Camouflage (band)
Encyclopedia
Camouflage is a German New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 trio consisting of Marcus Meyn, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig. Their only Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 hit was "The Great Commandment
The Great Commandment (song)
-References:*http://www.myspace.com/volkerbrothers* "Joel Whitburn's, Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003", 2004*http://www.discogs.com/Camouflage-The-Great-Commandment/master/7480-The Great Commandment 2.0:...

" which climbed to #59 in 1988, though it did spend three weeks at #1 on the US dance chart. They also had two additional minor dance hits in 1989.

History

In 1983, Heiko Maile, Marcus Meyn, Martin Kähling and Oliver Kreyssig, four friends from Bietigheim-Bissingen
Bietigheim-Bissingen
Bietigheim-Bissingen is the second-largest town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with 42,515 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on the river Enz, close to its confluence with the Neckar, about 19 km north of Stuttgart, and 20 km south of Heilbronn.- Buildings...

, Germany, formed the band Licenced Technology. It was short lived, as Martin Kähling left in 1984. Soon after, the remaining three members renamed themselves "Camouflage", inspired by a Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...

 song of the same name. The three young musicians set up their first studio in the basement of Heiko's parents' house, calling it "Boy's Factory". Their first live gigs at local music clubs soon followed. In 1985, Camouflage recorded two demo tapes at their studio, and the following year, the group won a local radio music contest, after a friend of theirs handed one of the demos in. A small Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

 music label, "Westside", showed interest in taking Camouflage on. There, the song "The Great Commandment" was recorded to be presented to bigger music companies. After considering offers from several record companies, Camouflage decided to sign a contract with Metronome.

Working with Axel Henninger, Camouflage re-recorded "The Great Commandment
The Great Commandment (song)
-References:*http://www.myspace.com/volkerbrothers* "Joel Whitburn's, Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003", 2004*http://www.discogs.com/Camouflage-The-Great-Commandment/master/7480-The Great Commandment 2.0:...

" in Axel's studio in 1987. The single was released in September of that year and rose to number 14 in the German charts. Their follow-up single "Strangers' Thoughts" was released in February 1988, rising to number 20. In March, Voices & Images, Camouflage's debut album, was released. The album topped the US Billboard Dance Charts twice having been played often by small independent radio stations. In New York, Heiko, Oli and Marcus signed a contract with the US label Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 that same year, releasing "Voices & Images" and the single "That Smiling Face
That Smiling Face
That Smiling Face is the fourth single by German synthpop group Camouflage, released exclusively in the US during the fall of 1988.-Tracklistings:7" single # "That Smiling Face" - 4:47# "Every Now and Then" - 4:30...

" for the US market in the fall of 1988. In an old factory loft near their hometown, Heiko, Oli and Marcus set up "Boy's Factory 2", their new studio.

With producer Dan Lacksman of Telex
Telex (band)
The Belgian synth-pop group Telex was formed in 1978 by Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman, and Michel Moers, with the intention of "Making something really European, different from rock, without guitar — and the idea was electronic music." Mixing the aesthetics of disco, punk and experimental electronic...

, the band recorded a new album Methods of Silence at Synsound Studio in Brussels that following year. Now left to experiment more freely after the commercial success of their first album, Dan's recording work revealed an interesting mix of digital high-tech and out-dated studio equipment. Single "Love is a Shield" (position 9 in German charts) stayed in the charts for over six months, and the album reached 13. After follow-up single "One Fine Day", the band embarked on their first live concert tour to great financial success.

At the beginning of 1990, Oliver Kreyssig left the band for personal reasons. In October, Heiko and Marcus began work on the third album Meanwhile at the Black Barn Studio in England with producer Colin Thursten (who worked with David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

, Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....

 and Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...

). Taking a different path, this album included real drums and conventional musical instruments played by guest musicians. The first single "Heaven (I Want You)" was released in Germany and USA, reaching 57 in their home country. Three months after their second German tour commenced, they released the album's second single, the double-A sided "This Day/Handsome."

Public reception to their change of sound was not without controversy, however. In a 1995 interview, Marcus said "Naturally we would have preferred that things had gone differently. But it was our wish at the time to make this type of record. For that reason the situation was perfectly OK for us. Looking back today, we would have liked to have had better advice at the time, recommending against this drastic stylistic change in our music. But things went the way they did..."

After relocating to Hamburg in 1992, the duo founded their own music publishing company and studio, which saw the release of side project Areu Areu. During this time, they also began recording work for their fourth album. The goal with this album was to incorporate as many electronic influences as possible into their work. Their 1993 lead single "Suspicious Love" received radio air time and got rotation play on MTV, although proving to be only a minor chart placement. For this, the band faulted its record company Metronome for eschewing the band over other clients such as Ace of Base
Ace of Base
Ace of Base is a pop band based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Its original lineup consisted of Ulf "Buddha" Ekberg, and three siblings, Jonas "Joker" Berggren, Malin "Linn" Berggren and Jenny Berggren...

. As a result, "Bodega Bohemia" and the follow-on singles "Close (We Stroke the Flames)
Close (We Stroke the Flames)
Close Close Close (We Stroke the Flames is the second single from German synthpop group Camouflage's fourth album Bodega Bohemia, released in 1993....

" and "Jealousy" were only released in Germany.

The next few years were not happy ones for the band. Heiko and Marcus signed a contract with the organizer of an opera project via mutual friends, but after investing more than a half year, visual concepts and demo recordings to the project, legal disputes between shareholders and organizers prevented any performance from taking place, and ensuing frustrations led the duo to consider leaving the music business entirely.

The manager of the band "Die Fantastischen Vier
Die Fantastischen Vier
Die Fantastischen Vier , also known as Fanta 4, is a German hip hop group from Stuttgart, Germany. The members are Michael Bernd Schmidt alias Smudo, Andreas Rieke alias And.Ypsilon, Thomas Dürr alias Hausmeister Thomas D and Michael 'Michi' Beck alias Dee Jot Hausmarke...

", Andreas "Bär" Läsker, signalled a desire to work with the band and helped them secure a recording contract with BMG
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...

 (Germany) in 1994 for a fifth album. As the new contract allowed complete freedom of production, Heiko and Marcus revised music previously written for the failed opera project and added experimental and more creative approaches to the new tracks, even going so far as to write music inspired by science fiction films. However, the new album Spice Crackers, preceded by the single "Bad News
Bad News (Camouflage song)
Bad News is the first single from Camouflage's fifth studio album Spice Crackers, released in 1995.Unlike the band's previous singles, this song had a very fast tempo and was quite upbeat compared to some of their earlier work. Most of this change in style translated onto the "Spice Crackers" album...

" and chased by the single "X-Ray
X-Ray (Camouflage song)
X-Ray is the second single from Camouflage's fifth studio album Spice Crackers, released in 1996.The single contains three different single versions of the song; the Soft Single Mix, which is essentially an edit of the album version, the Ronda Ray single mix, which simply adds some extra...

" failed to be a commercial success, and the duo temporarily went separate ways to collaborate on various musical projects such as 1996's various artist compilation CD Treasury in which Camouflage contributed the song "Winter".

In 1997, Sony Music and Polydor released a compilation of past hits called We Stroke The Flames and a limited edition maxi single with previously released mixes of "Suspicious Love", "Handsome", and "Love is a Shield", albeit without input from Heiko and Marcus. However, this promising new contract ended without further releases for reasons not revealed. One good thing did come of this, however. Former band member Oliver Kreyssig, who had remained good friends with Heiko and Marcus, was by this time working with Polydor and helped with the artwork design of the album and single. This was to be his first professional involvement with the band since his departure, and ended with him rejoining the band as an official member in 1999.

Now a trio again, the band began work on a sixth studio album, beginning with the single "Thief
Thief (Camouflage song)
Thief is a 1999 single by German synthpop group Camouflage. It was later re-recorded and included on their sixth studio album Sensor in 2003.It was the first single to feature band member Oliver Kreyssig since he departed the band in 1990...

". Although it climbed for two weeks in Germany, the future of the new album became uncertain and the band members continued on with their various side projects. In June 2000 Camouflage played their first live gig in many years in Freiberg.

In 2001 Polydor (having ironically just bought the band's former label Metronome) released the compilation best-of album Rewind, for which Camouflage was finally allowed sufficient opportunity for input and song selection ideas. The limited version DVD included all of the video clips from the Metronome and BMG phases of the band's career. That year Polydor also released the single "You Were There" from dance project Resistance D featuring the vocals of Marcus. Its sound was much like that of Camouflage and subsequently caused a significant amount of confusion with fans.

Camouflage had by this time signed a new contract with Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...

 and was still tentatively working on a sixth album. However, the band determined that in order to justify the release of an album they had to have at least one successful new single to precede it. At the suggestion of Virgin, the band attempted a comeback attempt with the release of a new version of their classic song "The Great Commandment". To avoid rights violations with their previous record company, vocals were also re-recorded. TGC, version 2.0 was produced by the London trio "Toy" with drums by Christian Eigner (who had previously toured with Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...

). TGC 2.0 climbed the charts for three weeks, but only reached #85. The rather disappointing result left little hope for a release of a sixth album with Virgin.

Because of this, the band decided to pursue other options with Polydor, finally culminating in the long delayed Sensor in 2003 - a long path from the 1999 single "Thief" until now. Sensor was produced by Rob Kirawn and Toy in London and Gerret Frerichs in Hamburg. While there wasn't a plan for how Sensor was intended to sound, they felt it was important to emphasize classic Camouflage songwriting strengths and return to an electronic presentation. The first single "Me and You
Me and You (Camouflage song)
Me and You is German synthpop group Camouflage's sixteenth single, taken from their sixth studio album Sensor and released in April 2003.The single was backed with a radio edit, two remixes and also a remix of album track "Perfect". A remix single was also released in Europe, which featured...

" reached #53 in the German charts, while the album crested at #26. The Sensor tour took the band across Germany and for first time to Russia and other countries. The single "I Can't Feel You
I Can't Feel You (song)
I Can't Feel You is German synthpop group Camouflage's seventeenth single, released in August 2003 as the second and final single from their sixth studio album Sensor....

" only charted at #75. Meanwhile, Polydor underwent restructuring in the face of a declining recording industry and once again plans were shelved for additional singles or albums. Nevertheless, the band continued writing new songs.

in 2004 Camouflage signed a new contract with SPV
SPV GmbH
SPV GmbH is an independent German record label.Founded on January 1, 1984, it has slowly grown to be one of the largest independent distributors and record labels worldwide....

 and Heiko moved to Berlin to begin work on a new album with Oli and Marcus with Heiko taking on production responsibilities. The result was 2006's Relocated.

In 2007, Polydor released Archive#1 (Rare Tracks), a new Camouflage compilation of rare tracks and remixes on 2 discs.

Studio albums

  • Voices & Images (1988)
  • Methods of Silence
    Methods of Silence
    Methods of Silence is the second album by the German band Camouflage, released by Atlantic Records on January, 1989. The single "Love is a Shield" reached position 9 of the German single charts making it Camouflage's most successful song and at position 20 in the American Billboard Modern Rock...

    (1989)
  • Meanwhile
    Meanwhile (Camouflage album)
    Meanwhile is the third studio album by German synthpop group Camouflage, released in 1991 by Metronome.Unlike Camouflage's earlier albums and most of their later work, Meanwhile features more 'organic' instruments like real drums and guest musicians playing conventional instruments...

    (1991)
  • Bodega Bohemia (1993)
  • Spice Crackers
    Spice Crackers
    Spice Crackers is the fifth studio album from German synthpop group Camouflage, released in 1995 by BMG.-Background:The band's new contract with BMG Germany provided them with full creative freedom, allowing the two to utilise works originally intended for their failed opera project and make them...

    (1995)
  • Sensor (2003)
  • Relocated (2006)

Compilations

  • Best of Camouflage: We Stroke the Flames
    Best of Camouflage: We Stroke the Flames
    Best of Camouflage: We Stroke the Flames is German synthpop group Camouflage's first compilation album, released in 1997 in Germany and 1999 in the US. It includes all of their singles from 1987 to 1993, excluding "This Day", along with several album tracks and a remix of "Love Is a Shield" by...

    (1997)
  • Rewind – Best of 85–97 (2001)

Singles

  • "The Great Commandment
    The Great Commandment (song)
    -References:*http://www.myspace.com/volkerbrothers* "Joel Whitburn's, Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003", 2004*http://www.discogs.com/Camouflage-The-Great-Commandment/master/7480-The Great Commandment 2.0:...

    " (1987)
  • "Strangers' Thoughts
    Strangers' Thoughts (song)
    Strangers' Thoughts is the second single from Camouflage's debut studio album Voices & Images, released in early 1988.A video single was released in the UK, featuring album tracks from Voices & Images and the video for the single, directed by Rainer Thieding.-Tracklistings:7" single # "Strangers'...

    " (1988)
  • "Neighbours
    Neighbours (Camouflage single)
    "Neighbours" is the third single from German synthpop group Camouflage's debut studio album Voices & Images, released in May 1988. It was not released in the US, where "That Smiling Face" was released later in 1988....

    " (1988)
  • "That Smiling Face
    That Smiling Face
    That Smiling Face is the fourth single by German synthpop group Camouflage, released exclusively in the US during the fall of 1988.-Tracklistings:7" single # "That Smiling Face" - 4:47# "Every Now and Then" - 4:30...

    " (1989)
  • "Love Is a Shield" (1989)
  • "One Fine Day" (1989)
  • "Heaven (I Want You)" (1991)
  • "This Day" / "Handsome" (double A side) (1992)
  • "Suspicious Love" (1993)
  • "Close (We Stroke the Flames)
    Close (We Stroke the Flames)
    Close Close Close (We Stroke the Flames is the second single from German synthpop group Camouflage's fourth album Bodega Bohemia, released in 1993....

    " (1993)
  • "Jealousy" (1993)
  • "Bad News
    Bad News (Camouflage song)
    Bad News is the first single from Camouflage's fifth studio album Spice Crackers, released in 1995.Unlike the band's previous singles, this song had a very fast tempo and was quite upbeat compared to some of their earlier work. Most of this change in style translated onto the "Spice Crackers" album...

    " (1995)
  • "X-Ray
    X-Ray (Camouflage song)
    X-Ray is the second single from Camouflage's fifth studio album Spice Crackers, released in 1996.The single contains three different single versions of the song; the Soft Single Mix, which is essentially an edit of the album version, the Ronda Ray single mix, which simply adds some extra...

    " (1996)
  • "Love Is A Shield" (12") (1997)
  • "Thief
    Thief (Camouflage song)
    Thief is a 1999 single by German synthpop group Camouflage. It was later re-recorded and included on their sixth studio album Sensor in 2003.It was the first single to feature band member Oliver Kreyssig since he departed the band in 1990...

    " (1999)
  • "The Great Commandment 2.0
    The Great Commandment (song)
    -References:*http://www.myspace.com/volkerbrothers* "Joel Whitburn's, Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003", 2004*http://www.discogs.com/Camouflage-The-Great-Commandment/master/7480-The Great Commandment 2.0:...

    " (2001)
  • "Me and You
    Me and You (Camouflage song)
    Me and You is German synthpop group Camouflage's sixteenth single, taken from their sixth studio album Sensor and released in April 2003.The single was backed with a radio edit, two remixes and also a remix of album track "Perfect". A remix single was also released in Europe, which featured...

    " (2003)
  • "I Can't Feel You
    I Can't Feel You (song)
    I Can't Feel You is German synthpop group Camouflage's seventeenth single, released in August 2003 as the second and final single from their sixth studio album Sensor....

    " (2003)
  • "Motif Sky
    Motif Sky
    Motif Sky is German group Camouflage's eighteenth single, released in July 2006 as the first single from their seventh studio album Relocated.It was also the first single since 1991's "This Day" to be released in the US, albeit only as a digital download...

    " (2006)
  • "Something Wrong
    Something Wrong (Camouflage song)
    Something Wrong is German group Camouflage's nineteenth single, released in November 2006 as the second single from their seventh studio album Relocated....

    " (2006)
  • "The Pleasure Remains
    The Pleasure Remains
    The Pleasure Remains is the third and final single from Camouflage's seventh studio album "Relocated", released at the beginning of 2007.The single contains remixes by Wet Fingers, Lowe and Resonance, along with the b-side "Your Own World", which also appeared on the "Something Wrong" single.It is...

    " (2007)

See also


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK