WHAT DO YOU KNOW, DEUTSCHLAND?: KMFDM's Official Debut Spans Years Worth of History

KMFDM: WHAT DO YOU KNOW, DEUTSCHLAND?

SCORE: 69/100

Technically the oldest KMFDM project, WHAT DO YOU KNOW DEUTSCHLAND? is a massively gritty project that contains material from before the band had even been formed or established, as well as content that was recorded before 'Opium' was even released in 1984. This debut album was not released until 1986, and the project's release on Z Records contains 7 tracks and forty minutes of music.

A year later, Skysaw records reissued the album, bloating it up to ten overall tracks and battling the debate to keep the track Zip before the public got the more well-known 1987 version of the album - with my personal listening being for the original 7-track format of the album, as it is the faithful version to consider the band's roots and beginnings with the album. 

This is an album that marks an important piece of KMFDM history - as well as the history of industrial music as a whole. The band was heavily experimenting and finding their footing in a larger setting than ever before on this album, and it's one of their most important bodies of work even despite the fact it is not as interesting as their other works sonically. In terms of conceptualization and significance, this album is exceptionally interesting and uses many different striking and experimental sounds that fans of experimental music are much more likely to love than fans of guitar-heavy industrial are. 

The experimental side of KMFDM is what made them as ambitious as they are, and without albums like this one, we would not have modern industrial music as we know it. This album is a complete look at the raw, real-world sound that industrial music was known for in its budding days, and KMFDM worked to break the mold and create something new and invigorating, with this album being their first steps into creating a blueprint for their career, which has now spanned well over four decades and counting since their formation and these early moments of their progress.

This album marked the official beginning of KMFDM as an established band, and although it lacks the riffy, catchy guitar-laced industrial sound of their later works, it's an incredibly funk-filled and rough industrial project that is faithful to the quirky and dark sound of the 80's industrial sound while creating something highly unique and full of individuality. Through this album alone, you could easily tell how unlike other bands KMFDM have always been, and this album was a warning strike for the reign on industrial music that the band continues to have even to this day.

Getting to hear a band's practice pay off as you listen to their discography is one of the most interesting factors about such iconic bands, and it's especially unique when it is a band that took a few albums to set a pace and find their iconic style before becoming iconic and comfortable in their branding. 

The band broke boundaries and created something raw with this album, and the instrumental tracks help to format the band in a way that is cohesive and prominently showcases their early roots, style, and future sound all in one album. It's a much more important album than some may give it credit for, and it's one of the band's most underlooked and unknown projects, which is frequently overshadowed by their mid-late 90's album run, which is where they began to find massive international success. 

KMFDM fans will either love or hate this record, and the polarizing status of their music is just one of many things that make them such an iconic band. Without albums like this one, we would not have the modern industrial scene that helped to shape so many artists and bands, and the world would not have even half of the industrial soundscape without bands like KMFDM taking a stand and revamping the genre into something unique and captivating.