CD Reviews

Von Südenfed

Tromatic Reflexxions | Domino

By SUSANNE BOLLE | June 19, 2007

3.0 Stars

On the face of it, Mark E. Smith and Mouse on Mars’ Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma are an unlikely match. But from the first bars of the preternaturally funky opener of their collaboration as Von Südenfed, “Fledermaus Can’t Get It,” it’s evident that the Fall’s notoriously acerbic front man and Cologne’s most ebulliently idiosyncratic electronicists have managed a merger made in musical heaven. St. Werner and Toma create a deliriously infectious mix of eclectic techno grooves, from the chugging, soulful sing-along “Rhinohead” to the dubstep, bassbin burner “Serious Brainskin.” And Smith is back in fine, cantankerous form, spouting off in pidgin German on “Speech Contamination/German Fear of Osterre” and holding forth on the euphoric “Family Feud,” with its cockeyed chorus of “I am Andi! I am the great MES!” Lest you think it’s all egocentric dance-floor fun and games, there’s also an utterly tweaked acid-blues track about boiling — or not boiling — a chicken, as well as a lovely, affecting Afropop-inspired closer titled “Dear Dead Friends.” “We live in strange and mysterious times,” Smith rails at one point. Tromatic Reflexxions is a soundtrack for such times.