Knorkator
Encyclopedia
Knorkator is a German band from Berlin that combines heavy metal
with comical elements. They proclaim themselves to be "Germany's most band in the world" (German: "Deutschlands meiste Band der Welt"), as the title "The best band in the world" was already taken by Die Ärzte
. The band was founded in 1994, but only played in the Berlin/Brandenburg
area until 1998.
Knorkator gained further fame (and some notoriety) in 2000 with their performance of Ick wer zun Schwein (sic; literally, in Berlin dialect, "I'm turning into a pig") in the German national qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest
.
Knorkator announced the end of the band in a MySpace bulletin on June 14, 2008, the last concert was played on December 5 that year in Berlin. The official reason given for the band's breakup was that Alf Ator wanted to leave Germany to start a new life in Thailand. In autumn 2010 a bulletin by Stumpen announced the bands' reunion. A first "small" tour followed in April 2011 as well as some concerts at well-known festivals like Wacken Open Air
. The tour was called the "77 minutes tour", as the setlist was planned to be exactly 77 minutes long. A digital clock that counted down the minutes was placed on stage to make sure the time limit was not exceeded. Their new album "Es werde Nicht" (translates to "Let there be Nothing") will be released in September 2011, followed by a big tour with concerts of regular length.
, somewhat akin to White Zombie
and Ministry
. Knorkator, however, strongly features a comedic element. Most songs escalate into falsetto
vocals and bombastic, over-the-top anthemic choruses, with crushing guitars and subtle samplers. Due to the amusing message, however, the band's considerable technical and artistic merit is sometimes overlooked.
Knorkator's lyrics are somewhat explicit, but always very humorous:
Most of Knorkator's lyrics are in German; however, some songs also feature English ("beating around the bush", "Ma Baker
", etc.), Thai
("Mai khao djai", "Khid tyng baan"), Latin ("Aeger sum"), or French ("Ma belle fêmme", "Franz Hose") lyrics – these songs are often extreme covers of previously well-known hit songs.
Knorkator are (in)famous for their wild stage shows. Alf Ator has been known to hit the audience with a large foam club, throw toast slices and wet autumn foliage at the crowd. Sometimes a modified shredder was used to distribute shredded vegetables and fruit over the crowd, which was announced as "vegetarian airway-catering". Their live performances are also well known for extensive acts of instrument destruction where especially keyboarder Alf Ator used to deconstruct one or more electric organ
s that he had been playing on with a toilet brush or similar before. Singer Stumpen is known for the frequent smashing of TV sets on stage, from which he suffered a glass splinter getting stuck in his thigh that had to be removed by surgery some years later and was then auctioned on the internet. In earlier shows, a lot of furniture pieces were placed on the stage which were then destroyed during the show by Alf or Stumpen, mostly with an axe or a baseball bat. Stumpen is also known for wearing almost nothing on stage except for a woman's bathing suit or underpants.
Crowd surfing
is another important element of Knorkator's shows, not only performed by the musicians themselves, but also directing the crowd to perform exceptional exercises, such as racing duels between spectators over the hands of the crowd, piggyback moshing
, instructing the crowd to separate and then run into each other (known as the Wall of Death
), or lifting and surfing the heavily overweight sound engineer from the mixing desk to the stage and back.
", "predator
", etc. Thus an appropriate translation would be "Swellinator". As Knorkator state: "We wanted to become the best and finest music superheroes" (German: „Wir wollten also die besten und tollsten Musiksupermänner werden.“ – „Tarebuch“, January 15, 2006).
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
with comical elements. They proclaim themselves to be "Germany's most band in the world" (German: "Deutschlands meiste Band der Welt"), as the title "The best band in the world" was already taken by Die Ärzte
Die Ärzte
Die Ärzte is a punk band from Berlin. Die Ärzte are one of the best-known German punk rock bands and have released over 20 albums. The band consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B. and bass player Rodrigo González...
. The band was founded in 1994, but only played in the Berlin/Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
area until 1998.
Knorkator gained further fame (and some notoriety) in 2000 with their performance of Ick wer zun Schwein (sic; literally, in Berlin dialect, "I'm turning into a pig") in the German national qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
.
Knorkator announced the end of the band in a MySpace bulletin on June 14, 2008, the last concert was played on December 5 that year in Berlin. The official reason given for the band's breakup was that Alf Ator wanted to leave Germany to start a new life in Thailand. In autumn 2010 a bulletin by Stumpen announced the bands' reunion. A first "small" tour followed in April 2011 as well as some concerts at well-known festivals like Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air is a summer open air heavy metal music festival. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany...
. The tour was called the "77 minutes tour", as the setlist was planned to be exactly 77 minutes long. A digital clock that counted down the minutes was placed on stage to make sure the time limit was not exceeded. Their new album "Es werde Nicht" (translates to "Let there be Nothing") will be released in September 2011, followed by a big tour with concerts of regular length.
Style
Knorkator's music can be largely classified as industrial metalIndustrial metal
Industrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...
, somewhat akin to White Zombie
White Zombie
White Zombie was a Grammy Award-nominated American heavy metal band. Based in New York City, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band. White Zombie are better-known for their later heavy metal-oriented sound...
and Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
. Knorkator, however, strongly features a comedic element. Most songs escalate into falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
vocals and bombastic, over-the-top anthemic choruses, with crushing guitars and subtle samplers. Due to the amusing message, however, the band's considerable technical and artistic merit is sometimes overlooked.
Knorkator's lyrics are somewhat explicit, but always very humorous:
- "Ich lass mich klonen" ("I'll have myself cloned") deals with the advantages of cloning oneself, hence sparing the effort of masturbationMasturbationMasturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
- "VIVA Buzz Dee" is a worship-anthem towards guitarist Buzz Dee
- "Wie weit ist es bis zum Horizont" ("How far to the horizon") wonders about the metaphor of the distance to the horizonHorizonThe horizon is the apparent line that separates earth from sky, the line that divides all visible directions into two categories: those that intersect the Earth's surface, and those that do not. At many locations, the true horizon is obscured by trees, buildings, mountains, etc., and the resulting...
, but continues to calculate it with equations - "Komm wieder her" ("Come back") begins as a lament to a lost love, but later its hinted that the singer only abused this partner to do the chores.
- "Weg nach unten" ("The way down") describes a depressed person digging himself into the earth; what appears to be metaphorical at first is in the end revealed to be meant literally: "Dann kommt Licht und ein Känguruh, und ich weiß ich bin zu weit" ("Then there's light and a kangaroo, and I know I've gone too far")
- "Nur mal Angenommen" ("Just in case") is a monologue inside the singer's head, where he wonders what would happen if he was flexible enough to stick his head up into his anus. The main question he deals with is "Where would I come out?"
- The aptly named "A" only contains the lyrics "A / A / A / A", which are in fact four choruses of a lengthy distorted scream.
- "Aeger sum" ("I am ill") sounds like an ecclesiastic or gregorian choral in Latin, but if one translates the lyrics its basically an enumeration of technical terms of illnesses, taken from a medical dictionary.
- [Buchstabe] ("Letter"; properly titled with a novel letter), in which a "doctor of [German] philology" presents the results of his 13 years of research: a letter for the bilabial trillBilabial trill-External links:*...
to add to the German alphabetGerman alphabetThe modern German alphabet is an extended Latin alphabet consisting of 30 letters – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet plus four extra letters.In German, the individual letters have neuter gender: das A, das B etc....
.
Most of Knorkator's lyrics are in German; however, some songs also feature English ("beating around the bush", "Ma Baker
Ma Baker
"Ma Baker" is a 1977 disco hit single by German disco band Boney M. It was the first single of their second album Love for Sale and their third consecutive chart-topper in Germany and their best yet placing in the UK, peaking at #2 although only a minor single in the US .-The song:Frank Farian's...
", etc.), Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
("Mai khao djai", "Khid tyng baan"), Latin ("Aeger sum"), or French ("Ma belle fêmme", "Franz Hose") lyrics – these songs are often extreme covers of previously well-known hit songs.
Live performances
Knorkator's wild stage shows and appearance are analogously chaotic: half of Stumpen's body is tattooed black, and he usually performs in his goofy underpants; Buzz Dee's appearance is often cited as being a clone of "Big" Jim Martin.Knorkator are (in)famous for their wild stage shows. Alf Ator has been known to hit the audience with a large foam club, throw toast slices and wet autumn foliage at the crowd. Sometimes a modified shredder was used to distribute shredded vegetables and fruit over the crowd, which was announced as "vegetarian airway-catering". Their live performances are also well known for extensive acts of instrument destruction where especially keyboarder Alf Ator used to deconstruct one or more electric organ
Electric organ
In biology, the electric organ is an organ common to all electric fish used for the purposes of creating an electric field. The electric organ is derived from modified nerve or muscle tissue...
s that he had been playing on with a toilet brush or similar before. Singer Stumpen is known for the frequent smashing of TV sets on stage, from which he suffered a glass splinter getting stuck in his thigh that had to be removed by surgery some years later and was then auctioned on the internet. In earlier shows, a lot of furniture pieces were placed on the stage which were then destroyed during the show by Alf or Stumpen, mostly with an axe or a baseball bat. Stumpen is also known for wearing almost nothing on stage except for a woman's bathing suit or underpants.
Crowd surfing
Crowd surfing
Crowd surfing is the process in which a person is passed overhead from person to person during a concert, transferring the person from one part of the venue to another...
is another important element of Knorkator's shows, not only performed by the musicians themselves, but also directing the crowd to perform exceptional exercises, such as racing duels between spectators over the hands of the crowd, piggyback moshing
Moshing
Moshing is a dance in which participants push or slam into each other. They also flail their limbs to breakdowns of hardcore punk and its sub-genres. It is most associated with aggressive music genres, such as hardcore punk and heavy metal...
, instructing the crowd to separate and then run into each other (known as the Wall of Death
Wall of death
Wall of death may refer to:* Wall of death * Wall of death * "Wall of Death", a song by Richard and Linda Thompson from Shoot Out the Lights* "Wall of Death", a song by Murphy's Law from Back with a Bong...
), or lifting and surfing the heavily overweight sound engineer from the mixing desk to the stage and back.
Origin of the name
The name "Knorkator" is, so it is generally assumed, derived from "knorke", a word used in Berlin and the Ruhr basin meaning "great" or "fabulous" that has, however, fallen into disuse and is somewhat dated (similar to the English slang word "swell"). The suffix -ator alludes to the endings of powerful and muscular superheroes like "terminator", "gladiatorGladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
", "predator
Predator (alien)
The Predator is a fictional extraterrestrial species featured in the Predator science-fiction franchise, characterised by its trophy hunting of other dangerous species for sport, including humans and its fictional counterparts, Aliens....
", etc. Thus an appropriate translation would be "Swellinator". As Knorkator state: "We wanted to become the best and finest music superheroes" (German: „Wir wollten also die besten und tollsten Musiksupermänner werden.“ – „Tarebuch“, January 15, 2006).
Members
- Stumpen – vocals
- Buzz Dee – guitar
- Alf Ator – vocals, keyboards, songwriting, arrangement
- Nick Aragua – drums
- Rajko Gohlke – bass
CD
- 1997 The Schlechtst of KnorkatorThe Schlechtst of KnorkatorThe Schlechtst of Knorkator is an album by the German Heavy Metal band Knorkator, released in 1998. The title is a pun on "The Best of" album titles, with schlecht being German for bad and schlechtst being worst...
- 1999 HasenchartbreakerHasenchartbreakerHasenchartbreaker is an album by German heavy metal band Knorkator, released in 1999.-Track listing:# "Hardcore"# "Buchstabe" # "Ich bin ein ganz besond'rer Mann" # "Schlüpfer"...
- 2000 Tribute to uns selbstTribute to uns selbstTribute to uns selbst is an album by German heavy metal band Knorkator, released in 2000.-Track listing:# "Khid tyng baan" – 1:51# "Jetzt wird abgerechnet" – 3:19 # "Verflucht und zugenäht" – 3:45...
- 2002 High Mud LeaderHigh Mud LeaderHigh Mud Leader is an album by German heavy metal band Knorkator, released in 2002 as "High Mud Leader". The title is a pun on the German word "Heimatlieder" , which is pronounced roughly the same...
- 2003 Ich hasse MusikIch hasse MusikIch hasse Musik is an album by German heavy metal band Knorkator, released in 2003.-Track listing:# Der Ultimative Mann – 3:58 # Ich hasse Musik – 4:30...
- 2007 Das nächste Album aller ZeitenDas nächste Album aller ZeitenDas nächste Album aller Zeiten is an album by German Heavy Metal band Knorkator, released in February 2007.- CD :# Alter Mann...
- 2010 Knorkator – Mein Leben Als Single (3 CD-Box Ltd. Ed.)
- 2011 Es werde Nicht
Singles / EP
- 1995 A
- 1998 Böse
- 1999 Weg nach unten
- 1999 Buchstabe
- 2000 Ick wer zun Schwein
- 2000 Ich lass mich klonen
- 2000 Komm wieder her
- 2003 Der ultimative Mann
- 2006 Wir werden
- 2007 Alter Mann
- 2007 www.einliebeslied.com
- 2008 Kinderlied
DVD
- Zu altZu altZu alt is a live album by German Heavy Metal band Knorkator, released in November 2005.- DVD :# Aeger sum# Kurz und klein# Es kotzt mich an# Ding inne schnauze# Ich hasse musik# Try again# Schüchtern# Schmutzfink...
, DVD (November 11, 2005) - Weg nach unten, DVD (September 19, 2008)
Literature
- Knorkator: Des Wurzels Zweig. Berlin: Eulenspiegel, 2002. ISBN 3-359-01448-0.
- Knorkator: Am Anfang war das Am. Berlin: Eulenspiegel, 2004. ISBN 3-359-01609-2.
- Knorkator: Alf Ator – Die satanischen Achillesferse. Berlin: Eulenspiegel, 2008. ISBN 3359022009.