instrumentalists that perform swinging, singing, cowboy-inspired fairground burlesque with all-out riotous, folk, pop & gypsy punk – not forgoing the occasional ballad. The feisty femmes descended upon the UK festival circuit in 2011, leaving audiences enthralled at Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk Festival and Bestival and counting Steve Lamacq in an ever increasing UK fanbase, leading to a string of sold-out UK gig dates.

 

Katzenjammer are Anne Marit, Marianne, Solveig and Turid, ‘A Kiss Before You Go’ was produced by Mike Hartung (Maelstrom, Jaga Jazzist, A-Ha) in Oslo. The album is a vibrant hotchpotch of Balkan flavours, cabaret clubs, comic strips and straight up Pop. They rip up the rule book good and proper with this boundary defying LP; twelve songs which are as eclectic as they are identifiably Katzenjammer.

 

Serving up an overflowing stein of Germanic cheer with their eponymous opener, the tone effortlessly moves from melancholic waltz  -‘Lady Marlene’ – to vaudevillian, honky-tonk knees-up ‘I Will Dance (When I Walk Away)’ the band’s first single, released March 12^th.

 

Then there’s ‘Soviet Trumpeter’ and ‘Gypsy Flee’ – songs which by their very namesake capture the group’s Balkan essence – and ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’ – a gusty, below deck fiddle jig which gives the banjo and the mandolin a good airing.

 

‘Cocktails and Ruby Slippers’ dances along like a not too distant cousin of art-pop movers The Fiery Furnaces or Beirut and ‘Cherry Pie’ is an exercise in Andrew Sisters’ perkiness. ‘Land Of Confusion’, is, rather wonderfully, the Genesis hit re-imagined on tack piano, marimba and sousaphone. But did they plan it like this, you wonder?

 

“We never plan anything!” laughs Marianne. “That’s why we change instruments; it reminds you that you’re doing something alive and new. We wouldn’t want to play the same sort of songs all the time just like we wouldn’t want to play the same instrument all night every night.”

 

The journey ends on a quiet yet understatedly epic note with ‘God’s Great Dust Storm’; a spacious, polyphonic gospel number which sees the band strip back the theatrics and go a cappella, rendering the listener in awe of their unified vocal prowess.

 

“We are interested in new things and new emotions all the time,” offers Solveig. “We like the sweet and harsh. If you like anything in between that then you’ll like Katzenjammer…”

UK Tour Dates May 2012

Thu 17th BRISTOL, Academy 2

Fri 18th MANCHESTER, Academy 3

Sat 19th GLASGOW, King Tuts

Sun 20th BIRMINGHAM, Academy 2

Tue 22nd BRIGHTON, Concorde 2

Wed 23rd LONDON, XOYO

 

www.katzenjammer.com // www.facebook.com/katzenjammerne  // @katzenjammers