As the Notwist worked together on its new album, Close To The Glass (Sub Pop), the trio felt the songs were going in too many directions. Ultimately, the band gave up on finding a center and embraced the diversity. “With this record, there were no rules anymore,” says frontman Markus Acher. This outcome makes perfect sense when considering the band’s history. The Notwist is all about exploring possibilities: of the interface of acoustic and electronic, the planned and the unplanned, collaboration and revision, evolution and experimentation. The group has released only seven albums over the course of a 25-year career, and Close To The Glass is only the second since 2002’s landmark Neon Golden. Acher will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on the band.
Markus Acher: If you ever come to Glasgow, you should visit Monorail, the record shop in between a fantastic bookshop and a cafe/restaurant. And if you’re lucky, you will meet Stephen McRobbie from the Pastels there, who is one of the owners. Monorail is the best curated record shop, I know. It’s small, but it has everything you need and more, the essential and the obscure, and so much to discover you never heard of. And every single record is worth checking out. And the Pastels? I can’t imagine a life without them. They wrote some of the most beautiful songs, I know. “Song For A friend” is a song, they recorded together with Japanese duo Tenniscoats.
