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December 1st, 2008
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Old band, new tricks

Ready for a new challenge, the Young Gods pick up their guitars and play
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By Darrell Jónsson
For The Prague Post
October 1st, 2008 issue

Photo by JEAN MARMEISSE
Frontman Franz Treichler, left, describes the band's new sound as "acoustic, but not unplugged."
The Young Gods


When: Oct. 3 and 4 at 7:30
Where: Palác Akropolis
Tickets: 455-510 Kč, available through Ticketpro, Ticketportal and at the venue
The Young Gods are known for a wall of sound that is simultaneously danceable rock ’n’ roll and a confluence of punk/Dadaist noise. Unlike the robotics associated with techno, the Young Gods’ sound revolves around the drum kit in an organic interplay between vocals and electronics. As early rock champions of the sampler, their use of live loops and real-time manipulated effects avoided the disembodiment that comes with an oversaturation of prepared sounds.
Combine all this with a stage act based solidly on the rock ’n’ roll ritual of a lead vocalist riding the beat, and you’ve got influential mastery of the form. As a review of the Young Gods’ 2008 CD Knock on Wood in the UK publication NME noted, “Few artists can say they’ve influenced Bowie, the Chemical Brothers and Mike Patton.”
No small accomplishment for a band from Continental Europe, where prior to the ’70s groups rarely went global, regardless of their innovation. As Young Gods founder and lead singer Franz Treichler recalls, “If you were a Swiss band, no one would even sell your records in the shops or book your shows, saying, ‘You’re a Swiss band, so you suck.’ But during the punk movement that radically changed. People said, ‘Well, maybe we suck but we’re going to go for it.’ ”
In Treichler’s opinion, the scene had changed before then, but few noticed. “Of course we had the whole German psychedelic scene and what is called Krautrock now, but that only gained more appreciation later on. Except for a few freaks like our drummer Bernard Trontin and myself, who were listening to it at the time, back then people tended more to laugh at it. Then in the late ’70s and ’80s things changed, with bands like Slovenia’s Laibach, Germany’s Neubauten, Belgium’s Front 242, the Young Gods and many other bands who were not like anything going on in England. So journalists started to take notice and focus on what was happening, and by the ’90s with the entire electronic techno thing, there weren’t any borders anymore.”
Jumping borders, both musical and geographical, is a big part of what the Young Gods have been up to for the last two decades. Their 1995 Play It Weill on Interscope Records contains some of the most menacing covers of Kurt Weill any rock band has ever delivered. In 2003, as part of the ambient Amazonia project, they undertook psychotropic ecological explorations in collaboration with anthropologist Jeremy Narby, author of the book Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. Their 2008 CD Knock on Wood, which Treichler describes as “acoustic but not unplugged,” is a step into yet another new musical space with prepared percussion, acoustic guitars, live loops, vocals and sitar.
“It’s good to break your formulas sometimes,” Treichler explains. “We have been around for a long time — we first performed in Prague in ’89 — so it’s important to us to present new things that challenge ourselves and our audience. Looking at our Amazonia project, of course it’s more of a small-scale show. But it was interesting to excite the curiosity of people who would never be confronted with ideas usually presented in an anthropology conference. As well, it’s good to bring the anthropology conference people to electronic music. I think it’s good to work with these new experiences and create bridges between cultures and audiences, and see what you can learn out of it.”
Hearing the Young Gods play acoustic string instruments sans their usual arsenal of drum kit and dense electronics is a gamble Prague concertgoers seem ready to take. A second show added to satisfy audience demand suggests that Czech fans will support music Treichler describes this way: “Like all of the music I listened to from the ’60s on, it’s about questioning things, and we like to question ourselves as well. We always like question marks.” After all, Treichler muses, “There is only one music out there, that travels around in different forms and different periods of time. What is behind the music is always the same.”

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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