Captain Clark's Trip Through Outer Space

1. Jan Turkenburg & Geert Grote Pupils - In My Spaceship

2. Kraftwerk - Spacelab

3. Lovefingers - Zoysia

4. Space - Magic Fly

5. Ilya Santana - Quasar

6. Padded Cell - Moon Menace

7. Charlie Mike Sierra - On The Moon

8. Laser - Laser

9. Kano - Ikeya-Seki

10. Rune Lindbaek & Lindström - Alien In My Pocket

11. Xenon - Xenon Galaxy


A Trip Through Outer Space

Lee Douglas

The first thing i heard by Mr. Lee Douglas was an edit he made of the chant Misa Criolla by Fuego. I recognized this song immediately as one of Tolouse Low Trax favourite tracks at "salon des amateurs" over here in Düsseldorf. So when I went on his myspace I got pretty surprised that this guy from Brooklyn, NY was Asian and long-haired.

However, when he finally came to Düsseldorf in November (Holy Weekend) it was easy to recognize him. But certainly more important than his outward appearance was his tasteful set. Beside some classy disco records Douglas played his awesome hit New York Story and, on our wish, Misa Criolla incredibly high pitched.

The next day he came back with his buddy Lovefingers, with who he went on that Europe-trip, to enjoy Loda and poach some groupies.

Lee Douglas - New York Story

Lee Douglas - Our Song (Exclusive Extended Mix 1999)

Fuego - Misa Criolla (Lee Douglas Edit)

Partly Minus 8

1. The Mission - Wasteland

2. Sisters of Mercy - Phantom

3. City - Aus der Ferne

4. The The - Giant (pilooski Edit)

5. Fuego - Misa Criolla (Lee Douglas Edit)

6. Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

7. Studio - West Side

8. Joakim - Lonely Hearts (Dub Version)

9. Black Devil Disco Club - The Devil In Us

10. Kraftwerk - Trans Europa Express

11. Aeroplane - Aeroplane

12. Lovefingers - Bermuda

13. Unit 4 & Black Devil - An Other Skin (Days Of Blackula)


Partly Minus 8

Beppe Loda

"I'M NOT A “COSMIC DJ“ Cosmic Music doesn't actually exist! Personally, I think that this terminology is reductive and I don't like it because the movement which also included Cosmic was much wider and articulated and was more commonly known as 'Afro'."

When Beppe Loda started his career as a DJ in 1973 he was just sixteen years old. Gaining fame as "the DJ who plays strange music" a friend offered him to become resident of a new club. He would be involved in the planning, especially soundsystem and technics, the base of every succesful set. Loda acceded and from now on played in "Typhoon Club" every week. That was in 1980.

Seven years and a lot of unforgetable nights later the club was forced to close; not for drug related problems as it was kind of usual at that time, but for safety aspects. It was overcrowded: "The club was in the centre of Gambara, bordering private houses, there was no parking and could only facilitate some like 450-500 people. You just can imagine how it was when there were 3,000-4,000 people standing outside waiting to enter… and it was one in, one out."



However, seven years were enough to establish Beppe Loda as one (or even the one) pioneer of "Afro-Disco" (with Daniele Baldelli, Mozart and Cosmic Club other names are to be dropped). Due to Loda "Afro" means a "mix of different types of music coming mainly from Africa and which contain a high percentage of percussion music". It includes African Fusion, Jazz, Brazilian, Funk, Blaxploitation, Percussion etc.

The term "Cosmic" was related to Beppe Loda due to his early sets in Typhoon Club: a cross breeding of Electronic, Pop, Progressive and New-Wave. As it's becoming obvious from the quote above, "Cosmic" is only a little part of the movement "Afro" and wrongly applied to Loda.

Nowadays Loda is still travelling around the world, always in search of new music while he is pursuiting his maxim of being always alternative and off mainstream.

We, personally, have to to thank him for his set at Salon Des Amateurs and a holy night that probably noone will forget that easily.

Ballare, Beppe!


Beppe Loda Set at Typhoon Club 1982 part 1

Beppe Loda Set at Typhoon Club 1982 part 2

Düsseldorf

We thought we would best start things off by showing some love to the city we live in. Intending to draw some attention to the hometown of Kraftwerk, DAF, Propaganda and co what other band is there to present first than La Düsseldorf.

In 1975 they emanated from the krautrock band "Neu!" including Hans Lampe, Thomas Dinger and his brother the former Kraftwerk-drummer Klaus Dinger. On their first selftitled LP from 1976 they rendered homage to their hometown with the song "Düsseldorf", a 13-minute long track based on an impulsive & driving rhythm section and some simple synthesizer melodies. The track hasn't got much lyrics but samples from the city's airport and the repeated (for anyone from here so well known) question "Gehn wir in die Altstadt?" (let's go to the old town?) make a local's heart swell. There are tons of songs written as a homage to Cities that make you jump out of the window. But "Düsseldorf" is certainly none of them.

In 1978 the band had its biggest succes with the atmospheric track"Rheinita" from the second LP Viva . Their pulsating drums can be found here again, showing the lasting influence of their musical origin "Neu!" whose almost machine-like rhythms certainly had an influence on modern dance music. The press established the term "Motorik" (motor activity) for that kind of sound. Together with some beautiful synthesizer-harmonies that's what makes the song a 7-minute long exceptional, atmospheric experience. Nowadays it's unthinkable that such a piece of music could even see the charts from a distance, but "Rheinita" became a big hit in germany.

"La Düsseldorf" should represent the always interesting and vivid music scene of düsseldorf, the place that bore more musical outriders than any other german city did. There will surely be further posts dedicated to that.


La Düsseldorf - Düsseldorf

La Düsseldorf - Rheinita
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