Return-Path: From: rsgour@aol.com X-Mailer: America Online Mailer Sender: "rsgour" To: bzs@world.std.com Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 12:43:20 EST Subject: Chaos6.DieKrupps For over a decade, Die Krupps has been at the forefront of industrial music. Along with fellow German band Einsturzende Neubauten on others, Die Krupps was one of the pioneers of the noisy, highly percussive style. Although their music has never gotten wide release in America until now, the group has built up quite an underground following here. Now they have just released their US major label debut, but the content is quite surprising; it's an album of Metallica covers titled "A Tribute To Metallica." Releasing the album is an unusual move, as it will provide many listeners with an introduc tion to the band that is not really representative of them. "Of course it's a problem, because a lot of people might really think we're a cover band but we're not," explains frontman Jurgen Engler. " I hope the press is going to get it right." The album itself emerged out of a project Die Krupps had been just doing for fun. Jurgen had been getting interested in heavy metal in recent years, startinig up a metal label and incorporating elements of the music into Die Krupp's sound. Being a Metallica fan, he decided to record some covers so that he could give them to Metallica on cassette when they toured Germany. Die Krupp's label, Rough Trade, heard about the recording, expressed interest and ende d up releasing it. When Metallica heard it, they liked it and asked for a box of 20 CDs to give out to people they knew. One day Jurgen got a call from Metallica's management company, telling him that one of the discs had been given to Hollywood Records and the label wanted to sign them. When Die Krupps first emerged, they created very noisy music that defied tradition song structure and instrumentation. The would use guitars, but not in the normal manner, as they did not find that interesting anym ore. "I was very, very bored at playing the normal chords because I'd done that for too long with my punk band and I just got bored," says Jurgen. "When Die Krupps started, we were very experimental a nd industrial" Shortly after getting started, the group began experimenting with the now affordable synthesizers. Die Krupps fused the new technology with the metallic percussion and noise they had be en using to create a new style for the group. In the mid-80s, the group took a few years off, during which time Jurgen became interested in the new wave of metal music. When they re-emerged in 1990, the sound was changed once again to incorporate metal elements. The current line-up of Die Krupps is rounded out by Lee Altus (guitar), Darren Minter (drums), Ralph Dorper (samples) and Rudiger Esch (bass.) . The Metallica tribute was a one-off project that saw Die Krupps creating their music differently, but their upcoming release (already out in Europe) will be more conistant with the way the group has been evolving. "The Metallica album was done mainly on keyboards, because why would you cover a Metallica song with guitars?," says Jurgen. "But the last album that came out in Europe before the Metallica album we had a mixture of electronic music and heavy guitars, and the new album will be too." Copyright 1994 Bob Gourley. Contact rsgour@aol.com