From freedom to freedom: An unexpected return to indie rock with an insane joy in insanity.
If you understand the first three albums of the Austrian, but preferably stateless, group Ja, Panik as their Sturm & Drang trilogy, the inevitable collapse of DMD KIU LIDT followed. After this hellish ride the only way was: up – in the form of the fantastic ascension LIBERTATIA. Up there, Ja, Panik explored space for seven years, which is reflected in the sound of their airy comeback album DIE GRUPPE.
Three years later, things have now come full circle. Experienced in space, the band returns to the inviting and inviting indie rock of their early days – in a way. In any case, they relight their fire, catch fire again, burn again. “Yes, panic tops,” it says in the opener “Lost”. And: “J, P Supernova – the only drug”. This Lust for Life finds its musical counterpart in euphoric synth fanfares shooting through guitar boards, in the brass drums from the keyboard of “Kung Fu Fighter”. “But with you there I run through the world / Like the Kung Fu Fighter / Just when I’m on the ground, I get up / Just keep going,” Andreas Spechtl sings here.
The mad joy of madness
Anyone who expects self-empowerment hymns based on lines like this is not wrong, but they are also wrong. Because of course we can’t get hold of Spechtl this time either, he always leads us astray. Because that’s exactly what it’s all about: the crazy joy of crazy. What exudes the most is the final “Ushuaia”, named after the southernmost city in Spechtl’s current adopted home of Argentina: starting like a typical number from the band’s old heroes, Oasis, it turns into an almost absurdly epic, seven-minute guitar solo – unbridled and unabashed. Yes, Panik gives a shit about everything: expectations, their image as cerebral discourse rockers, “work” and “school,” as they sing at one point, and even “death and his friends.”
The band only becomes concrete and unambiguous when it is really important, as in “Fascism Is Invisible (Why Not You?)”, which is in the best tradition of the sing-a-longs, the Spechtl gospel approach, the records like THE ANGST AND THE MONEY shaped. He also remains true to his inductive storytelling and allows for a coherent view of the world through intensive engagement with himself. In “Mama Made This Boy” he negotiates his precarious childhood with a single mother and shows perspectives to those who were also not fed with a silver spoon: “Shoes old, thoughts new.” When life gives you Not, make virtue out of it.
The banging starting signal for the next marathon for Yes, Panic
Despite this continuation of continuities and although the rich guitars will definitely win back paused fans who were strange with THE GROUP, DON’T PLAY WITH THE RICH KIDS naturally points a little backwards, but above all forwards and actually into everyone else Directions: “Your yesterday is so dead / Your tomorrow is so big”. Life is not linear. It is not the mere disappearance of moments that shapes us, but rather the experience – and not even the immediate one. So what may at first read like a step back is actually the banging starting signal for the next marathon for Ja, Panik – of course in “Second season Nike shoes”.