108 Fahrenheit

108 Fahrenheit - "No heart" pop and poetry, especially in German - that is a fine line in the local music landscape, on which quite a few ambitious bands quickly lose their balance. Either it becomes banal or cheesy, in the worst case even both. Fortunately, the men around Kai Niemann are miles away from it, and »108 Fahrenheit« set off with their new studio album »Kein Herz« to add a chapter to German-speaking pop that does not drown in sticky platitudes, but nurtures stimulating melancholy in the form of honest understatement.

Of course, this includes the virtuosic handling of strings of any color as well as drumsticks and brooms up to wind and string sets.

The six-member band celebrates their studied craft without getting lost in exaggerated flourishes. Almost as a trademark, the banjo of Marco Pfennig dances ironically, sometimes melancholy around acoustic and electric guitars, around bass and drums.

But what would all this unobtrusive instrumental virtuosity and simultaneous musical ease be without the appropriate vocals? Kai Niemann intones this with such a gentle determination, which is unparalleled – simply because Niemann has something to “say” and lets his heart speak – without kitsch and banalities.

Far from a thousand times heard heartbreak phrases Kai Niemann tells and sings about the big feelings in the small ("...every stone on the way brings you happiness ..."), about memories beyond nostalgia ("I am already so old, but I cry like a child in my pillow."), about life and love phases (".. tell me that you love me, even if you lie". As before, baby.

And somewhere between echoes of Element of Crime and Mumford & Sons, between pop and easy folk quotes, it then happens: »108 Fahrenheit« become for the listener the soundtrack of a melancholy-affirming road trip along the autumn-warm avenue called Life. One might be tempted to call “No Heart” pop poetry and “108 Fahrenheit” pop poetry. But that would not do justice to the sixth from Leipzig and Dresden for the aforementioned Schmaler-Grat reasons.

Let’s just try it this way: »108 Fahrenheit« not only pick up the listeners and especially the live audience with their second album, but take it with them without bowing. In short, “no heart” becomes “your heart.”

108 Fahrenheit are:

• Kai Niemann - singing
• Marco Pfennig — Banjo
• Adrian Kehlbacher — Bass
• Alexander Henke - electric guitar
• Thomas Hübel - Acoustic Guitar
• Stephan Salewski - drums