A Gothic Rock band from Kiel, Germany. Being exceptionally productive in 1990-2002 (13 albums and hours of outtake material) and granted by noticable reviews from popular magazines and Mick Mercer itself, they stayed obscurely unknown outside of German tape underground.
Also was formed by Alexander Schmidt (vocals, guitar) and his schoolmate Oliver Gnass (bass, effects) in 1990, with Aida Sikira recruited as a keyboardist. Aida has left the band in the middle of working on "Elegie", so Also stayed a "two boys" band until Kristine Warmhold joined them in late 1993. All of them (except Olly) are professional trained musicians and multi-instrumentalists able to introduce a wide set of atypical instruments and achieve the decent sound quality even in house conditions fixating their songs on unprofessional gear and tapes, as if producing two songs per week over years was not a trial for them.
The Also works are mostly conceptual, based on and dedicated to absurdism philosophers and decadent poets like Albert Camus and Georg Trakl. The common themes are social decay, oppresses of urban life, misanthropy and senslessness of ambitions. But besides of these grim conceptions, they are still funny guys who don't take it much serious and let themselves to recreate it with references to Vincent Price stage work, permanent David Bowie and Jim Morrison quotations and Elvis Presley covers (two on each album). Also love experiments and often bring unexpected (decidedly weird sometimes) vibes of LouReedish psychedelia in their classic Bauhaus-like style.
In 2014 the "Locked in a Cold Room" compilation has been released, which became a start point for back-catalogue rediscovery. For the first time the complete Also discography is becoming available in these digital remastered editions with lots of unreleased stuff and author liner notes about the music kitchen and band's history. The Alexander's solo works under name of Alexander Dust are worth trying as well.
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