That’s the same thing with strength clubs. When I heard about this band from Chemnitz for the first time around the 2010s, I, as a senior, thought: crazy. The children of the GDR-Experimental-Legende AG are playing there now. Violin with? Interesting. It can’t be that bad. Then it wasn’t. I found it. My impression: Something somewhat fresh had been invented here. A kind of chanting hip-hop that had something powerful and opinionated about it.
They also positioned themselves on the right side politically. Number 1 albums, the big stages, Left students and trainees were able to shake hands with this music and so were Böhmermann and the “Aspekte” editorial team. But I was increasingly missing something. namely development. Except for the banger “Drive with me” together with Tokio Hotel (2022), nothing lured me out from behind the stove. This album almost doesn’t do that either – with a few exceptions.
DIE IN KARL-MARX-STADT (great title!) has at least two outstanding tracks on offer. “So right” gallops forward with synth clatter, including the long-overdue Harald Schmidt diss. A cheerful fun despite all the urgency. “Shut up and play” addresses the problem of unwanted fans and false expectations of the band in an old-school German punk style. What I don’t understand are the features from Domiziana, Nina Chuba and Deichkind. That smells like fear. According to attention-seeking politics. This is unpleasant because I would always trust Kraftklub to be able to pursue self-renewal on its own.
This review appears in Musikexpress 1/2026.