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Cosmic Euro Nation part 3
By House of Coma | January 13, 2009
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.
Topics: Sound |
January 21st, 2009 at 1:14 am
good work .
very space bound.
keep it up.
DVM SPIRITVS HOS REGET ARTVS