Austria, the land of Mozart balls and Alpine escapes, hardly inspires associations with contemporary music. It’s a country steeped in its own classicism, from the famed composer for whom said marzipan balls are named, to its classic orchestras. The term “underground music” in the context of Austria might seem a contradiction, but like every major city, one exists, and in Austria’s case, has existed for a very long time, according to Edition Hawara.
The Viennese label has made it their duty to shine a light on the country’s hidden national treasures, re-issuing some forgotten gems from the past and bringing them to a new and foreign audience. In their first compilation, “The Other Sound Of Music,” they put together the very best Disco, Boogie, and Synthwave music from the 1980s with conviction.
A mere eight tracks represent a whole country’s decade in music, in a compilation that doesn’t so much distill it down into a single sound, but instead showcases its variety. While it sounds like the eighties, it doesn’t sound like what everybody else was doing at that time. Elements of Disco, Rock, and Jazz permeate through tracks that welcomed the digital age with open arms. Even when guitars, bass guitars, and drums play, they sound artificial, but not without soul.
Don’t expect Ultravox Vienna-like synth maneuvers either. “The Other Sound Of Music” is not a synth-pop compilation. It sounds more like Jah Wobble or Wally Badarou than the mainstream sound of the eighties. While there’s enough gated reverb on snares to satisfy every fantasy, it’s not your quintessential compilation from that decade.
Neither is there anything touching on the experimental realm. Tracks like The Appendix’s “Die Reise” touch on Pop-Rock territory, while a track like Crumb’s “Love is a Game,” with its jazzy inflections, sounds like something out of A Certain Ratio’s catalog. Anonym & Kottan’s “Kappela” and Christian Kolonovits’ contributions are the only times we really get into purely instrumental music, but even with these melodic overtures, the record never falls into the obscure introversions of a lot of electronic music.
If this is the sound of an underground, it’s the most polished and refined this music has ever sounded.
Beyond the odd German lyric and the label’s name, there is nothing to suggest any sense of national identity in this music, but for what I found to be a level of musicianship far beyond the impulsive button-pressing of their UK or US cousins. Every song sounds like it was crafted by artists at the peak of their craft, even the pure electronic ones. Arrangements, too, are complex and progressive, and even when it sounds like a Pop-Rock song, like She and the Band’s “Too Much Too Soon,” there are no predictable verse-chorus type of arrangements anywhere.
“The Other Sound Of Music” makes us seem somewhat pejorative in our previous views of Austrian music. Behind the staunch and reserved exterior of the country’s music, a very different type of music clearly hides. It’s not quite as defined as the sound of Italo Disco or Balearic House, but it encourages deeper digging.