Tuesday, July 24, 2012

CASANOVA - Secretly Yours [unreleased] (199_)


Germans CASANOVA - the brainchild of talented Michael Voss - was one of the best Melodic Rock bands of the nineties. Their self titled debut still ranks as one of my favorites in the genre, and the subsequent albums are equally good.

Casanovas's discography, as many other bands playing this kind of music, suffered continuity because of the changes in the musical trends during the decade.
Around 1995 Casanova got a series of pre-produced demos ready to enter the studio, but contractual troubles happened with their label and between the band members.
The tapes were shelved and Voss started another project; Demon Drive.

On parallel, Casanova continued working as band, and new composed songs were recorded to be released as 'Heroes', a CD only published in Japan in 1999.
After that Voss wanted to release the album in Germany as well, but at that time Casanova as unit was not a band anymore. Voss' bandmates didn't like the idea and said they'll file a lawsuit if 'Heroes' was published under the Casanova moniker in Germany.
Voss made it short; simply re-recorded most of the songs of 'Heroes' and published the material with his other band Demon Drive, entitled... yes, 'Heroes', in 2000. Demon Drive's 'Heroes' also included fresh and re-worked versions of some tracks from the 'lost & shelved' Casanova album, such as "Sex Is An Alien".

Well, that's a nice story, but what concerns us now is precisely the 'lost album'.
Although pre-production stuff, this material has very good sound and mix, and the songs are really interesting as well.
For years this recording circulated between MR / AOR fans entitled as "Secretly Yours". As requested by a reader, I have compiled all the tracks (only corrected in my workstation the fade-outs that ended a bit abruptly) together with a couple or very rare demos of the same era (around 1995).


Also designed a cool artwork - at least I think it is - just tell me what you think...


01 - The Writer
02 - Sex Is An Alien (Part.1)
03 - In The Heart Of A Woman
04 - Lowrider
05 - The Writer (Extended Mix)
06 - Come Into You
07 - Flesh
08 - Hustler
09 - Sex Is An Alien (Part. 2)
10 - Testify
11 - Wild & Young
12 - Without Your Love

Michael Voss: vocals, guitar, keyboards
Stephan Neumeier: guitar
Jochen Mayer? : bass, backing vocals
Michael Eurich? : drums, percussion, backing vocals


CASANOVA Secretly Yours [unreleased]

10 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Sound quality is awesome and the cover artwork kicksass....But after all what else could someone expect from Camelblue productions...lol

Just perfect.. :)

Camelblue said...

Glad you like it, my unconditional friend ;-)

Unknown said...

Wonderful my friend wonderful

DEEMON said...

Another fantastic work, my friend camel...Thanks so much!!

Joe said...

Gracias por el disco saludos desde Mexico mi buen

Anonymous said...

Finally a person that puts some real work into a blog. I do like what you have done with the blog.

crisscat said...

un capo, como siempre!

Unknown said...

Fucking amazing release!! But I have a BIG doubt: the lead singer on the last two tracks is actually Claus Lesmann from Bonfire, are you really sure that those tracks belongs to this Casanova unreleased album?

Camelblue said...

@ Gonzalo:
None can be sure as there's not much info about this recording.
I recall an old Bonfire demo with a song pretty similar to 'Wild & Young'. I don't know...

Anonymous said...

Last 2 Tracks are Demos Claus Lessmann and Hans Ziller did in 1992 after Claus left Bonfire. Later released on the Bonfire "Back to you" Maxi-CD in 1997.
These Tracks are completely wrong on this Album.