Laserkraft 3D Explain Lyrics With Dingbats

A while ago an underground dance track started airing on the radio. Nein Mann by Laserkraft 3D is one of these minimalistic “stupid” tunes that manage to worm themselves in your brain and never let go, whether you like it or not. In the song a guy in a club sings he doesn’t want to leave yet. He wants to dance a little longer, despite all the people trying to convince him to go home. The succession of characters, each one with their own different story, talking over the bare instrumentation make this song very similar to I Don’t Need This Shit (Answering Machine), the hit by Green Velvet from the mid-nineties.

Laserkraft 3D, the German electro house project consisting of DJ Groovejuice (Niels Reinhard) and Tim Hoffmann, formed in 2009 and are primarily known for their live concerts, hence “3D” in their name. They released their single Polyester in Spring 2010, but became primarily known for their second single Nein Mann. It reached the number one spot in the German Dance Charts, climbed to 10th place in the general hit charts, and landed the 5th place in the Ö3 Austrian Top 40.

Laserkraft 3D – Nein Mann (official Video) from Laserkraft 3D on Vimeo.

The music video directed by Niels Reinhard cleverly plays off the club theme. It is shot entirely in the dark, with UV lights revealing the story in fluorescent colours. Besides accents lighting up in the clothes of the characters, the lyrics too become visible under the black lights. While the lines of the chorus sung by the protagonist are written out in multiple colours on signs held in front of his face, the bits of dialogue from his opposite numbers are translated to symbols held up on thin sticks. This makes the German lyrics roughly understandable for an international audience. Very handy is that by shooting the video in the dark the signs can be simply held by people dressed in black. This gives the clip a handmade and slightly rushed feel, because the helpers have to continuously scramble to get the proper bits of dialogue in synch with the track. The shaky camera emphasises this effect, resulting in a video that’s loads of fun.

Tags: dingbats, Germany, music, music video