‘We started out, because we were so crazy in love, just wanting to eat each other up, to become each other and become one’.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridges Pandrogyne (Positive Androgyny) is a project that resists easy classification; part performance, part romance and part prophetic it defies even orthodox authorship by belonging fully to neither of its two participants: Genesis P Orridge & Lady Jaye Breyer. It is even arguable that, as it is the result of collaboration, the Pandrogyne invented itself. The project also sets itself apart from the obvious categorisation of transvestism, presenting itself as existential rather than sexual:

‘Its not about gender some feel like a man trapped in a womans body, others like a woman trapped in a mans body. The Pandrogyne says, I just feel trapped in a body.’

The ‘Body’ is here seen within the perspective of the reality given to man via genetic and societal programming: the cage. Whereas the mind with its infinite possibilities, but most importantly choice, is seen as the key. Abandonment of the ego is territory already visited by Genesis in the original creation of his alter ego, although the sacrifice of the name ‘Neil Andrew Megson’ was no doubt a comparatively easier choice than the surgeons knife.

Encompassed within the distinction from transvestism is the idea that they are different and separate beings meeting in the middle, rather people attempting to clone the image of the other. This can be illustrated by perhaps the most bizarre Valentines ever, on February 14th 2003 the romantic gift of his ‘n’ hers (hers ‘n’ hers/his ‘n’ his?) breast implants were exchanged between the couple: the symbol of the first plastic change.

The project has an infinite scope of idealism, provided by faith in scientific technology. This rests upon the grounds that, if man has learnt to modify the body via plastic surgery, it will eventually destroy it altogether. This futuristic projection for the Pandrogyne echoes back to ancient times and Socratic ideas on the relationship between body and soul:

‘What is purification but the release of the soul from the chains of the body.’

‘To the philosopher, the body is a disturbing element, hindering the soul from the acquisition of knowledge.’

Socrates (tragically born before the Rhinoplasty)

The origination of the idea of Pandrogyny can be traced to Genesis’s self proclaimed artistic godfathers: William Burroughs and Brion Gysin - whose greatest collaboration was in the field of the cut-up technique. This method essentially broke down the linearity of words; creating new meaning by offering them to the chaos of random juxtaposition. However, it was looking at the process of their partnership, ‘the synthesisation of their personalities’, that gave birth to the idea of 1+1=3: the Third Mind.

The Pandrogyne, although undeniably taking the concept further, finds some precedent in the field of performance art: Marina Abramovic and Ulay. The collaboration between these two artists was likewise a romantic one - their epic journey on foot starting from each end the Great Wall of China to meet in the middle is reminiscent of the abstract meeting between the poles of self that is Genesis and Lady Jaye’s work (except for Marina and Ulay it was symbolic of the end not the beginning). However, the similarity is more specific than this; Abramovic and Ulay both recognised and investigated the creation through their partnership of another being formed through their work together, described by themselves as a ‘two headed body’ or ‘the other’. By dressing and acting like twins they blurred the distinction of their seperate entities. This relationship of co-dependence is explored in a performance in which they exchanged breaths between each other until all the oxygen was used up, replaced by carbon dioxide, causing them to fall to the floor unconscious.

‘The main problem in this relationship was what to do with the two artists egos. I had to find out how to put my ego down, as did he, to create something like a hermaphroditic state of being that we called the death self.

”We begin in a sort of synchronized similitude … and then we arrive at the level in which each of us functions alone. The two bodies doing the same, but within, there is a separation.’

For our third and final wave of cosmic enquiry into the great anthems of intergalactic euro fame, we turn our attention to the dark side of the Moon, Germany…

…and its gets pretty freaky and druggy. Christiane F to Major Tom, please report immediately.

Ganymed / « It takes me Higher » (1979)

For all ye who, like Kelly, just cant get enough of turning your head to the stars…

1036 Ganymed is the largest Amor asteroid. It was discovered by Walter Baade on October 23, 1924 and is named after Ganymede, the Trojan prince turned god whom Zeus designated the cupbearer to the Greek gods. Ganymed is about 32 km in diameter and is an S-type asteroid, meaning that it is relatively reflective and composed of iron- and magnesium-silicates. It is also a Mars-crosser asteroid.

Perhaps it is this all too close close proximity with the red fumes of Mars which once dramatically impaired the dress sense of Viennese aliens Ganymed. This, however, didnt prevent their single “It Takes Me higher” to sell up to 1 million copies throughout Europe, topping various charts. The sleeve of the album is in itself an ode to intergalactic bad taste, showing the band members wearing large funkadelic mutant piggy outfits. In spite of such fashion apocalypse, the song remains a true gemstar of galactic disco attack.

DA–F / « Codo » (1983)

DAF (Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft) was a 1980s Austrian-German band from the short-lived “New German Wave” movement, the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) which can be considered as the ‘dark’ side of cosmic disco, next to the more glitzy Morroderian strand.

Its line-up was noticeable in that it mixed in equal parts comedians and musicians, consisting namely of two (male) Austrian comedians and two (female) German music artists. As a consequence, DAF’s few ever released songs were a mixture of Standard German and Viennese dialect, and their performances a delight of bizarre geeky theatricality. We’ll let you judge with the bizarre and cult “Codo”, taken from their 1983 LP “DAF”. The song was a major hit in Europe, selling over a million copies, and became number one of the charts in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. 

Interestingly, DOF were no just pranksters but also tried to convey a message of cosmic love and harmony to the masses. Band members Joesi Prokopetz and Inga Humpe explained the story behind the song :

“Codo is an abbreviation for “Cosmic Dolm” or also “Cosmic Depp” (both meaning cosmic idiot). Codo was an extraterrestrial creature without a specific gender, which overcomes hate and brings everything that is missing to us stressed and negatively attuned human beings: a good mood, jokes, charm and above all love.”

Pray on, Codo.

Andreas Dorau / « Fred Vom Jupiter » (1981)

Finally, we give you the freakiest wunderkid of early 80s German electro pop, Andreas Dorau, who happened to be fresh out of his teens when he wrote the most cosmic of all euro-disco anthems, the super spaced out Fred Vom Jupiter… apparently as a classroom exercise !

Originally credited to the fictitious group Die Doraus & die Marinas (check out the Marinas’ amazing dance moves please, they are an inspiration to us all), the song quickly became an international pop hit in late 1982 and has remained until now one of the most bizarre sonic teutonic missiles ever conceived.

While the cosmic seed had been inserted into the body of funk, a new wave of machine-driven dance records invaded the European charts. Euro-disco was born and one of its one main strands sprung out of the minds of a new generation of Italian ‘funksters’, quickly earning itself the nickname of ‘Spaghetti dance’. While most of the production failed to evade a sort of Cuban refugee nightmare, somewhere in between the ‘tropical wet shower’ feel and a poor New Order cover, a few gems rose from beneath the kitsch to invade our minds with sounds imported straight from another galaxy. Here is a subjective selection of such Italo Disco space-age rarities.

Donna Summer (produced by Giorgio Moroder) /

« I feel love » (1977)

Legendary producer Giorgo Moroder is no less than the man who single-handedly catapulted the organic sound of funk into the new age of synthetic love, thereby influencing the course of all synthetizer music, from new-wave to techno and electro. While some of Moroder’s personal hits such as “From here to eternity” (under his own name) or “La Nuit Blanche” (under the name “Munich Machine”) are pure gems of interstellar funk, his particular place in the pantheon of cosmic disco stems from the most spaced-out of all his collaborations, the aptly named “I Feel Love” by soul diva Donna Summer. Taken from her 1977 concept album “I Remember Yesterday”, the track’s production was designed to represent the ’sound of the future’. Based on the hypnotic repetition of a robotic bassline, it created a precedent in club music which all tracks ever after sought to emulate, casting into the obscurity the age of acoustic big bands and inaugurating the age of machine funk with one long ode to futuristic love and time travel. Bowie himself, who was recording some of his Berlin masterpieces with Brian Eno as producer when the song came out, has spoken of the track’s influence in terms of a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ :

“One day in Berlin … Eno came running in and said, ‘I have heard the sound of the future.’  […] he puts on ‘I Feel Love’, by Donna Summer […] He said, ‘This is it, look no further.’ 

Stefania Rotolo / « Marameo » and « UFO robot » (1979)

Only just a few years after the “I feel love” landslide, the Italian television dusted itself up and began producing a series of outrageously funny disco-infused programs. Stefania Rotolo quickly became the queen of such shows and an icon for a whole generation. These shows, which were created on the Italian public channel at the end of the 70s, incorporated disco music to produce a new form of spectacle designed to cater for the tastes of a younger, discoball-hungry generation. They focused as much on music as on the general atmosphere of the performance, from choregraphy to costumes, aiming to offer a real ‘feel’ of a disco party to the young public. Here, in these two extracts from “Tilt”, her 1979 success show, Stefania, along with her two young fabulous astro-henchmen, is seen in a mind-blowing ballet of robotic moves that make you think those kids must have spent just about the rest of their teenagehood in rehab.

La Bionda / « I wanna be your lover » (1980)

La Bionda is such an ambiguous name. It sounds like one of those nicknames which Italians are so fond of when it comes to their porn-stars reconverted as politicians. But the ”blonde girl” was in fact no blonde and not even a girl, but rather was composed of two brothers, Carmelo and Michelangelo La Bionda. Active as producers and composers throughout the 70s and 80s, they are perhaps best known as the ones the world has to thank for Righeira’s international anthem of Spanish horror, the unforgettable “Vamos a la Playa” (”We’re going to the beach”). Before pouring such wonders onto our undeserving ears though, they took the time to produce the most kitsch of all cosmic disco gems, the mesmerizing “I want to be your Lover” whose video clip itself looks like it must have been watched over a trillion times by Daft Punk. A Personal all-time hit and a special dedication to that special someone who will never take the time to read this post. Cos that’s how the cookie crumbles in the disco wonderland. 

In the next series of posts, we will chart some of the

defining historical trends which have presided over the

best of disco music. We kick off with a survey of the rise

and fall of European space-age disco or, in other words,

the great Cosmic Euro Nation. In this first post, we aim to

shed some light over early cosmic experiments within

some of the genres which have preceded and shaped

interstellar disco and to assess their legacy.

Pink Floyd / « Astronomy Domine

(An Astral Chant) » (1967)

Astronomy Domine ( or the Lord of Astronomy ) , subtitled

An Astral chant, was the first song  on Pink Floyd’s debut

album and is perhaps the most important early space ode of

contemporary pop music. Masterminded by the late Syd

Barrett whose demise would relegate Pink Floyd to the

mass appeal of stadium rock, The Piper at the Gates of

Dawn is undoubtedly the most significant of all

psychedelic rock albums. This song, along with the other

cosmically-enclined track, Interstellar overdrive, contained

the blueprint for the whole space rock sound and some

defining elements for all cosmic music to come. With its

intense use of echoing effects in conjunction with an

irregular (understand trippy ) guitar pattern, along with

the additional use of a Farfisa organ, it conjured an

avalanche of psychedelic frequencies alluding both to

hyperspace travel and communication waves throughout

deep space.

Here is what the ever wordy Wikipedia has to say about that :

The song opens with the voice of their manager at

the time Peter Jenner, reading the names of stars

through a megaphone. The intention of this opening

is to replicate the feeling of outer space, with

Jenner’s voice sounding like an astronaut’s over an

intercom. Barrett’s Fender Esquire then seemingly

emerges from the distance and grows louder. At

0:19 a rapid beeping sound appears, again

reaffirming the feeling of distant space. At 0:26,

Mason’s distinctive drum fills emerge, followed

closely by Barrett’s bluesy, sinister-sounding

guitar (perhaps reminiscent of Duane Eddy) in a

figure suggestive of the brass motif from “Mars,

the Bringer of War” in Holst’s The Planets.

Wright’s Farfisa organ is mixed into the

background. Barrett’s incantatory lyrics about

space again support the cosmonautical theme in

the song, mentioning planets Jupiter, Saturn, and

Neptune as well as Uranian moons Oberon,

Miranda, and Titania, and Saturn’s moon Titan.

David Bowie / « Space Oddity » (1969)

Space Oddity is the song that gave a name to Bowie,

launching him into the spheres of fame as his fictional

astronaut character, Major Tom, got launched into outer

space. Despite being a classical pop ballad whose production

and melody remain entirely conventional, the theme of the

song, as its unashamed parallel between space exploration,

mental confusion and a heavy psychotropic subtext, have

been seminal in establishing cosmic disco-very as a internal

voyage of sorts. As Huysmans’ Des Esseintes reminds us in

Against Nature : ” What was the good of moving when a

person could travel so wonderfully sitting in a chair?”.

Nonetheless, Space Oddity did go down in History far

beyond its metaphor and has been associated by

generations with (real) interstellar travel ever since the

BBC featured the song in its television coverage of the

lunar landing.

Kraftwerk / « Tanzmusic » (1971)

Kraftwerk, the art pioneers of electronic music, have been

instrumental in catalyzing Krautrock, the first truly cosmic

music movement with its long effusions of synth waves and

psychedelic riffs, into a more concise pop format, thus

leading the way to the later appropriation of space hippie

shit by the infamous heir of funk, disco music.

Tanz Music is a piece which bears testimony to this

transition, with its Kraut pattern, all trippy waves and

mellow hallucinations, brought back to a recognizeable

melody, the essence of pop. It is also a song of a rare

hypnotic beauty which lays the foundation for the very

sound which will conquer the minds and embody the

future over the following decade. The electronic virus, in

the meantime, has been inserted almost surrepticiously

into the body of pop. Nothing can ever be the same.

Cosmic Euronation, act 1. The rebirth of the space age

into a disco apparatus.

Roxy Music / « Ladytron » (1972)

Meanwhile, the 70s’ excess offered a fertile ground for all

sorts of experimentations. Following his chance encounter

with one of Roxy Music’s members in an underground

station, pioneering weirdo Brian Eno subseqently joined the

band, orchestrating the fusion of art rock’s quirkiness with

glam’s sleaze to produce a series of genre-defying sonic

objects. In these early Roxy songs, a classic rock matrix

collides with Bryan Ferry’s honey-infused crooner style

and Eno’s own sound alterations behind the mixing

console and various synthetizers. The Glorious Ladytron,

taken from Roxy Music’s eponymous debut album, bears

witness to the cosmic results produced by Eno’s

collaboration with the band. As a matter of fact, the sound

which opens the song was created by Eno after Bryan

Ferry asked him to produce something reminiscent of the

Lunar Landing.

 More Deeta Von Teese than May West, and definitely more Manson than Marilyn, Page, one of the earliest “Playmates of the Month” to be featured in Playboy, became a icon of fetish and kinky erotica through her modelling acts and movies, and due to her characteristic look - jet-black hair and red lipstick, which can be traced back as one of the major influences for the whole rockabilly scene.

 

 Here Page is seen in the cult “Second Initiation of the Sorority Girl”, directed by Irving law, one of America’s first fetish photographers.

 Bettie Page ? Queen of bondage.

 

here
and 
here


Expressionistic zombies of the words unite !