MLXMLK was the first track by Goldroger Captain Cool recommended to me. What I remember distinctly, and what brings me back to this track again and again, was the impact of the beat paired with the intricacy of the lyrics. Textual loopings paired with the energy of a clap track, syllables so satisfyingly constructed and the simplicity of a piano. But we’re here to talk about the artist’s second album, 2016’s Avrakadavra.
How to describe the sound, the combination of eclectic guitar riffs, reggea-like percussion rhythms, punk heavy distortion and politically engaged lyrics that can easily swing into the descriptive, the prosaic, poetic and lyrical? Goldroger is hard to categorise, a rapper from the German Ruhr area that knows how to work the words as much as the beat. Some tracks verge on the border of spoken word/prose performance (Harry Haller), others contain choruses that can compete in catchiness with any current pop song (Sgt. Pfeffer). Some songs are explicitly political, lamenting the loss of childhood optimism and the vision for a better world (Friede den Hütten), others sing of personal stories where the lyrics read like a diary entry, a photo album, filled to the last page with stained polaroids (Delphin).
Goldroger’s songs are either incredibly rhythmic, placing the drop at the perfect second, or they’re surprisingly sad, contemplating loneliness and suicide with unexpected tenderness. The former topics reach their zenith on Perwoll and M.I.D.A.$., the 5th and 8th tracks. Perwoll recounts the loss of a friendship, the slow drifting apart that happens over the verses as it does over the years, a person changing before our eyes. A change that is underlined by a filtered drum sample, creating a simplicity that only builds in the chorus, the only seconds allowed for emotional response. Should we cry when the separation is mutual? Should we feel sad when we ourselves are one of the parties responsible for the loss? There is a subtle change of perspective, asking exactly these questions as Goldroger asks his friend whether he himself is the one that has changed.
That uncertainty has no place on M.I.D.A.$. with its brassy synth and repetitive chorus, the heavy reverb placed on the vocals, the creation of a golden resonance chamber capturing every beat and word. It does not only sing of gold, it feels luxurious in its instrumentation, amazingly lush and resonant. Displaying lyrical mastery and an attentive ear to the combination of words and music becomes apparent on this track.
The more depressing side of Avrakadavra is inhabited by thoughts of suicide caused by the emptiness of existence. Bemale den Mond might trace the experience of a high with the haziness of lonely guitar notes and an almost palpable mellowness, but there is a bleakness hiding within these lines. A sadness that reflects on the uncertainty we sometimes feel, what to make of life and how to live it fully: Ich schau ins Schaufenster rein / ein unheimliches Bild / Wo ist das Funkeln meiner Augen nur / ich finde es nicht. (I look into the shopwindow / an uncanny sight / where is the sparkle in my eyes / I can’t find it)
Create a song that evokes depression, the kind that is not tear jerkingly sad, not pity evoking, but the kind of depression that makes you understand what that whole inside of someone’s chest might feel like – a song that makes you empathise. Harry Haller (named after the protagonist from Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf), a song about the idolisation of suicide as an action of absolute freedom, the acceptance of a possible voluntary end, the relief that lies in the possibility: Die Möglichkeit zu gehen / macht es so gesehen erst erträglich (The possibility of leaving / is what makes it bearable) And yet, such a sad premise culminates in one of the most powerful builds, desperate and affirming at the same time as electric guitars carry the sound over a steady drum beat. It’s a sad affirmation of life, fading out with the sound of a heartbeat.
I’ve listened to Goldroger a lot since that first time hearing MLXMLK in my brother’s room. Avrakadavra’s successor, Diskman Antishock, released in 2019, reaffirms not only his talent as a musician and writer but shows his growth as both. An artist that can oscillate between the carefreeness of reggae, weed and hazy beats, and the heaviness of existentialist fear, the loss of friendship and the emptiness inside of us that can only be avoided but never filled, is an artist to watch.
The Dad Anthology 