Lifesaver Compilation 3 Various Artists

Some try it with mouth-to-mouth insufflation and cardiac massage. Others with psychopharmaceuticals or group therapy. Still others with divorce. By going cold turkey. With a new profile pic and a matching hairstyle. Seen it all at Robert Johnson, already endorsed everything – at least as long as it helps: as a lifesaving measure. But since the year dot, the Offenbach-based club with its affiliated label recommends to all which are undecided or have doubts particularly one thing: Music. And dance.

Every two years, when life newly blossoms during spring, Live At Robert Johnson opens its windows widely, lets new music out and fresh air into the house. The beguiling scent of nature and aviation fuel blends with the scent of sweat and dry ice fog – and causes sundry healing confusion. As soon as the first tone of the Lifesaver Compilation 3 is heard, the swelling grunt of Vincent Feit’s “X04”, the scenery of the dancefloor right at the Main river appears before one’s eyes.

On Saint Monday Iconoclasts rebel against the age of self-optimization. A crack goes through the parquet of the dance floor (or the dancing party itself). The post-unambiguities era is beginning. The images become blurred. Bass case. Alternative facts. Resonance hole. No reception. And then it’s only the queue answering the club emergency hotline. Finally there is a buzz on the line. “Just drop the images!“, it says. “It’s all not that tragic.” This helps.

The Lifesaver 3 Compilation, the yet most comprehensive package of the lifesaver history, sounds like electro, sharp-edged like the vault in a Hague bunker (Lauer), provides data pop with piano crescendo (Fort Romeau), brings the style characteristics of German Schlager music to the breakdance mat (Rolande Garros), lets the bulky lily-of-the-valley bells clang and sends the reverb tails away with the wind (Benedikt Frey). There are several new names to discover: Felix Strahd, Benjamin Milz, Vincent Feit; and of course there a many old acquaintances: Massimiliano Pagliara, Orson Wells, TCB, Chinaski. Roman Flügel brings us “Good News”, however: “From Another Planet.” And Fort Romeau feels “Lost, Again”, but in such somnambulistically beautiful manner that you want to get lost with him instantly and jointly find the great joy.

Again and again there are mysterious chants. It’s not required to decipher the specific words in order to get the message: Salvation is near. Salvation is here: the Lifesaver Compilation 3, available on vinyl and for download on Friday, May, 19th 2017.