No.16 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.6

More Kurt! Thanks to my good old friend Anton up in Umeå, I recently got a hold of the wierd and rare Hauenstein boogie disco cut It's All Nike (which I've mentioned here earlier). Bought cheap from a deadstock of records up in my hometown, the copy is in surprisingly good condition. Not much is known about this 1984 single, especially nothing about the puzzling fact that the obvious theme of this one-off project is to either cash in on or help promote the sports company Nike and its (at the time) trendy sneakers. It's possible that in Germany at this time the Nike brand was not the household name it is today and therefore provided an exotic namedropping opportunity for the task of emulating the musical esthetics of American disco boogie and the hip streetculture associated with it.

Bubblegum-baselines jump right out of the amps while Kurt rocks the synthesizers in a proto-skwee style and it's all good, it's all Nike.

NIKE- IT'S ALL NIKE (DUB-VERSION)

No.11 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.5

In 1984 Kurt lended a hand to Supermax backup-vocalist and percussion player Larry London, producing the album Rockets under the name London Aircraaft. The more boogie/80's soul-vibe may be seem far from the Supermax sound, but when the synthesizer line of Supergirls kicks in it is unmistakeable whose signature it bears. The laidback groove of Angie is also a superb bass heavy Hauenstein-track that fits perfectly in the slicker suit of London Aircraaft. In the same year as this album came out, Larry and Kurt also released a single of a cover of Kurts Supermax-hit Love Machine.

Other projects Kurt managed during the late 1980's are the hard-to-find singles of Nike (with Frank Bülow, later with Culture Beat) and Crazy Coconut, which featured Kurts daughters Judi and Nicola. The Disco Academy has not been able to track down these records unfortunately.


LONDON AIRCRAAFT - SUPERGIRLS

No.10 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.4

From 1983 comes this whipping and pulsating cut, loaded with flashing neon and electricity (as the title and cover design of the album will suggest).
This is the first Supermax album recorded in the Nowhereland studio which Kurt built together with his keyboard player Tommy Schmidt. This would however be the last Supermax album featuring the original line-up of musicians. Kurt would reform the band many times all through the 1990s featuring new musicians, the first effort together with Christian Kolonovits in 1986.

But the production and sound of later albums (even though occasionally teaming up with old members) could never be compared to that of these early masterpieces.


SUPERMAX - FUTURE TIME

No.9 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.3

The Bamboo record of 1979 is a sought-after rarity of cosmic disco, and by cosmic I don't mean to reference the italian Afro Cosmic sound of Loda & Baldelli, which in this case had little or no relation to the cosmic sound that Hauenstein envisioned. The hard-driving epic that is Spaceship Crashing has been bestowed the term cosmic simply because there is no other way of describing it. And of course, there is the theme of spaceships and spacetravel in two of the records tracks.
This was Hauensteins own pet project after settling into the Hotline studio in Frankfurt. The WEA label set him up with these three girls from Surinam and let Kurt call the shots, which resulted in him playing almost all instruments himself. Featured on back-up vocals were however the newly recruited Supermax singers Cee Cee Cobb & Jean Graham, who Kurt had found on a trip to Los Angeles.
Since this is a Hauenstein affair, it features a few reggae-influenced tracks, much like all the Supermax records. And how much his affection with Jamaican culture may seem like a footnote to some of his fans, it can't easily be discarded. In 1983, Supermax were the first band with white musicians to play the annual reggae festival in Montego Bay along with Gregory Isaacs and Black Uhuru.
The song that is however most characteristic to Kurts musical legacy, as well as a statement of his unique uncompromising style, is a groovy mid-tempo cut called Hustlers Of Life Never Survive (check that one out here). But the stand-out track for dancefloor action is of course the now classic:


BAMBOO - SPACESHIP CRASHING

No.8 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.2

Having set up his dream band and soon-to-be life project in Frankfurt with a crew of exceptional german musicians (of which keyboardist Richard Schönherz he had collaborated with on other projects as early as 1971, and Christian Kolonovitz he had met in a studio in 1975), Kurt ignited the sparks of a blooming array of studio collaborations all around Germany.
While most of these guys had their roots in psychedelic rock and kraut (like the prolific producer Peter Hauke) the new and genre-defying direction of Hauensteins Supermax granted them both access and high esteem as studio musicians in the emerging business of the disco sound.
In a cultural context where disco music could neither rest upon or be bound by the foundations of soul or rythm & blues, the sonic innovations of these long-haired krautrockers was much appraised. In the year following the first Supermax record, almost the whole band served for producer Bernt Möhrles project Chilly, delivering well-orchestrated yet raw disco in the shadows of the Chilly models/singers (note the puzzling weight gain and afro increase of the dude on the left side for the picture on the single cover, from what appears to be the same photo shoot as the albums).
The track Dance With Me featured on this record is a spaceous and chilly (no pun intended!) electronic trip of cosmic disco, and definitely stands out among the rest. Besides handling the bass and doing the additional vocals in the break, the arrangement of the song is also signed by Kurt.


CHILLY - DANCE WITH ME

No.7 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.1

One of the greatest heroes of cosmic disco has passed on to the next level. Musical genius Kurt Hauenstein left this world yesterday, at the tender age of 62. But his life offers a rich and comprehensive history in the creation of some of the greatest music ever made. Which surely served as a spark for another Disco Academy Special. In the upcoming posts we will explore some of the most interesting productions signed by this Austrian musician, starting off with his most prolific creation: Supermax.
The title track of the 1977 album Don't Stop The Music (the bands first or second depending on which sources to trust) is a tribal psychedelic trip of epic proportions, featuring the blocky synth-chords that became a trademark of the Supermax sound.

Before the word wigger entered the dictionaries and denounced the efforts of any respectful popcultural exchange between ethnic groups (i.e. whites and blacks), Kurt was the proud posterboy of a multicultural approach to music and to inter-racial relations.
One of the songs of this albums, Watch Out South Africa, Here We Come, can clearly be interpreted as a prophecy of the bands 1981 tour of this apartheid-ruled region. As the story goes, they "were the first multiracial band to tour South Africa. Despite near constant death threats, they played 21 shows causing quite a political scene and earned Kurt 'no-entry' status to several countries"(quoted here) In a self-documented video from the tour, the headlines of daily newspaper Star reveal the bands involvement with the socialist organisation AZAPO.

The swedish balearic rock band Tiedye (responsible for last years summer anthem, the "remix" of DJ Kaos Love The Night Away) announced over a year ago that their full length album would feature a guest appearance by Hauenstein on vocals. We're all hoping that this now posthumous release will make its way to the public soon.


SUPERMAX - DON'T STOP THE MUSIC