Musical Interlude: Die Krupps' Gladiators (1991)

Irony is writing a blog post on distraction-free writing, only to get distracted from writing.  The article in question is sidelined for the next day or so as new information comes in.  Until then, I present to you the following musical interlude.

Another of my CDTV-era favourites is Die Krupps.

I discovered DK back in the early 90s, having heard of them via a magazine review of their Tribute to Metallica EP.  The reviewer (probably a Metallica fan) absolutely trashed the EP, so I knew it was something worth hearing.

It took me a while, but I eventually found a copy of Die Krupps' Enter Sandman CD single.  The CD had two versions of the title track (both were alright), but what really stood out for me was their version of Metallica's song One.  I never really cared for Metallica's version until then, but DK's cover really made me appreciate the song.

Die Krupps soon made it into my regular rotation, and I began collecting their albums.




Gladiators, as heard above, went largely unnoticed by myself until recently.  While dismantling my lab late last summer, I popped their album Metalmorphosis of Die Krupps into the player and hit play.  I would habitually skip through most of the second half of the album to get to the last two tracks, and never really gave tracks like Gladiators, Neue Helden, and Tod und Teufel a fair shake.

I was in the middle of dismantling a Sun serial port multiplexer for Project Torquemada when the second half of the album came on.  In the middle of a delicate operation and with the remote out of reach, I couldn't get up to skip through the aforementioned songs.  I was too absorbed in what I was doing to pay much attention to Risk, however halfway through the next track (Gladiators), I found myself bopping along to the song as I unscrewed the hex sockets from the serial port, then started singing along with the refrain "We are gladiators!".

I let the rest of the CD play out, and am glad I did.  I don't know what I had against those songs initially, but it was clear I'd never given them a chance to grow on me.

They are now part of my regular "hacking" soundtrack, played whenever I'm deeply involved in a build or repair job.