5 Year Plan. Berthaju

There seems no end to postpunk bands coming out of The Netherlands. O.k., Berthaju is both Dutch and German. To place them immediately, the band is more in the Wet Leg side of postpunk (have you heard the 'Chaise Longue' reference?) than Tramhaus. The music has that same sort of optimistic energy and less of the darkness that the quirky chords and notes conjure up.

Right from the start Berthaju bounces out of the bits and bites of my MP3 file. The band has fun playing this song and wants to share it with anyone willing to listen. Yes, it's a lot of noise. Undeniably it's a lot of fun as well. The intro simply jumps at you. The band goes off singing "Eins zwei drei vier" to underscore their enthusiasm to start off their third EP/mini album with eight songs. As a final comparison, I would venture Dutch band POM, but based on what I'm hearing Berthaju is way ahead of this band, I'm truly a fan of nonetheless.

Berthaju is Bertha Jürges (voice), Zoë Tausk (guitar), Hugo Kurstjens (bass), Senna van Buuren van Zon (drums) and Chris Sigl (producer / musician). The band has already toured extensively and are on the road as we speak. As far as I'm aware there are no tour dates here in NL. Our loss based on what I'm hearing here.

With its debut album Wet Leg made a huge impression on me. It is the latest addition to my personal absolute favourite bands and album. It's impossible to impress me with a record like that again at that level and that includes 'Moisturizer', Wet Leg's great second album. Sorry, Berthaju, but from here it will only get better. 5 Year Plan is a great album, for the simple reason that the band managed to capture so much energy on its record. If there's more energy unleashed during a live show, all involved will have to go on life support: band and audience. Probably only the personnel of the venue with mandatory earplugs in will survive. That energy is combined with seven great songs.

Photo: Risk Media

In the final and eighth song, 'All In My Head', all is wound down. A song that's more suspense than a true composition. Don't worry, the band will go at it later on and quite successfully, ending the album in a successful way.

In the Soviet Union the 5 Year Plans worked well for a while but all was so strict and the terror so debilitating that failure was not an option but happened anyway. All initiative was killed for fear of standing out. This 5 Year Plan is the complete opposite. All initiatives lead to better songs, more energy and better songs. Oh, I had already written that.

I have missed the first two EPs by Berthaju. Here's 5 Year Plan, one of the better records of 2026 so far. What a surprise!

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order 5 Year Plan here:

https://berthaju.bandcamp.com/album/5-year-plan