Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Humpe Humpe

How's THIS for Obscure? In 1985, for some reason, Warner Brothers records released the debut album from 2 sisters from Germany that called themselves HUMPE HUMPE. I loved this little bit of strange Lena Lovich / Kate Bush / Frank chickens inspired pop and wave, but I'm sure the rest of the country was confused. Having song titles like "Yama-Ha" and "Gescrien Im Schlaf" sure didn't help them win over the hearts and ears of the states. I can strangely find no information on-line about this band, but IMDB did have this to say about member Annette Humpe:
"One of the most influential artists in the "Neue Deutsche Welle" (New German Wave) era with her projects "Ideal (1980-1983), "Palais Schaumburg" (1984) and "Humpe und Humpe" (1985-1986) together with her sister Inga Humpe."
Has been one half of the successful pop duo "Ich + Ich" since 2004.
Producer of several popular artists such as Rio Reiser, Luci Van Org and Die Prinzen.
Her son Anton was born in 1992"

So......while the rest of this country was eating up crap like Huey Lewis & The News, I was walking the streets of Huntington with my cassette boombox blasting the Art Of Noise, Laurie Anderson and THIS stuff. Somehow I think it all fits nicely together in one neat little package......
HUMPE HUMPE - THREE OF US
HUMPE HUMPE - CAN'T LEAVE THE POOL
HUMPE HUMPE - HAPPINESS IS HARD TO TAKE
HUMPE HUMPE - DON'T KNOW WHERE I BELONG
HUMPE HUMPE - THREE OF US (Fun Girl Three Mix)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Humpe Humpe! Yama-ha was the song that caught my attention in 1985. I've yet to listen to the other songs in this post.

The sisters went on to rename themselves as Swimming With Sharks in 1987 and had two singles Careless Love And No Longer Friends.

Inga Humpe went solo a year later with her cover of Something Stupid and in 1991 with her cover of Pet Shop Boys' Do I Have To,both from her solo album produced by Trevor Horn.

She is currently doing well in Gemrnay as part of the Electronic suo 2raumwohnung.

PS. can you please provide an alternate link for this Humpe post becoz Zshare has now blocked access to all parts outside the US?

cheers!

Anonymous said...

Have a look at DÖF which means Deutsch-Österreichisches-Feingefühl, another short German-austrian-Co_production, especially the song: Codo - düse düse im Sauseschritt. The HUmpe Sisters playing it with Manfred Tauchen and Prokopetz, the laters often together with the famous Austrian Singer Wolfgang Ambross....

harleytexas said...
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TFO said...
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Tobias L. Thaler said...
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