KASMODIAH

Press:

The German living legend, Deine Lakaien return out of the blue with a new album entitled "Kasmodiah" on Sony/Columbia. If the latest album "Winter Fish Testosterone" was much more experimental and risky, this new opus is a pure return to the source for Deine Lakaien. They packed all their strongest assets in their little bag, locked themselves in their studio and wrote us their best album ever! Take "Dark Star", "Reincarnation" or yet "Love Me To The End" altogether, and you won't even equal the quality of this new album! This is a killer album featuring Alexander Veljanov at the top of his form, with his typical and so characteristic moving vocals, his unique way of expressing his lyrics... You can't imagine how quickly you start singing along with him, so much these new songs are catchy and tuneful! "Kiss The Future", "Overpaid", the slow-motion "Sometimes" or yet the wonderful top hit "Return". Ernst Horn managed once again to compose the perfect tunes for Alexander's emotions and both elements immediately enter in perfect symbiosis... It's so extraordinary, so wonderful!!! Ernst Horn still mix dark electronics with classical parts and piano lines together with some more danceable rhythm structures. Besides the more upbeat and weirdest "Lass Mich", it looks like he did his best to avoid too extreme experimentations on this new cd and probably preferred keeping them for his solo-project where he gives himself no single limit. "Kasmodiah" is so beautiful and grandiose that it is nothing but another Deine Lakaien album that deserves another acoustic tour!!! It's not tomorrow that our Bavarian lords will be dethroned... (TSF:9) TSF.
(SideLine Magazine (B) 4/99) 

DEINE LAKAIEN remain faithful to their original sound. Fortunately, they do not need to submit to current music trends only to stay in business. The opening song, the previously released "Return", is one of those typical, irresistible ballads of DEINE LAKAIEN. A song that hits the heart more precise than a satellite controlled cruise missile. DEINE LAKAIEN addicts had to wait some time now, but with "Kasmodiah" it is sure that they will be hooked onto the drug again. "Kiss The Future" provides space for violin player Komo, "My Shadows" raises the tension with its thightness to the first climax. With "Into My Arms" you can take the first break, but it allows programmer Ernst Horn to exhibit his newest creations of sound. Technically speaking, there is not much new on "Kasmodiah". "The Venus Man" is one of those songs that - despite its familiar sounds - introduces new possibilities in how to create and apply appealing and innovative pop music, because without the virtuousity of the four band members, primarily the sensitive voice of Alexander Veljanov, the bizarr-beautiful arrangements would lack its sense of being alive. "Overpaid" shows a well known pattern of different sort: the band is also able to interpret straight rock and roll within their style. One can sense what's next. On this record as well, the part where Ernst Horn goes crazy on his synthesizers and computers is not missing. With a cacophonic thunderstorm he releases pure punk. "Lass Mich" seems to be a rude hommage to all those half wits of the post-Einstürzende Neubauten Electrotrash-dull beat generation of the late 90ies. This is a nice move to support relationships, thus you can use "Kasmodiah" for the macho guys in the nightclub as well as for the girls and sensitive boys that will enjoy the many sentimental songs at home - this smart "joined" splitting has always been a hallmark of this group. But over and over again, as in "The Game", it can be recognized how much the band tries to write against the conventional structure of the stereotypical popsong. Composer Ernst Horn and singer Alexander Veljanov team up perfectly in their ambition to produce classical songs. Thus, Ernst Horn with his known interest for Franz Schubert not only is an icon for the modern renaissance of the chanson, but also for its radical, revolutionay renewal. DEINE LAKAIEN are the intellectual soul of the electronic Wave-pop.
(www.Glasnost.com, Olivier Köble 4/99)