If you listen to pioneering 1980s industrial rock band KMFDM now, they sound like an electronic version of roots rock.
The band used then-new technology to create a straight-forward sound and upfront beats. There was nothing busy or subtle about it, just lean and mean, with an echoey industrial edge. The vocal effects resembled a bad subway PA. The drums blended the kind of rolls and frills associated with metal bands with strictly electronic dance beats. The riff-heavy recording is enhanced by beeps and bleeps, sirens and engine revs, making you think you’re listening to the soundtrack of a richer multidimensional event, like an action movie or a futuristic political rally. It makes me wonder if there is.
If you hadn’t seen KMFDM play live, you’d really be missing out on other elements that were core to this act’s initial concept. You can experience some of that aural and visual overload when KMDFM makes its first Connecticut appearance in more than a decade on Oct. 23 at Norwalk’s District Music Hall. This tour commemorates the band’s 40th anniversary.
The band continued touring and producing records, releasing nearly 20 albums, five of which were released in the past ten years. KMFDM has continued its development without complicating its roar.
“It started as an art movement,” said Sasha Konietzko, KMFDM‘s co-founder, main creative force and only remaining original member. “I never seriously considered becoming a musician. KMFDM started as audio accompaniment for art exhibitions.”
Esteban Oriol
KMFDM’s current lineup is, from left, Andy Blacksugar, Andy Selway, Lucia Cifarelli, and Sasha Konietzko. (Esteban Oriol)Eventually music came to the fore. “We were eating disco and heavy metal and putting them together,” Konietzko said. “We released our first record and it ended up in the hands of Wax Trax in Chicago. We were asked to open for missions and quickly became famous.”
KMFDM’s lyrics are uncompromising. “Rejection is our inspiration, terrorism disrupts our trade, sabotage and piracy, our state of mind,” Konietzko writes in “Megalomaniac,” the opening track of his 1997 album commonly known as “Symbols.” I’ll sing it. But Konietzko intended to provoke, not command.
“It wasn’t about revolutionary ideas. It was artistic expression,” he said. If there’s a message in this music, he suggests, it’s that “maybe it’s better to live your life on guard and not like a lemming.” It’s common sense. ”
For this anniversary tour, Konietzko said the band is “rehearsing and reworking many of their older songs to be as close to the originals as possible.” Sometimes it’s easy. For other people, it’s like, ‘How did you make the (expletive) sound like that?!’
Konietzko has mixed feelings about the anniversary. “We don’t really think about the past. Some of our older songs get boring or difficult to play live. This is our anniversary tour, but we… It’s really just moving forward.”
Recent sets include more than 20 songs, including 35 to 40 songs from the live band’s current repertoire. KMFDM’s song titles can be as wild and tough as the music, including “Oh My Goth,” “Freak Flag,” “Liquor Fish & Cigarettes,” and “Rebels in Kontrol.” Many of the titles sound like commands, such as “let go,” “touch,” “push!,” “go to hell,” and “turn on the lights.” The band performed a cover of “No God Here” by Konietzko’s longtime collaborator Lucia Cifarelli, with whom he is working on a new solo album.
Owahai
KMFDM began as a multimedia art project, and visual elements are still important to the band. (Owahai)
In its heyday, KMFDM live shows combined intense sound, lighting effects, performance art, and circus acts. Konietzko still promises to use “a lot of visuals.” It’s important that people don’t just stand behind a computer. Even if it’s sampled or pre-recorded, it’s important to visualize it. ”
Konietzko wants the atmosphere in the room to match the anarchic spirit of the music, in a controlled yet liberating way. “You can achieve chaos in a disciplined way,” he said. “It’s accurate, yet gives the impression of complete mayhem.”
Konietzko was born in Germany and grew up in the midst of a thriving so-called “krautrock” scene, an endlessly creative one that included bands like Can and Amon Dür. “I went to a lot of festivals. Back then, it wasn’t commercialized yet. I needed to interact with musicians.”
After the band’s success, he moved to the United States and eventually returned to Hamburg in 2008. The last few years have been restless and that’s one of the things that led to the US tour. “Due to the coronavirus, most of the music scene here has come to an end. It’s mostly festivals and it’s always the same bands and it’s very boring. I haven’t played a show in Europe since 2017. Brexit is really (expletive) hard for us. Maybe they’ll let us in, maybe they won’t.”
The tour follows KMFDM’s “short but really big” U.S. tour last year. “This is more for the Northeast,” Konietzko said.
Although the band hasn’t played a Connecticut show since October 2013 at Hartford’s Webster, the industrial beats and roars still reverberate through the walls of the club where KMFDM set foot.
KMFDM will perform at District Music Hall in Norwalk on October 23 at 8 p.m. $30.30 – $74.56. districtmusichall.com.
