Gabi Delgado - 1 (2014)

Gabi Delgado-Lopez is of course best known as one part of the famous duo D.A.F. aka Deutsch Amerikansiche Freundschaft and classic hits as ‘Der Mussolini’, ‘Verschwende Deine Jugend’ or ‘Der Räuber und der Prinz’. Together with his companion Robert Görl he is surely among the most influential German artists of the last few decades so a new solo Delgado-Lopez (who operates under his shortened family name here) attracts high interest, of course. Despite the name 1 it is already the second solo album for Gabi Delgado. However, Delgado’s first solo output, titled Mistress, is already 31 years old and the title of his new album is probably meant to mark the beginning of a new chapter for the musician.
Musically it is hardly a new chapter as 1 features the trade mark elements we all know from D.A.F. and DAF/DOS, Delgado’s collaboration with German actor Wotan Wilke Möhring in the 1990s. The album is full of minimalistic, sequencer-driven tracks in the vein of D.A.F. but, as usual for Delgado’s work outside his man band, with a much more pop and club oriented direction. After all he is also one of the founding fathers of the German House and Techno scene, so it’s not too much of a surprise that his solo work features elements form these genres. The lyrics on the other hand are all about sex, drugs, love, dancing and party – again no surprise if you know Delgado. The political and socio-critical slogans Delgado writes for D.A.F. are in a minority on ‘1’ and just like the music the lyrics have a somewhat softer, more lewd and sappy tone. The hyper-hedonism of the lyrics sometimes even border the ridiculous, so be happy if you don’t understand German anyway.