Lali puna

Lali puna is a German band that makes electronic music. Nobody I know seems to know their music; as far as I know, they're clearly underappreciated. But there's also something enigmatic about this band & their music. Their songs bear titles such as "Geography-5", "Bi-Pet", "Scary world theory" and "6-0-3". The vocalist, Valerie Trebeljahr, sounds like a political agitator, whispering the blueprints of a world-wide revolution at a secret meeting. Her singing is calm, albeit evocative. She never overdoes it. She sounds, for lack of better words - collected. That's an unusual style. (I mean, it has nothing to do with cockiness, or arrogance, or an attempt to promote oneself - cf. "enigmatic") The odds I'd like Lali puna were low. There's a kind of "European cool" brand of music I really detest. Stereolab. Stereo total. Lali puna are way more interesting than those bands - in my opinion. Their music has a meditative flow to it, that these other band lack. A kind of continuity in style. Small variations. Calm build-ups of atmospheres. The lyrics are far less pretentious than what you might think based on the titles. There's a floating division between love songs and political songs (which is a good thing). Lali puna are edgy, in their own way. I hope they will not pursue the rockier sound too much (in an interview, Trebeljahr mentioned a lot of boring indie bands as sources of inspiration - Pavement...). Their minimalism works. The best thing about Lali puna is that their music is very poppy, but yet at the same time, not at all so (listen to "Left-handed" from Faking the books, for example; there's not much of a melody here, really. There's a lot of layers that set the song in motion. But it is still a memorable and, somehow, very approachable song).

Stand-out tracks include "Nin-com-pop", "faking the books" and "everywhere and always". And don't miss their (Morr) labelmates American analog set. Their earlier records were fantastic. I don't know about the later ones. Lots of xylophone & dreamy soundscapes.

Six-o-three-nine-one
Four-eight-seven-ten
black hair, brown eyes
solid residence
If you want to know who I am
just ask me