The German band Camera make post-punk that's brutally simple, and somewhat unrelenting. Their new record, Prosthuman, is out today via Bureau B, and it's engaing and full of inventiveness.
Opener "Kartoffelstampf" whirrs and clangs with a rustbucket appeal, the riffs here as much Ubu as they are The Fall, while "El Ley" sounds like the band's heard some Kraftwerk records. That would make sense, obviously, but Camera are, for the most part, most interested in the sort of post-rock that results from the hammering together of riffs and hooks. At their best, like on the bright "A2", Camera display a willingness to suggest prog even as they bash away at their instruments with the fury of The Birthday Party. If things are streamlined in spots, the overall presentation is such that it feels dangerous, as if something was about to break loose as the music launched itself forward
Prosthuman is out today via Bureau B.
[Photo: Jan Michalko]