Sucksess |Itchy Records, 2009|

1. Imago, 2. I.I.W.I.I., 3. Daydreams, 4. Everyone's A winner, 5. Silly, 6. Inshallah, 7. Dipso, 8. Ill Prepared, 9. Burn For Me, 10. Wer Bist Du?, 11. Last Kiss, 12. Elle Te Prendra La Vie, 13. Haller, 14. Hot Stuff (Hardwire Tekno Vulva Mix), 15. Die Schabe (Halb Und Halb, Mona Mur Remix)

“Sucksess” is the fifth album (three studio and two remix albums) in 9 years by the proven duo En Esch & Günter Schulz, two of the central features of the best KMFDM years, and once again they hit it on the nail.
After their excellent debut, “Dicknity” and the equally excellent “Screwtinized”, this third work still shines for originality and quality. Consisting of 15 songs, whereof the last two are remixes respectively of “Hot Stuff”, appeared on the remix album “xSCREWciating” by Mona Mur and “Die Schabe” a remix of “Halb Und Halb” appeared on “Screwtinized” by Hardwire.

This is undoubtedly the most electronic album of their discography, in fact, there’s a lot of good programming in it, along with the usual excellent quality of their songwriting. The variety of sounds keeps the music lively, current and engaging. You pass by the Industrial Rock styles of "Silly" (which is reminiscent a bit of "Idiot" from "Dicknity"), "Daydreams" and "I.I.W.I.I.". The mystical "Inshallah" resinates into Drum n' Bass ala DJ Acucrak on "Last Kiss" (even the drum loop in “Daydreams” polls these two bands) and dance beats that don’t despise an old-fashioned touch, as in "Elle Te Prendre La Vie". It’s a very pleasant listening, tenacious and pervaded by an amused spirit, I can barely find a song that bores me.

The key to this success or “Sucksess”, as you wanna call it :) is very easy to find. There are several characteristics that distinguish the Slick Idiot albums, besides the talent of Esch & Schulz, among which, a catchy cover (in “Screwtinized” there was a great Van Halen cover of “Ain’t Talking About Love”) and many female guest-stars. This winning formula remains unchanged, and is applied here as well. This time they rebuilt Hot Chocolate's "Everyone's a Winner". Speaking of guest stars would take all day... so I'll just mention the most interesting: In "Daydreams" there’s a pleasant return of Mark "Godlike" Durante on guitars, while among the extensive presence of women stands Trixie Reiss (author of a couple of hits with The Crystal Method), which had already collaborated with them in the past; Hope Nicholls who performed with Pigface, as well as on Marilyn Manson's debut album and with Erica Dilanjian. The ability to use and rotate female singers in their songs is strong, and again the choice is judicious.

I can’t exempt myself from comparing Slick Idiot with KMFDM, seeing how their sound is similar and mainly for how many years their careers have been intertwined. Even though the styles of Konietzko and Esch/Shultz have been divided by a dozen years, their musical paths have evolved in parallels. In view of such comparisons, I must commend the confidence and the inspiring boldness of Slick Idiot, which completely eclipsed their former colleagues of KMFDM.
If the reunion of the latter had brought discreet albums such as “Attak”, “WWIII” (kept afloat by Raymond Watts) and “Hau Ruck”, they would have been soon sunk by recent stagnant works. Schulz and Esch have maintained the true experimental essence they demonstrated in the past on pearls like “Angst” or “Nihil”. At such a point I begin to have doubts about who is the real KMFDM. This stands as confirmation of the doubt that I already had with the quirky solo work of En Esch in 1992's "Cheesy", which is better than its counter-part; “Money” by KMFDM.

Another point in the favor of Slick Idiot, as I mentioned, is the wise use of female voices in their songs. Erica Dilanjian did a great job in “Sucksess”, reminiscent of the best vocalist that KMFDM have ever had, who was, in my opinion, Dorona Alberti (Bitterly regretted whenever I hear Lucy Ciffarelli). Anyway this isn’t a contest between these two bands, but it ‘s very clear that one band (KMFDM) is imprisoned by its inheritance, while the other (Slick Idiot) is offering interesting and worthwhile music.
The only flaw, so to speak, is that unlike their first album “Dicknity”, which contained some of the best driven guitars that I've ever heard, here the guitars are more restrained.

"Sucksess" conquers the listener more & more every time you hear it. It’s a fun and irreverent album, explicit as is their custom from the title, confirming Slick Idiot as one of the few bands that keep the hilarity of bands like the early Revolting Cocks alive.

(Marco Gariboldi, 04/15/2010. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)

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