It could be said that TANK – Kreidler's critically acclaimed previous album – is a drum album. Not in the sense of the brute force of a Ginger Baker or a John Bonham, but more in terms of the elastic muscularity of a Budgie, a Robert Görl or a Klaus Dinger. So in the case of DEN, if attempting yet another such broad categorization, one might draw attention to the album's viscous musicality. Indeed, for recording and mixing, Kreidler chose to work at LowSwing, a studio renowned for its round sonic character, with the magnificent Guy Sternberg at the controls.The album's opening track SUN displays an inspired beauty that is perhaps reminiscent of Eno during those periods in which he was interested in songwriting. Pan-Asian counter-melodies interplay around the stoic but light architecture of DEADWRINGER. And ROTE WÜSTE is a mysterious painting, spanning a vast emotional arc between it's dark beginnings and the possibility of a conciliatory resolution. The heavily grooving CASCADE finds an utterly mesmerized Alex Paulick on guitar – just how many chord changes does Andreas Reihse get through? But one nice aspect of Kreidler is that those kinds of things hardly matter. Kreidler never burden the listener with strict didacticism. Everything flows naturally. MOTH RACE is another uninhibited dance number built on Detlef Weinrich's harsh yet supple beat, suggesting New York City as envisioned by Arthur Russell. CELTIC GHOSTS dissolves this impression through ornamentation and leads us out onto the glassy ice… WINTER is a gliding machine of magnetic, polished chrome – self-reflective. A rhythmic firework!

Essential facts:

• In 1994 Kreidler was founded in Düsseldorf by Thomas Klein, Andreas Reihse, Detlef Weinrich and Stefan Schneider who was to leave Kreidler in 1998 in order to form To Rococo Rot; his place on bass-guitar was taken by Alexander Paulick (Coloma, Narrow Bridges) until 2001, and again from 2008.......
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