Sisco Ducks

Munich Machine - Munich Machine

I know, I know, I should be on E, but I got the munchies for some M&Ms.

You thought the last album I posted was the decline of western civilization, well think again. If this shit doesn’t scare & thrill you at the same time, well crawl back in you’re October coffin. You’re dead, Jim.

Giorgio (Hansjoerg) Moroder, an German-speaking Italian from the South Tyrol area near the border between Italy & Austria, is a three-time Oscar winning record producer, songwriter & performer. His work with synthesizers during the 1970s & 1980s had a significant influence on new wave, house, techno & electronic music. Moroder started Musicland Studios in Munich 1n the 1970s, which was used as a recording studio for artists including Electric Light Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Queen & Elton John.

Moroder is particularly well known for his work with Donna Summer during the era of disco (including "I Feel Love" “Love to Love You Baby”). In addition to his work with Donna Summer, Moroder also produced: a number of electronic disco hits for The Three Degrees; two albums for Sparks; & numerous songs for a variety of others including Irene Cara, Madleen Kane, Melissa Manchester, Blondie, Japan, & France Joli.

He also founded his own record label, Oasis Records, which later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records. He released three albums on Casablanca Records between 1977-1979 under the name Munich Machine.

Munich Machine was, for the most part, a moniker for the fairly regular cast of studio musicians including: Pete Bellotte; Keith Forsey; Geoff Bastow; Mats Björklund; Dino Solera; & singers Lucy Neale; Gitta Walther (aka Jackie Robinson); & Claudia Schwarz (The Midnite Ladies) among others. Aside from the three albums released as the Munich Machine, the "Machine" was also anonymously credited for the ‘accompaniment’ on a few of Donna Summer's albums & Roberta Kelly's Trouble Maker album. The ‘Munich Machine’ was not just a group of musicians, but also something of a trademark for their distinct sound, characterized as their own disco-era, European equivalent of the Motown Sound which Moroder called the ‘Munich Sound Machine’ in a 1978 interview with NME.

As far as 'Munich Machine,' the recording project goes, the best known Munich Machine single would probably be the slick & sexy 15 minute disco workout "Get On The Funk Train" (check out the bass break-out at about the 10 minute mark) which reached #7 on the Billboard Disco charts in 1977 off this album. The album is essentially made up of sped-up, largely instrumental remakes of the so-called ‘soft-disco’ productions from the albums Moroder & Bellotte did for Donna Summer ("Love To Love You Baby," "Try Me I Know We Can Make It"), Roberta Kelly ("Trouble-Maker"), as well as from Giorgio's own Knights In White Satin lp ("I Wanna Funk With You Tonite"), all augmented with some heavy, loopy synths. This particular album, however, bears less resemblance to the Munich Euro-disco sound & more to the cooler, sharper progressive electronic style that would eventually become Moroder's trademark sound.

Year of Release: 1977
Label: Casablanca Records NBLP 7058
Genre: Disco

Tracklist:
Side 1 -
Get on the Funk Train

Side 2 -
Love to Love You, Baby
Trouble-Maker
Try Me, I Know We Can Make It
I Wanna Funk with You Tonite
Spring Affair
Love to Love You, Baby (reprise)
(because Side 2 is really a disco mega-mix with no breaks between songs, I have included the split & unsplit tracks for your choice)

Download: Munich Machine - Munich Machine
Download Size: 109MB (ripped from disco vinyl at 320Kbps)