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Return of the Gods

The Swiss trio gets back to guitar rock

By James Scanlon
For The Prague Post
April 25th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Popular in Prague, the rock deities added a third performance Saturday night.
For more than two decades, The Young Gods’ innovative, disparate fusion of industrial hard noise, electro, punk and mutant blues has left the band largely unchallenged as Switzerland’s most challenging and dangerous export.
Emerging from an innovative spell of extracurricular experimentation that has seen the band diversify with symphonic orchestras, acoustic gigs, a reworking of the musical score of the film Woodstock and the “Amazonia Ambient Project” with anthropologist Jeremy Narby, the Young Gods have thrown yet another wedge into the orthodox with their latest album, Super Ready/Fragmenté.
Young Gods

When: April 27 at 7:30 (sold out); April 28 at 3 p.m. (Amazonia Ambient Project) and 7:30
Where: Palác Akropolis
Tickets: 500–520 Kč, available through Ticketpro and at the venue

Loud, brash, at times brutal in its delivery, the 12-track disc was produced by ex-Swans member Roli Mosimann, who also produced the band’s first-ever recording. From the paranoid intensity of “Secret” to the politically charged “About Time” and the nine-minute psychedelic jaw-breaker title track, Super Ready/Fragmenté ranks among the band’s best work.
“It’s pretty rock-oriented,” confirms singer Franz Treichler. “And it’s more of a return to the early ’90s, when we were into guitars. We’ve used a different sound treatment. It’s very much live and in your face, and it’s not programmed.” The sleeve, depicting a pistol, is also an attempt to highlight the current problems of fear and violence in Treichler’s native country — a paradise, one would think, compared to the likes of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Not so, according to Treichler. “In Switzerland, recent statistics have shown that we can account for the exact number of dogs, whereas no one has any idea of the amount of weapons,” he says. Though he has no intention of risking the slippery soapbox, Treichler does believe the “huge suggestive power of the music” will get the message across. “The violent aspect of the album is our way of reacting to the current socio-political context,” he adds.
Treichler’s main challenge has always been to cut against the grain of convention. Initially inspired by the likes of the Swans, Einstürzende Neubauten and Cabaret Voltaire, he was one of the first to take on the new sampling technology of the ’80s.
“Rock was a bit conservative then,” he recalls. “It had to be based around guitars. We wanted to do it another way, and tried our own approach. When samplers came on the market, it was very exciting and challenging to start from scratch in a different way.”  
The band’s determination to never sound safe and complacent shows in the fact that albums such as Play Kurt Weill, TV Sky and Music for Artificial Clouds all still sound as fresh now as they did when they were originally released. It’s no surprise that fans continue to demand the band dip into its back catalog.
Just recently, the group revisited its 1991 Play Kurt Weill album by being invited to perform at the esteemed Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, Germany. Treichler had no hesitation in saying yes — after all, he sees the man behind the Threepenny Opera as a musical genius.
“He was a forerunner of what pop music should be,” Treichler enthuses. “He was very daring.”
This will be the Gods’ fifth excursion to Prague, and they’ll be staying on an extra day for an afternoon performance of the “Amazonian Ambient Project.” With Jeremy Narby narrating once again, the band will be using computerized soundscapes to focus on the deforestation of the Amazon and its impact on ecology, shamanism and cross-cultural encounters.
As a regular here, Treichler believes he’s struck up a special bond with local audiences. “It’s always very positive,” he says of performing in Prague. And, judging by the band’s current form, it looks set to continue for a long time to come.

James Scanlon can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (25/04/2007):

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