The 1986 Listening Post - KMFDM - What Do You Know, Deutschland?

KMFDM - What Do You Know, Deutschland?

#562

December 1986

KMFDM

What Do You Know, Deutschland?

Genre: German Industrial

2 out of 5

This is much less interesting but also more adventurous than the previous KMFDM. The title track could almost be a hit…if Laibach recorded it. 

They seem to build everything around a pounding drum and sampled vocals and, I guess, maybe that was ground breaking 30 years ago but it’s kind of droll and pedestrian today. 

Nah. It was dull back then, too. 

We don’t need to be covering this in the future. Just because it is available today doesn’t mean any one of us would have had access to it 30+ years ago. 

Fare thee well, KMFDM. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/what-do-you-know-deutschland/413132177

The 1984 Listening Post - KMFDM - Opium

KMFDM - Opium

#150

June 15 1984

KMFDM

Opium

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Splatter

The Smell

True Fact: One of the future drummers for KMFDM played on REM’s Accelerate and toured with them for that album.

I have to imagine it was Stipe who is the KMFDM fan. 

This album is like repeatedly hitting yourself in the head with a lead pipe wrapped in a halibut dipped in battery acid. 

But it’s just dipped. Not like it’s dripping in the acid. So, it burns but it doesn’t leave a permanent mark. And the pipe hurts, sure, but that’s really softened by the halibut and, you might even like the way that fish feels slamming onto your forehead and you won’t even realize that you are being knocked unconscious after the 4th or fifth blow. 

All kidding aside, this is more accessible than Swans but not as mainstream as Nine Inch Nails (Who I swear was influenced by “Penetration” on this record), I was especially drawn in by the Reggae rhythms-meets-Industrial of “Cuntboy”. PiL never got to this point but I bet when Lydon heard it he was envious. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/opium/691017605