The Umlauts - Slags [DINKED EDITION 256] (LP)

There are few things in life quite as mesmerising as the nine-strong Umlaut army effervescing in fulsome force. Rebelling against labels and transcending borders of land and time. A band as in touch with the nostalgias of First-Generation post-punk or '80s pop as they are with contemporary pop or big beat dance. The Umlauts are paragons of trans-Europe excess, dripping with inarguable edge, shambling wildly from chaotic cool to bombastically exquisite order, invested with unhinging, socio-political bite, and dancing in a rave of their own.

Compiling the best of The Umlauts first two EPs - Ü (2021) and Another Fact (2022) - and appended with a clutch of new material - Slags offers the most comprehensive versioning of this Umlauts experience as yet extant on record; a salacious digest of wild experiments present and past.

Taking its title from the by-product of the smelting of metals - the not-so-subtle cheapness in wordplay is relevant too - the music of Slags also represents a work of immense amounts of energy and heat. From their breakthrough EP Ü, aptly opening the record is the thunderous Energy Plan, defined by quote from artist Joseph Beuys and charged with post-industrial foreboding. Also plucked from that record comes the puckish splatterpunk of Um Politik, and radio 'hit,' Boiler Suits and Combat Boots, a mission-statement satire against cultural uniformity, and perhaps the ultimate epitome of The Umlauts disco war march, stylish as fuck.

And if their first EP was in their own words, basically an 'accident,' its follow-up Another Fact is a work of more immaculate designs. With the addition of Italo-disco influences, and of Caroline's Magdalena McLean on violin duties, The Umlauts sound lifted towards more operatic and nuanced heights, with the tense violin bow sweeps on Non è Ancora, and the delicious synth-popping sheen of Sweat adding further spikes of melodrama to their sound.

Also included are three new tracks. Dance and Go delivers an undulating and irresistible dance-punk drive. Mad Blue Love rants against relationships built on sandy grounds of false expectations, while Prédateur's swaying art-pop curiosities strings out one of the band's most intricate arrangements to date.

Described by the band as the end of a chapter, Slags stands pregnant with rich anticipation for whatever wanderings are yet to come from this most unique of bands. For sure, it has already been a riveting ride.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Tracklist:

1. Energy Plan
2. Dance & Go
3. Frightened
4. Boiler Suits & Combat Boots
5. Non è Ancora
6. Mad Blue Love
7. Sweat
8. Um Politik
9. Prédateur
10. Another Fact