Forgive me if may be there was a post about this in the past.

But:
What is the fascination of this studio?
Why the Stones liked it so much? (made IORR and Black & Blue here)
Why so many other bands liked it?
The studio owners famous Gorgio Moroder and legendary engineer Reinhold Mack (nickname of the studio: Mack-Land-Studios) where probably the main reason.
But located in the cellar of a 70ies Munich new housing estate it was anything but an attractive place.

For a start is the list of bands recording albums there:
Abacus: Just a Day’s Journey Away (1972), Everything You Need (1972), Midway (1974)
Amanda Lear: Never Trust a Pretty Face (1978)
Amos Key: First Key (1973)
BAP: Ahl Männer, aalglatt (1986)
Billy Squier: Don't Say No (1981)
Deep Purple: Stormbringer (August 1974), Come Taste the Band (August 1975)
Donna Summer: Lady of the Night (1974), Love to Love You, Baby (1975), Love Trilogy (1976), I Remember Yesterday (1977)
Drosselbart: Drosselbart (1970)
Electric Light Orchestra (ELO): Face the Music (1975), A New World Record (1976), Out of the Blue (1977), Discovery (1979), Time (1981)
Elton John: Victim of Love (1979)
Extrabreit: Rückkehr der phantastischen Fünf (1982)
Faces: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Even Take the Dog for a Walk, Mend a Fuse, Fold Away the Ironing Board, or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings) (single)(1974)
Falco: Junge Roemer (1984)
Freddie Mercury: Mr. Bad Guy (1985)
Ian Gillan Band: Child in Time (Dezember 1975 bis Januar 1976)
Iggy Pop: The Idiot (1977)
Iron Maiden: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
Jack-Knife (ehemals: Tetrad): I Wish You Would (1978)
Led Zeppelin: Presence (November 1975)
Limahl: Colour All My Days (1986), The Never Ending Story (1984)
Marius Müller-Westernhagen: Mit Pfefferminz bin ich Dein Prinz (1978)
Meat Loaf: Blind Before I Stop (1986)
Michael Schenker Group: Assault Attack (1982)
Michael White and The White: Michael White (1987)
Missionare (HierundJetzt): ???
Paice Ashton Lord: Malice in Wonderland (September 1976)
Queen: The Game (1980), Hot Space (1982), The Works (1984), A Kind of Magic (1986)[4]
Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (1975), Rising (Februar 1976)
Roger Glover: Elements (1978)
Roger Taylor: Strange Frontier (1984)
The Rolling Stones: It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (1974), Black and Blue (1976)
Rory Gallagher: Calling Card (1976)[5]
Sahara (ehemals: Subject Esq.): Sahara Sunrise (1974)
Scorpions: Fly to the Rainbow (1974)
Spandau Ballet: Parade (1984)
Sparks: Whomp That Sucker (1981)
The Stranglers: The Gospel According to the Meninblack (1981)
The Sweet: Give Us a Wink! (1976)
Tortillia Flat: Glashaus (1973, Producer Harry Stümpfl)
T. Rex: Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow – A Creamed Cage in August (1974)
Udo Jürgens: Silberstreifen (1984)
Uriah Heep: Wonderworld (1974)
Whitesnake (September 1976), Slide It In (1984)



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 2023-07-20 17:55 by caschimann.

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caschimann

What is the fascination of this studio?

Maybe this helps a bit - [www.RollingStone.de] :


How Queen enjoyed their freedom in Munich

"Between 1979 and 1985, Queen moved to Munich for studio sessions, and Freddie Mercury even moved his life to the Isar for a time. Brian May remembers: 'We didn't look at the map and say: Oh, we really have to go to Munich! We didn't look around for places, but for people. That's how we came across Reinhold Mack, who at that time had produced some of our favourite records or was in charge of them as a sound engineer, especially 'Out Of The Blue' by ELO. A wonderfully classic example of a brilliant production! So we travelled to Munich to meet Reinhold Mack. We had spoken to him on the phone beforehand and he was very taken with the idea of working with us. There was a mutual enthusiasm. And that's how we found ourselves in the Musicland Studios in the basement of the huge Arabella building.'

The basement atmosphere was a little strange, but steeped in history: other world-famous rock bands also recorded records in the recording studio founded by Giorgio Moroder in the early 1970s, including the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, T. Rex and The Sweet. Some recordings for Iggy Pop's solo debut, 'The Idiot' (1977), produced by David Bowie, also took place there. And Elton John recorded his disco album 'Victim Of Love' (1979) at Musicland Studios. The Scorpions, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, BAP and even Udo Jürgens - they were all there. The option to stay in the 23-storey building, in the Arabella Hotel Bogenhausen, was a big plus. Mercury, however, preferred to stay at the Bayerischer Hof or the Hilton am Tucherpark, where he wrote the number one hit 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' within ten minutes in the foam-capped bathtub of the 160-square-metre presidential suite in June 1979. He was thinking of Elvis Presley, whom he adored as much as Jimi Hendrix.

Munich's nightlife was not to be sneezed at either: Mercury enjoyed the freedom of being able to party unmolested in the city's clubs and bars, something that had long been impossible for him in London. The debauched costume party for his 39th birthday at the travesty pub Old Mrs Henderson at 2 Rumford Street was filmed for the video for his solo single 'Living On My Own' (1985). Pork knuckle fan Freddie was a regular at the traditional Deutsche Eiche pub at Reichenbachstraße 13, and in the credits to 'The Game' (1980) Queen even thanked the 'people of Munich'. In the second half of the 1980s, the Munich underground network was extended to Arabella Park, and the underground noise made further studio operations impossible. The Musicland Studios were dissolved. Since 2020, there has been a Freddie Mercury Street in Munich - but it is not in Mercury's former stomping ground, the Glockenbachviertel, but in the creative quarter on Dachauer Straße in the Neuhausen-Nymphenburg district."

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caschimann

Why so many other bands liked it?

A 2016 interview (in German) with Musicland's engineer & producer Reinhold Mack - [www.SoundAndRecording.de] - where he says that G. Moroder liked his mixing style and that they built the best studio in the world.

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caschimann

Why the Stones liked it so much?

From [www.Sueddeutsche.de] - (in German) - "How companions experienced the Rolling Stones in Munich" :

"Reinhold Mack probably had the most intensive time with the Rolling Stones in Munich. As sound engineer at the legendary Musicland Studios, he looked after the band in the mid-seventies. Whereby 'supervising' is the right term for this bunch, other bands like Deep Purple were much more organised and professional, Mack remembers.

So out of eight recording phases, only the two long-playing records 'It's Only Rock'n'Roll' and 'Black And Blue' came out. 'That's the way they worked,' says Mack: 'We go into the studio and then we play to the hilt'. During the trial and error he recorded everything, at the end of one session he had 200 tapes, each weighing five kilos: a ton of Stones. 'They already had brilliant moments,' he thinks. But was there a perfect take? 'No, none at all' - to Mack's taste.

The engineer also had the 'most unpleasant' task of delivering the sack to some guitarists like Harvey 'The Snake' Mandel. Mick Jagger, who also ran the business, was relentless and 'like the devil after the poor soul' after the money. If there was a petrol receipt on the table, he would ask suspiciously: '200 kilometres! Where did you drive to? Interestingly, he was quite meek when a woman called for him. 'Put Mick on the phone,' she asked Mack, 'tell him it's his mother.'

On the phone, the rock boy then became quite tame for three quarters of an hour: 'Yes, yes, I'll do it now ...' Mack liked the pianist Ian Stewart best - and of course Keith Richards: 'a nice gentleman'. But he was on the needle at the time, sometimes falling asleep, falling off his chair or not turning up at all. Once at breakfast he slapped his face into his fried eggs and bacon. Jagger just came over, lifted him by the hair, pulled the plate away and put Richards down on the table. 'Rock'n'roll wasn't as much of a glossy thing for a long time as people assume today,' Mack says."

An excellent state-of-the art studio, great luxurious hotels, great night clubs, big rock stars could live fairly incognito in the city, and Berlin and Munich were the worlds' number one drug cities of Europe in the mid 1970's (as was Rotterdam, where they also spent lots of time).

Mathijs

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Irix

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caschimann

Why so many other bands liked it?

A 2016 interview (in German) with Musicland's engineer & producer Reinhold Mack - [www.SoundAndRecording.de] - where he says that G. Moroder liked his mixing style and that they built the best studio in the world.

Thanks a lot Irix!!
Now I am a fan of Mack!

Add the Faces to the list who recorded their You Can Make Me Dance-single there...

N

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NeddieFlanders
Add the Faces to the list who recorded their You Can Make Me Dance-single there...

N

Done!

Uschi Obermeier

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meck1211
Uschi Obermeier

Yes. But this was earlier. Uschi Obermaier left Munich in 1973.

Well that’s all well and good but IORR sounds abysmal.

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vertigojoe
Well that’s all well and good but IORR sounds abysmal.

That's because they compressed the shit out of it during the mastering phase. There's a couple of tracks available that were mastered less hot (If You Can't Rock me, Dance LS, FF) and they sound brilliant.

They really should do a remaster in 2024.

Mathijs

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Mathijs

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vertigojoe
Well that’s all well and good but IORR sounds abysmal.

That's because they compressed the shit out of it during the mastering phase. There's a couple of tracks available that were mastered less hot (If You Can't Rock me, Dance LS, FF) and they sound brilliant.

They really should do a remaster in 2024.

Mathijs

It's not mixed very well either, especially the drums. It' doesn't have the sound they got under Miller/Johns/Johns which is funny considering Fingerprint File sounds the best and was mixed by Glyn Johns