Einzelhaft by Falco

Einzelhaft, Falco's 1982 debut, takes its name from the German for solitary confinement, and the Austrian singer spends much of it prowling like a man with too much nervous energy for his cell. Robert Ponger produced, and the record travelled well beyond Austria and Germany, out to the US, Japan, Canada and a handful of other European countries.

The calling card is "Der Kommissar", a sly, loping German-language rap over a chilly new wave groove, a genuinely new idea at the time and one that others picked up on; After the Fire turned it into an English-language hit in 1983. "Maschine Brennt" climbed to number nine on the US club play list that same year. Elsewhere Falco wears his David Bowie records on his sleeve: "Nie mehr Schule" lifts its music from the Low instrumental "Speed of Life", and "Helden von heute" is "Heroes" with the serial numbers barely filed off.

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