Anonymity can often add a sense of mystery and uncertainty to whatever or whomever it is being applied. And though this secrecy can be broken relatively easily with just a few keystrokes — while it holds — this veil can be used quite effectively to draw in and hold an audience’s attention. Los Angeles-based post-industrial duo German Army have used this sense of obscurity to captivate the ears and minds of their fans with more than a dozen albums released since 2011. Working closely with a handful of labels, the band has allowed each imprint to curate its own personal collection of songs, drawn from a deep pool of recordings.
But with the release of their latest record, Last Language (out November 19th via A Giant Fern), the band has designed their first cohesive album meant to function as a single cohesive musical statement. Embedding their trademark minimalist synthwork and motorik beats within spoken word soliloquies and waves of reverb and drone effects, German Army meld dark wave’s latent sterility, swathes of industrial noise, and a wide selection of skeletal rhythmic patterns into singular musical statements that gradually construct themselves from a series of fractured influences and inspirations.
For our first glimpse into Last Language the band has released “Fortified Ground,” a minimalist synth-encased selection of occasionally throbbing low-end, spoken word vocals, and plinking percussion. Working under the nondescript names of X and Y, the two men create a stark landscape of slowly degrading synths and introverted rhythms, where each consecutive note simultaneously builds and tears down what came before. It’s an odd tonal dichotomy wherein the song fills each moment with filtered and processed sounds but never feels cluttered or overtly dense. There is an unexpected expanse within the instrumentation – a sort of negative space where the listener can time the time to absorb the music at their own pace and discover the minute details in every circuital recess.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the first single, “Fortified Ground,” from German Army’s upcoming album, Last Language.
