KRAUSE



Towards the light



From the starting Something to write home about until the final Can’t shut me up, it’s clear that Susanne Clermonts is very self-confident on stage of electronic pop. Her debut No Guts, No Glory (Sony Music, 2009) has emerged from a contract with a multinational company when she had already performed with the best of the club scene like Vive la fête, CSS and The Ting Things. What’s next? Now she’s going to share stage with Kelis.

Electronic music has always enjoyed good health in Europe. Actually, it's the only genre in which they highlighted many proposals coming from outside the UK. There’s a long tradition in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Holland. Therefore, Krause began in punk, with rage and unbridled energy. Her talent has become more sophisticated but the challenge is there. Her first album and live shows are just the beginning. She is much more.

Its sound is largely urban. You get the feeling of being immersed in the organized river of the masses who survive in the cities. She is smart and bright at the start, almost dreamlike. But it’s just a mirage. Suddenly we fall into the hardness of a robotic rhythm. Perhaps it’s hypnotic but much more real.

But the dream is still possible singing Do it again. It’s a bright and dance theme in the best sense of the words. Night becomes the star. City seduces and deceives after so many doors to open, but it doesn’t matter because we always want more and more.

No guts, no glory, first single from the album, is challenging. No guts, no glory, here there’s no choice. At the end of the night a new day always peeks and the farce is over. No cry, no pain, no way, no eyes ... The dead end of despair corrodes our minds without remedy. There’s no hope. The music expresses perfectly that feeling and her voice sounds as an echo and leads us to feel really trapped. A great song even if it hurts.

Perhaps sky is the only way out. Soaring Through the starlight seems that life can be something more. The desire for getting out ourselves is inevitable and possibly necessary. The song has a nuanced electronic sound, a perfect proof of best pop.


The rhythm is an essential element in Follow me. It’s a great work of electronic minimalism in favour of a fabulous vocal creativity. I want a pony is instead visceral. Krause sings from her deep punk energy and challenges us. She is literally shouting her desire for a pony saying a lot of our capricious society. Our sickness is our emptiness and she hits us with it.


There’s no possible indifference to an overwhelming force like Krause. She makes us face up to the real question, our desires and taboos. She transforms night life energy into a vital engine that makes us believe in ourselves. She is pure talent and she won’t stop. Can’t shut me up is devastating, as it should be.




Text by Juan Carlos Romero
Photos by Karen Rozetsky