Death In June — Braun Buch Zwei
The first seven tracks take in seven classic tracks such as ‘Runes And Men’ and ‘To Drown A Rose’ from the original ‘Brown Book’ album & are, quite simply, inspired, highly creative, sometimes haunting, but always memorable slices of Neo- Folk. The track’s mainly acoustic guitar strummed bases are added to by rich female backing vocals, harmonies & inventive samples with often electronic, but always effective & fitting percussion and, of course, Douglas P’s instantly recognizable vocals. I guess you could call this DIJ's more Euro Neo-folk Pop album with slight female gothic edges, as the tracks move along swiftly and are often highly tuneful with experimental & cleverly creative sonic touches subtly added along the way. But things never get too weird, frightening or unhinged (as some DIJ can) the songs purpose is to be firstly entertaining & memorable, then the more you play them the more you get their meaning & hear the clever production & use of sound.
The last seven tracks are the remixed, re-recorded & rare versions of the remaining tracks off the Anniversary album such as ‘Zimmerit’ and ‘Braun Buch Zwei’ & these are just as good & consistent as the first seven tracks. Though things do get a little stranger in places with the tracks tending more towards being more electronic based; either rhythmically or texturally, with a sinister & uneasy ambience & Germanic vocal samples between the more acoustic & vocal tracks. The production is also a lot less ‘pop’ -like too for these last seven tracks with DIJ’s more unsettling & ritual edge coming to the fore, although the tracks are still often highly memorable when they’re not making you feel uneasy.
'Braun Buch Zwei' is another highly worthy & well presented Death In June re-issue that would certainly be a great primer/ introduction to anyone who’s been curious about this highly influential, distinct & creative project