Visiting Spreepark

Monday, January 7. 2008

The "official" story behind Spreepark is that they were East Germany's entrants in the 1984 Eurovision contest, scoring top marks with "Spreepark Jetzt (030-533-350)", only to vanish into the ether (along with all tapes of the performance) when it came time for the prize to be awarded. The only reason that I'm able to write about them now is because both of their long-lost albums, The Gaysion Invasion and We're Reinventing Music, suddenly came back into existence late last year, thanks to the diligent work of Woodpigeon's Mark Hamilton.

Sadly, none of that is true, and that last sentence probably tipped you off as to who the real mastermind behind Spreepark really is. Not that this, in itself, isn't cause for rejoicing -- Woodpigeon's Songbook was one of the best albums of 2006, so any new music Hamilton is willing to give out to the world is always welcomed by me. And "give out" is definitely the operative word here, since anyone can go to Spreepark's site and download both albums for free.

As is the case with his other band's free album, Hamilton's (and Spreepark's, I guess, since there are three other members in the band), output here is, in terms of quality, well above what most other bands are charging for. Songs like "Overture To The Matterhorn/The Matterhorn Reminisces" and "Spreepark Jetzt (030-533-350)" explore the same Sufjan-meets-Broken Social Scene territory that was mined so expertly on Songbook. Elsewhere, however, the band branches off in new directions entirely, with results that range from excellent ("There's Nothing You Can Say Now", on which the very talented Jane Vain takes lead vocals and everything takes on a strange -- but welcome -- trip-hop-meets-blues vibe) to the merely very good ("Shut Up Up Up Up Up (And Die)", wherein the band inserts a big dollop of noise-rock into their sound and comes out sounding as good as most bands who do that kind of thing for a living). It all makes for an excellent listen, and at this price, you absolutely can't go wrong.

Seriously, go and download it right now.

Posted by matthew in mp3, reviews at 14:21 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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damn you... you beat me to the punch again.

#1 ack (Homepage) on 2008-01-10 13:58 (Reply)

Are you kidding me? Comparisons to Sufjan and Broken Social Scene are not just wildly inaccurate, but overtly pernicious. And those aren't even necessarily 'great' bands.

While I appreciate the effort these musicians are devoting to their music--for free no less--let's be honest: they're typical hipsters with a penchant for attention and a lot of work ahead of them before warranting such comparisons.

This will probably get moderated, but I thought I would share none the less.

-S

#2 Some guy with a clue. on 2008-05-14 02:00 (Reply)

1) Pernicious, eh? That seems a bit like a wild misrepresentation there, too.

2) I find it hilarious you came to this post by googling "Spreepark band bad".

3) Having met a few of the members of Spreepark in the course of their work with Woodpigeon, I'd argue vehemently against the "hipster" tag. They're all honest, hard-working musicians, and I think they're doing it because they love making music, not because they're desperate for attention.

#2.1 matthew on 2008-05-14 07:53 (Reply)

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