Piss forever: Schnipo Schranke ‘Satt’

Schnipo Schrank
„Satt“
(Buback, 2015)

Name a single record as the greatest milestone of the new millennium? Could you make it any harder, Kaput!? Well, in the end, of course, everyone knows that there are countless other highlights – and it’s also quite enjoyable to revel in abundance.

I could definitely mention Jens Friebe’s debut: For me, ‘Vorher Nachher Bilder’ captured so much of the pop music awakening of the new millennium in 2004. Or certainly an album by Egotronic, because the presence (and absence after his death at the end of 2023) of Torsun Burkhardt is very strongly connected to the last 25 years for me. Or Finna or The Thermals or Mitski?

This task makes me feel like I’m standing at a buffet, starving, with a plate that’s far too small in my hand. You’ll never get full that way!

Full. Satt. Is that a smooth transition or is it constructed in such a way that even the idiot at ChatGPT ‘thinks’ the old man could have done better? Never mind, I’ll leave it as it is. Because my album of the era is ‘Satt’ by Schnipo Schranke.
It takes me back a decade. I remember being sceptical about 2015. Cracks in civilisation were already apparent back then, but they were nothing compared to the erosion we see today, ten years later. Who would have thought that we would look back on 2015 with such wistful nostalgia? But I’m talking about the soundtrack of the last 25 years, so this isn’t meant to be doomscrolling, but rather a celebration of a very special record.

And so it began at that time: I pricked up my ears for a moment – did I really just hear the line ‘Held your mobile phone between your buttocks / just to entertain yourself’? While tidying up, I put on the compilation album ‘Keine Bewegung’ (No Movement) – partly out of a sense of duty, partly out of curiosity. The record, released on the Staatsakt and Euphorie labels, brings together explosive older and brand-new acts from the underground of German-language big-style pop. Everything’s cool, some of it even really good, but I have to put the needle back on this last song on the second side of the vinyl. And already on this second listen, it’s unspokenly clear that this track, ‘Pisse’, will be my absolute favourite thing for the foreseeable future.

But who the hell is that? Aha, it’s Daniela Reis, who runs the band Schnipo Schranke together with her friend Fritzi Ernst. Drums, keyboard, done. Sounds like nothing else. I make sure I’m among the first 300 fans of the band on Facebook – by the end of Schnipo Schranke, there will be 22,000 on this platform.
The latter number doesn’t seem that impressive, does it? But the song ‘Pisse’ has eight million views on YouTube – that reflects the phenomenon more appropriately.

I’m not exactly a pop truffle pig, but I feel what I celebrate – and so, after the first few spins of ‘Pisse’, I’m sure that this duo is going to be ‘something’. Damn, but I realise that I’ve just quit my job at a music magazine (#Intro). Where am I supposed to report on this enchanting phenomenon now?
Well, at kaput-mag. Together with Thomas Venker, I created this very unique pop culture platform. It’s supposed to be cooler and more agile than what I ultimately found to be rather dull and formulaic ‘official’ pop journalism. Accordingly, Thomas and I don’t want to do a written interview with Schnipo Schranke, but rather one for YouTube. Ideally in front of the open toilet door at the Pacific hotel in Hamburg – that would be perfect. It will be my first self-edited clip, still very rudimentary in technical terms, but it works and has now been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. I must admit I’m a little proud of that.

Schnipo Schranke are curious and fearless in their enthusiasm. They have just entered the race track themselves and are eager for whatever comes their way. The two have something of the Beatles from the ball pit about them, at least in that Dani and Fritzi are two equally talented songwriters who push each other to peak performances. The second big hit from their debut album ‘Satt’ – which followed six months after the explosive start with “Pisse” – is called ‘Cluburlaub’ and is now sung by Fritzi Ernst. You can hear that it has a different feel to her partner’s songs, but it’s still overwhelming. In these early days, the duo charged ahead with a spirit of self-liberation, dilettantism and sophistication (after all, the two met while studying music).

‘Satt’ begins with two self-referential tracks – and makes announcements as if it were a rap act loudly claiming its territory at the beginning of a new album: ‘We are Schnipo Schranke / Favourite school subject: petrol station / Bra size: sleeping bag lining / Weight together: like your mum’. The two can do anything they want at this point – and they do. They realise their fan dream of recording the album with Ted Gaier from Die Goldenen Zitronen. He does a good job and doesn’t clutter up the very characteristic piano-drum sound with unnecessary stuff, only sometimes does Fritzi Ernst enrich a passage with the recorder. While German-language pop is otherwise being sedated into early retirement by acts such as Max Giesinger and Tim Bendzko, Schnipo Schranke’s idiosyncratic and often obscene concept almost scratches the mainstream. But they are too weird for that – which only speaks in their favour.

After their second album, ‘Rare’, however, the enchanting system implodes without warning. Fritzi and Daniela fell out irreparably, as only the Ramones or Black Sabbath managed to do after decades. Quite an achievement – but above all a great pity. This creative collaboration simply burned too brightly to last the distance.

Linus Volkmann