The Sound of Total Despair

I first heard Bohren & Der Club of Gore a little over a decade ago. The German doomjazz/darkjazz band sounds like it is composed of a handful of the most talented jazz artists alive who have all drank just enough codeine to not die. Pushing the moniker "the slowest band on Earth," Bohren's early albums, including Sunset Mission and Pitch Black Earth, are actually incredibly cool and fun albums, like soundtracks to the greatest film noir never made. However, something seems to have happened before the release of their 2008 album, Delores, as if everyone and everything the band know and love has died. Delores is spare and slower than ever. Every single note has intention and impact. The saxophone doesn't even play its first note until several songs in. The album is still cool...it doesn't seem like this band is capable of not being cool. However, Delores evokes feelings of total despair. Despite its chill tones, Bohren's music always seems to carry an apocalyptic atmosphere, or at least an atmosphere of death. The emotional flow of Delores feels as if everything that could matter is being stripped away until the final sax and keyboard notes of closing track, "Welton," which combine to make the most emotionally desolate sound I've ever heard. It is soul-crushing. Somehow, the abstract album art of a sliced open throat giving birth to butterflies fits perfectly. It's like immense pain giving birth to beauty (I mean this metaphorically--please don't slit your throat!). Delores is a work of artistic perfection, and I can't recommend it enough. Unless you are really down and depressing stuff makes it worse. In that case stay FAR away...