"Unheil" CD by Übermutter

by Oliver Kube (20.03.2008) "Als ich noch ein Mädchen war …" (when I was a little girl) – these are the words that Luci van Org begins the first song of her debut album with. Which in Übermutter is, of course, a clear reference to her own past. As Lucilectric, she was the girly and one-hit wonder of the year, 1994, with the post-Neue Deutsche Welle-hit, "Mädchen". After several unsuccessful trials as a horror author ("Der Tod wohnt nebenan") and TV-actress ("Balko", "Schloss Einstein"), the Berlin artist now returns as a Gothic-, varnish- and fetish-diva in the music business. How authentic this change may be should not be the question, though. Fact is that "Unheil!" with its powerful, and yet, at the same time, catchy songs is very effective. Van Org's voice dominates the heavy guitars, pulsing rhythms and gloomy keyboard sounds in both the Metallic hitters, such as "Am Anfang war das Weib" and "Unheil!" or walls of sound, like "Wein' mir ein Meer" and calmer songs, like "Ruhe sanft". Here and there ("Brenne!", "Liebe ist Schmerz") she even reminds me of Nina Hagen at her heydays.