Hell: Munich Machine

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I listened to this yesterday for the first time in ages, and damn if it isn't still one of the most interesting electronic LPs of the nineties. It manages to both be a coherent concept album and include some of the best single tracks in Hell's career (the remix of "Copacabana" is awesome). Also it has a very unique feel, a mixture of sleaze (as hinted by the cover, the track titles, the choice of samples and vocals) and a sort of desperation and melancholy (nothing really sounds uplifting at all). I wonder if DJ Hell himself or anyone else has ever since come up with anything that would sound the same? (The only example I can think of is this Russian duo called "ARROU" [if that's the correct transcription].)

So yeah, discuss.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

i thought you were talking about the Giorgio Moroder band

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/music-fever/MunichMachineSealedCD.jpg

― Dickset! Dickset! Disckset! (jaxon), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 04:30 (twenty years ago)

Well, I presume that's where the album gets it's title from, but I have not heard Munich Machine the band, so I can't say if there are other similarities between the two besides the title.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 04:58 (twenty years ago)

Interesting details I noticed only now: the female vocalist on the first track is a member of Chicks on Speed, and the album is mastered by Stefan Betke - who was at the time beginning to acclaim credit of his own as Pole - but I wouldn't have known about either CoS or Pole back in 1998.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

Here's the album cover, it's a bit obvious considering the theme, but I still kinda like it.

http://www.diskob.com/_gfx/c/hell/cover_munich_300x.jpg

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

I think what's particularly compelling about the record is that it takes house and electro as it starting points, but it lacks the joie de vivre usually associated with those genres; Hell replaces that with the sort of murky, seedy vibe that's the flipside of dance music hedonism. Guilty pleasures with emphasis on the guilt.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 09:08 (twenty years ago)

Hell replaces that with the sort of murky, seedy vibe that's the flipside of dance music hedonism

Yeah, that's his speciality isn't it (you should check out the Freak Show DVD, which sort of nails it...has loads of Gigolo videos too.)
I must check out this one though, Copacabana always put me off (I mean I know what sort of sadness-beyond-the-beautiful he was aiming for in theory, but the original is just too satanic for me. ;)

― Omar (Omar), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 09:58 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone heard his new mix album? It looks awesome-if-obvious, or perhaps awesomely obvious.

I adore the "Copacabana" video clip.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 11:07 (twenty years ago)

Acid Rocks? Awesome! Just awesome, Tim. I was expecting a rehash of the Hardfloor X-mix but he throws in lots of new and essential tracks (like Motor's 'Sweatbreak') and some weird shouty almost-but-not-really-IDM tracks.

― Omar (Omar), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

Since Helsinki's premium electronic music shop decided to specialize in metal only (previously they were selling metal and electronic music side by side, as weird as it sounds), we've had a shortage of places that would sell non-trendy techno records... But I think even the trendy shop carry one or two Hell titles, I have to check them out.

It's funny, I don't think I really got Munich Machine when I first bought it (I was only nineteen) - I remember liking the tracks that were at least a bit uplifting ("Copa", "Berimbau"), but only after I relistened the LP a couple of years after that did I understand what Hell was trying to do.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 11:24 (twenty years ago)

"Acid Rocks? Awesome! Just awesome, Tim."

Too many awesome comps to keep up with!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

So I take it no one has this?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 12 October 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Taking sides: Hell's cover of "Warm Leatherette" vs Grace Jones' cover vs the original.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 12:39 (seventeen years ago)

Actually, they're all pretty great. And Hell's remix of Grace Jones' "I've Seen That Face Before" from a few years back is nice too. These two should do a proper collaboration, since they match quite nicely stylistically.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 12:42 (seventeen years ago)

I love the original Munich Machine, Mr. Moroder's. But this sounds intriguing. . .

― Soundslike, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 13:11 (seventeen years ago)

i much prefer this album to his NY Muscle album.

― mark e, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 13:43 (seventeen years ago)

It's been ages since I heard NY Muscle, but that one is more like an electro/synth pop record, right? It didn't make a huge impression on me either. I like how Munich Machine is still firmly rooted in house despite all the electro and synth pop influences.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 16:11 (seventeen years ago)

haha. i came here to post the exact same thing i did 3yrs ago

― (jaxon) ( .) ( .) (jaxon), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 19:07 (seventeen years ago)

And I can post the same answer as 3 years ago.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 22:10 (seventeen years ago)

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