Photo: Thomas Hauser
So it does exist after all, a common denominator of Tocotronic, Sisters of Mercy, and early Farin Urlaub. But no one would have predicted that common denominator would come from Southwestern Germany’s Pfalz region. It was in this wilderness that Max Gruber first taught himself everything he needed to know. By the time he moved to Berlin, he was already teaching the German pop world lessons in danceable existentialism. In 2016, as Drangsal, he not only cast Jenny Elvers in the video for his song »Allan Align«, but also turned the heads of the entire indie scene with his debut album »Harieschaim«. The title of his subsequent album, »Zores«, might be translated from Palatine German (the dialect of the Pfalz region) as »Anger«, but it offers the exact opposite: pure joy. Gruber himself describes the album, which is sung predominantly in German, as a »quantum leap«—with it, he has landed in the pop of the present time. »I'm doing well«, he’s told us. And that much is clear.
Drangsal on Facebook