Labels: Moment of Collapse – mum says be polite records
Review by: MH
This is the final two songs by one of my favourite bands of the past few years. Everything they have done has blown me away and every record they release is packaged beautifully with lots of extra notes, texts and images of utter conviction and thought. They have always been a band who will question things and challenge what is happening in society. This record is no different in that sense in both how it looks and within the messages that come with it. There is a 40-page booklet with a huge amount of text and there is even an Autumn leaf.
On to the two songs. Whereas “Gegen die Schwerkraft” was a powerhouse of a record and their track on the “Heart In Your Hand” record was absolutely ferocious, these two tracks have more of a focus on melody and are of a lower-fi than the LP. “L(I)eben” tells the story of a boy questioning whether his parents’ ideas for his future are really the same as his and covers homophobia and heteronormativity. The commentary within the lyrics of this song sees him going through a range of emotions and you feel it in the melodies and the vocals. The guitar sound is at times hugely pretty calling to mind Bob Tilton and the interplay between the two sets of vocals is superb. The main vocals are fraught with anxiety while the second set are more melodic and deliberated veering as they do between spoken and sung. On the other side “Requiem” is more driven. The lyrics cover how your loved ones can sometimes stifle your hopes and shatter your dreams. The guitars run free towards the end of the song and everything is loose and melodic. I can listen to this song all day. The killer end line is delivered as the track drifts away – the protagonist explaining to someone that even though they say they never meant it that way, they have made him feel like he will only ever be a dreamer.
Both these songs are outstanding – they twist and turn, there are moments of utter beauty, moments of chaos and desperation, and they are spilling over with emotion. This is a fitting epitaph for Manku Kapak to bow out on. It’s been a time lately for my favourite bands to write some of their best songs and then call it a day but maybe some new bands will come out of this ending – who knows?. It’s arrived in the last couple of weeks of the year but this is my favourite 7inch of the whole of 2014.