Laconic wit, a spirited groove

Not for one synth beep would the suspicion arise that to hell with eternity like so many other albums in recent months, is a remote-controlled lockdown opus. On the contrary, the rhythms hit your legs like a red arrow and the laconic vocals of himself, the King Pepe, are no less laconic, melancholy and lazy than those on his earlier works. The album was recorded almost entirely at a distance. "So recording tracks and sending them to each other and sending them back again, etc.," writes Simon Hari, the carnal manifestation of the eccentric muse King Pepe, by email. "Later, it would have been possible to go into the studio together, but we thought the distance recordings were great and said: Come on, let's finish it like this!" Previously, the processes would have taken more time. "Normally I'd say in the studio: Hey, let's try this chorus again in a different way, so cheesy, so smooth or whatever. Here, this feedback was given by email or telephone, and it took another ten days before a new version was available."

Ironically, Hari's last album Karma OK The album was put together entirely on the computer and then painstakingly "brought to life" with co-producer Rico Baumann. This time, in addition to Baumann (drums, keys), Sibill Urweider (keys, vocals), Jeremias Keller (bass, vocals), Giulin Stäubli (drums) and sound engineer Sander Wartmann were also present, albeit in their "respective homes" (as it says on the cover drawn by Hari's nine-year-old son). Hari himself contributed guitar, piano, trumpet and piccolo to his often succinct Bernese-German lyrics, which are peppered with all kinds of double and triple entendres. "I found it impressive," he reports, "how easily life comes into it with genuinely played music. You get the full life for free. Through all the Veler, the funny stuff! It's beautiful! Even if it's not recorded in the same room!"

To hell with eternity begins with a smash hit, namely the title track. The synth bubbles and buzzes almost like in the eighties, percussion and drums gallop along like horses. Meanwhile, King Pepe bemoans his Tannhäuser-like fate: surrounded by ethereal dancing angels who are always smiling stupidly, he sits in heaven and is mortally bored. The neon light dazzles endlessly and the angelic music is exclusively in C major. With its psychedelically varied Giorgio Moroder groove, the sardonic Geit scho and literally cries out for an eleven-minute "Extended Disco Mix" maxi single. Hey moon is a nostalgic ode to the ailing celestial body: "Mier geits mängisch äänlich, nimm's bitte nid nid so schwär." Fingiguet is a minimalist hymn to the general "feeling good" and Stoubsuger a dreamy, crooned love song with a brilliant climax. Playful, versatile, ironic, a little eccentric, but also deeply serious - magnificent.

king pepe & the queens,to hell with eternity, Big Money Records