In partnership with the Initiative Musik/Neustart Kultur, in 2020, Kenneth Minor entered the studio developing the freshly pressed 12-track-LP they have titled "Retirement". To be released on vinyl & CD in the summer of 2022 by Unique Records/The Orchard.
With two 4-track-EPs released in the interim and three fully produced music videos available on various channels, Kenneth Minor must be playing to their humor when they talk of Retirement.
Four new titles and two more videos to come, as a collection, Retirement reveals Kenneth Minor’s dynamic range. They pull directly from their deep reservoir of influences for the thrill of the ride. There’s an organic feel to the whole record and just like they did it holed up in the same room for days, it’s not their musicianship alone which keeps them producing with refined, famliar clarity.
Doubling down on the family in-house vibe, on Retirement, Kenneth Minor drummer Florian Helleken takes on the production role.
Recorded in its entirety in his Hersbrooklyn Recordings Studios in Hersbruck. Retirement was mixed by Hannes Plattmeier at Ashfield Street Studios, London and finally mastered by Hans Wagner, SolidArt Mastering, Vienna.
Band: Bird Christiani (vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, lapsteel), Andreas Lüttke (bass), Florian Helleken (drums, percussion, keys)
Deutsche Version
"Without much fuss and long prelude, twelve songs are slapped around the listener's ears here that it is a joy."
- Schall Magazine
"Americana, lo-fi and indie garage rock with psychedelic moments is played by the trio in a stylistically confident, exuberant and tricky way."
- Sounds and Books
"Anyway, KENNETH MINOR is a strong band with a potential sound that could bring them into higher places."
- Strutter'zine
"To risk an ear here I can only recommend."
- Das Hörspiegel
"It has become another great album full of melodies and melancholic vocals. 8/10
- OX Fanzine
"The Paisley Underground celebrates its rebirth here, which is not only due to Bird Christiani'sguitar playing, complete with strumming, twang and wild fuzz moments, but also to his casual, oily vocals."
- FAZ
"Here and there "Retirement" seems a bit introverted, other moments leave plenty of roomfor reflection but also enjoyment. The album can be enjoyed in any case, but it does not need a smoky bluesno smoky blues pub, the living room at home will do."
- Musikreview.de
"Full of fine details, the tracks meander along, turning out to be promising indie hits for the niche. Da capo."
- Diabolo Mox
"[...] and at the latest when the calm sounds of the bouncer "Pictures" are heard, you have taken the album in its entirety to your heart. 8.5/10"
- SLAM Alternative Music Magazine
"This album goes in the always-listening box."
- Amplified Mag
"[...] and stamped with almost youthful recklessness a whole twelve garage pop pearlsout of the ground, which float in space like soap bubbles because of their lightness."
- Betreutes Proggen
"A terrific album for me with lots of nice twists and turns!"
- Vinyl Keks
"It's rock music that doesn't disguise its roots in the blues. In such a pretty simplicity that it brings tears to your eyes. So you can also bear that something like this is called in 2022: garage rock and psych. The actually German band celebrates on their current album a musical journey through the USA in a Greyhound bus. And in the meantime really Lou Reed joins in. This is refreshingly oldschool and yet never boring."
- Unruhr
"An infinite amount of thanks and love for this praiseworthy version of Neil Young's My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) with which Kenneth Minor ended their all-round successful third album On My Own. A reduced picking, the indispensable harmonica and a voice that will melt any country club. It just doesn't take much more."
- Curt München
"Regardless of individual strong songs,"On my own" works so well as a whole, because the record paints a diverse, but coherent panorama.
And this range can also be found in the lyrics, it goes wildly confused, from the personal to the political and back again. The formidable opener “Age of Reason”, for example, leaves no room for doubt that folk once consistently stood on the side of the weak and oppressed. "Dear poor people / Please don't give up / Steal from the rich / 'Cause they don't give a fuck about you"."
- Plattentests.de (7/10)
"As if the Rheinauen were a huge trailer park. Here the Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, Eels, dEus are in cahoots with musicians who don't give a damn about where you come from and how you are expected to sound like. Rock and roll can never die. There is humor, irony and a fine aesthetic spirit as a topping on top."
- Curt München
"A confident, captivating song album by Ryley Walker, Mark Kozelek, Elliott Smith and the great stranger Simon Finn"
- flight 13
“Instead, there are quirky folk pop songs with a weird charisma, guitar technique that is brushed on the left, cranky" Dylan-goes-too "singing, funny play on words and ultimately great songs with a certain ironic distance that never turns ridiculous. "
- geasteliste.de (Platte der Woche)
“Because what KENNETH MINOR present to us on this black disc is so wonderfully playful, beautiful, so lost in thought, so current retrospective that it is a pleasure to listen to this album and to plunge into all the ravines, to all heights to soar that open up and offer here before us. ”
- blueprint-fanzine
“Mature, often similar to the Eels and an appreciation for the creeping melody. Brilliant and absolutely ‘un-German’. Lovable as folk can proceed.”
- Intro
“He’s likeable, because this guy from the Rhine District (Rheingau) comes up with melodies that could have also been invented by Mark Everett, Ray Davies or They Might Be Giants. And in addition, he presents them in a gentle, astute and charming way.”
- Rolling Stone
“It needs exactly one song to fall in love with Kenneth Minor. Plain and beautiful – the arrangements, the melodies and the concert.”
- Szene Leipzig