Space Race Records has already surprised me a few times with electro-pop and body-pop inspired formations, but this Leipziger duo is without a shadow of a doubt one of my favorites. After some self-released EP’s they joined the Italian label devoted to electro-pop to unleash their official debut.
Robert Grolms and Niko “DrMOllE” Kötzsch clearly found their inspiration in the wider fields of electro-pop music and EBM. “Warnemünde” clearly sounds like the offspring between both genres, which directly comes through on the opening song, “Homerun”. The music is pretty EBM driven while the vocals are more into a traditional pop vein. The body-side becomes harder on, “Wenn Du Mich Berührst” on, which some of the sequences even remind me of Nitzer Ebb’s “Murderous”. The vocals sung in German are here again accentuating some pop inspiration. The pure body-pop like “Von Grün Zu Schwarz” has a little flavor of And One on top and clearly sounds as one more attention grabber. A similar impression comes back at “Volk 3”. There’s a perfect harmony between EBM and electro-pop, but Gimme Shelter has much more to offer and the potential to surprise.
They also accomplished a few cool and pure catchy pop cuts like “Lead Me On” and “Every.” I also like the production of the vocals at “Every”, which becomes half-spoken injecting a sensual touch to the work. A more surprising and unexpected side is noticeable with, “Die Wiege” and the title song “Warnemünde”. Gimme Shelter reveals a delicate sense of writing, which sounds more dark-wave like and emotional. This is the kind of music that comes closer to Diary Of Dreams, while revealing more complex compositions.
Last, but not least there’s the harder and faster “Hans Mayer” who was a renowned German literary scholar. This is a great song featuring technoid arrangements, but with a real potential to conquer dancefloors.
Gimme Shelter definitely is a formation with multiple sides, but which are always centered on electro-pop.
Conclusion: This album is a quite diversified release in electro-pop music revealing different interesting songs with a few potential ‘mini’ hits.