Biography
In early 1993 Christopher Just, artist and record dealer, and party organizer Peter Votava met amidst the emerging Austrian Techno scene. Under the moniker Ilsa Gold they soon published their first EP's 1 and 2 containing early Rave classics such as Up and Silke which promoted them to the Frontpage Magazine's charts top. This most remarkable Austrian Techno act gained attention due to the unusual sampling of people like Peter Cornelius and Karel Gott combined with harsh Techno and Hardcore music that never lacked of musical skills or wit. Sharp, self-deprecating humour criticising the rave scenes and some of its supporters' squalidness (keyword: drug abuse), the foundation of their own label, the establishment of legendary Ilsa Gold parties and last but not least their unconventional presentation that even led to the formation of the persiflage-band Sons Of Ilsa were only a few of Ilsa Gold's missions before they officially split up in 1996.
[source: discogs]
They were the darlings of the young rave nation, the nightmare of investigative party journalism and, needless to say, the kings of scheiss-house: they were Ilsa Gold, Austria's legendary and probably most irritating contribution to the history of electronic music.
It was 1993 that artist and record dealer Christopher Just joined forces with party organizer Peter "DJ Pure" Votava the year that techno was set to become the sound of the decade. Starting with their very first record on Vienna's Mainframe label, they turned into shooting stars of the new movement: Frontpage, the official organ of the German techno world, placed Ilsa Gold 1 at the top of its charts, and Up was the track that set the pace on rave dancefloors that summer.
That same year, Ilsa Gold 2 followed with the hits Silke and Elastico which again topped Frontpage's charts and managed to get Ilsa Gold invited to Germany's rave mecca Mayday the first Austrian act to do so. But their performance was a provocation:
Since the event's organizer gave them only 15 minutes of playing time, Ilsa Gold put a DAT recorder on stage and spent the time playing back their hits with the aid of a yogurt machine. The rave community were distraught.
1994: The big rip-off begins. Marusha's Somewhere Over the Rainbow storms the charts, and Bravo posterboys like Mark 'Oh construct their hits according to the Ilsa Gold formula. Ilsa Gold responded to such cases of tastelessness with increasingly merciless (self-)parody: on Ilsa Gold 3 they help themselves to 4 Non Blondes' unavoidable hit What's Up in order to compress 5 years of techno history into 4 minutes and 30 seconds (For Blond Nuns) and, with the Peter Cornelius / Karel Gott medley Silke Süchtig hand the rave generation its Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. Anyone who believed that they alienated their audience with this introspective, quotation-mad horrorshow would have been sorely disappointed, however, since according to Christopher Just, "the ravers ate it up anyway." In comparison, Winterreise, a mature late recording in melancholic classical artwork which was released at the same time, was ignored: not enough fun.
At their next Mayday performance Ilsa Gold began with the statement "ecstasy helps tolerate Mayday better", and proceeded to entertain the audience for 10 minutes with the issue of drug consumption. By the time DJ Westbam declared the existence of the "raving society", Ilsa Gold had already decided to make no more live appearances and instead took up media guerilla tactics: in the tabloid paper Taeglich Alles, to an audience of millions, Peter and Christopher outed themselves as romantic homosexuals ("das erste mal"); under pseudonyms they founded the heavy-duty Sons of Ilsa; and they staged a mudslinging campaign against their supposed archrivals, which finally culminated in the legendary scandal of the La Boum Deluxe radio program.
After only three excessive years, in 1996 Peter and Christopher decided to go their musical separate ways. Since then Christopher Just has ironized electronic dance music in the guise of Punk Anderson, Disco Dancer, and House Motherfucker, while DJ Pure has devoted his efforts to experimental electronica, for Mego among others.
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