54 minutes, 54 seconds

Eco
Das Album

Talk about a guilty pleasure. This is electro music, sung mostly in German, with a distinct sense of humor. Shocked? I was when I first heard it. Who knew Germans had a sense of humor? Das Album is fun and bouncy, even silly at times, but it never gets on your nerves. It's also tuneful and catchy, with a wealth of good musical ideas that you rarely hear on most "serious" conventional recordings in this genre.

I don't know what happened to Eco. They released two albums and a couple of EPs, then disappeared. Too bad. This was their debut, and if for no other reason, it's worth seeking out purely for "Rotkäppchen," a frenetically paced mash up of early-'90s techno and some vaguely classical-sounding piece that I know I've heard before--probably in some cheesy daytime-TV commercial for one of those art schools you get into by copying a drawing of a pirate or a turtle.

Also today:

54:53 Cronos Titan, Brides of Christ
54:52 Front 242, Tyranny for You
54:51 Klinik, Black Leather
54:49 Digital Factor, Relationchips
54:49 Endif, Meta
54:46 Pulse Legion, One Thing
New arrival! 76:14 Funker Vogt, Aviator
New arrival! 55:42 Liholesie, Videniya
54:45 Decoded Feedback, Bio-Vital
54:45 Suicide Commando, Construct-Destruct