Album a Day: KMFDM - Naïve

KMFDM
Wax Trax! (1990)

Often times its difficult with a band that has put out so many consistently good to great albums, like KMFDM has, to pick which out which one is the best. However, I think a valid case can be made for Naïve as perhaps being the most important (in addition to one of the best). The year was 1990 and KMFDM had began to reach a modicum of success in Europe with their first three albums, the first of which, Opium, was a big underground club hit in Hamburg Germany, and the second two, What Do You Know, Deutschland? and Don't Blow Your Top both beginning to reach a more international audience, with the former being distributed in the UK and the latter being distributed by now famous underground Chicago-based record label Wax Trax! The band's four album, UAIOE, would be the first without Raymond Watts, who at this time left the band to form PIG (though of course Watts would return later, leave again, return again, and so on). That album would also be distributed by Wax Trax! and the band made their American debut in support of the album opening for Ministry. UAIOE would go on to be a really bizarre, though solid album, but it wouldn't be until the band returned to Europe from the tour to record their fifth album, Naïve, that the would truly solidify their signature sound, a solid blend of metal-infused Industrial and club-friendly EBM (old-school EBM like Front 242, not the VNV Nation sound that we've become accustomed to).

In addition to the factors leading up to this particular release, there are a number of other things that make this album important. This album would be the first in which KMFDM would sign directly to Wax Trax! and would mark the debut of guitarist Svetlana Ambrosius. Name not ringing a bell? Oh that's because Ambrosius would later go under the much more familiar name of Guenter Schulz. This would also be the last album before the band would ultimately move to America.

What I find so particular interesting is that the lineup at the time consisted of Sascha Konietzko (Excessive Force, MDFMK, KGC, Schwein), En Esch (Slick Idiot, Pigface), Guenter Schulz (Slick Idiot, PIG, Schulz), and Rudolph Naomi (Girls Under Glass, Sweet Sister Pain) who are basically four of the most German men you could ever meet, and yet this album (again, recorded in Europe) to my 2010 ears sounds like the epitome of American Industrial. There a great amount of fun to the album with a hard edge to it (though I think you could make an argument for it being the other way around).

Of course the album starts off on just the right note with the track "Welcome" which is a really quick eighteen second introduction that simply states "Welcome to the world of KMFDM. Happy to introduce you to our new album Naïve". I know this probably doesn't seem like much, but those familiar with KMFDM know that a large facet of KMFDM over the years is how self-referential they are (with many lyrics in various songs and in fact entire songs detailing the exploits of KMFDM), so to start off this way and then straight into the title track is very exciting. "Naïve" is absolutely one of the best songs on the album with simple but straightforward lyrics on top of a really solid but hard club beat, backed by slick guitars and a duet vocals between Konietzko and KMFDM-contributor Christine Siewert.

I love how this album has songs like "Naïve" and "Die Now Live Later" that are infused with what we know now as that early 90's dance sound (think C&C Music Factory but then try to forget I mentioned C&C Music Factory and pretend I said KMFDM and that you knew what I was talking about) juxtaposed with more guitar driven borderline metal songs like "Piggybank". I'd actually say "Piggybank" is also one of the more stylistically interesting songs on the album because the guitars feel hard like metal but slightly more repetitious like funk and you also get one of Konietzko's signature chanting-style vocal renditions that has almost a hip-hop element to it. This blend of Industrial, funk, and hip hop would soon pave the way for bands like Die Warzau and Psykosonik while being right in line for My Life with The Thrill Kill Kult, who would also infuse a lot of dirty disco into their own style.

Of course what would later launch this album into the spotlight would be one of the band's few primarily German songs, "Liebeslied". Part of the success of this song was its sampling and re-purposing of Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" from his 1930's cantata Carmina Burana. If you're not familiar with this particular song then just Google or Youtube it and you'll quickly go "Ohhhh yeah" or at least pretend to so as not to look like an idiot (or sycophant). Apparently Orff's estate has never been particularly happy with the sampling of this song and (which may I point out is a medieval poem that Orff set to music) and halted production of the entire album because of its use of the recording. To me this is ridiculous in the realm of the fact that "Happy Birthday" is owned and to sing it on radio or television requires paying a gross amount of money. I'm not saying that people don't deserve to be paid for their work, however I am saying that when that person has been dead for quite some time then its time to let it go. My attitude is "if you didn't personally create it then fuck you!", but that's just me. Of course KMFDM wouldn't be the only band to suffer this fate, but rather in an exclusive club alongside Apotheosis (though to be fair their 1991 rendition was basically just a rip-off or Orff's version and probably the reason Orff's estate made an issue of this at all), and Apoptygma Berzerk's "Love Never Dies - Part 1" from their 1996 album 7 (you would think they would have learned from history what happens when you sample this song, but no). It wasn't until 1993 that the fuss was made and the album was pulled off the shelf, but it would result in this version of Naïve gaining rare status with the album at times being sold in the hundreds of dollars (though I constantly see it for 30 bucks at Amoeba Records twenty minutes away from my Glendale, California home in Hollywood. Also I paid fifteen bucks for my copy so suck on that).

Rare and important status aside, this is just a great fucking album that includes some of the great aforementioned songs in addition to a really slick "Achtung!" whose slight repetitious guitar ringing gives the song a Western kind of flavor that makes you want to fire pistols at high noon despite the crazy En Esch German vocals. One of my favorites and stalwart of the album would be "Go To Hell". I love "Go To Hell"s sound because it mixes in elements of punk and rockabilly that works so well with the styles of everyone involved making it a song that really shows off the skills of everyone in that incarnation of KMFDM. I also think what is smart about this album is the smattering of non-traditional album tracks like the remix of "Friede" thrown right into the middle of the album and the three additional tracks at the end with "Virus (Dub)", "Disgust (Live)" and of course one of KMFDM's seminal songs "Godlike (Chicago Trax Version)".

The album would later get edited, rearranged, and repackaged as Naïve/Hell To Go (minus any semblance of "O Fortuna") and then later re-released in 2006 by Metropolis/KMFDM Records (again, still minus "O Fortuna" but back to simply being Naïve but with most of the tracks from Naïve/Hell To Go) but if you can find a copy then I highly recommend it not only for the fan appreciation or collector aspect but also just to simply hear the artists' original intentions from one of the most pivotal albums from one of the most provocative bands of the last thirty years. Also this album has that great signature cover artwork by Aidan Hughes (aka Brute!). This is probably one of my favorite KMFDM covers (of which he's done the vast majority of including both albums and the plethora of singles) for its composition, color, and just that absolute creeper. That dude on the cover is a scumbag and his smile is perfect, only being enhanced by the overpowering sun in the background (daytime creepy!).

Favorite Tracks: Naïve, Die Now Live Later, Friede (Remix), Liebesleid, Go To Hell, and Godlike (Chicago Trax Version)

http://kmfdm.net/