June 28, 1998

Back To Bommershime

The electronic exploits of the Germans are still, somewhat predictably, viewed with the same disdain and distrust as the country's football team....

8 / 10 THE ELECTRONIC EXPLOITS of the Germans are still, somewhat predictably, viewed with the same disdain and distrust as the country's football team. We all know the well-worn stereotypes. And, if anything, the criminally unimaginative jackboot techno to emerge from the nation over the last five or so years has only served to reinforce them squarely.

What of wit? What of funk? What of frugging on tabletops until they collapse? Berliner Cem Oral and Frankfurt's Roger Kerosene, aka Zulutronic, have all the answers here.

Refusing to restrict their eccentric sense of humour to founding bogus religions - namely The Church Of Pharma: motto 'Send us your cash' - they've sculpted a second album so unpretentious yet wryly irreverent it makes British electronica seem frighteningly po-faced in comparison. Ha! Revenge!

Dedicating the LP to the Frankfurt suburb where they grew up, the pair run riot with childish glee, pushing electro to ludicrously phat and undignified extremes, then branding them with distinctly un-techno titles like 'I Let U Go (When U Give Me Your Wallet)' and 'Bommershime In The Haus'.

This sounds like the work of men who should know better but thankfully don't, and only our prejudices stand in their way. For Zulutronic truly are members of the tribe called 'best'.