Speaking shockingly stereotypically, reverting to musical affairs, Germany isn’t really renowned for much. Rammstein and Techno are amongst scarce sonic exports, seemingly a potential cause of crippling consternation in the eyes of Konstantin Gropper’s Get Well Soon. Vexations channels equal-parts unearthed and underrated influences through a miserably euphoric funnel of downbeat holocaustic choir hums, adding a pinch of Micah P. Hinson’s beautifully bruised baritone and pretence-felling fanfares from Islands’ seas of discontent. Seneca’s Silence swirls with violin shrieks last seen aggravatingly adorning the hopeless haunts of Hope of the States’ underachieving excellence, as Gropper gruesomely groans “I’ll bring the poison, can you bring the knife?” Vexations aches with glorious glockenspiels and painful piano tinklings, also reminiscent of the wistful dreariness of The Dears, accentuated as the affirming crescendo of A Voice In The Louvre crashes thunderously, before subsiding like trembling torrents on deserted shores. Elsewhere, Werner Herzog Gets Shot bleeds a bleak naivety, condemned to the doldrums of heartstring huggers that tugged too hard. That Love, in the right hands (either of Facebook so-called pioneers or Mr. Cowell) could be the first credible Christmas number one since Shakin’ Stevens whilst We Are Ghosts, although shockingly similar to Dead Man’s Bones’ self-titled long player of yesteryear, is heart-warmingly hallowed. Whilst Vexations may veer occasionally into a mundane amalgamation of the grief-ridden archives of angst smattered across many a melodramatic record, while steel drums and sombre strings tend to tie song after song into a confusing collection of orchestral knots, untangle the sea shanties and choral qualms and a rather exquisite collection of dots, dashes and semiquavers become aligned.
