The response to our previous album commentary podcasts has been great, with plenty of people chiming in with their own memories of the albums in play, and observations both critical and personal. For our third such commentary, we decided to tackle an album at the absolute epicenter of the millennial infatuation with futurepop (and aliens), even as it sought to push the band beyond that sound (and eventually beyond even the most distant borders of post-industrial music). Yes, we’re talking about Apoptygma Berzerk’s Welcome To Earth, in all its arpeggiated glory, so join us as we revisit its tracks and the past and future of Stephan Groth and co.
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We Have a Technical #35: Welcome To Erf
This was some fantastic music geek talk. I seriously enjoyed every bit of it 😀
A bit of trivia for you: if you listen to the hidden track (Untitled 4) in mono, the Kathy Macintosh voice will recite the tracklist to you while a rock band plays in the background. One of the most pointless easter eggs I’ve ever found in an album, but its still kinda neat to have a hidden track inside of the hidden track. (Also, for months after getting the album, I hadn’t put together that LNDP3 stood for Love Never Dies Part 3, so hearing Kathy say the whole title instead of the initials was kinda mindblowing at the time XD )
In reference to what you said about Harmonizer trying a lot of the same things as WTE, but failing due to the different context; I never thought about it like that, but I totally see it. The long songs mostly work on Welcome To Earth in part because of the mood of the album.
Despite what you say about them ditching the alien references early on, the point is that it helped to establish that mysterious spacey mood which lends itself to long buildups, extended outros, and strange interstitial numbers. Harmonizer is a much simpler, straightforward record thematically as well as sonically, so the stretched out moments and the weird short interludes stand out in a bad way. Harmonizer kinda aims for a grandeur that simply doesn’t suit it.
Anyway, I’m babbling, good show you guys!
Liner notes on the vinyl version of Welcome to Earth list Komor and LaPlegua as co-writers.
Awesome analysis and commentary. I enjoyed this a lot.
Thanks Todd! That means a lot coming from the OG of industrial podcasting!
Fantastic analysis of the band and this album. You’re so right that this album takes you back to such a specific time, and I’m elated to hear your shared love for “Paranoia.” As a fan of Underworld, as well, I completely agree with that comparison in “Help Me” and “Soultaker.” I also hear Fluke throughout the flanger-riding melodies here and there. We need more of these commentaries over albums!
I’m a little late, I know, but I finally got around to listening to this podcast over the holidays, and I just wanted to point out that there was indeed an edit of Soultaker – it didn’t appear on a single, but on the Critical M@ss compilation that Metropolis put out around that time.
Thanks for this broadcast! I got this CD in May 2000 and gave it a full re-listen on Spotify on 8 April 2024 when I was on my way to Niagara Falls for the eclipse. Eclipse is one of my favourites on this but the album as a whole was amazing and feels both retro and ahead of its time, especially now. As a fan of trance and house music, this album strikes a lot of the right notes for me. I also like the hidden tracks (Untitled 4 and the mono hidden track inside that) and the reversed Kathy’s Song lyrics in 64K that make that track sound even more otherworldly than the album typically does. Does anyone else notice a lot of Macintosh and Commodore 64 references in this album? This album is, IMO, for people who love technology for its sake. From the perspective of spring 2000 when I first listened to this CD, it felt like the future arrived…right on time.