Well, that was unexpected. No previous knowledge of the music or style of viennese combo „Koenigleopold“ left me quite stumped due to the randomness of what I had just witnessed after their concert in Flex on the 30.4.2014.
It was an eclectic mix of hip hop, electronic and rock and roll coupled with bizarre elements like dialect rapping, an assault by Pikachu on stage and broken instruments. Lukas König and Leo Riegler seamlessly switched places and instruments during the show, making every song unique and unpredictable. They were supported with awesome visuals and spitting rhymes by young rapper MC Rhine who shined as one of the highlights of the evening.
These guys clearly „don’t give a f*ck“, apparent so in their choice of outfits, beer bellies, presentation and music. I mean that in a good way. Their show is as much concert as it is an exericise in live Dadaism, definitely worth checking out. The packed Flex crowd seemed supremely entertained by the awesome weirdness coming off the stage.
„There’s a new King in town. The young Vienna duo KOENIGLEOPOLD, consisting of Lukas König and Leo Riegler, is the inventor and sole proprietor of a highly original musicaltheatrical style, a show that veers from virtuosic exultation to comedy to embarrassment, often in the course of a single piece. They’ve also got a hell of a wardrobe. Lukas König’s drum and synth work is built on the best beats of the last fifty years – dismantled, reassembled and played at full volume on an ancient turntable sitting in a junkyard on the slope of an active volcano. We now pause for a natural disaster. Leo Riegler is by turns a pimp, a dada MC, a gifted turntablist, a hopeless but convincing opera singer and a back-alley clarinetist … and a consummate showman throughout.
The music is a rollercoaster mixture of dirty hip-hop, rock and roll and weird takes on bubblegum pop punctuated by pure noise improvisations, played with high precision and a strange, fierce intensity that becomes positively unsettling when coupled with, say, the sounds of Darth Vader enjoying a nice steak (which can happen). It’s almost like they’re hearing voices onstage – but whether it’s the ghosts of Zappa and Biggie Smalls they’re channeling, the complete works of Monty Python in Cantonese or a doll that just says „Mama!“ over and over again – the results are dangerously grooving and completely unique. When KOENIGLEOPOLD is holding court it’s best to pay attention.“
– Phil Yaeger
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