Warning – Magic Castle
Warning – Why Can The Bodies Fly
As I finally shake off the rust and begin to more frequently (at least I hope!) share music I’ve only been listening to at home, or occasionally at friend’s houses or the very rare times where I’ve spun out, there are very few records in the past couple of years I’ve wanted to share than this weird, dark & almost diabolical bit of German Synth Rock from Germany circa 1982.
This came up on my radar as I was searching online for some other weird German music (if you haven’t already noticed, I spend a great deal of time going down weird music rabbit holes). The cover of the album was the first thing that hooked me, with the dark figures, slightly reminiscent of Darth Vader, but more like some European knock off version of Darth Vader. But when I looked online to see what this music could sound like, I was not surprised at all at what they did sound like (I mean, that cover looks exactly like a band who would have a song called “Why Can The Bodies Fly,” which sounds less like an actual question and more like something some Horror monster/villain would say after doing something nasty to someone else). However, when I heard “Message,” I knew I had to have this record in my collection.
“Message” is one of those songs that just sounds like it was made for Hip-Hop producers to sample. By 1982, Rap music was very much a thing, but the kind of deeper sampling that happened in the Golden Era was yet to be born. And yet, those drums, and even the guitars, just seem tailor made for some of the more left of center weirdo artists of that time (I’m thinking like Co-Flow era El-P, MF Doom, that kind of vibe) to cut up into at least an interlude.
About a week later a copy arrived, and the song sounded even better on a proper non digital sound system (and even better better when I played it last October at the now dearly departed Melody Wine Bar). But while “Message” is dark, the other tracks are a whole ‘nuther level of darkness. “Magic Castle” sounds like the kind of thing that plays in the waiting room for appointments to see some chief Demon or Devil in hell. And the aforementioned “Why Can The Bodies Fly,” is just as diabolical. The music is sometimes also unintentionally hilarious, especially the little “dig it,” or whatever the woman is saying (I think it’s a woman, maybe it’s a goblin, I have no idea) on “Why Can The Bodies Fly.” Every time I hear it it makes me want to break out into quick versions of the zombie dance in the Thriller video.
As I was (finally) getting this post together today, I also discovered that there was a video created, in 1982, for “Why Can The Bodies Fly,” and again, it is almost exactly what you’d think a video from a band that looks and sounds like this would be like…Just glorious, so very 1980s and especially so Germany in the 1980s. Now that I’m 50, I’m at an age where I can wax poetic about how “they don’t make them like they used to back in the day,” which I generally have found to be thoroughly annoying, but in this case? Warning definitely fits that sentiment.