Cracking, sometimes distorted guitars, hard, driving beats, plus the voluminous rock tube, rather somber, sometimes ambiguous lyrics – it’s nothing more than “Mogsd schmusn, mia wad’s wurscht”, the reggae-like song with which Karin Rabhansl was successful in 2011 appeared on the scene. First solo, then supporting Matthias Kellner, finally alongside Stefan Dettl and La Brass Banda. Dialect with a twist and pop appeal, the powerful-voiced guitarist from Trautmannsdorf near Passau was quickly identified with new folk music and the emerging “home sound”.
Scary: The cover of Karin Rabhansl’s new album “Rodeo”.
(Photo: dpa)
Even back then, one could have noticed that their lyrics were a bit more ironic and wacky and their music a bit heavier than the majority of the funny neo-folklore faction. From album to album she set herself apart, first with her band, then with the support of funk jazz musicians Peter Wölpl and Oli Rubow, very clearly in 2018 with her fourth album “Tod und Teufel”. It was about alcoholism, loneliness and old age, about stalkers and organ trafficking, and of course about the title characters; like the devil. Now it’s finally over with funny, on the cover of the new album “Rodeo” which has just been released, people are being devoured by a wolf serpent. In addition to the guitar, Rabhansl also plays the electric bass for the first time and ultimately becomes a rock musician. Gladly in dialect, but not always.
It can be assumed that Rabhansl’s path was not necessarily the most commercially promising. But he has guided her to an authentic, distinctive style. The hard gait carried by Julia “Jules” Fischer on keyboards, Joschi Joachimsthaler on second guitar and bass and Simon Weber on drums simply fits this “ride through life”, as Rabhansl describes her album. To songs like “Amor” or “Anett” about the relentlessness of love, like “Baby, run” about toxic masculinity, like “12 Joa” about feelings of guilt or like “Er oder I” about the eternal struggle between good and evil God or the devil for the human soul. Especially (albeit in slower, more restrained sound robes) to the mysterious and creepy like the “Schaufema” or the “Vampyr”.
Rabhansl has always felt drawn to morbid horror stories about werewolves, zombies, devils and other dark figures. “Maybe because I grew up deep in the Bavarian Forest, where it’s cold and dark and where the Catholic faith is rooted,” she says, and you don’t know how seriously you should take it. In any case, “Rodeo” gets another new color. The album also sounds mature, more mature, because the focus has shifted: “The perspective is moving away from myself to other people’s stories. My life isn’t so exciting that it could fill entire albums,” she says. And you don’t believe her 100% either.
Karin Rabhansl: “Rodeo”, Donnerwetter Musik/ Cargo Records; live with Fischer & Rabe: Wed., March 8th, 8.30 p.m. wombats in the Werkviertel, Atelierstr. 20, Thursday, March 9th, 8.30 p.m., wombats at the main station, Senefelderstr. 1