There are some bands - not many, mind - who have mastered the art of creating music that transcends musical eras. Stoutly refusing to be bound and gagged to any particular time or place, they leapfrog out of the bed of rock and go genre-rucking crazy. And The Notwist (as in The, uh, No-twist, thank you very much Dr Barman) are such a band. Nor is this at all contrived. See, The Notwist are three people from Germany called Markus and Micha Acher and - rather sensationally - Martin Messerchmid, and they started creating their fragrant brand of mild-mannered sonic mayhem in 1989. Which means that for the past eight years they've been wry witnesses standing by the side of the carnage-splattered pigeonhole-crazed motorway.
And the things they must have seen! With 'Puzzle' the trio proffer lovely, dreamy nation post-rock; in 'My Faults' they slip into something rather cool and Dinosaur Jnr-like; at the close of the succinctly-titled 'M' they're caught dabbling with industrial grooves; and with the slightly less succinctly titled 'Instr' they spend three minutes playing Metallica riffs and drum solos. 
Put it altogether and you should have little more than a total f??ing mess, obviously. But here's the rub: The Notwist are sultry, casual sorts who lurk in shadows of their own invention; deceptive buggers with deliciously smooth guitars and a splendid fluidity which suggests much inter-band lubrication, not to mention drinking.  

Notwist's twist? A relentlessly cool experience. 

© IPC Magazines Ltd. 1998.