A1 Hajnali enek (Song at dawn)
A2 Hol az az ember (Where is the man)
A3 Mint aprilis (Like april)
A4 A laz (The Fever)
A5 Szettört almok (Broken Dreams)

B1 Kinyujtom kezem (Stretching out my arms)
B2 Hova mehetnek? (Where could I go ?)
B3 Igen, szep volt (Yeah, that was nice)
B4 Szeparcu idegen (The Stranger of nice face)

(play all)

with Zsolt Baronits, Akos Molanr, Endre Sipos, Karoly Friedrich, Otto Schöck, Andras Veszelinov, Tibor Tatrai, Tamas Turai, Rudolf Tomsits, Laszlo Gööz, Miklos Siliga, Laszlo Des. Conducted by Lajos Bolba, Musical Producer Zoltan Hezser, Recording Engineer Ferenc Dobo (same as on the Neoton Family record), Sleeve design Andras Alapfy.

This record aswell as the band is abit mysterious. While getting info from the net I stumbled over alot of contradicting information (like this record being from 1995, which is definately not true, my copy got published in 1976). But what seems to be fact is that this band did start in hungary and in one time of its career either completely moved or atleast recorded an album in australia (which seems rather unlikely, shouldn’t it be austria (the country neighbouring hungary) ?). And although I got three copies of this record from a library sale they all have a sticker at exact the same spot, making it hard to read the linernotes. (You gotta love these people working at a library … the backside has plenty of room for a sticker, but they put it on the text. Thanx alot.) Maybe a reader can give more info on this in the comments.

But no matter what, this record is really dope, in fact one of those that gave me a hard time deciding what tracks to put up here… Also this is a nice showoff moment for me, “look what great stuff I digged and can sample”. Hah ! It’s filled with loads of breaks, percussion loops, drumloops, stabs, hits … and a blast to just listen to (once you get accustomed to the hungarian language).

Track B1 Kinyujtom kezem (Stretching out my arms) has already been featured on the “Non Stop Beat”-mixset, A1 Hajnali enek (Song at dawn) begins with these great drums, full horn-section, a small guitar-solo with strings (something I don’t mind unlike other people who are immediately disgusted by even the smallest rock-reference in such music…), nice track. Track A2 Hol az az ember (Where is the man) has even more electric guitar, but also this amazing base groove of drums, bass, keys and guitar spiced up with a few horn-hits. B2 Hova mehetnek? (Where could I go ?) leaves a lot of space for that trumpet (?), a nice bass solo, fresh drums to sample … And as I said the rest of this record is as nice as these tracks, only one real ballad (which is not even bad either). I am glad I found this record especially because I made the mistake of ignoring Pepita-records for a few years because I thought it was all stadium-rock like the first few records I digged of that label (Fonogram, Dynamit etc.).

Discogs Entry for this record.

This record has obviously been re-released as a CD but is not widely avaible, you can still try getting it (or the vinyl on gemm, as always).

Syirus – Szettört Almok: Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm
Syrius – Broken Dreams: Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm

Or just search on google for Szettört Almok or Broken Dreams.

A1 Du bist heute wie neu (You seem like someone else today)
A2 Alles vorbei (All over)
A3 Verdammt (Damn it)
A4 Sie (You)

B1 Als der Opa von uns ging (When Grandpa passed away)
B2 Damals, weißt du noch (Back then, do you remember)
B3 Wenn der Urlaub kommt (When Holiday is coming)
B4 In einem Regen (In a rain)
B5 Das geht mir ans Herz (That’s moving my hard)

(play all tracks)

with Manfred Krug, Günther Fischer (he is the left one on the cover, btw), Christiane Wunder, the Gerd-Michaelis-Choir, Gerhard Pabst, Friedrich Schlegel, Heinz Becker, Joachim Graswurm, Hubert Katzenbeier, Freddy Lehmann, Horst Schmidt, Götz Geitner, Werner Schmidt, Helmut Wenzel, Klaus Smesny, the string-orchestra Otto-Karl Beck

Okay, so let’s have the last one and I can call it a night.

This is the fourth and final record of Manfred Krug and Günther Fischer, one year after the release of this record Manfred Krug left the GDR for good.

The music on this one is (ofcourse) great and again (as on most other Günther Fischer records) greatly due to one man : Wolfgang “Zicke” Schneider. He was the drummer in (as far as I know) every Günther-Fischer-Band and his drumstyle is really amazing and if you are into making music you probably even know him although you never heard his name because his drumming got sampled quite some time. More on that later.

As I wrote he was the drummer on most Günther Fischer records (for example also on both Uschi Brüning records (1, 2) I posted so far) and he got recognized for it up to a point that beat-diggers actually started collecting specifically his records. Which is probably the reason why he got his own Discogs-Page. And actually he his still playing in a band called “Jazzin the Blues”, you can try to make some sense of this automatic translation of his bio on their webpage.

And one final funny sidenote on all records: the labels say “lyrics written by Clemens Kerber” which is actually a pseudonym for Manfred Krug himself. As is “Isa Karfunkelstein”, the interviewer on the backside of this record.

But off to the tracks :

A1 Du bist heute wie neu (You seem like someone else today) is yet another bomb. Say what you want, but Günther Fischer got the concept of a great opener nailed. The song is about a guy not realizing that it’s the anniversary day with his wife, despite all her efforts. The buildup of the song is great, an amazing mix of disco, funk and pop. Also it is a great example of the progress Krug made, compare that to the first record, he actually got a tight rhythm and really starts to express his voice. And that amazing sax-solo by Günther Fischer in the middlepart just fits.

A4 Sie (You) is a song about him helping a woman with her lovesickness, and no, not that way. Great ballad, but really listen to the drumming, blows me away totally.

B3 Wenn der Urlaub kommt (When Holiday is coming) contains the drumloop which is for example part of the dnbmassive collection and a few commercial sample-cds possibly known to some people. The song is about the problem planning a holiday (with the special problems of east-germans regarding that matter) with the conclusion of just staying at home. The music is just a wild ride, again with a sax-solo (they were coming back in popular music in the late 70s).

B4 In einem Regen (In a rain) is a song about him and his wife which he first met in a rain long ago and about them still loving to go for a walk when it rains. Just listen to that guitar funking off at the side, the amazing drumming or his vocals. Great track aswell.

Check this records discogs-entry here.

And again the links to the CD-ReIssues: This record (together with the unposted third LP) is avaiable on CD at Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com, the other CD with the first and second LP here : Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com. Or try gemm for the vinyl.

This concludes the series of Manfred Krug as I don’t have any other vinyl from him. But I do have one other, last gem that will appear some time later.
But there is more Günther Fischer in my crates, although the next records will most probably be some hungarian funk or some czech or russian jazz.

A1 Wenn’s draußen grün wird (When it gets green outside)
A2 Laß mich nicht gehn (Don’t let me go)
A3 Komm und spiel mit mir (Come and play with me)
A4 Schau nicht hin (Don’t look there)

B1 Jeder Mann, der dich sah (Every man that saw you)
B2 Kalt und weiß (Cold and white)
B3 Sonntag (Sunday)
B4 Danke für den Abend (Thank you for the Evening)
B5 Baden gehn (Going for a swim)

(play all tracks)

with Manfred Krug, Günther Fischer, Reinhard Lakomy, Fred Baumert, Wolfgang “Eddie” Greiser, Wolfgang “Zicke” Schneider, Wolfgang “Büchse” Winkler, Matthias Schmidt, Hermann Wolfframm, Reinhard-Lakomy-Choir, String-Ensemble Otto-Karl Beck

Back with the second album of Manfred Krug. Nearly the same personell as on the first record with one big exception : Reinhard Lakomy on the organ.
Reinhard Lakomy was another great composer and singer who did stay in the GDR until it’s end. He started with doing pop music, later in the 80s he mainly did really great records for kids because he was fed up with pop, aswell as some amazing electronic records with a modular moog he bought from Tangerine Dream in the 80s and still owns (one of three worldwide). Records from him will pop up here eventually.
Anyway, as said both had a “professional” relationship in the beginning, later started becoming something like rivals (altough Lakomy states in his autobiography that he was simply not “interested in him”) and after Krug left the GDR Lakomy outright hated him and even went so far to avoid him during a meeting in the 90s (after Germany got united and they could have met again.)

But let’s put those things aside and let’s concentrate on the music, written again by Günther Fischer. The tracks :

A1 Wenn’s draußen grün wird (When it gets green outside) is simply the bomb. An intro which sounds like Love Unlimited Orchestras “Bring it on up” but was actually released three years earlier than “Music Maestro Please” instantly grabs your attention and paves the floor for a real smasher about the coming of spring and love. This is a track I play in about every single one of my sets, no matter what season it is.

B2 Kalt und weiß (Cold and white) a song about the search for a specific woman again (this record is mainly about women and seasons) that starts rather folky (?!) but picks up tempo after a while. Great again the conversation in the song, he meets the woman he dreams about finally in a shop where she is buying a dress with another guy for their wedding. Tough luck.

B3 Sonntag (Sunday) is a song about the first Sunday after the end of winter, just a great “easy-going” song about the time when winter is gone and spring finally arrives.

B5 Baden gehn (Going for a swim) is another great “easy-going” song about going to the beach and all the things you can do and see there… I guess you know what.

One more link for today, someone made a “Manfred Krug”-tributeprofile on myspace, so you can be friends with him. I am ofcourse.

Again the links to his two CD-ReIssues : Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com for the CD containing this and the first record from and you can get the second ReIssue of the third and fourth LP also on Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. Or try gemm for the vinyl.

As a note, I won’t post about his third record. The reason is not that it’s bad or not worth it, but rather that it’s filled with jazzed/funked and easy-listening covers of songs like “Greensleeves” or “Que sera”. It’s good aswell, but the idea of this page is to inform you about really original music which means I am not going to post any of the countless eastern records with cover-versions of western songs. So the fourth one from him will be next.

A1 Du sagtest leider nur “Gut Nacht” (You only said “good night”, unfortunately)
A2 Frag mich, warum (Ask me why)
A3 Der Tag beginnt (The day begins)
A4 Gestern war der Ball (Yesterday was a dance)
A5 Unser Abend war wunderbar (Our evening was great)
A6 Das war nur ein Moment (It was just a moment)

B1 Hör auf! (Stop it!)
B2 Du gehst (You leave)
B3 Nacht, ich träumte düster (At night, I had nightmares)
B4 Als ich rief nach dir (When I called for you)
B5 Ende der Platte (End of Record)

(play all tracks)

with Manfred Krug, Günther Fischer, Ulrich Gumpert, Fred Baumert, Günter Dobrowolsky, Wolfgang “Eddie” Greiser, Wolfgang “Zicke” Schneider, Gerhard Pabst, Wolfgang Domschke, Hans-Joachim Graswurm, Heinz Becker, Horst Schmidt, Götz Geithner, Hubert Katzenbeier, Fredi Lehmann, Michaelis Choir, String Ensemble Kurt Beck

Manfred Krug is a real icon in Germany. He actually grew up in Westgermany but his father moved to Eastgermany in 1949 when he was ten. Soon after becoming an adult he started acting in theatres and in the movies. Later he also started singing, mostly jazz and recorded quite a few records.
Due to alot of political troubles (which seem to be hard to judge from my informations, Reinhard Lakomy for example wrote a few harsh words about Krug and those troubles in his autobigraphy and I tend to believe him) he left the GDR in 1977 and went to Westgermany where he continued acting and recording music.
For some strange reason though his acting career excelled there (he played in a few very successful and long-seasoned TV-Series) while his musical career came to a grinding halt which actually leads to the funny situation that people from west-germany are very astonished if they hear the music he made back in the GDR, because to people from western germany he is mainly known as “the singing detective” from “Tatort”. The fact that he is a real icon is backed up by the simple fact that he actually got his own english wikipedia page.

But back to this record. It’s called “No.1″ and is actually the first of four he made with the help of Günther Fischer, but it’s not his real first, he had a few singles, tracks on compilations and even a full LP on Amiga before that one. The first LP called “Manfred Krug und die Modern Jazz Big Band” (1965) which is a recording of a live-gig and is amazingly raw, jazzy, great and extremely rare. I have seen that LP physically about three times in the past years, two times in shops for 80 and 120 Euro and one time a completely banged up version in a library.

But as I said, this is the first one with Günther Fischer and this is nearly all you need to know. It’s filled with fast funky tracks and slow jazzy ballads and there are the best instrumentalists of the GDR from that time on this one, it is just amazing.
On this first record the singing of Manfred Krug is not yet completey “tight”, but his sloppy style of hitting the notes and rhythm does actually add a lot of character to this record. It’s filled with songs about love and it is one of those rare records that you can listen trough from start to end.

About the tracks :

A1 Du sagtest leider nur “Gut Nacht” (You only said “good night”, unfortunately) is a story about him unsuccessfully trying to seduce a woman he brought home (yeah, he was a real playboy although his songs are quite romantic), most funny thing is a small reference to the cathedral in cologne (a city in western germany). Also all the small breaks troughout the song are very notable.

A3 Der Tag beginnt (The day begins) is a song about him falling in love with a girl he is seeing every morning on the train and him trying to gather the courage to talk to her. Especially noteworthy is the arrangement and the way this song builds up over time aswell the phaser-effect instead of a proper first chorus, sounds great.

A6 Das war nur ein Moment (It was just a moment) is a song about searching for love, starts very ballad-like, breaks down to a small amazing middlepart (wait for this, some downtempo-acts would make an entire tune out of this sample) and gets balladesk again. Very notably is also the doubling of his voice, he is basically singing his own background.

B3 Nacht, ich träumte düster (At night, I had nightmares) is a song about him losing his wife to a friend of his (and getting over it) and this song actually means alot to me because I experienced exactly the same thing some years ago. The whole arrangement of this song is amazing, a storyteller (him) is talking to the singer (him too), commenting on and asking about the lyrics. Also the song breaks down a few times, not unlike modern dancetracks. Best quote is the rather untranslatable “So mancher Freund ist nur ein Busenfreund”, meaning something like “sometimes a friend is just a friend of breasts” (though much more stylish in german).

And I do have some amazing news : This record (and the three follow-ups which will be posted later here) are actually avaiable worldwide as CD-ReIssues for an insanely low price (two records on one CD, used prices at under 3 Euro, Pounds and Dollar). The easiest way to get some of the best and original eastern funk. Check Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com for the CD containing this and the second record from Manfred Krug/Günther Fischer. If you don’t want to wait for the eastern-crates.com posts about the other records you can get the second ReIssue of the third and fourth LP also on Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. But ofcourse you can also hit gemm for the vinyl.

As always, you can also have a google search for Manfred Krug or Günther Fischer.

A-Side : Hochzeitsnacht (wedding night)
B-Side : Einer wie du (one like you)

(play all tracks)

Uschi Brüning with the Günther Fischer Orchestra

Let’s have some Funk, shall we ? It’s another Goodie from the Uschi Brüning/Günther Fischer-Dreamteam, a Single from 1975. The A-Side is a track about the wedding night of a young couple, though not sleazy but actually very romantic, B-Side is a song about the search for the “perfect man”. Have Fun. (Btw, two images only, because backside and the other label look exactly the same.)

Shopping Links :
The track “Hochzeitsnacht” is featured on the “Amiga a go go vol.1″, a compilation filled with great tracks from the Amiga-Archives that I recommend heartily and that is avaiable as CD worldwide, including ofcourse Amazon.de and with abit of luck also Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
If you want to look for more music :
Uschi Brüning – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com : here, here and here.
Günther Fischer – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com : here, here and here.

Soundtrack for some Spy/SecretService TV-Series from the DEFA (East Germany’s movie production company.) The series was done 1973, this record is from 1979 however (wonder what took them so long). Pretty cool record overall, the song I chose is A1 – “Tentakel”, the opener, but the whole record has alot of groove, laidback tracks aswell as uptempo stuff. Unfortunately I have never seen this series (I was not even born at that time), so I can’t tell you anything about it except that Armin Müller-Stahl was in it.

Stole this one from my parents.

Seems to be a rare record, I couldn’t come up with results, maybe you have more luck looking for the composer or the title.

Und für alle Deutschen : wer genau hinguckt findet auch Kommissar Wolff aus Berlin.

Tracklist :

A1 – Strona (snippet)
A2 – Jestes spoznionym deszczem
A3 – Wzejde polnym makiem
A4 – Otwieram list – brazowy wrzesien
A5 – W powszednie dni

B1 – Snij tylko szczescie (snippet)
B2 – Piesn geiry
B3 – Chce byc dla ciebie
B4 – Brzegi lagodne

(play all tracks)

music by SBB (Halina Frackowiak was background singer for SBB for some long time, for her own record they kinda switched the roles – she in the front, the band in the back.)

I chose this one because of its cover … A Fish-Bowl and some Ice and suddenly it all looks spacey. (Thats not her head in there, only a picture). Again thats not really a hit-record for me, some songs are nice but most of their charm comes from the fact that the language she sings in sounds strange and mystical to me, because I dont understand polish. But there are some good licks and breaks to be sampled. Also on a technical sidenote, the whole record sounds abit like a 96kbps mp3 (with a slurry, phased sound), but because it’s an original from the 70s they obviously wanted it this way.

I also found a great vid on youtube that seems to be a mixup between “Hair”, “Amadeus” and “Clockwork Orange” (yeah, sorry, but I find this rather scary …).

Go look on google for Halina Frackowiak or SBB.

Shopping links:

Halina Frackowiak – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com
SBB – Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm.com