Das Beat

Like a sparkling tsunami, visible on the horizon for some time now, it is finally flooding the local music scene once more: the latest wave of German new wave is bigger and brighter than any that came before. Eddie Rabenberger and Alexander Cowan, aka DJ Kirby, are riding the crest of the wave into the sunset of late-capitalist cultural bankruptcy, channelling songs about laughter and life, about love and letting go. This manifests itself in coolly calculated break-up tracks like “Paragraph 1” (2022) or ominous introspections à la “Wrestling My Mind” (2025). Echoing vocals, brilliantly arranged synth cascades and a gritty atmosphere collide here with thumping EDM and a healthy punk attitude. The beat is a recipe for rebellion and romance in sensual symbiosis. Yet although this duo operates with the same sophistication as a revived cult project from the eighties, their debut album “Frau Fatal”, released last year, sounds fresh, raw and driven by a lustful urge to experiment. The perfect ingredients, then, for a memorable debut here in Hamburg.