single // Fred Vom Jupiter
Earlier this year, Steve Lamacq interviewed Daniel
Miller on 6Music. I missed it and forgot to listen again via
the website, but Mrs Smith happened to listen. She told me that
Lamacq had discussed his favourite early Mute release, and
so I asked her what it was. She couldn't remember who it was by,
what it was called, only that it had kids singing on it and - and
I thought this was genius to have remembered this - it had a catalogue
number of MUTE19.
And so I rushed upstairs, grabbed the CD-sized Mute
catalogue in which I mark the Mute releases I own, and scoured for
a record with this number. I was disappointed to find that it was
'Fred Vom Jupiter' by Die Doraus Und Die Marinas, a record
I've tried many times to track down but which never, ever seems
to come up on eBay, and I'd given up. That day, however, it was
on eBay amazingly, and for a paltry fiver now ensures that my collection
of Mute singles up to MUTE22 (Depeche Mode's 'The Meaning
Of Love') is complete.
Worth it? Absolutely.
'Die Doraus' is Andreas Doraus, while 'Die
Marinas' were a group of kids (Dagmar Petersen, Claudia Flohr, Michelle
Milewski, Christine Süßmilch and Isabelle Spelly). 'Fred
Vom Jupiter' is, at face value, a novelty electronic pop track,
perhaps in the style of Miller's own Silicon Teens project - the
sleeve certainly supports this. However, that would ignore the harsher
synths and noises evident behind the innocent German accents of
Die Marinas' ramshackle choir. If you do ignore these, what you
do have is a blissfully original slice of early (1982) electronic
pop which fully deserves its cult status as a collector's item.
It's incredibly catchy like all good pop should be, although my
knowledge of German is so weak now that all I can understand is
the title which is sung and repeated at the end of the chorus; but
its infectiously hummable if nothing else. The sleeve helpfully
explains what the song is about: 'From Jupiter comes Fred, the marvellous
Kosmonaut. All the girls feel enthusiastic about him and want to
keep him here forever.'
The darker sounds are explored more wholeheartedly
in the pulsing, electro-industrial instrumental on the flip, 'Even
Home Is Not Nice Anymore' ('Fred has come home to his planet after
his "excursion" to earth. But there he feels very lonely
and realises...'). Whereas 'Fred Vom Jupiter' is a cute pop track
with a bit of edge, the B-side is claustrophobic and edgy and anything
but twee. Its beats speed up as the track progresses over its short
duration, rising like pulsing jackhammers inside your head, a huge
throbbing bass synth anchoring the entire track into a motorik sense
of urgency.
7":
A. Fred Vom Jupiter
B. Even Home Is Not Nice Anymore
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