Now here's one for you. Grabbed this with a whole stack of jazz funk albums (plus this) on the cheap. But once I saw the lineup on this album, I knew it was going to be the pick of the litter.
Where do we start? I say we blame Sylvester Levay and go from there. Who? He's the Hungarian fellow who played on that most legendary underground Krautrock album Vita Nova along with a pre-Dzyan Eddy Marron. While hanging out in Germany, he figured out (rather astutely) that disco may be the next fad. So he forms Silver Convention, gathers up some pretty ladies, releases 'Fly, Robin, Fly' and it's "up up to the sky". Weeeeee. Dance dance dance.
On a similar theme, some years ago I ran into a disco album by ORS (Orlando Riva Sound) that featured some Krautrock luminaries on Moog. Precedent had been set.
With that prelude, let me introduce you to Dieter Reith. He would prove to be the next-gen Wolfgang Dauner. Dauner was a jazz keyboard guy playing around with heavy jazz rock and even Krautrock. But he wasn't above pop culture norms, and did a little bit of psychedelic hullabaloo as well in his day (The Oimels anyone?). Reith was also a jazz keyboard guy playing heavy jazz rock. But his pop culture would prove to be disco, with a capital D. Along for the ride, he brings Siggi Schwab and Dave King, both having played with Embryo among many others. And Curt Cress on the drum kit. He even drags in Ralf Nowy on sax. These are all heavy hitters in the German underground.
So no matter the style, the compositions (mainly from Reith) are going to be first class with memorable melodies. And plenty of thick 70s analog keyboards to add the proper dressing. All with a string orchestra (from the no-chance-to-be-popular-otherwise Helmut Geiger Group) and a 4/4 beat, mandatory elements to make it a disco album. Curt Cress must've loved the paycheck he got for this. No fills or improvs, just keep a beat. Tough ask.
More fun is the title of the album itself. It was released in their native Germany as Power Sandwich. What does that even refer to? We are decades before the term Power Lunch became a thing in business circles. Even better, in Spain, they decided to go with Disco Sandwich. I mean Disco Sandwich? How awesome is that? They should have just called it Tuna Taco to get to the crux of the matter. Speaking of the ladies, it appears Schwab enjoyed a good lusty evening. He was also involved with those Vampyros Lesbos albums.
In America these titles weren't going to fly, so to speak. How about Fly Disco Fly? Yea, no way we're trying to cash in on the Silver Convention or anything. I mean they only sold millions of copy. It didn't work obviously as who the hell has heard of this album before?
Well I now have. If you have any tolerance whatsoever for disco, get this as it's really quite good. If questioned by those raising an eyebrow, say you were in it for the musicians involved. We all bought Playboy back in the day for the crossword puzzles.
Ownership: 1976 Morningside (LP)
6/23/25 (review / new entry)
I have another Dieter Reith on CD. When I get to it, I'll probably combine it here.
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