Mina - Teutonic post-disco

The wider public discovered them as the opening act for Stereolab. But the more attentive observers of the German underground club scene had already flagged them years earlier as one of the revelations of the "Berlin sound". Mina are indeed a surprising outfit, remarkably fresh and young, yet equipped with a knowledge of electronic pop history spanning from Kraftwerk to Stereolab themselves, not shying away from forays into film scores (John Barry, Italian soundtracks), new wave and post-rock. The result is an almost entirely instrumental sound, which sets disco/house bass lines and drums against imaginative guitar and keyboard textures in an alternative-rock style.

It all begins in the Berlin freed by the fall of the Wall, where the wide-open spaces of the Mitte (between the Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz, the heart of the former East German capital) were taken over by legal, semi-legal and illegal venues, which became the breeding ground for a new music scene. Many Berlin underground DJs and bands were able to make a name for themselves this way (Stereo Total, Pop Tarts, Quarks, Minitchev, Contriva), revealing a creative vitality not seen since the '80s. Among them were also Mina: Christoph Hein, Masha Qrella, Norman Nitzsche and Johannes Lehymann. Four young Berliners who grew up listening to new wave, electronica and post-rock.

Their debut album, Kryptonite, was released by Bungalow Records and soon reached the top of the German indie-dance charts. The record immediately highlighted the distinctive traits of their sound: almost entirely instrumental tracks, played without using samples, with a refined cocktail of bass, keyboards, guitar and drums. This is a trait that sets them apart from the French nostalgia of Stereo Total, or the lounge vein of Thievery Corporation, or the "latin-oriented" style of Beanfield and Jazzanova, to whom they might superficially seem to belong. Sparkling and sinuous, Kryptonite unfolds around successful episodes such as the catchy, vaguely retro melodies of "Minsc" and "Kupferfarben", or the funky flashes of "Alles shampoo".

A sound they themselves described as "progressive-organic-post-disco", capable of being both relaxing and infectious, music for listening and for dancing, as confirmed by the follow-up, A to B. Ten tracks that renew the magic of this band, able to combine the irresistible hooks of Blondie with the composed electronics of "kosmische musik". So we move from the playful vitality of the single "Desktop", with keyboardist Masha Qrella's timid voice sketching a delicately pop melody, to the virtuoso techno-lounge of "Radio", from the wave rhythm of "Yourself" to the spacey funk of "Lovers Rest", from the vaguely "progressive" organ of "Prelude" to the "disco" landing of the closing "Girlroc". All of it under the sign of an ever-infectious electronic dance music that unites the vitality of the German, British, French and Scandinavian scenes (see Royksopp). Poised between alternative rock and DJ culture, ambient music and film scores, Mina's music has proven to be one of the freshest and liveliest sonic testimonies of Berlin electro-pop.

Drawing on the experience gained also in Contriva and NM Farmer, playing guitar, bass and keyboards, Masha Qrella made her solo debut for the small indie label Monika with Luck (2002): a collection of eleven thoroughly spontaneous songs that immediately strike for their fresh simplicity.

An indie-pop album, described by some as the best of 2002.

But beyond labels, what strikes most about this album is young Qrella's ability to stir the listener's soul through the simplicity of stretched-out, repeated sounds, percussive loops and timid vocal hints, with which she tells small stories of life and love, delivering melodies that go straight to your head, then linger in the room until fading into silences that play just as large a part in the very construction of the album.

After the debut album came the follow-up, Unsolved Remained, released by the prestigious Morr Music. A more constructed album, yet still nourished by essential minimalism and the courage to declare the fragility of its exquisitely pop songs, forever poised between folk and electronica, but with strongly introspective content. The beauty of the album lies precisely in this convexity, in the temporal surrender needed to grasp the beauty of certain effects.

Unexpected cuts are present throughout. The songs are at times very classic, at least in their opening sections, but then surprisingly embrace new geometries and dissonant sounds that carry with them all the joy of being discovered. What leaves one slightly disoriented is that the surprise effect is entrusted to brilliant mistakes and gaps.

From the very first listen, you're captured by the hints, the rises and falls, the silences and the restless noises of broken synthesizers, as if they were sketching out the jagged skyline of the Berlin metropolis itself. So we move from the dreamy voice mixed with technology and the usual guitar-and-electronics hybrid of "Unsolved Remained" to the ballad "Sister, Welcome", which shines on guitar strings and builds itself around her diaphanous voice, before moving on to more mechanical, electronic pieces like "No Matter", or trip-hop numbers like "Guided By The Stripes", with a few blues touches that tighten the stomach.

There's no shortage of tracks poised between folk and pop, such as "Last Night" and "My Day", or the small gem "Feels Like".

You have to wait for tracks 8 and 9 to find the sharpest contrasts, not just musical ones, as in "Everything Shows," where the creeping sound is broken up by the synthesizer, but physical ones too, because in "Destination Vertical," a track by Rechenzentrum, the dance-pop sonorities pull you into irresistible movements.

Listening to Masha Qrella's records, it's almost like strolling through the grey streets of Berlin, turning a corner and feeling the cold, stepping into a courtyard and being struck by bold primary colors, vanishing into a huge square surrounded by skyscrapers, going down underground and finding life there, walking with no set destination, yet discovering each time new, utterly unexpected moments.

Contributions by Luana Caira ("Unsolved Remained")

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