Koenig Leopold
There's a new King in town. The young Vienna duo koenigleopold, consisting of Lukas König and Leo Riegler, is the inventor and sole proprietor of a highly original musical-theatrical style, a show that veers from virtuosic exultation to comedy to embarrassment, often in the course of a single piece. They've also got a hell of a wardrobe. Lukas König's drum and synth work is built on the best beats of the last fifty years - dismantled, reassembled and played at full volume on an ancient turntable sitting in a junkyard on the slope of an active volcano. We now pause for a natural disaster. Leo Riegler is by turns a pimp, a dada MC, a gifted turntablist, a hopeless but convincing opera singer and a back-alley clarinetist . . . and a consummate showman throughout. The music is a rollercoaster mixture of dirty hip-hop, rock and roll and weird takes on bubblegum pop punctuated by pure noise improvisations, played with high precision and a strange, fierce intensity that becomes positively unsettling when coupled with, say, the sounds of Darth Vader enjoying a nice steak (which can happen). It's almost like they're hearing voices on stage - but whether it's the ghosts of Zappa and Biggie Smalls they're channeling, the complete works of Monty Python in Cantonese or a doll that just says "Mama!" over and over again - the results are dangerously grooving and completely unique. When koenigleopold is holding court it's best to pay attention.