The most delightful part of “Endless Rüttenscheid” is a self-description: In “Liebesformular” the Essen band International Music sings: “We make timeless melancholic music.” Freshly sparkling guitar chords slowly turn towards the sky.
This completely unbroken moment of beauty has something that only very few musicians can achieve. If you listen carefully, you can clearly hear how happy the band is about this line.
The funny thing is that the song and the song title contrast with each other. Here is this music, which is not only melancholic, but also euphoric, almost uninhibited. And there is this title, which in its rigidity expresses the exact opposite. A form, and one that has to be filled out when it comes to love. It has a very German, binder-like quality.
International Music has released two albums so far: both the debut “Die besten Jahre” (2018) and the Successor “Duck Dream” (2021) were unanimously praised by pop critics, and “Ententraum” also brought the band 13th place in the album charts.
The principle behind the music of singer and guitarist Peter Rubel, singer and bassist Pedro Goncalves Crescenti and drummer Joel Roters was that it was impossible to pinpoint such a thing.
International Music always seemed to be one step ahead of you. Just when you had decided that they had definitely heard the harsh guitar storms of the Scots The Jesus and Mary Chain, Fairport Convention would suddenly appear. And when you were finally sure that you could place them somewhere in the Kraut, in a lineage to Can or Neu, they would release a perfect summer pop song.
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Crescenti and Rubel also made a career with a second, completely equal band: With the Düsseldorf Düsterboys They play songs in a wide field between folk, tropicalia and the Velvet Underground.
A very unique approach to the world of words
International Music have now called their third album “Endless Rüttenscheid”. Rüttenscheid is a district of Essen; but if you follow this album, Rüttenscheid is above all a utopia.
The songs don’t sound like the city at all. But they don’t sound like the country either. They defy any kind of localization, which is mainly due to the way the band writes lyrics. Somewhere between sense and nonsense, between Dada, Thomas Bernhard and Christian Morgenstern, between claim and loose association, International Music have found their own very unique approach to the world of words.
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It is true that one can read one’s own lines as a reader for the album: “Take the tower and make it lean,” sings the group in “Lass es ziehn.” In “Unterschied” it says: “We only keep what we like.” But even what is kept needs to be sorted, grouped, organized, and filed (you know, in the Leitz folder).
Listeners don’t have to read between the lines here, but between the individual words, and even then they are more surprised than enlightened. If you look at it from above, it is clear that in its best moments, this record doesn’t sound like Endless Rüttenscheid, but rather like Endless Summer.
Although: the sound on this album is fluid. In contrast to the two previous albums, “Endless Rüttenscheid” looks in significantly more directions. The introductory “Kraut” may be funny in places, but it also references blues and at least at first sounds like a fun retro rock’n’roll song from the 1970s. “Kieselwege” even reminds you briefly of “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” by Middle Of The Road!
In the twang of the aforementioned “Love Form”, perhaps the band’s best song, hints of the first Summer of Love (California, 1967, think of the Byrds) and the second (Manchester, 1988, think of early Primal Scream) collide.
“Guter Ort” combines fridge-cold no-wave synths with the guitar slacker that dominated indie dance floors from Glasgow to New York in the early 2000s. And more than once the band also refers to their own songs from previous albums.
It is probably not correct to speak of influences in the traditional sense when it comes to International Music. It seems more like various other types of music have sailed past the band at such a close distance that they have left their mark. Just like the flower water that sometimes drips onto the sleeves of city strollers from balconies that cannot be seen even when looking up with a sharp focus.
At the same time, International Music have chosen exactly the right producer in Olaf Opal. He is a detail-loving interior designer who uses his vintage recording equipment to decorate even the most remote corners of the songs.
The result is a very unique mood, which is determined by the band’s self-image: At times, almost sacred-sounding joy in harmony and musical curiosity drip from each of the songs. Strangely wonderful.
