Dirk Dresselhuas has probably long since resigned himself to being a mere quirky footnote in rock history. The creative mind behind Schneider TM was responsible for that mischievous and heart-melting cover of The Smiths' iconic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. Despite The Light 3000 being a much venerated redux, it yielded him little more that cult status, but thankfully he has continued to release his eclectic glitch-pop.
Skoda Mluvit is his third long-player and a more willfully manic collection of songs you’ll be hard pressed to find this year.
Dresselhaus enjoys leading listeners up blind alleys, playing truant when you most need his direction, leaving you stranded in a quixotic wonderland of feral sonics. The opening track, ‘More Time’ is a clear homage to Kraftwerk and the ‘motorik’ pulsing rhythms of Can, Neu! and Dresselhaus’ krautrock fore-bearers. But we go straight from that to the pastoral guitars and bucolic bleeps of 'Pac Man/Shopping Cart'. Second guessing the guy clearly is not an option.
The cornucopia of sounds on offer can initially be a bit head-spinning. The warm embrace of the acoustic rooted ‘Caplets’ and the hyper-real electro-pop of 'Cateractact', are offset by the jarringly sparse ‘Klexx’ and wonky hip-hop of ‘The Blacksmith’. Dresselhaus plays like a sonic magpie, taking shiny pieces of electronic noise from all and sundry.
Skoda Mluvit has patches of incoherency and over-ambition, but it’s a testament to Dresslehaus’ musical dexterity that he manages to stitch together such a rich and varied sonic tapestry. A curio he may be, but Schneider TM’s light shines on.