U96
Encyclopedia
U96 is a dance music project formed by the German
DJ
and producer
Alex Christensen
and a team of producers called Matiz (Ingo Hauss, Helmut Hoinkis, and Hayo Panarinfo), known for a number of 1990s Eurodance
hits
.
, Das Boot
, about the German submarine U-96 from the Second World War
. The project's first hit "Das Boot" (1991) is a techno adaptation of the film's title melody, which had been originally composed by Klaus Doldinger
. An album of the same name was also released.
Their next album, Replugged (1993) was inspired by the electro sounds of the 1980s and by ambient
and disco
music themes. It was less commercially successful than the first album, but provided a couple of Top 10 hits in "Love Sees No Colour" and "Night in Motion".
The follow-up album Club Bizarre (1995) radically changed the sound of U96. The album was dominated by the Eurodance
sound with influences of fast paced trance
. The hit single releases from this album were "Love Religion
" (with Daisy Dee
) as well as the title track "Club Bizarre
" with harmonies
, which was reused later by Brooklyn Bounce
. Motor Music also released the Club Bizarre Interactive CD-ROM. The audio part of this CD-ROM
included several music tracks and the multimedia part featuring a discography, interviews with Alex Christensen and a game for Mac OS
and Windows PC.
In 1996 the successor Heaven was published. The album was highly commercial in sound, with greater emphasis on Eurodance
, despite retaining some electro and trance
influences. On this album a new singer Dea-Li (Dorothy Lapi) was featured, who participated in the preparation of four titles. The refrain
in the song Heaven - although with a higher pace and different text - closely resembles Cyndi Lauper
's 1984 hit song Time After Time
.
In the following single releases were "Seven Wonders" (1997), "Energie" (1998), "Beweg Dich, Baby" (1998) and "Das Boot 2001" (2000). U96 released the compilation album
, Best Of 1991 - 2001, with some new songs from the unreleased album, Rhythm Of Life. The last track "We Call It Love" was issued in 2003 as a promo single only. The group returned to the German Top 30 in 2006 with "Vorbei", which featured the vocals of guest singer Ben.
Another album, Out of Wilhelmsburg, was released in 2007, albeit with a different group lineup.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Alex Christensen
Alex Christensen
Alex Christensen , Jasper Forks or Alex C. as he is known, is a German dance music composer, producer, and DJ, generally known as the face, and one of the founding members, of U96...
and a team of producers called Matiz (Ingo Hauss, Helmut Hoinkis, and Hayo Panarinfo), known for a number of 1990s Eurodance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
hits
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
.
Biography
The name of the project comes from the filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Das Boot
Das Boot
Das Boot is a 1981 German epic war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann...
, about the German submarine U-96 from the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The project's first hit "Das Boot" (1991) is a techno adaptation of the film's title melody, which had been originally composed by Klaus Doldinger
Klaus Doldinger
Klaus Doldinger is a German saxophonist, especially well-known for jazz and as a composer of film music. He was the recipient of 1997's Bavarian Film Awards .-Life and work:...
. An album of the same name was also released.
Their next album, Replugged (1993) was inspired by the electro sounds of the 1980s and by ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
music themes. It was less commercially successful than the first album, but provided a couple of Top 10 hits in "Love Sees No Colour" and "Night in Motion".
The follow-up album Club Bizarre (1995) radically changed the sound of U96. The album was dominated by the Eurodance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
sound with influences of fast paced trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
. The hit single releases from this album were "Love Religion
Love Religion
"Love Religion" is a 1994 song recorded by German act U96. It was the major hit single from the album Club Bizarre and was released in late 1994. Unlike U96's previous songs, "Love Religion" is more techno, pop with fast trance-oriented...
" (with Daisy Dee
Daisy Dee
Desiree Rollocks is a singer, actress and TV host, especially well known in the German-speaking world.- History of Daisy Dee's career :...
) as well as the title track "Club Bizarre
Club Bizarre
"Club Bizarre" is a 1994 song recorded by German act U96. It was a single from the album of the same name and was released in summer 1995. The song was a hit in several countries, although it was not as successful as U96's previous single, "Love Religion", but became a top twenty hit in the...
" with harmonies
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
, which was reused later by Brooklyn Bounce
Brooklyn Bounce
Brooklyn Bounce is one of several pseudonyms used by German trance producers Matthias Menck and Dennis Bohn . They have also produced music under the names Mental Madness Productions and Beatbox feat. Rael...
. Motor Music also released the Club Bizarre Interactive CD-ROM. The audio part of this CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
included several music tracks and the multimedia part featuring a discography, interviews with Alex Christensen and a game for Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
and Windows PC.
In 1996 the successor Heaven was published. The album was highly commercial in sound, with greater emphasis on Eurodance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
, despite retaining some electro and trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
influences. On this album a new singer Dea-Li (Dorothy Lapi) was featured, who participated in the preparation of four titles. The refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
in the song Heaven - although with a higher pace and different text - closely resembles Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
's 1984 hit song Time After Time
Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper song)
"Time After Time" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released as the second single from her album She's So Unusual. It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remained there for two weeks...
.
In the following single releases were "Seven Wonders" (1997), "Energie" (1998), "Beweg Dich, Baby" (1998) and "Das Boot 2001" (2000). U96 released the compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, Best Of 1991 - 2001, with some new songs from the unreleased album, Rhythm Of Life. The last track "We Call It Love" was issued in 2003 as a promo single only. The group returned to the German Top 30 in 2006 with "Vorbei", which featured the vocals of guest singer Ben.
Another album, Out of Wilhelmsburg, was released in 2007, albeit with a different group lineup.
Group members
- Helmut Hoinkis
- Hayo Panarinfo
- Alberto Ingo HaussAlberto Ingo HaussAlberto Hauss is a German composer and producer. He has worked on projects with artists such as Oliver Cheatham, Beats 4 You, Chocolate, U96, F.R.E.U.D, Boytronic, ATC and Culture Beat...
(a.k.a. Bela Wycombe) - Alex Christensen (a.k.a. AC 16, AC Beat, Alex C.)
- Stefan Hafelinger
Albums
| Year | Titel | Chart Position | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER GER GER or Ger may refer to:* Great Eastern Railway, a British railway company formed in 1862* The Olympic and FIFA country code for * Great Eastern Run, a running event in Peterborough, United Kingdom* Granular endoplasmic reticulum, a cell organelle... |
AU Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
SWI SWI SWI can refer to:* Switzerland — this is not the ISO 3166-1 code, which is CHE.* The National Rail code for Swindon railway station, which serves the town of Swindon, Wiltshire in the United Kingdom... |
NOR Nor Nor may refer to:*In grammar, nor is a coordinating conjunction*Nór, the eponymous founder-king of Norway in Norse mythology*Nor , a character in the book in Wicked... |
||
| 1992 | Das Boot Das Boot (album) Das Boot is the first album by the German dance group U96, released in 1992. The track Das Boot is a cover version of the title theme of the 1981 German film Das Boot, composed by Klaus Doldinger. The name of group is a reference to the film... |
11 | 5 | 9 | - |
| 1993 | Replugged | 21 | 5 | 18 | - |
| 1995 | Club Bizarre | 22 | 23 | 37 | - |
| 1996 | Heaven / Best of '96 | 30 | 19 | 23 | 35 |
| 2000 | Best of 1991-2001 | 36 | 36 | - | - |
| 2007 | Out of Wilhelmsburg | - | - | - | - |
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart position | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER GER GER or Ger may refer to:* Great Eastern Railway, a British railway company formed in 1862* The Olympic and FIFA country code for * Great Eastern Run, a running event in Peterborough, United Kingdom* Granular endoplasmic reticulum, a cell organelle... |
AU Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
SWI SWI SWI can refer to:* Switzerland — this is not the ISO 3166-1 code, which is CHE.* The National Rail code for Swindon railway station, which serves the town of Swindon, Wiltshire in the United Kingdom... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
NLD NLD The acronym NLD can refer to* National League for Democracy, the main opposition party in Burma* Necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum, a skin disorder* Nonverbal learning disorder* Novell Linux Desktop* North London Derby... |
NOR Nor Nor may refer to:*In grammar, nor is a coordinating conjunction*Nór, the eponymous founder-king of Norway in Norse mythology*Nor , a character in the book in Wicked... |
||
| 1992 | "Das Boot Das Boot (song) "Das Boot" is the title theme to the film and TV Series Das Boot, composed and produced by Klaus Doldinger, released on single and album in 1981.... " |
1 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 1 |
| "I Wanna Be a Kennedy" | 3 | 6 | 3 | - | 36 | - | |
| "Come 2gether/Der Kommandant" | 36 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "Ambient Underworld" | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "Das Boot.Kennedy Megamix" | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "Das Boot... 2" | - | - | - | - | - | 6 | |
| 1993 | "Love Sees No Colour Love Sees No Colour "Love Sees No Colour" is a 1993 electronic / techno song recorded by German act U96. It was the first single off its second album Replugged on which it appears as second track, and was released in 1993. The words contained in the title are the only lyrics of the song. It achieved success in many... " |
6 | 3 | 4 | - | 16 | - |
| "Love Sees No Colour" [remix] | - | - | 38 | - | - | - | |
| "Night in Motion" | 9 | 7 | 18 | - | - | - | |
| 1994 | "Inside Your Dreams" | 11 | 10 | 9 | 44 | 24 | - |
| "Love Religion Love Religion "Love Religion" is a 1994 song recorded by German act U96. It was the major hit single from the album Club Bizarre and was released in late 1994. Unlike U96's previous songs, "Love Religion" is more techno, pop with fast trance-oriented... " |
5 | 7 | 10 | - | 10 | - | |
| 1995 | "Love Religion" [remix] | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| "Club Bizarre Club Bizarre "Club Bizarre" is a 1994 song recorded by German act U96. It was a single from the album of the same name and was released in summer 1995. The song was a hit in several countries, although it was not as successful as U96's previous single, "Love Religion", but became a top twenty hit in the... " |
19 | 14 | 32 | 70 | 12 | - | |
| "Movin’" | 91 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1996 | "Heaven" | 4 | 2 | 16 | - | 15 | 5 |
| "A Night to Remember" | 21 | 18 | 44 | - | - | - | |
| "Venus in Chains" | 75 | 18 | - | - | - | - | |
| "Love Generation" | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1997 | "Seven Wonders" | 40 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1998 | "Energie" | 23 | - | - | - | - | - |
| "Beweg dich Baby" | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2001 | "Das Boot 2001" | 16 | 12 | - | - | - | - |
| 2003 | "We Call It Love" | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2006 | "Vorbei" (feat. Ben) | 28 | - | - | - | - | - |
| "Mr. DJ Put on the Red Light" (feat. Das Bo) | 77 | - | - | - | - | - |
External links
- Alex Christensen's Official Site
- U96's Discography
- [ AllMusicGuide Profile]
- Biography of U96