Randale (2015) is a live album by the German band Kraftklub, their third album. It was recorded at the Max Schmeling Halle in Berlin on 6.3.2015, except the last three songs, which were recorded at Lido (Berlin), Gleis 22 (Münster), and Arena Leipzig (Leipzig) respectively. Kraftklub consists of five guys, all from Chemnitz (previously Karl-Marx Stadt) in Saxony, Germany. The members are Felix Brummer (vocals), Karl Schumann (vocals/guitar), Steffen Israel (guitar), Till Brummer (bass), and Max Marschk (drums). Their style of music is somewhere between pop and indie rock with rap. They themselves say they play pop music.
The first time I heard Kraftklub was live at Hurricane 2023. It was 12:30 at night, I was half asleep but I wanted to check them out. I once heard one of Felix Kummer's solo works (Der Letzte Song (Alles Wird Gut)) and I had really liked it and I thought, if anything maybe they play that and I would enjoy that. What came instead hit me like a fucking train. Life changing. There really is only one thing to say - they're an amazing fucking live band. It was explosive. The crowd was huge, and eventhough I was standing towards the back but the atmosphere was intense. I truly believe if they had asked us to actually make some Randale we would have - we were in the palm of their hand. This album has this intense, explosive energy.
They jump right in with Für Immer. And they don’t stop. The crowd is electric – you can feel it in the music that there exists an electric field, exchanging energy between the band and the crowd, back and forth. It is all encapsulated by the intro of Irgendeine Nummer: a funky melody and then, overlaid, an almost maniacal rendition of dadada. Of the mammoth 21 songs on this album (99:12 min total runtime) 11 are from In Schwarz (2014), and 6 are from Mit K (2012). Additionally, they include Mit K Medley, which quite artfully manages to combine the energy of Ritalin/Medikent and Lieblingsband (Oh Yeah) with the understatement and introspection of Kein Liebeslied. Furthermore, they also include the enigmatic but extraordinary two songs Randale and Irgendeine Nummer. Finally, for the chimera Juppe für’s Gehirn they are joined by K.I.Z, who also contribute a verse to Ich will nicht nach Berlin. On Songs für Liam, they are joined by Casper. All in all, this is an absolute show-piece of Kraftklub’s power and position at this time.
As usual, they mix and match their themes – from love and heartbreak, over political and social commentary, personal myth-making, to absolute insanity and fun. Heartbreak is often packaged in a slightly petulant ‘I am better off without you anyways’ way but Blau hits that deeply buried feeling of memory and missing. Also, let’s be honest, it absolutely fucks. Their love songs are earnest and celebratory. Especially Wegen Dir just screams to be backed by a crowd. And, of course, Songs für Liam. I had the absolute pleasure of hearing this live and it is a fucking wrecking ball. The way this song is constructed is genius. The verses are about all the things wrong in this world – a little crude, a little flippant, a lot of small annoying things – and then the chorus sets in and there is a sort of revelation. An ascension to a higher place of music, a relief, a celebration. When you kiss me – the world would just be better. And Noel would write songs for Liam again. I also quite enjoy a little bit of personal myth-making. Think for example about how AC/DC has ten thousand songs about how they rock. While not completely that crass and more ironic especially on Unsere Fans, they fuck. And I just love the posturing of Eure Mädchen.
The political and social commentary is where it really shines for me. I love politics in my music, and especially in my German music. I like to track the current political atmosphere by the music I listen to. For example, if you listen to the 80’s work of BAP and Herbert Grönemeyer, you find a lot of discussion about Germany’s new power position in the world and attitudes in regard to history. In the 90’s, die Ärzte’s Schrei nach Liebe deals with the rightwing and Neo-Nazi violence that escalated (see e.g. Lichtenhagen). With Schüsse in die Luft, Kraftklub thematizes an only way too familiar feeling of uselessness. You care, you go out on the streets, you are loud and yet, if anything, people complain about the noise. You feel alone. You feel despondent. And they have not stopped dealing with this feeling after years of political activism (good on you for the graffiti-ing, Till), and talk about it again on their latest album, Kargo (2022) (genuinely, a piece of art – they have matured into holiness), on the track Vierter September. However, while it might be a Sisyphean task to make positive change, they are not alone. You are not alone. This is the energy at a Kraftklub concert, this is the energy on this album – we are all in this together. On the more personal side – the side that combines personal history with social and cultural themes such as on Ich will nicht nach Berlin, Meine Stadt ist zu laut, Zwei Dosen Sprite, and Karl-Marx-Stadt, they cement their status as a band with a strong personal voice.
And finally: their magnum opus. Randale. Never been put on an album, but by god, it kills live. The energy. The intensity. The point where you just abandon everything in your head and just let yourself run loose. This is it. And Scheissindiedisko hits like a bomb. They have it all: the good sides of life, the bad sides, the lonely sides, and the just fucking insane.
More than anything, I love this album and I love this music and I love this band (if until now quite a short love affair, but by god, I fell deep) because I can relate. They have hit something in me that very few other artists have – that of a similar childhood, place in the world, worries about the world. They really manage to capture how it is to be a young-ish person in Germany. The stifling, rigid atmosphere that pervades everything. The resistance to change. And the personal shit. Wie ich. I would like to be a little more like you. Always. Always. I look at other people and think they are handling life. I want to be like that. Just a little bit.
Kraftklub is a fucking good live band, and this album proves it.
