Fun In The Church Rock & Indie 16 Items

Chris Imler likes to play drums standing up. He‘s the dandy with the killer offbeat, or, as
one major German newspaper once put it, the "Grand Seigneur of the Berlin
Underground". He has been making his mark on countless Berlin musical affairs since long
before the fall of the Wall, with The Golden Showers, Peaches, Oum Shatt, Driver
&Driver, Die Türen, Jens Friebe, to name but a few. He has also been perfoming across
Europe as a solo artist for the past decade.
In "Operation Schönheit" (German for "Operation Beauty"), he has recorded his most,
well, beautiful album to date. But Benedikt Frey's warm production subverts its own
beauty with a multitude of clanking and ingling synth sounds, making the work very much
about the cosmetic surgery it performs on itself. It's all in the tradition of the more
experimental and electronic side of post-punk in which Imler and his unique groove are
rooted. It doesn't take insider knowledge of Berlin's post-punk underground to realise that
that Imler groove consists of rhythm that sings, vocals that dance and a look that fits, as
illustrated by "Disappoint Me", his latest video: https://youtu.be/YeVJ75ljjB8
Elsewhere - such as in "Movies" - the rhythm sings, less electronically reduced, into the
acoustics of an old, high-ceilinged Berlin apartment; metal clatters, a zither trembles and
Imler plays with the metronome. Sometimes he moves ahead of time, sometimes trails
behind it. He always manages to be in his very own groove, which carries everything
along. And this is precisely the essence of the Imler rhythm, which lends itself to being
applied to the very rhythm of life: Stretch and compress your time and loop it according to
your own groove! Optimise nothing but feel everything! And dance to it! Even when
contemplating everyday information overload, as Imler's high-speed mumbling suggests in
the hectic yet smooth opening track "Temperature".
But being the ultimate night owl he is, Imler manages to make even the odd bout of
paranoia seem like a good thing: like some kind of krauty, groovy B-horror-soundtrackinflected high-pressure environment, "Whip Me" is a cross between Conrad Schnitzler
and Bauhaus. In the title track, whose lyrics were written together with Jens Friebe, he
intones: "You want to be something greater / You break your leg / When it heals again /
You break it again" and sounds like the most gleeful fatalist you can imagine.
Because in his city, one can still lose oneself better than anywhere else - a night easily
becomes a whole universe that can be traversed, marvelled at and played with, and one
might find one's old self again only when hearing "church bells" and "small birds singing".

Markus Göres, Fun In The Church, Erich-Weinert-Str. 57, 10439 Berlin
markus@funinthechurch.com, Tel.: +49 (0)30 39838155, +49-(0)-177-7535745, www.funinthechurch.com
At least that's how Imler illustrates it in "Emptiness full of stars", and it seems likely that
those "stars" are the human companions of the Berlin night in question.
And so once again Imler becomes Berlin's most important cultural ambassador: that scene
of the eternally, and somehow successfully, failing creatures of the night, once the envy of
the international postmodern bohème, has, despite many claims to the contrary, not been
completely "optimised away", and its attitude to life is perfectly summed up in Imler's
groove. And, of course, his look. "Schau Hin" (German for "Look!") , he sings in the track
of the same name, masterfully dubbed out with the help of Melbourne's Leo James.
Quite right! Look - and listen.
Yours, Johannes von Weizsäcker (The Chap)

Limited to 100 copies.

Coming-of-age heartbreak madness in 90s indie rock style from the Ruhr area! Here come EAT THEM, ladies and gentlemen. Behind it is the musician Johannes Hofmann, who has recorded more than 20 albums single-handedly to date. And don't worry, Johannes is only in his mid-20s, he just started recording music at the age of 14, which he then burned onto CDs for his grandma to play. A little later: The own Bandcamp account.
Now a kind of best-of collection from the first 10 years of his creative work will be released at the end of June: EAT THEM ALL!

12 tracks on vinyl with a small art zine included. Everything designed by Johannes Hofmann himself.

All songs remastered by Norman Nietzsche. Lo-Fi becomes Hi-Fi Lo-Fi in no time!

The LP is intended as an introduction to the inexhaustible EAT THEM multiverse. Because there is about as much to discover here as on the legendary Shimmy Disc label or the Guided By Voices: indie rock, lo-fi pop, shoegaze, krautrock, math rock, punk rock or heartbreaking power ballads! In the meantime, Johannes has found two colleagues to bring EAT THEM live on stage. Please don't miss this!

As (Tocotronic discoverer) Myriam Brüger recently said so beautifully after the first EAT THEM show in Berlin: “Finally a really uncool band again!” That was actually meant as a big compliment!

In keeping with the holistic aspect of the project - and complementing the band name - titled "ALL", the album covers the full spectrum: from drum machine and sonic youth guitar melange, nervous post-funk to anthemic lo-fi indie -Rock, everything an indie heart desires can be found here.

The first single released today is “Do You Love Me When I’m Dead?”, a catchy song that takes place sonically where it is most beautiful in the rich history of suburban pop: in the garage. The piece reflected the live line-up, which was expanded to include bass and drums. The beat clatters happily and the open guitar chords flow! However, Hofmann transcends the suburbs with reverberated singing about an emotional urge to move and flies into the city, the disco or even through clouds and the landscape.

Limited to 100 copies-

One of the most proliftic and influential works within Iranian pop music. "Me without you, the spring without you" is a collection that is a refined and remastered version of Touraj's songs performed between 1973 and 1978. All songs were arranged and orchestrated by Eric Arconte.

One of the most proliftic and influential works within Iranian pop music. "Me without you, the spring without you" is a collection that is a refined and remastered version of Touraj's songs performed between 1973 and 1978. All songs were arranged and orchestrated by Eric Arconte.

Limited to 300 units. Only at HHV.

Ready for take-off: Brazilian psychedelic quartet Os Barbapapas will release their first record DooWooDooWoo on 30rd April. Berlin-based record label Fun In The Church celebrates an LP release perfectly in line with their motto “Outernational Music For Interplanetary People”: DooWooDooWoo by Os Barbapapas will be the international debut of a highly talented band straight from the hip psychedelic scene in São. São Paulo meets Berlin – contemporary interplanetary diplomacy at its best. The result is a wondrous trip propelling us into outer space, to a lyrically unmanned space station where instrumental needles pierce the membrane of our planetary horizon, making way for a holistic psychedelic experience of our world.
Our tour guides are Barbara Mucciollo (Drums, Percussion), Selva
Rubens (Electric Guitar), Fernando Lima (Percussion, Drums) and Tomás Oliveira (Glass Harp, Bass), who is also responsible for production and mix. In times like these, producing a record like DooWooDooWoo is not a trivial thing at all, especially in Brazil, where Covid struck hard. The four artists had to improvise: since the initial plan to record an album in a studio was made impossible, the already drafted songs where postponed in favor of a new concept. Everyone recorded ideas for themselves, to which the others would contribute their tracks later, eventually building the 13 track-long interstellar journey that is the album. Collective improvisation chronologically untangled.
Though DooWooDooWoo was created in physical distance, the LP still became a 25-minute-long monument to the extraordinary vibe of the band. Its unpretentious and playful sound can only originate from the natural bond of those who speak the same musical language. And while listening to the first bars of the album and asking oneself if this could also be The Residents or Hermeto Pascoal producing Khruangbin’s next record, one has already been befallen by the spell of the four Brazilian mages. At the very latest, the third song “Sanga” will draw in even the most reluctant sceptic, when Selva Rubens sounds his self-made pot guitar. Welcome to the desert jungle.
Here, Tropicália meets exotica. Space meets desert. Surf meets western. The evoked visions maintain their wonder throughout the whole album, supported by the varied rhythms of the two drummers Mucciollo and Lima, who alternate skillfully between funky grooves, electronic sounds and classic percussion patterns, awarding the album a continuous flow. Brought together with Oliveira’s science-fiction sounds produced by his Glass Harp and the absence of vocals, they unfold a hypnotizing force that seems to slow down time. This unique sound is glued together by Selva Rubens’ guitar, always present with twangy melodies and reverberating harmonies. That way, Os Barbapapas weave us a sound that could only have been created in the cultural melting pot that is São Paulo. All the more exciting that Fun In The Church will deliver us that sound on vinyl.
The recording process has been a lifeline to the four Brazilians in Covid-induced isolation. Tomás Oliveira writes: “It’s been a great source of good mental health and daydreams”. This feeling perforates the music. And sounds truly outernational!