Anyone who is looking to celebrate Halloween but insists on being totally “Kosmisch” (cosmic) about it, there’s a curious release that you’ve got to hear about. Holger Czukay of Can and Conny Plank, a respected Krautrock producer who also played frequently with Cluster‘s Dieter Moebius, teamed up in 1980 for a bizarre (and awesome) one-off project called Les Vampyrettes. Why they chose a French name is beyond me but it might have to do with Louis Feuillade’s silent Les vampires serials? 

In any case, Les Vampyrettes are totally krautrock’s salute to the spooky, scary creepy-crawlies commonly associated with Hallow’s Eve. They even put a cute little image of a bat on the cover of the maxi-single, for Can’s sake.
 

Holger Czukay and Conny Plank, 1983
 
The opening lyrics to “Biomutanten”—probably don’t have to tell you what that word means—are creepy in a fun Halloween-y way. “Pass auf wo du stehst, pass auf wo du gehst, am tag und in der nacht, überall wirst du bewacht….” means “Watch out where you stand, watch out where you go, in the day and in the night, you are being watched everywhere….” The other song is called “Menetekel” and some will recognize that as a reference to the Belshazzar’s Feast episode from the Old Testament, in which Daniel literally reads the words “Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin” on the wall, the origin for the saying “the writing on the wall.” What I didn’t know until today is that Menetekel is a German word that actually means “early warning” or “foreboding.”

Four years ago, Grönland Records re-released the Les Vampyrettes single with the addition of a third song, Czukay’s “Hexeneinmaleins” (Witches’ Multiplication Table) from his 1981 album On the Way to the Peak of Normal. Intriguingly, Czukay referred to this style as “horror with comfort.”
 
The original Les Vampyrettes single, “Biomutanten/Menetekel”:

 
A funny bit of footage of Conny Plank acting like a zombie, scored to “Biomutanten,” that Grönland put up:

 
The lyrics to “Biomutanten” in German and then my translation:

Paß auf, wo Du stehst
Paß auf, wo Du gehst
Am Tag und in der Nacht
Überall wirst Du bewacht.

In den Löchern, auf den Halden
lauern seltsame Gestalten
Aus der Säure, aus dem Schrott
Aus dem Schleim und aus dem Kot
Wo Plastik und Plasma sich verbanden
kriechen sie hervor, die Biomutanten.

Biomutants

Watch out where you stand
Watch out where you go
In the day and in the night
Everywhere you are being watched

Out of the holes, on the trash heaps
Creep strange creatures
Out of acid, out of scrap
Out of slime and out of filth
Where plastic and plasma unite
Creep forth the biomutants

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
A Lysergic Krautrock Jam For The Weekend