Binder & Krieglstein
New Weird Austria
AY CD 26 (EAN 881390202621)

To be released in March 5th 2010 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) In his fourth album, "New Weird Austria", Binder & Krieglstein takes the path less travelled and presents his own personal take on Austrian folk music. Stylistically, he wanders between the worlds of electronic and folk music, bringing together a motley array of guest vocalists on diverse tracks without ever blending them.

Folk music and punk are kindred souls: it is the rough and ready aspect of both that Binder & Krieglstein distils into something quite unique. In its more extreme forms, the punk dance form, pogo, is not so very far removed from folk dance, and stamping feet are just what electronic music calls for. The whole debate about what is authentic folk music and what isn't has dragged on long enough. On this album, the "what" question doesn't even come up. And the "why" question is answered with a resounding "because we can't help it!" Folk music and pop just go together - or, rather, what we have here is the irresistible transition of folk music into pop music. The twelve tracks on New Weird Austria meander wildly yet precisely between influences from electronica, ska, hip hop and house on the one hand, and polka, landler and traditional Styrian on the other, while still leaving plenty of room for guest performances by Austropop legends and 4xang-masterminds Wilfried, Didi Bruckmayr, Mieze Medusa, artist Karl Grünling, Molto Mosso, Heimo Mitterer (Portnoy), Christian Fuchs and Suzy on the Rocks (both from Vienna's thriving electro-underground band Bunny Lake). Needless to say, partner and singer Makki of the Binder & Krieglstein live-band features with several songs too.

Rainer Binder-Krieglstein aka "Binder & Krieglstein" launched his successful solo career after a stint as drummer with such bands as Fetish 69, Toxic Lounge and Sans Secours in the early Noughties and has since gone on to explore any number of stylistic directions. He has constantly pushed the boundaries of his music. Now, with his latest album, he has gone in search of its roots - and, with that, his own roots in the music of his homeland. His debut album, "Alles verloren" (AY CD 14), produced by Shantel, came out three years ago.

TRACKLISTING

01. Bratlgeiger - feat. Wilfried
02. Mein größter Schatz - feat. Karl Grünling
03. Kummst du ma blöd - feat. Makki
04. Radkette - feat. Heimo Mitterer
05. Frage der Zeit - feat. Mieze Medusa
06. Three Strikes - feat. Didi Bruckmayr
07. Bist du glücklich - feat. Molto Mosso
08. Londabaja - feat. Makki
09. Puddl di ein - feat. Makki
10. Fahrradlied - feat. Makki
11. So faungt des an - feat. Christian Fuchs
12. I hob di gern - feat. Suzy on the Rocks & Steirischer Jägerchor

THE MANIFESTO

New Weird Austrian is useful in the sense that everybody could use a bit of it, and useless in the sense it can‘t be used up. So that means NWA is always new and unused. NWA is weird because that's the only way to see the bigger picture. NWA is Austrian because, although it is international, it started in Graz. NWA is a motion, not a movement. The aim of NWA is a gentle revolution. It replaces order with non-hierarchical relativity. NWA has no target group and no end-user because the journey that is the destination is far from over. NWA brings liberation from self-contained solitude through interconnection and interchange. NWA sings the praises of high energy and low inhibition. NWA has nothing to lose and a world to win. No faltering steps here: we're dancing. Inspired by: Happy Art and Attitude (Bauer/Falk), The Communist Manifesto (Marx/Engels), The Futurist Manifesto (Filippo Tommaso Marinetti), Paul Klee, The Puzzy Power Manifesto, The Cluetrain Manifesto; The Bauhaus Manifesto. Dance pogo to the sounds of brass, polka to the rhythms of reggae, and paso doble to vocoder songs. Defining contemporary Austrian folk music should not be entrusted to a handful of record labels, tv shows and radio stations. When polished meets raw, contemporary meets traditional, and the mood of the moment meets an abstract musical heritage - whether in Siebing or Guca, in a local bar or a Bedouin tent, at Passover or at Christmas - a sense of a deep-rooted belonging comes into its own in the here and now. A locus of memory is dragged onto the dancefloor and stripped of its boundaries. Amateurs become part-time virtuosi, everyone lets their hair down, the heart captivates the mind, and the feet can't stand still. The voice becomes an expression of free will and local tradition shimmers in all the colours of a rainbow spanning the globe. Because folk music is village music and the whole world is a village. And that's the village Binder & Krieglstein have landed in. Because they wanted to break out of the quiet, cosy niche in which it is so easy to get mired in. So they've left the familiar territory for the adventure of the unique, treating Austrian traditionals as though they were cocek, klezmer, rai or fado: with care and respect.

After jazz, industrial rock and down-tempo pop in various line-ups and bands (Fetish 69, Toxic Lounge, Sans Secours) and with three solo albums under their belts, Binder & Krieglstein are now taking their grooves, beats, loops and samples back to the roots. Folk music, the way Binder & Krieglstein approach it, is punk: rough and ready compositions, simple instrumentation, pure and stripped down, red-and-white trash, direct and visceral, untainted by commercial or fashionably aesthetic aspirations. They have long been interested in exploring elements which otherwise might never have had even the briefest encounter with one another, and bringing them together as partners entwined in an intimate dance to electronic music. They set up blind dates between folk choirs and straight tech-house beats, lo-fi sounds and jazz textures, the vibrant and the obscure, the minimal and the sumptuous. These unlikely trysts in which the gentle and lyrical meets the wild and ecstatic are enabled by an illustrious array of guest vocalists from across the spectrum and from every corner of Austria: Makki, Didi Bruckmaier, Mieze Medusa, Wilfried, Karl Grünling, Heimo Mitterer, Molto Mosso, Christian Fuchs. This is non-derivative music, merged on a laptop. Which is why the "von" in the name of this one-man duo has been replaced by "& ". The resulting combination is far more than the sum of its parts: the interweaving and interaction of opposites and motley contrasts does not create a homogenous alloy. All the components retain their own identity. But in this new setting, all notions of etiquette and snobbery are abandoned and they just have a lot of fun together. The sum is better than all or any of the parts, incorporating www-Landler, emotional rationality, obscure clarity, and Polonaises in a combination that will get even dance-refuseniks on their feet and still leave room for extravagant gestures. NWA is village music for the Global Village.