Germania (Der Zehnte)

Last day in Germania folks. I know, I know. It's hard to let go. At least you're going back home with lots of souvenirs to remember our trip right? How about one more?

Remember last time when we ended with Carmen? A little song about the land of milk and honey called Schlaraffenland? Well, after a really long time searching out her album in any form, I finally happened upon a vinyl copy on German Ebay. With the help of my Babelfish friend I won the auction and am happy to share the spoils with my ARAWA friends! Yay!

So here we go with 12 tracks of Neue Deutsche Welle goodness ripped with love at 320 and packed in a cozy little zip...

Carmen- Puppe Aus Glas

And for you test driver's out there here's my two faves from the album...

Carmen- Schlaraffenland
Carmen- Es Ist Kalt Um Mich Herum

Germania! (Der Neunte)

The title translates to "coldly like ice" but alas, a Foreigner cover this isn't. Instead we get a pretty powerful bit of synthpop, the kind of song that would work wonders in a movie montage. I see Kristi getting her choreography together for her big performance, the performance that's going to change everything. She's all leg warmer's and lycra, kicking and twirling in the dance studio mirror, her mind spinning with flashback's of the only man she ever loved, her dance partner, a man she drove away with her fierce sense of competition and seemingly harmless lies. Now Kristi will have to dance this dance alone. Or will she?

Kristi Kara- Kalt Wie Eis

See you tomorrow for a special treat on the last day of Germania!

Germania! (Der Achte)

Is there anything sexier than a German man sing/rapping over a midtempo groove laced with marimba and funky slap bass?

Yes. But you could do a lot worse.

4D- Sexappeal

Germania! (Der Siebte)

Kurt Dahlke is one of those people that just does and does and does. He's been a member of legendary bands DAF, Fehlfarben and Der Plan, produced as many as 150 records for scores of groups, and is the founder of one of my favorite German record labels, ATA TAK. And after 30 years in the biz, he's still going strong, performing with his crazy setup (see above), teaching, producing, remixing and being a man highly interested in pushing the boundaries of technology, he even has a blog documenting his experiments using the endlessly fascinating Tenori-On controller (check his blog here). Under his Pyrolator guise he's released some truly out there work, pushing the envelope and his gear to produce odd and beautiful music. Here's a little taste of what he does from 1980, Ein Weihnachtsmann Kommt In Die Disco (Babelfish says "Santa Claus comes into the Disco"). A meandering track built over a clicking drum machine, thick bass, tightly coiled funk guitars, twinkling bits of bells and yes, vocoder, the best invention ever.

Pyrolator- Ein Weihnachtsmann Kommt In Die Disco

Germania! (Der Sechste)

According to the indispensable and often misleading Babelfish (whose Hitchiker's namesake I won't go into but would like to), Recht Herzlich means "quite cordially". Being that I would like to quite cordially invite all of you to spend another week in Schlaraffenland with me, I don't think there's anything more appropriate I could post. Der Kleine Elefant's got lot's of synth's, catchy sugary verses and a big dose of weird. And it's about elephants. Elephants are so rad.

Recht Herzlich- Der Kleine Elefant

If you missed out on Germania last time... You're auf'd! Just kidding, go here to catch up.

Computer Wars

"In the beginning of the end of terrestrial man as he was known to be, computers began to evolve as the absolute form of new life. In the midst of this immaculate evolution, there came about a horrendous controversy amongst the population as to who would be the next in line to rule. The Pac Man, or, the Space Invader."

If only politics were that easy.

Began Began- Computer Wars (Short Mix 1)

Fly With Me

This song is packed with so much nervous joy that it almost threatens to pull itself apart. All the tracks seem to be a little out of sync, drums from synth, piano from vocals. Usually it's divided we fall, but for some reason in this piece of Italo happiness, it just becomes more charming and human.

Tabisco- Tabisco (Extended Version)

Poor Billy

Finally. A Turkish delight you don't have to worry about getting locked up for.

China Doll- Turkish Delight

Like a Ghost

Throughout this piece of supernaturally awesome 80's synthpop, Ignatius Jones (previously of the outrageous Jimmy and the Boys), shares his dawning realizations that he has indeed entered the afterlife, and all I can think of is Swayze. Is that so wrong?

Ignatius Jones- Like a Ghost

Here's the M.C. Escher-iffic video too...

My Funny Valentine

This is too funny to keep to myself.

Love Disco Style

Remember in grade school on Valentine's Day? When we'd make little paper pouches that hang off our desk to hold all the store bought valentines that we had to give to every kid in class? Even the mean kid that hated you and the person you actually liked? Like, liked liked? How weird was that?

Here's a valentine I feel a lot less awkward about giving, thirteen minutes of love. Disco style.

Erotic Drum Band- Love Disco Style

xoxo

History of Haines

Awhile back I was listening to this "Italo" song I'd been enjoying a lot entitled "It Spoke To Me of You" by someone named Denis Haines. On a repeat listen I thought that the intro sounded just like a Gary Numan track. Being that Mr. Numan is one of my all time favorites, I liked that. After realizing that, then a lot of it started sounding like Gary Numan. Not like it was him, but like it was someone really into him. The keyboards in the intro, the strange lyrics and the vocals all seemed to owe a debt, despite the song's upbeat atmosphere.

Denis Haines- It Spoke to Me of You

So I looked him up on the discogs and got this. It's one of Gary's keyboard players! Though he worked only on one album, at least it was one of his good ones. In my opinion, 1980's "Telekon" is Numan's last good album before sailing down crap creek for 28 years.

Gary Numan- The Aircrash Bureau
Gary Numan- Trois Gymnopedies (First Movement) (From the Telekon Deluxe Edition)
Yes I know I've posted this, but so what? It's so pretty!

After the Telekon tour ended, Numan, notoriously choosey with bandmates, decided to lose his backing band, Dramatis. Not one to rest on their laurels, Dramatis recorded their one and only album, "For Future Reference", with Haines doing most of the writing and vocals. Fortunately the album did have a hit. Unfortunately for Dramatis, it was the one song on the album that featured Gary Numan on vocals, "Love Needs No Disguise", Numan's supposed farewell to Tubeway Army. Haines co-wrote that song with Michael Guihen, founder of Night Moves, a synthpop group Guihen formed after seeing Numan perform Are Friends Electric on BBC's Top of the Pop's in 1979. Are you keeping up? Haines then helped record Night Moves' classic track, Trans Dance to return the favor.

Dramatis- Love Needs No Disguise
Dramatis- Take Me Home
Night Moves- Transdance

In 1986 Haines was commisioned by a company called Filmtrax to make, "The Listening Principle" (The Pleasure Principle?) to be part of a series of "new age representations of colors". I don't know exactly what that means or even what color he might be representing here, but I like it. Its a gorgeous ambient/new age album co-produced by Simon Heyworth (who's worked with Gong and Mike Oldfield on Tubular Bells) and Simon Smart, quite reminiscent of M83's recent Digital Shades Vol. 1 (which if you haven't heard, get it). Being that this album is out of print and hard to find (I don't even remember where I found my digital copy anymore) heres the whole thing in a zip. It's meant to be listened to as an album anyway.

Denis Haines- The Listening Principle

So what's happened to Denis Haines since? Who knows? I do know another weird Haines fact, he played keyboards for The Hollies. The Hollies. Depending on who you believe it was anywhere in between 1981-1988, for a period of one or seven years. Discogs claims he played for them the whole seven but I don't quite believe them. That timeline would go across all these other projects save for "Telekon" and maybe, "It Spoke to Me of You", being that I know nothing about it, release date or otherwise. He's mysterious this Denis Haines. I can't even find a picture of the guy! Fact checker's, feel free to set me straight as I culled all this info together from lots of random places, including one particularly informative Ebay auction. So honestly, it could all be wrong.

BearEssense

Only blocks from ARAWA headquarters, in the heart of San Francisco's Castro district used to be a little label called Moby Dick. Not a label known for their subtle innuendos, but they were a label known for some quality records. Here's an epic 1983 space odyssey produced by three guys I've never heard of and one guy I've definitely heard plenty of, Michael Lewis, super-producer from Rinder and Lewis, Le Pamplemousse, and El Coco.

BearEssense- Dub Big Hurt

Get it? Bear essence?

Jewel of the Black Sea

Ahh Rollerboys Recordings. A label packed with more shimmer and glimmer than a sequined solar system. With their third release, they return to the man who introduced us to the Rollerboys style, Bogdan Irkuk. True to the label's output quality, his Coastal EP does not disappoint. Bogdan has crafted a warm, lush and cohesive work with healthy doses of vocoder and glittering synths. What else could you want? A whole album? Actually, that should be coming soon. His as yet untitled debut album should be dropping sometime this spring. Rad.

Bogdan Irkuk A.K.A. Bulgari- Jewel of the Black Sea

Purchase the whole beautiful thing, including three other originals and a stellar remix by Ultracity at Clone.

Telex (But Not THE Telex)

Alberto Camerini is the man. Equal parts brilliant musician and eccentric weirdo he's made an over thirty year career dabbling in almost any genre imaginable, with results ranging from best song ever to worst song ever. In case you couldn't tell by the strings, vocoded bridge, or general radness of this song, Telex is one of the former.

Alberto Camerini- Telex

There's a huge amount of Alberto's performances on youtube. Here's a good one to start with.