I AM IN LOVE

Not since Gary Numan first learned to walk in stacked heels have we heard quite such an extrovert level of electro-gothicity as displayed on ‘Proposal’, the latest release by amorous Deutschephiles I Am In Love.  The horror-movie-soundtrack wailing synth line, scratchy guitars, and detuned bassline all add up to something rather unsettling – and things don’t get any less disturbing when the vocals arrive.  This really is a proposal: the repeated refrain “and I’ll be your husband” is ever more insistently repeated by multiple voices swirling like bats in a cave.  It becomes disturbingly intense – vulgar, even.  But I Am In Love are nothing if not ambitious: somewhere in the middle the song takes on a slug of white funk; an austere drum solo gives way to a euphoric climax; the outro reminds us just how weird the last three minutes have been.  It’s quite some journey.

Creating a song which is the aural equivalent of being propositioned by Alex DeLarge, inside a John Martin painting, via a cold-war era shortwave radio, is quite an achievement.  But this group of Leicestershire chaps already have form – 2011’s ‘Of Love And Affection’ LP was released on German label VelocitySounds, and gathered all sorts of kudos on the continent – clearly there’s something about their austere romanticism that the German psyche can’t resist.  But with this release I Am In Love are being noticed back in the UK, which surely is a prelude to the second chapter in their career.  Glück!

Words by Martin Sharman

Tipped by Joe Frankland