On This Track: German Voices #1
Five releases about artistic survival, love, self-reinvention, and the pressure to keep moving.
German-language music can hold a lot of different worlds. Some songs put complicated feelings into plain words; others question what it means to keep making art when the rewards are uncertain. For the first On This Track: German Voices 1, we’re bringing together five releases that approach their subjects from very different directions. Keele return with "Meinetwegen", an album shaped by change and the realities of making music. Berq teams up with KITSCHKRIEG for “Hund ohne Namen”, while CIVO’s single “Ich muss dir noch was sagen” turns the beginning of a conversation into a song. Ellice takes a familiar industry label and makes it her own and Vienna’s Euroteuro offer a reminder on “Schweben” that we don’t have to function all the time.
Keele - “Meinetwegen”
Keele’s third album, ”Meinetwegen”, arrives after a longer break shaped by the pandemic, lineup changes and a new approach to writing and making music. The Hamburg band has been around since its 2017 debut "Gut und dir", followed by "Kalte Wände" in 2019. Now they return with a record that stays connected to their post-punk and alternative roots while taking stock of what has changed. The title track gets straight to one of the less glamorous parts of being an artist: putting time, energy and work into something that may never pay you back in any conventional sense. The idea of "brotlose Kunst" - art that doesn’t provide a living - hangs over the song, but it isn’t treated as a simple warning to give up. There’s a stubbornness in the question of why we keep doing things that don’t necessarily lead to success, money, or recognition. Sometimes the value is in doing them anyway. That tension reaches beyond music. Creative work is often expected to justify itself through productivity, visibility, or financial reward. Keele’s perspective leaves room for another possibility: that something can matter even when it doesn’t fit neatly into those measures. The album also looks at consumer desire and the expectations that shape our lives, while asking why change can feel more frightening than staying where we are.
🎧 Stream “Meinetwegen” by Keele on Apple Music
Berq & KITSCHKRIEG - “Hund ohne Namen”
“Hund ohne Namen” is the second single from Berq’s upcoming album "Trautonium". The track brings together KITSCHKRIEG, David Bonk and Berq himself, with LudoWic playing the Trautonium - an instrument that connects the production to Berq’s musical world. The collaboration gives the single a distinct combination of contributors, with KITSCHKRIEG’s beat and production meeting Berq’s own approach. The Trautonium adds another layer to the track and ties it into the album’s wider musical identity. The song is accompanied by a video directed by Felix Aaron. The release has already drawn considerable attention through short listening previews. According to the supplied information, those clips have reached more than 200,000 views on TikTok and a further 649,000 on Instagram. That gives an indication of the attention surrounding the single ahead of its full release, even if preview views alone can’t tell us how listeners will connect with the complete track.
🎧 Stream “Hund ohne Namen” by Berq & Kitschkrieg on Apple Music
Advertisement
Distribute your music to Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok and 150+ other platforms with Ditto Music.
Keep 100% of your royalties and release as much music as you want.
CIVO - “Ich muss dir noch was sagen”
“Ich muss dir noch was sagen” sounds like the beginning of a conversation that has been waiting to happen. For CIVO, it’s also the title of his debut album, but the single and its central phrase capture the personal feeling at the heart of the project: having something important to tell another person.The album brings together 17 songs about the different things that can happen between two people. CIVO writes about the first rush of falling in love, unconditional closeness, longing, and the realization that you may have found a sense of home in someone else. His approach is direct and accessible, putting familiar feelings into words without hiding them behind elaborate metaphors. That straightforwardness is part of what gives the title its appeal. There’s a particular vulnerability in admitting that something needs to be said, especially when the words concern someone who matters to you. The phrase doesn’t reveal exactly what the conversation will be about; it simply asks the other person to listen.Musically, CIVO’s work brings modern German pop and rap together with big hooks and emotional moments. Songs including “Größer als Liebe”, “Auf jeden Blick”, “Apricot”, “Verlieb dich nicht”, and “Zuhause” have already offered glimpses of the album’s world. The title track places that personal invitation at the center. In a culture where so much communication happens quickly and in fragments, an album built around things left unsaid has a recognizable premise. Feelings don’t always arrive in a neat order and closeness can mean anything from excitement to uncertainty to the quiet comfort of knowing where you belong. CIVO’s debut gathers those moments into one long conversation.
🎧 Stream “Ich muss dir noch was sagen” by CIVO on Apple Music
Ellice - “One Hit Wonder”
After a year and a half without a release, Ellice returns with “One Hit Wonder”, the first single of her comeback and the beginning of a new phase in her career. The title carries a familiar sting: the label used for an artist supposedly destined to be remembered for one song and little else. Here, that phrase becomes the starting point for a more self-assured statement. Musically, the track brings together jazzy soul, pop appeal, and Ellice’s distinctive voice. The lyrics are described as vulnerable but delivered with a wink, giving the song room to acknowledge the joke without simply accepting the judgment behind it. A phrase that can reduce an artist to a brief moment of attention becomes something she can turn around and use on her own terms. The idea also touches on a pressure that runs through the music industry: artists are expected to stay visible, keep releasing, and prove that they still matter. A break can leave space for change, but it can also invite questions about whether the audience will still be there. “One Hit Wonder” arrives after Ellice’s pause with a title that seems ready for that conversation. The single is presented as a more mature, honest, and musically uncompromising expression of who she is now. Its mix of vulnerability and humor gives the comeback a sense of confidence without pretending that the label itself has no sting.
🎧 Stream “One Hit Wonder” by Ellice on Apple Music
Euroteuro - “Schweben”
Vienna’s Euroteuro mark a change of direction with "Magic", their first album conceived as a cohesive work rather than a collection of songs. Led by Peter T., the project moves between New Wave, art pop and Neue Deutsche Welle, with lyrics that shift between German and English. The album’s wider themes include grief and comfort, doubt and hope, and questions about mortality and what might come after it. “Schweben” offers one of the album’s most direct messages: “Ich will, dass du weißt, dass du nicht funktionieren musst.” It’s a simple line, but one that pushes back against the expectation that we should always be capable, productive and ready to keep going. There’s no complicated instruction attached. You don’t have to turn every difficult moment into an opportunity for self-improvement. Sometimes being told that you don’t have to function is enough. That sentiment sits naturally within the album’s inward-looking approach. "Magic" is described as a night journey through disorientation and euphoria, with the emotional space of the record changing as it unfolds. Its collaborative creation also reflects Peter T.’s view of making music with others as a kind of magic: unpredictable, shared, and not always entirely explainable afterward. The pressure to optimize ourselves has become so familiar that refusing it can feel like a statement in itself. “Schweben” makes that refusal gently, through reassurance rather than confrontation. It’s a reminder that being human doesn’t mean being endlessly available or functional.
🎧 Stream “Schweben” by Euroteuro on Apple Music
These five releases approach music from different angles: Keele consider the value of making art when the rewards are uncertain; Berq and KITSCHKRIEG bring their contributions together on “Hund ohne Namen”; CIVO gives a familiar, personal moment the space of a song; Ellice turns a dismissive label into a statement of her own; and Euroteuro offer a gentle refusal of the demand to keep functioning. There’s no single sound or subject that defines this selection. What connects these artists is the space their music makes for things that matter in everyday life - creative work, connection, identity, and the need to take a breath. Sometimes a song doesn’t need to resolve those things. It just needs to give them a voice.
INDIENOXZINE is independent and reader-supported. Your support helps us keep discovering and documenting independent music.
Continue discovering independent music through On This Track, Three Track Week and Artist Features. Read more about new music, indie artists and alternative music on INDIENOXZINE.
Comments