Kling Klang - 'The Esthetik Of Destruction' (Rock Action) Released 13/11/06

Were every band to take the Kling Klang-approved onomatopoeic approach to names then System Of A Down would be rechristened “RAR!”, Editors “ZZZ…” and Muse an unintelligible series of vowels and consonants (feel free to add your own suggestions below). If anything though, the Kling Klang moniker (actually the name of Kratfwerk’s Dusseldorf studio) does scant justice to the Mogwai-approved Liverpudlians; there’s a few exclamation marks and “whirrs” missing at the very least.

Having stumbled upon the neat idea of feeding their manually operated drum machines through distorted amps, whilst waiting for a conventional guitar-based rock line-up to formulate, these krautrock-heads have been lauded by John Peel, collaborated with titinus-inducing freaks Part Chimp, and signed with the always reliable Rock Action. Less a debut album, more a mini-career retrospective thus far, ‘The Esthetik Of Destruction’ collects together recordings from 1999 through to 2005.

Not that Kling Klang appear to have deviated greatly from their finely-honed path over the last six years. The earliest track here, 99’s ‘Untitled@33RPM’ has a sandpaper-rough, un-settling feel; it’s the sound of modems crashing and synthesisers scraping and is matched almost evenly by 2003’s Doctor Who-aping, “mad scientist”-referencing ‘Tesla’s Future War’. Kling Klang’s repetitive, oppressive electronic riffs take the Tool approach in avoiding monotony, slowly grinding the listener down until Atari Teenage Riot live albums seem like a comparatively safer option. There’s little respite, even less contrast, and yet ‘The Esthethik Of Destruction’ feels like a complete work, comparable in parts to ‘Come On Die Young’ or Liars’ recent ‘Drum’s Not Dead’.

Personality and anxiety co-inhabit nicely on these gripping industrial excursions. Listen now, because one day we could all be dancing like showroom dummies.