‘Aua‘ is what a German person says when they’re in pain; the English equivalent would thus be ‘ouch‘. I highly doubt that today’s premiere will leave you in any semblance of pain, though, so I guess that fun fact was but an intermission to lead us to the subject of this article: Leipzig, Germany-based post-punk/krautrock/electronica duo AUA. They are premiering their first EP Painkiller No. 2 (yes, it’s actually their first EP; no, the name is not a mistake) with us today, ahead of its official release on Friday.
AUA is, at its core, the creative partnership of Fabian Bremer and Henrik Eichmann. Their music is marked by a strong lean towards the Motorik/electronica end of krautrock, where Kraftwerk‘s pioneering synth work bleeds into the static austerity of post-punk grooves. After the release of their début album I Don’t Want It Darker in 2020 and its follow-up, Painkiller No. 1 (told you the name of the EP wasn’t a mistake), in 2024, Painkiller No. 2 marks a shift into a new phase for the duo, as they will be focussing their energy on a run of EPs for the foreseeable future.
Boasting an array of influences ranging from Beak> and Broadcast over Autolux to the aforementioned Kraftwerk, it’s no wonder that a) their music has an enormous sense of propulsion and b) there’s a real heft to the synthetic elements of their sound. The vocals in particular are highly reminiscent of Autolux vocalist Greg Edwards, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Where a lot of krautrock and post-punk tends towards the self-serious navel-gazing of intellectual pursuit, AUA aren’t afraid to let a little levity in through the cracks of humor and tongue-in-cheek storytelling. “Ersatz Intercity”, the lead single to Painkiller No. 2, is about the many shortcomings of German public transportation and rings painfully true for anyone unfortunate enough to endure it on a regular basis (hi, it’s me, I’m anyone). The song also features input from Dominik Fink and Charlotte Simon on bass and vocals, respectively.
Title track “Painkiller No. 2” is an experimental interlude, more dark ambient than Kosmische; it has a deranged, eerie pull to it, sucking you deeper into this EP. “Return of the Energy Vampire”, then, is prototypical krautrock fare, as bass, drum machine, and samplers intermingle leisurely to tell a modern tale of time- and energy-draining people whose intentions only ever become clear when they leave.
‘Kankyō Ongaku for a world where nature has already checked out‘ isn’t a sentence I ever thought I’d read, but as a description for the EP’s final track “Acid Rain New Solitude”, it’s pretty much picture-perfect. Ambient sounds and gentle drum machine beats paints a picture of a world where concrete and loneliness have supplanted any semblance of life and togetherness. Bleak stuff, but with the way things are being run these days, can you fault AUA for an outlook like this?
In short, you’d be a fool to not check out Painkiller No. 2, either now or when it’s officially released on Friday via Crazysane Records. And hey, there’s a limited run of tapes available – you love tapes, don’t you? You can get your hands on it either via Bandcamp or by following this link. AUA have certainly outdone themselves for this EP, and I can’t recommend it enough; it has some of the most original and enjoyable krautrock/ambient/post-punk sounds in recent memory, so hop on in if that sounds like something you’d be interested in. Be sure to also follow the band on social media (Facebook | Instagram).
