Mittel European electro-rock of the
D.A.F. prototype,
Y-Luk-O make records that sound like they should be booming from a Munich disco circa 1981. Old-school vintage synthesizers and oscillators are the basis of these 11 songs, along with guttural German-language vocals and thumping electronic drums. The sound is so thoroughly pre-unification that songs like "Ein Lied von der Freiheit" even mine Cold War-era sound bites and vaguely threatening martial rhythms. The results are certain to please anyone who still has a number of
Yello, late-era
Kraftwerk, or
Laibach albums as well as newly minted electroclash fans, but the retrogressive feel of
Elektrizitatswerk is so completely focused on the past that it's hard to imagine where exactly
Y-Luk-O plan to go from here. ~ Stewart Mason