Towards the Shadow

The German groups of the early ’70s that came to be called krautrock formed in an era of political instability. They sought to transcend capitalism’s everyday oppression, and their country’s fascist past, in expansive sounds aimed at personal and political emancipation. The Baltimore duo Wume—a reference to Wümme, the hometown of the German group Faust—draw heavily on that legacy. Their blissfully mechanistic, repetitive music is an impressive amalgamation of the array of sounds pioneered by a number of trailblazing German groups.

On their new album Towards the Shadow they also explicitly embrace krautrock’s philosophical and political heritage. Though their debut, Maintain, was largely instrumental, here drummer and vocalist April Camlin sings on almost every song, alternating between dreamlike imagery and sloganeering to engage complex ideas about power and oppression.

“Welcome your shadow. Repression serves no one, and limits our freedom,” Camlin sings on “Shadow,” in one of the most dramatic examples of this opposition. Her singing anchors the band’s complex, polyrhythmic groove, and the power of her vocals is heightened by their sudden appearance halfway through the song, after a lengthy exposition that builds tension through increasingly layered synth patterns. The duo employs a similar tactic on “Pool of Light,” which centers on pointillistic player piano and manic, backbeat-heavy drums. Four minutes into the piece, after the piano cycles through variations that recall Steve Reich, Camlin recites, “I’m losing my shadow, shaking my shadow/I’m wearing my shadow.” The unexpected arrival of her voice makes it all the more potent.

Perhaps not since Fugazi or Stereolab has a band addressed the failings of capitalism and its effects on the human psyche in such direct terms: “The hierarchy of value is a construct put in place to check you,” Camlin sings on album closer “GenSeq,” her words doubled up and delayed over pulsing, low synthesizer tones. “What do you value? What do you prioritize?” The lyrics of “Functionary” are a recitation of a portion of Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization, published in 1955, which seeks to connect Marxist and Freudian theory. Given the contemporary cultural crisis, these ideas are as relevant as ever—a point driven home by the bluntness of Wume’s lyrics.

Towards the Shadow is at its best when the music reflects the subject matter’s balance of heady complexity and emotional urgency. The majority of the songs are written in odd time signatures, but the effect is largely thrilling rather than obtuse. Synthesist and keyboard player Albert Schatz is a master of skewed melody, injecting each song with intricate, subtle details that seem not only natural but engrossing. On the instrumental “Ravel” he takes simple melodic fragments and twists them into different shapes, providing several layers of counterpoint for each iteration. Camlin’s drumming is ecstatic but precise, arriving at a midpoint between Can’s Jaki Liebezeit and Neu!’s Klaus Dinger.

Camlin typically delivers her lyrics in a chant-like monotone, and when the music becomes too minimal, it can sound one-dimensional. The seven-minute “Functionary,” the album’s longest track, especially falls prey to this, as Schatz’s synths fail to enliven the highly academic text. The most engaging moments on Towards the Shadow edge closest to pop, such as the gauzy synth melody on “It’s Okay” and the Eno-esque vocals of “Shadow.” It’s one thing to theorize liberation. But at their best, in their most ecstatic passages, Wume come close to bringing it to life.