Funkstorung

Funkstorung means radio distortion and while the name was an amusing pun during their IDM days, it seems even more applicable to their newfound love of pop music. The Munich duo of Michael Fakesch and Chris De Luca have apparently traded in their Autechre CDs for Postal Service and their latest LP Disconnected even begins with sung verses and cooed choruses with a crazy high-pitch buzz and radio crackles tenderising the whooshy piano-led instrumentation and clipped beats. The title track is all art-blues, though it’s weakened by the scratchy vocals of new collaborator Enik, and the album similarly dabbles in digi-jazz, future soul and electro-pulsing robo-hop. The rapping comes courtesy of Rob Sonic, who they hooked up with via Anti-Pop Consortium, and Tes, a New York MC who met them during an open-mic session on their last U.S. tour. Other guests include Lamb’s Lou Rhodes (payback for Funkstorung’s remix work) and Sarah Jay, best known for singing on Massive Attack's Mezzanine. The goal behind Disconnected was to create "proper songs” as opposed to "tracks” because they were becoming bored with their pure instrumental work. In doing so, a lot of Funkstorung’s glitch-flavoured uniqueness goes by the wayside in this sonic reinvention as they take a backseat to their vocalists. Luckily, they leave in enough idiosyncratic touches to expand our notion of what can be filed under pop.