Falco
Remix Hits Collection (1992)

Review by: Mike Spinney
Date: 6/1/03

Don’t bust my balls for suggesting a compilation album until after you’ve listened. And don’t bust my balls after you’ve listened, either.

I purchased Remix Hits Collection as a lark, a secret guilty pleasure. I thought it would be a hoot to own a Falco disc and this one seemed like a good choice. I remembered "Rock Me Amadeus" from my Navy days (port of call: Virginia Beach!!) and thinking that, in spite of the ridicule hurled Falco’s way, the song wasn’t half bad.

Besides, "Der Kommissar" was once the most sampled song of all time. That nutty Austrian must've known something.

After nearly twenty years, I’m telling you, Falco holds up, and Remix Hits Collection has become and indispensable part of my Spartan musical library. It will remain forever in heavy rotation.

There’s something about the semi-industrial electro pop sound driving Falco’s indecipherably Germanic vocals that works. At times campy, but never out of touch, Remix Hits opens with the techno beat of "Der Kommissar (part 2)" and doesn’t stop until the final note of the rapturous "The Sound of Musik" more than 70 minutes later.

In between, cuts like "Data de Groove" and "Junge Roemer" demonstrate why Falco’s popularity was crazy big worldwide. He saw the artistic possibilities in the evolving technology – manipulating the gadgets to drive the music without seeming too gimmicky or losing contact with the audience. Whereas most performers leaned on synthesizers and drum machines like a crutch, Falco played his machines with the virtuosity of the finest of instruments.