Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz

Naming your new band after one of your all-time favourite tracks is a very risky move, as it invites, perhaps even demands comparison, giving said new act a lot to live up to. This is especially true of Ralf Beck (Unit 4) & Sebastian Lee Philipp (Noblesse Oblige), who have named their new project Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz after the seminal DAF (Deutshe-Amerikanishe Freundschaft) track from 1981.

Both acts hail from Dusseldorf- which if their music is anything to go by, is an industrial hinterland- but share more than geography. Clearly Beck and Phillipp are inspired by the EBM (Electronic Body Music) movement that DAF pioneered. EBM, also known as industrial dance, came about at the turn of the eighties taking its inspiration from punk’s DIY ethic, lacing it with desire to move away from the instrumentation and rock style of punk. This quickly caught on and gave us the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire and Nitzer Ebb.

Der Elektrische Reiter is an exceptional example of people taking their influences and crafting something that manages to move beyond imitation and homage into genuinely fresh territory. A lot EBM and the industrial music of the time felt like it had been steeped in the atmosphere of the Cold War (whether that was a fear of Nuclear War or an escape from the doom and gloom), Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz do is replace this with the claustrophobia of our surviellance society. Building on a primitive drumbeat the track builds tantalisingly, helicopters swoop over-head, guitars, voices and electronics drone below, all the while managing to include the folksiness inherent to much of Krautrock. There is more than a hint of Glaswegian drone rockers Mogwai and London’s Balearic shoe-gazers A Mountain of One, in there too.

Starting off with Stevie Wonder-like keys, Torpedovogel crafts many of the same elements into a buzzing, menacing track centred around a metallic melody, that rewinds itself, about half-way through then lurches forward again with even more menace than before.

Enjoy.

DAF- Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz

Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz -Der Elektrische Reiter

Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz- Torpedovogel