Air Liquide, Berlin Wall falling and Techno-House music on the rise

 Journal entry 2: Just looked over the discography of Air Liquide which is part Jammin' Unit and the other half is Ingmar Koch. Before their 1992 album release with the blue waters and fishes on the cover, there was an ep they released in 1991, June 27th to be exact, according to their bandcamp music page. It has 7 songs on it which run over one hour, which in my opinion is long enough to be considered an album rather than ep right? I listened to the 7 songs and they're outstanding, my favorite is probably clash of cultures or das quellgebiet des amazonas. The ep is titled Air Liquide 'Neue Frankfurter Elektronik Schule 1991'. 

To be honest all of the songs are stellar and unique. I ordered my own copy on Amazon this morning. The first track which when translated from German is 'Dance of the Lemmings 2' made me laugh. Apart from having humor the actual music is very mysterious and hypnotic, something I would be able to listen to outside of the nightclub, cozy at home or in the car driving around. I love how the early 90's techno music is so intertwined with space and UFO sightings, just adds to the mystique of the otherworldly rhythms and beats coming from a Roland 303.

 During this time let us not forget the Berlin Wall fell after many decades of communist rule, in 1989. So naturally both West and East sides of Berlin including Germany itself were in a celebrative mood and a new generation of teenagers and mid 20 year olds lead the way. A brand new musical exploration opening the gates to musical exploration where Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze started in the early 70's, came a new breed of musical talents such as Air Liquide, Ramon Zenker, Paul Van Dyk, and essentially the acid tinged sound of Roland 303's being tweaked to infinity and enter the 1990's.

Ramon Zenker with Interactive and Frankfurt Beat leading the way into the first excursions of trance music. Let us not forget so many others, and I am leaving out many but to name a few more, Andreas Tomalla as his alter ego Talla 2XL, Sven Väth and Ramon Zenker's other half of  Hardfloor Oliver Bondzio. The acid tinged house layered sounds of Cologne that DB so eloquently mixed and compiled in 1994 with his DJ mix acid resistant and the glowing yellow cd case. 

Of course most know that house music originated in Chicago with Frankie Knuckles and others like Arthur Baker and Farley "Jackmaster" Funk. Going all the way back to the early eighties taking inspiration from Italo House and Disco from the late 70's. When acid-house craze crossed over to the U.K. in the mid to late 80's, it also inspired some Germans to create their own interpretation of house with the assistance of the Roland 303. Mostly the talent for this genre was permeating from Cologne, Germany. 

One of the most popular acts to come knocking the door with some amazing acid-house tracks was Ramon Zenker and Oliver Bondzio's Hardfloor. Some of the stand out tracks on their debut album TB Resuscitation from 1993 are 'Trancescript' and 'Into The Nature'. Sven Väth featured their track 'Into the Nature' on his seminal dj mix for Mixmag in 1995. Also Danny Rampling's Journeys by DJ mix featured their 'Acperience 1' on his banging mix from 1993.