MOOD TAEG
International trio plug in and (motorik) groove out.
IF CANTERBURY HAD prog and the Bronx had hip-hop, then Düsseldorf had electronica. Neu!, Kraftwerk, La Düsseldorf and DAF all emerged from the city at various points during the 70s, leaving a legacy that’s impossible to devalue. The latest band to mine this rich heritage is Mood Taeg, whose scintillating debut, Exophora, fashions bold new shapes from classic motorik grooves.
Rather than being a direct product of their environment, however, Mood Taeg is an international trio. “Myself and K’ko, who’s classically trained, are based in Düsseldorf, while Lowell Freeman is in Shanghai,” explains TDK, who originates from a small town near Dundee. “Lowell is also Scottish and we both played in a band, many years ago, called Voigt Kampff. We had a record out in 1998 [Used] on Kingsize Records, a sort of Big Beat label. But we weren’t that kind of band, we were more like their attempt at something more esoteric.”