Cassette Review // Verneblung "Ready To Drown" (Blackjack Illuminist Records)

                                                

€7 // Edition of 15

https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ready-to-drown

The music of Verneblung is that of a band which sounds like a combination of rock and electronic music.   Though "Ready To Drown" can begin with big beats and electronics, as it goes on it can create different sounds across various genres while all sticking to the sound of the opening track.   While I can compare the sound of Verneblung with some modern artists- such as Metric- the fact that this also feels like something from the 1990's really has it standing out to me, putting it into a genre all its own in the present tense.

From artists such as Bjork and PJ Harvey to Garbage and the Sneaker Pimps there is a definitive 1990's sound on this cassette.   While I tend to think of songs as sometimes being related to sounds based on movie soundtracks, that becomes an interesting place to put Verneblung.  At times this feels like it could be off that "Romeo and Juliet" soundtrack, but there are also strong vibes of a lot of my go-to soundtrack comparisons in here, such as "Go", "Run Lola Run" and "The Crow".  

At times atmospheric, these songs can also be melodic.  The titular track, however, takes us into a distinct sense of darkwave which perhaps was there all along and this song just happened to make it more apparent.  With big, expansive synth, Verneblung begins to forge their own path with the sound that they make.  What is perhaps most important to remember here is that Verneblung can sound like these other artists at times but not on the whole.  That is to say it wouldn't surprise me to see Verneblung opening shows for Garbage but they don't sound exactly the same.

Growing up in the '90's there weren't really a lot of bands fronted by women.  The term "frontman" was as such for a reason.  I'm glad that someone such as Nadin Klein and Adnan Abbas can work together to create something that not only puts that vibe of music not being a male dominated scene into the world while at the same time helping me misremember my youth as I put these songs on inbetween The Cranberries and Hole.