FALCO - Einzelhaft (1982)

Real Name:
Johann Hölzel
Profile:
Born 19.2.1957 in Vienna / Austria, died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic on 6.2.1998.
URLs:
http://www.falco.at


Country:
Austria
Released:
1982
Genre:
Electronic
Style:
Synth-pop

Tracklisting:

A1 Zuviel Hitze
A2 Der Komissar
A3 Siebzehn Jahr
A4 Auf Der Flucht
A5 Ganz Wien
B1 Maschine Brennt
B2 Hinter Uns Die Sintflut
B3 Nie Mehr Schule
B4 Helden Von Heute
B5 Einzelhaft

link to download:

http://rapidshare.de/files/19705653/falco.rar.html

the first lp of the austrian electro-disco king with the hit single "Der Komissar".

A point which marked the beginning of Falco's rise from the status of a local bass player to an international star was when he came to a Drahdiwaberl rehearsal one day in 1980 with a song for which he had written the music and words. But Ganz Wien (All Vienna), a derisive track about the then emerging hard drug scene of the time did not really fit into Drahdiwaberl repertoire, and was only used as a stopgap in concerts. This song, clearly Falco's reaction to his own experience, was listed in the Austrian Index and subsequently banned from the airwaves. Whenever the number was played at Drahdiwaberl live performances, Falco moved to the front of the stage with his bass guitar and Stefan Weber moved into the background. The audience always went wild and soon the song became the cult hit of Vienna's new-wave scene. For the first time Falco felt what it meant to be wildly acclaimed and loved by an audience. It was then that he realised that he could easily hold his own as a solo entertainer. In 1980 Markus Spiegel, boss of the small Viennese label GIG Records, invited Drahdiwaberl to produce the Psychoterror LP. Spiegel was later to describe it ironically as "my greatest work." But much more important for Markus Spiegel was clearly his encounter with Falco: "When I saw Falco for the first time at a Drahdiwaberl concert in the Sophiensälen, Vienna, I realised that I wanted to sign him as a solo artist. Falco made an incredibly charismatic impression on me." Markus Spiegel signed a contract with Falco for three solo LPs and introduced him to the producer and sound mixer Robert Ponger. In the summer the 1981 Ponger had written a song for Reinhold Bilgeri, another of Spiegel's contracted artists, but Bilgeri had not liked it. So Ponger now played a recording of it to Falco even though the song did not yet have a text. Falco was blown away and sensed that this was it. He took the tape home with him and a few days later had written the text: Drah di net um, der Kommissar geht um ... (Don't Turn Round, the Inspector's About). In autumn 1981 the single Der Kommissar (The Inspector) hit the streets with Helden von Heute (Today's Heroes) on the B-side, a song with music and text by Falco. In November 1981 Falco reached number one in Austria with Kommissar and two months later his hometown rise from pub musician to star catapulted him to the top of the charts in Germany. Sales exploded. The track was number one in almost all of Europe, in Canada it went gold, and the German version even made it to number 72 in the US Billboard-Charts while the English-language cover version by After the Fire reached third place. The New York star DJ Afrika Bambaataa was crucial in getting Falco started in the USA and Der Kommissar became a hit on the American club scene. Even in Guatemala the song topped the hit parade. The hit can be heard worldwide. Kommissar sold more than seven million copies worldwide, although Falco later recalled he had never thought the song would be a success internationally. But he had never had respect for the US market. "Actually, it was a trip on the zeitgeist express, which I didn't jump onto, but rather had to some extent produced myself." And Falco really did excite great interest on the pop scene. It was not only his clever texts, a blend of German, Viennese dialect and English, nor was it just the language of his own that he developed, but above all his individual singing style which made him the first white rapper. Later he liked to describe himself to his closest friends as the "Godfather of white rap." The Einzelhaft album was released in 1982. It was also produced by Robert Ponger and became a huge success. With tracks such as Helden von Heute, Auf der Flucht (On the Run) and Hinter uns die Sintflut (The Flood is Behind Us), Falco was able to pinpoint the feeling of these days and this put him way ahead of his time. In an interview for the magazine Wiener a year before his death he said: "Einzelhaft was a gut feeling that took off like wildfire. It was my best album."