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For 14 years, DRNTTCKS [droʊn əˈtæks] have been improvising their way through the German experimental underground between Hamburg and Munich, paying little attention to conventions and releasing numerous albums full of collage-like improvisations between ethereal drone, post-industrial noise and kraut on such illustrious labels as Britain's Industrial Coast, Beach Buddies from Romania, or their own imprint Otomatik Muziek.

DRNTTCKS see themselves as part of a network of experimental German music projects that also includes bands such as ZEMENT, DATASHOCK, BALDRUIN and BRANNTEN SCHNÜRE. This scene is united by a preference for improvised soundscapes, hybrid aesthetics and reflection on themes such as esotericism, social criticism and the tension between seriousness and irony. And, if you like, a provinciality that is almost 'conscious': music not being the center of life and creative small business as a precarious tool for survival, but music as part of life, a resolute alternative to the escape into the artists' ghettos of the media cities. These introspective qualities are combined on “Die Republik von Eso”, their first real studio album, with the ability to translate global themes into intimate, surreal soundscapes.

Like the other bands from this non-scene which cares little for publicity and marketing cycles, DRNTTCKS interweave complex themes with an aesthetic that is as disturbing as it is beguiling. “Die Republik von Eso” critically explores personal experiences of crisis, political alienation, the influence of new age mindsets and the connection of self-optimization ideologies with neoliberalism and fascism. This is also reflected in the cover artwork by Würzburg artist Laila Quist - political black magic between tin foil hats and Donald Trump, a bourgeois ball game in a surreal private thicket, Scholz and Merz as cute little circus animals.

The album's songs oscillate between a hidden object picture and a moral portrait of a society, transforming the thematic thread into an enveloping fabric despite eclectic influences. In the opener “Mindsetlohn”, free-jazz noiseloops meet Wolf Eyes set pieces and a blues quoting guitar while a subaltern synth bass briefly conjures up the ghosts of rave as a counterculture. Middle-aged people who glorify the depoliticization of the '90s and then end up in the streamlined “German Zen” which in this case sounds as if Aaron Dilloway has had too much Prosecco. With “Ultrabewusst (In Dub)”, cutting post-punk pushes itself to the foreground and only to be replaced on “Sultans Of Gute Laune” by repetitive Kraut and fragmentary NoWave locked up in the hobby room. Tech euphoria and provincial despair between Weilheim and Gold Panda are celebrated on the B-side with “Forever Wasted In Lappendorf” before the last song on the album, the 14 minute long “Europa 3”, draws you completely into a trance-like fever dream that simultaneously conjures up the endless now of the Berlin Republic and the end of the neoliberal age.

The album was recorded at Florian Helleken's Hersbrooklyn Studios where other Nuremberg bands such as ZEMENT and rehearsal room neighbours AKNE KID JOE have also found their form.