Search - Nina Hagen :: Nunsexmonkrock

Debra M. from MELBOURNE, FL
Reviewed on 9/28/2006...

Not my kind of music.....

Weird and great

Gunther | Austin, TX | 06/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of my go to cd's. I am the first to admit it takes multiple listens before you like it but once you do, it is like crack (at least what I hear crack is like) once you are hooked you can't stop.



It is a great cd. Not only that, if you are an audiophile, "Born in XIXXAX" is, to this day, considered one of the best produced songs period. Add to that, this CD version is the reference - on a high $ system you can make out parts of the song that are simply 3-dimensional. On a regular, consumer, system it sounds amazing - the sign of a well produced CD.



None of this is meant to take away from the brilliance of the album, it is great on it's on merit."

Brave Experimentation

Pieter | Johannesburg | 06/28/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
This 1982 album with its religious themes doesn't quite live up to Nina's earlier German albums Nina Hagen Band of 1978 or Unbehagen of 1980. Gone are the superb melodies whilst the still striking vocal gymnastics get too complicated at times, but it's still a formidable listening experience and impressive when measured against the punk and rock of its era. Most of the tracks are bubbling fast-paced new wave numbers except the last three eerie ballads.



Antiworld opens the album, a structurally unhinged song about exorcism with initial English and later German lyrics in often weirdly contorted vocals. The arrangement of Smack Jack is even more varied with frequent tempo changes, frenzied and tranquil segments and extreme vocal variation. There's an oriental feel to Taitschi-Tarot that's more of a chant than a song, whilst Dread Love, though still fringe, approaches the traditional rock song structure.



Future Is Now starts off slow but soon mirrors the aforementioned by its tempo variations and blistering vocals. Next the listener tunes in to Radio Yerevan on the track Born In Xixax where Nina's alto and soprano vocals interweave wonderfully over an insistent beat, while the soprano dominates on Iki Maska, another one with mixed German & English lyrics. The closest English equivalent to this vocal exuberance would be Lene Lovich although she's tame compared to Nina.



Dr Art is an atmospheric, somewhat spooky track with multiple voices expressing a bewildering array of emotions by talking and singing over a gently lilting beat. Lydia Lunch comes to mind here, as well as in the following track Cosma Shiva, a mid-tempo excursion with similar strange vocals, mostly German. Nunsexmonkrock concludes with the hypnotic ballad UFO, a soulful song where the predominantly subdued and sometimes whispered vocals are occasionally pierced by fierce exclamations.

"