Great songs from not-so-great albums

SIDE A
Primordial - babel's tower
Manowar - secrets of steel
Swallow the Sun - the memory of light
Celtic Frost - necromantical screams
Woods of Ypres - career suicide (is not real suicide)

SIDE B
Dream Theater - pull me under
Sanctuary - arise and purify
Graveworm - into the dust of eden
Triumph - fight the good fight
Mountain - boys in the band

Einflussreiche Review-Schreiber

Robert Müller (Metal Hammer)
Als dunkler Fürst mein erster Wegweiser zu extremer Musik (OK, und zu 90er-Gothic). Seine Beschreibungen malten Bilder, und seine Worte hatten Widerhall.

Frank Albrecht (Rock Hard/Deaf Forever)
Nett, wortgewandt und vor allem ohne jegliche Scheuklappen - Death oder Melodic, er liebte sie alle, und seine Erklärungen waren immer unmittelbar, verständlich und bodenständig.

Wolfgang Liu Kuhn (Rock Hard)
Seine frische, total schräge Art, Alben zu erklären hatte es mir sofort angetan. Wenig Floskeln und viel Hingabe zum geschriebenen Wort, auch wenn viele Leser Meisterwerke wie die "Bannstein"-Rezension zum Gegenteil umkehren wollen.

Günter Schote (Babyblaue Seiten)
Seine abgepfiffenen Prog-Reviews sind das beste und lustigste, was ich an diesem Musikstil finden kann. Warst du da eigentlich jedes Mal eingeraucht, oder kommt das ganz von allein? Um es mit Walter Wegmüller zu sagen, "Duuuu bist der Magier!".

autothrall (From the Dust Returned)
Unnachahmlich, diese Art zu schreiben. Detailliert, fundiert, interessant und vor allem tatsächlich so bewandert, dass die langen Reviews wirklich niemals in Gequatsche enden.

Markus Kavka (Metal Hammer)
Als er noch lange Haare hatte. Wobei, danach mit den kurzen war er schon auch noch lustig. Inhaltlich unverständlich, aber überbordend kreativ und wirklich unterhaltsam. Diese "Noir Desir"-Besprechung, komplett mit französischem Akzent - good memories of different times.

Oliver Recker (Metal Hammer)
Total durch, der Typ, der sagenumwobene Recker. Ich glaube, er hatte nur acht oder so legendäre (weil total weit draußene) Albenbeschreibungen geliefert, der Rest war Standard. Was aber reichte, um fortan seinen Namen nur noch mystisch-geraunt zu hören.

Mixtape summer 2015

SIDE A
Tiamat - the sleeping beauty
I Santo California - tornerò
Kylie Minogue - the one
Dimmu Borgir - the fallen arises

SIDE B
Emperor - ye entrancemperium
Enzo Belmonte - io ti cercherò
Sandra - heaven can wait
Jennifer Hudson - i still love you

Great non-Rock and Metal albums

Róisín Murphy - Overpowered
D'Angelo - Black Messiah
Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (1971)
Madonna - Bedtime Stories
V/A - Mojo Club Dancefloor Jazz (all)
Willie Colón - all
ABBA - Arrival
Antonio Vivaldi - I quattro stagioni
Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata
Seka Aleksić - Dođi i uzmi me
Lhasa - La Llorona
Paola & Chiara - Blu
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Candan Erçetin - Aman Doktor

David Guetta - Pop Life

Hande Yener - Nasıl Delirdim
Mediæval Bæbes - The Rose

Mix tape Amsterdam 2015

SIDE A
Textures - reaching home
Kelly Rowland - work (freemasons remix)
Muse - time is running out
Lucyfire - u can have all my love 2nite

SIDE B
Moonspell - love crimes
Enemy Ships - wrong place, right time
Arctic Monkeys - i wanna be yours
George Harrison - my sweet lord

Mix Tape Summer 2014

SIDE A
Wisin & Yandel - sexy movimiento
Ivan Deyanov - down with me
Sanctuary - battle angels
Iced Earth - iced earth
Jon Cutler - it's yours (feat. e-man) [nice7 remix]
Luca Dirisio - calma e sangue freddo

SIDE B
Slayer - expendable youth
Fates Warning - in a word
Frater & Stent - bolero (in the sun) [dirty freek remix]
Don Omar - ayer la vi
Lana Del Rey - ultraviolence

Voices of Eurodance: Manuela Ray

* Sprays on wall * "BLOG'S NOT DEAD"

In this new series, that I plan on continuing for the next 40 years approximately (I'm lazy), I will present some artists that lent their fabulous voices to one of the most amazing musical phenomenons, and the first that I have consciously witnessed - Eurodance.

Today we start with Manuela Ray, best known for being the leading voice of the Austrian Eurodance act Imperio.

Even back in 1995 when I discovered Imperio with 'quo vadis' and especially 'nostra culpa' I had the slight feeling that they are a bit odd. Their songs sounded a bit like patchwork and the "ancient roman" bits didn't seem to fit to the hard electronic sound. Even so, I found them a bit fascinating and the aforementioned songs were catchy hits that we listened to over and over.

Listening to them now they seem even more like an oddity, especially the male vocals and raps don't seem quite right. However, they haven't really lost their charm, and the songs are still hits. But there is one thing especially that I discovered upon listening to them again, and that's the amazing vocals of Manuela Ray.

Born Manuela Ferisović in Pula (Yugoslavia, now Croatia) in 1974 to a Brasilian mother and German father and resident of Vienna in the nineties, rumor has it that Imperio producer Norbert Reichart discovered her dancing in a disco in Frankfurt, where she was visiting a friend. At first she thought he was hitting on her in an especially dumb way when he asked if she can also sing, but we all know that it worked out in the end - and that she could sing. And how!

Manuela has a strong voice made in Eurodance heaven and lifts all songs she featured to a higher level through her presence. This is especially obvious in my opinion on Imperio's first single of summer 1994, 'veni vidi vici'. Musically strong, but the male vocals are pretty abysmal - the computerized deep voice that does the 'veni vidi vici' being the worst (instead of "declaring" the words it sounds like someone is ordering lunch), closely followed by the "Ave Imperator" shouts with what sounds to me like a hilarious Austrian accent. The short "danceflooh!" raps assigned to Michael Harris sound decent enough, but when Manuela's voice emerges from the hard beats it's a revelation for the ears, really awesome vocals.

That, as mentioned, applies to every Imperio track this gifted singer did (thankfully, the male voices got a bit less silly on the following singles as well). Although not all tracks are must-haves, Imperio's full-lenght album "Veni Vidi Vici" is recommendable for Eurodance lunatics. It unites all the successful singles ('amor infinitus' was the fourth one and not mentioned yet) and adds another two or three tracks that are worth having. With their 1996 effort "Return to Paradise" and the connected singles Reichert altered the musical and artistic concept and went into the dreamdance/trance direction which didn't sound so compelling to me anymore. In other words, you don't need that, and it doesn't seem that Manuela Ray was still in the band anymore either - the vocals sound a lot weaker.

Manuela Ray previously to Imperio also participated in Reichart's other project, Decadance (from what I've heard of these tracks, again a great performance by her, paired with dubious male vocals).

I wish she had lent her voice to more Eurodance tracks since this music style seemed like a perfect match for her to my ears. Still getting goosebumps when she fills these choruses with magic!

'veni vidi vici' is not Imperio's best tune, but since I talked so much about it - here's the music video on youtube:

Imperio - veni vidi vici

Edit: Google also told me that when Austrian private TV channel ATV started, Manuela was one of the hosts of "erotic weather". Fucking hell! : ) Can anyone still remember that? Indeed, I recall that for a week or so, they tried to do a "fresh and more interesting, different take" on the weather forecast by having the lady hosts present the forecast in "a sexy way". Yeah. And in case you're wondering, no, it didn't work, it wasn't sexy and the weather never did what they said it would.