Pop in Germany is hard to imagine without Frank Fenstermacher and Kurt Dahlke. Both belong to the Neue Deutsche Welle pioneers Fehlfarben, and thus to one of the most formative German bands of all. Hardly less important is their share in the surrealist synth-pop project Der Plan, of which they represent two thirds. Their music as a duo under the name A Certain Frank, by contrast, has kept itself discreetly at the edge of public attention.
Negation is part of their appearance: their studio albums begin, in the title, with »No«, most consistently on their record Nothing, released 25 years ago. The word can be understood as a programme. This music does not really seem to want anything, at least it does not want to make a striking statement, certainly not in the sense of a genre confession. And yet it does quite a lot, beginning with the groove, which feeds on the legacy of dub and discreet hip-hop borrowings with very gentle breakbeats.
Background music, basically – but even on this point Fenstermacher and Dahlke refuse clarity. The title track, for instance, begins with brutal drum rumbling before the thing can start its leisurely flow. They use percussion just as ambivalently on »Peace Again« or their quasi-hit »Donde Vas«. And even where they dispense with obvious irritations, hidden oddities still lurk, whether the cheap-synthesiser melodies in the otherwise peacefully plucking »In the Sky« or the foam-like bubbling harmonies in »Blue & White«. Over the years, acceptance for music that wants to exist for its own sake has, after all, rather increased. A good moment for a reissue.
Nothing
