They are pleased to be here. They are having fun. They hope we are having fun too. This next song is called ‘Sachs F|r’s Parkett’.
And the Wurlitzer disco-drone whirl of [a]Mina[/a] kicks in again, made no more or less palatable by their particular brand of Berlin-bland between-song patter. But then we don’t really need dazzlingly charismatic performances from these four monochrome art-funk renegades, since the music they make conjures up images of peeling, Wim Wenders-esque decadence.
‘Kupferfarben’, for instance, with its glittering organ swirl and filthy, quasi-house rhythm, is like the soundtrack to some lo-fi, low-rent, James Bond-pastiching porn flick. ‘Minsc’ is more of the same, riding on a sub-‘Block Rockin’ Beats’ bassline and slo-mo disco beats, suggesting that [a]Mina[/a] may have found that missing sonic link between the Tavares and Stereolab.
And so bassist Norman Nitzsch and keyboardist Masha Qrella jolt their identical lank fringes in unison, and this whole Teutonic synth-funk session really seems like a very good idea. Until they start to ruin it by disrupting these motorik pulsations with a few post-rock guitar angles, disguising their love of New Order by going all Gramme on us. Still, as with their LP, ‘Kryptonite’, these avant-dull moments are just about outweighed by scuffed glam stomps that reek of leather and streetlights.
That was [a]Mina[/a]. They were fun, mostly.