Hell
NY Muscle

Someone using a stencil and some black spray paint wrote on a wall nearby "Hell NY Muscle." Quite bold. Vandalism of public or private property (whose wall is that?) and even signed...

Helmut (Helli, that's where the Hell comes from) Josef Geier, DJ Hell, is one of the most famous DJs from Germany and usually spins records in New York and Tokyo. He also plays soccer for the German minor league team FC Altenmarkt, which he also sponsors. Arnold Schwarzenegger sued him because he used his likeness without permission on releases from his label, the "International Deejay Gigolos". Arnie wanted all the profits from releases with his image, but they reached an agreement. Hell paid him in installments, then edited Sid Vicious's face onto Arnie's body, waiting for McLaren to complain. Now he has changed the logo again to a provocative girl who uses black tape instead of a bra. He professes the most rampant hedonism and often DJs at Donatella Versace's parties. However, he insists on speaking only Bavarian dialect and in promotional photoshoots, along with a white dandy suit, he wears cowboy boots, as if to deny everything. His "Munich Machine" from 1998 is cited by many as the progenitor of the electroclash movement. Quite a mess.

"NY Muscle" was recorded in New York between October 2002 and April 2003, and "DJ" has now disappeared from the name. In the opening track, "Keep On Waiting," amidst acid and obsessive sounds, Erlend from Kings of Convenience sings with a detached tone. The second track features guest Alan Vega from Suicide, amidst minimal echoes, reverberated voices, and analog basses.

"Just don’t play the song, I’m just gonna read it like I’m losing my fucking mind", announces the third track, "Tragic Picture Show." And it's the after-party. Written together with James Murphy from the DFA label (the Rapture), the lyrics go "black suit black tie feel like I’m gonna die"; it reminds me of Adi Newton's Clock DVA who had an album titled White Souls in Black Suits; even as a musical reference, we’re close to their proto-industrial style. I also hear "Atrocity Exhibition" and "Komakino" by Joy Division for the bass, and Bauhaus when in the chorus someone screams like a madman, far from the microphone. I don't know whose voice it is; I searched extensively but found no information. Is it Hell himself singing? Great song.

In "Je Regrette Everything," Billie Ray Martin (Electribe 101) is a guest, and it could be Massive Attack. "Control" seems to be assembled with sounds from Blue Monday by New Order, including the breaks. On "Meet The Heat," Alan Vega is featured again with electric crackles and a solid delirium of screams and whispers.

But this isn’t a tribute to the '80s, this post-punk/electroclash; it’s a reinterpretation, even if everything comes back. Much more original than all the guitar bands looking back and simply reproducing in a calligraphic manner. Dangerous, wicked, analog, minimal, techno, acid, industrial, post-punk, no wave. And the sounds are produced as only a DJ can do. At the end of "Meet the Heat," you hear Vega asking "it's okay?". It’s much more than okay. Album of the year.