The biggest party evers: Kante “Die Tiere sind unruhig”
Erinner dich daran (Photo: Marcus can’t dance)
Kante
„Die Tiere sind unruhig“
(Labels/EMI)
During the summer holidays of 2006, my grandmother bought me my first Musikexpress magazine. She couldn’t stand my previous holiday reading (Bravo) because of its explicit depiction of sexual matters. My grandmother had no idea that this purchase would corrupt me more than all the Bravo magazines combined. That summer, I became a pop nerd. The “Record of the Month” at the time was “Die Tiere sind unruhig” by the Hamburg band Kante. I got hold of the album and liked what I heard, but it wasn’t until five years later that I realized its true greatness.
2011: The system was faltering, resistance was stirring in the streets—Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, Slutwalks. Pop culture responded with unabashed hedonism. David Guetta, Kesha, and the Black Eyed Peas were playing at high school parties. Even years after its release, Die Tiere sind unruhig continued to resonate with me.
The album provided a home for the chaos spreading within me and around me. Lyrically and musically, it focuses on instincts, impulses, intuition – and poetically elevates them to an intellectual level. It succeeds because Die Tiere sind unruhig aims to be a complete work. In most tracks, guitars thunder, strings shimmer, and an ominous, apocalyptic mood spreads.
Each of the seven tracks could be included individually in a playlist. There is not an ounce of excess, even though the songs are quite opulent. The stoner riffs of “Ich Hab’s Gesehen,” the piano breakdown of “Die Wahrheit,” the Sigur Rós-esque textures in the opener – the ingredients come from the rock classic playbook. However, the rocking heaviness is broken in the middle by “Die Größte Party der Geschichte.” The song is about the last of all days. But instead of increasing the seriousness of the preceding tracks, it turns out to be an airy Latin funk song with a remarkable rap part in which guitarist Felix Müller actually manages to squeeze in the words “Gästelistenbestätigungsausdrucken” (guest list confirmation printout). A jam band-style horn breakdown has a choir in the background shouting “Par-tay” and clapping their hands – comic relief and a strange hit at the same time. That’s how I fell in love with this album all over again, which was to take on a deeper meaning another ten years later.
We probably haven’t yet grasped how big an impact the COVID pandemic has really had on our lives – an unprecedented turning point in our culture. In 2021, “Die Tiere sind unruhig” turned 15. After this album and the subsequent tour, Kante largely withdrew from the pop business. Theater music was released in 2015, but since 2018, the band’s social media channels have been silent. And yet, their best album today exudes more diagnosis than nostalgia.
At a time when the foundations of our existence are under attack, when solidarity is increasingly considered radical, the unrest continues to grow. This instinctive unrest challenges us and urges us to act. We animals are restless—and will remain so.
“But for us, nothing is lost / As long as the pain still lives within us / And our anger remains in flux / Even if time no longer heals it.”
Marcus can’t dance
