(3/6/5) 006: German Error Message - Keep

As I write this, too deep into April to really make sense, the world outside my window is a wash of grey. Streaked by rain, and save for a window lit up by the orange glow of lamplight, everything else is a variation of that shade: from the garden below, through the bricked buildings, sloping slate roofs, spindly silhouetted trees, up to the colourless sky above.

Suitably, the music of Paul Kintzing has always painted such shadowy landscapes. Releasing music under his German Error Message moniker for well over a decade now, Kintzing's work exists solely in the half-light, a characteristic that remains true, and wonderfully compelling, on his fifth full-length effort, the absorbing self-titled LP he released back in February.

And there is beauty in such a world. Despite its lack of light, Kintzing eeks out every ounce of elegance, embracing the shrouded greyness to create a heaped melancholy, the kind of weight you almost don't notice until it's no longer there.

Such a world might be monochrome - but it's never monotone. There are numerous flutters in the gloominess, even if they never truly shine. Such ripples are necessary too, allowing the songs to shimmer their own peculiar magic and never allowing despondency to take over.

Indeed much of this work is beautiful - perhaps nowhere more so than on the closing track 'Keep'. "Piled like leaves to burn or bleed. You were angry, now you’re free," Kintzing sings, before the tender instrumentation gently takes over, rolling forward to dance its own dance, a slow-burn pirouette that holds all colours at bay.

It's one of my favourite records of the year so far; check out 'Keep' below and be sure to explore the full German Error Message catalogue via Bandcamp.

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