I must admit it’s refreshing to hear a foreign band performing their songs in their native language as opposed to English. It also means I won’t be able to understand the lyrics — oh well, a dimension of the group I won’t get to experience nor have to write about… too bad. We did, however, look up the translation of the title. If we googled correctly, it’s something like ‘Shudder’. Cool.
Lo-fi adjacent (the production’s too good to be lo-fi but the music and spirit thereof certainly are) and post-punk/hardcore/rock (the latter qualifiers should be made given the much lower intensity of Quitt who are influenced by other similarly less intense but no less post-hardcore groups) group Quitt are from Mainz, Germany. However, like so many other European groups that send their record across the pond to be reviewed, they seem to share a good deal with older American bands.
Begs the question — do groups that enjoy/are trying to sound like American bands just get overrepresented in the small sample I have because they sent it to me because they want to be reviewed in an ‘American’ zine blog (whatever my site and other similar sites are called)? Or do European groups in general take their cues from American bands?
I can only answer this in terms of larger scenes I’ve heard of and studied a bit; namely a few in England. Groups from and around London seem to have a greater appreciation of American noise rock then most people over here do. I’ve heard a large number of bands trying to sound like Shellac, Big Black, and the Butthole Surfers. But also plenty that mold these influences with others, some of which are European, or at least started in Europe and were mutated back here in the States for export to, ironically (just like punk rock and NYC), back to Europe from the US’s perversion of its European roots. These groups are darker and noisier, often experimenting with dark screechy electronics a la Black Dice. To oversimplify (and extrapolate from a decidedly statistically unsound, unrepresentative and not the least bit random sample) from what I’ve heard, there’s a plethora of groups in Europe that take most but not all of their cues from underground American bands. Embarassingly, many have a deeper understanding and love of our noise and post rock groups. Certainly more so than the average American listener who’s never heard of 95% of our underground music nor genres.
Quitt, on the other hand, is much harder to place. They certainly sound like American groups, but no one in particular. In addition to the PAvement and SEbadoh influence that come through most strongly on Keine partys (One parties?), there are other great American influences highlighted on this record. Mondo (Im Warenstrom) sounds like a lost Archers of Loaf track (and certainly wouldn’t be out of place on any Merge records compilations), but it also has riffs that remind us of Fugazi. And Fugazi’s influence is even more evident on the next track “Kein Sperrmull”. Dirty as that title sounds, it actually translates to garbage that’s too big for the municipal solid waste stream. So… kind of what you think it is? Maybe (chuckle chuckle). The last track, Vertiko again has strong Archers of Loaf vibes. At this point it’s clear Quitt has a consistent, authentically idiosyncratic sound.
Despite the groups I’m referencing and that I hear the influence of, it’s just that. Quitt’s not outright aping or copying any one group’s sound. They’ve melded them into something purely their own. Again, it’s just surprising to me that they have so many American influences. Granted the only German ‘rock’ music I know is krautrock like Can (sorry is that an offensive term? “Can”? ;)), futuristic machine music like at one end of the spectrum Kraftwerk and the other Neu! And of course the dark nihilistic stuff like Einsturzende Neubauten, but also underground doom metal like Ahab (who also sing in English — for what reason we don’t know since I can’t understand half the words in English anyway). Quitt is very different from all of these groups and clearly takes their cues from elsewhere, then gets to their finishing point all on their own.
Everything they write is eclectic enough to be original and innovative on their own terms. Obviously the fact that they sing in German makes a lot of difference. But we’re overwhelmingly, pleasantly surprised that they never use their own language to convey the kind of industrial darkness we in the US are used to hearing from self exploiting bands like… Idk who’s that band that sang ‘Du Hast Vich’ — nevermind even if I knew it I wouldn’t want to pervert this review with the shitty group’s name. Or imported acts like KMFDM. Even excellent groups like Einsturzende Neubauten seem to rely on the German language to convey frightening or just plain evil sounding vocals.
Quitt, on the other hand, uses their own language organically. And they back it up with a whole host of American underground sounding songs played excellently and written expertly. I can’t overstate how nice it is to hear a group that was clearly influenced by American music singing in German without utilizing the language in a cliched manner. And, much like most of the bands I like, there are extensive instrumental passages without vocals that highlight the music behind the melodies but manage to never show off or sound like that blight on humanity, the ‘solo’.
It turns out the only thing wrong with this ep is how short it is. Which obviously isn’t a shortcoming because it’s an ep. But at just around twenty (you could’ve at least given us thirty??) minutes spinning it does always leave me wanting more. So I spin it at least a couple times to feel somewhat satisfied — and sounds better on every listen. Feel free to send any records you make in the future our way Quitt. Thanks!
-Jessica Goldstein
Times Boredom 