“KMFDM” is an acronym for a german phrase. The phrase is “Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid”, which is a mangled version of the real German phrase “Kein Mitleid Fur Die Mehrheit” (notice the transposition of “mehrheir” and “mitleid”). The original phrase translates as something along the lines of “No pity for the masses” or “No mercy for the majority”. The actual KMFDM acronym, therefore, translates to the silly nonesense phrase: “No masses for the pity” or “No majority for the mercy”.
As the name might imply, despite appearances KMFDM doesn’t really take themselves too seriously. Sascha Konietzko, who’s the closest thing KMFDM has for a leader, said on the KMFDM “Beat By Beat” music video collection:
“We take what we are doing very seriously, but that doesn’t mean that we are serious about everything that we’re doing. The drive behind this band was never like, ‘Let’s start a band and get, like a good record deal, and make lots of money’ It’s more like we want to see how far we can go, in terms of ripping the system…”
I’ve never quite been sure what Sascha means when he says “ripping the system.” I think it has something to do with “let’s go out and have fun, make a bunch of music we like that pokes fun of everything and everyone - especially ourselves - and then see if anyone’s stupid enough to pay us for doing it.”
Musically, KMFDM makes a somewhat loud, noisy, industrial kind of techno they call “Ultra Heavy Beat”. I don’t care what they call it, I just like it.
http://www.kmfdm.net is their website. They have a FAQ. (Do these guys rock or what?)
For a person just starting to listen to KMFDM, you’re probably best off buying their “! @ # $ %” (aka “Symbols”) album. The first three tracks are pretty darn good. I also like their albums “Nihil”, “XTORT”, and the post-breakup album “MDFMK” (whose name, one assumes, would translate as “Pity the for masses no.” ;])
I’ll leave you with a lyric snippet that always made me grin…
“More and faster, here we come!
White and trashy and incredibly dumb!
Enjoy yourself, crash-boom-bang.
The final solution - KMFDM.”
Now no more questions about KMFDM! Go listen for yourself!
-Ben
