Better than flying cheerleader dogs and banal presentation: we introduce you to four newcomers who show you how to do trash pop properly.
Whether nand with songs like “Aperol Spritz” and “wohlfühlen” or Dilla with “Erstmal Essen”. The fact is: everyone can identify with their lyrics. After all, we all sipped at least one Aperol Spritz this summer or opted for delicious food and against wild nights.
Pieces that are partly unconventional but have a concrete connection to everyday life in particular receive attention in trash heaven and, with their memorable lyrics, cover the supposedly individual world of experience of a broad mass.
We present you four artists whose “trash” you should know.
1. Dilla
In her specially composed and produced songs, the Berliner treats Gen Z topics like no other. Dilla invites you to dance with a lot of bass and a decadent kick. As one of the few German producers, she combines pop, hip-hop, funk, Neue Deutsche Welle and techno in her music.
Amadea Ackermann, that’s Dilla’s real name, studied in Munich at the Hochschule für Jazzgesang before moving to Berlin to make music. The musician, who grew up bilingually, has been publishing her works under her real name Amadea since 2019, but only in English. Since 2021 she has also been doing this in German. She describes her music ironically on Spotify: “Sounds cheap and just not that good.”
In 2021 her first EP FOUR DAYS IN BERLIN was released in cooperation with TommyT. To start with, we suggest you their songs “photosynthese” (2021) and “Erstmal Essen” (2022). If you want to listen to Dilla’s, uh, Amadea’s English works, we can recommend “Body” (2021).
Here you can find all the hits of the musician in a playlist.
2. nand
Nand is a prime example of the fact that nowadays a music label is no longer absolutely necessary to enter the industry. His four-track EP 0815 (2019) was followed by the album GUTGEHEN (2020), also on his own. It also has the number “feel good”, which finally helped him to become famous. After that, in just two years, they released two EPs (although one of them is actually more like an album with twelve songs), ten singles and an album.
Now equipped with his own team, the artist still produces and composes his works himself. Ferdinand Kirch, the man behind nand, does this as nostalgically and trashy as necessary. Nand sounds like “Neue Neue Deutsche Welle” by using the characteristics of New Wave and combining them with modern sounds.
After “feel good” followed “Aperol Spritz” (2021). A cheesy piano melody sounds in the intro and you can hear a drink being poured. In the song, the musician describes a classic summer day with the person he desires, including touches, positive feelings and nice weather: “Babe, I feel good with you, you look great / I love your hair man, fuck I’m in a good mood.”
The music video is here:
Next year nand will be on tour, here are the dates for 2023:
- February 10: Club Stereo, Nuremberg
- February 11: STROM, Munich
- March 1st: Milk sack factory, Frankfurt
- March 2nd: clubCANN, Stuttgart
- March 15: Naumanns (Felsenkeller), Leipzig
- March 16: Moritzhof Cultural Center, Magdeburg
- March 21: FZW, Dortmund
- March 22: YUCA, Cologne
- March 23: Platform 22, Munster
- March 24: Molotow, Hamburg
- April 1st: Cafe Cairo, Würzburg
Here is also our review of the second day of the Reeperbahn Festival, where nand also performed.
3. Fuffiffzich
Geled hair and sunglasses = Fuffifuffzich. This is how the equation for describing the musician might work. Their music, enriched with spoken dialogue on “Denglisch”, sounds like shallow synth waves, lo-fi and pop of the 90s. The DIY aesthetic, both in image and sound, creates closeness, which Fuffifufzich expands on in terms of content by addressing big city experiences, lots of “love” and the description of everyday thoughts. According to her own statements, the musician is particularly inspired by Rio Reiser, Ton Steine Scherben, Herbert Grönemeyer and Easter.
Actually, Vanessa Loibl aka Fuffifufzich is a trained actress. At the age of ten she already played the role of Nicole Deile in the soap “Marienhof”, after graduating from high school she studied acting at the Berlin University of the Arts. In the years that followed, Loibl was part of various German ensembles as well as television, cinema and radio play productions.
In 2019, the following succinct song line from her first single “Heartbreakerei” (feat. Magic Island) circulated: “Hello 1-1-0, it’s the Po-Polizei. I want to file a complaint for Heartbreakei.” Their debut and music video were followed by six more singles, all of which also appeared on their first record HEARTBREAKEREI (2022).
Their productions make it easy to see: Fuffifufzich is all about love. So that you too fall in love with the musician, we recommend the fifth and sixth tracks “Zur Hilfe” and “Loss of Control” on HEARTBREAKEREI.
4. Tropicula Ltd
Tropikel Ltd combine all three featured acts in their music: Gen Z themes like Dilla, retro romance by Fuffifufzich and a similar sound like nand. No wonder the Berliners have already had a number of features in their Spotify biography.
The trio seems to have a flair for newcomers: Tropikel Ltd have already released songs with all of them, which are now appearing in more and more playlists. Two examples are Young Meyerlack (“Aroma” (2021)) and futurebae (“Pulse 1000” (2021) and “Immer Sommer” (2021)). With this year’s remix of “Quanto Costa” by Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys, the formation also dared to approach Neoschlager in their most recent production.
But the Berliners can also do without a feature. They show that on their latest seven-track EP, CAUTION FRAGILE (2022). In terms of sound, they combine musical characteristics of New Wave with 2000s pop anthems and the modern sound of the 2020s. Strong toms collide with dark retro synths and auto-tune vocals full of anglicisms.
Here, Linus Volkmann has presented you with 17 hits from the year 2022, which is still ongoing – a number by Tropikel Ltd also appears in it.