Köln Krew: !Hype Records

Walker, Wolfgang Voigt, Can & Cem Oral & the Birth of (the other) German Techno

Not gonna lie, finding inspo for 1-2 unique features every month (on top of PT’s reoccurring pieces) has been a bit tough. Most of my creative and mental energy goes into dance music in one way or another, but running labels, keeping up with new music, buying / selling records and being a degenerate discogs surfer all jockey for prime position, sometimes relegating PT to also-ran status depending which way the wind blows. Plus I’ve got the stoood set up and it’s about to be Nice Nice Season outside. I do give myself the occasional week off, but remain committed to writing here – for my own sake as someone who wants to improve as a writer, and for the lovely people supporting PT. Thus, I forge on! Thankfully, I’ve landed on an absolute wormhole of a topic that can be tapped whenever the muse forsakes me. That is, the first generation of Köln (Cologne) Techno producers and the long, strange musical trip they’ve been on since 1990. Our main characters are Dr. Walker, Can & Cem Oral and Wolfgang Voigt, but the cast will often expand to encompass fellow Köln compadres Jorg Burger, Reinhardt Voigt, Bolz-Bolz, Rootpowder, Kerosene and many others. From this Dude Stew of friends, associates and collaborators I’ll single out specific eras / areas of their work and gab about my favorite relevant records. In the process, we’ll see how this prolific squad of freaks birthed eternal Techno institutions like Kompakt, DJ.ungle Fever, Pharma, Electrecord, Formic Distribution, Air Liquide, Liquid Sky, Burger / Ink and more.

Phase One for all involved was Techno’s incursion into Germany ca. 1990. Much has been written about Berlin at this particularly historic moment (see Der Klang der Familie: Berlin, Techno and the Fall of the Wall and countless web and print articles) but the of the rest of German Techno history – Sven Vath and Frankfurt’s Omen Club, Source Records in Heidelberg and the Köln Krew, for starters – have remained largely ignored in the chronicles; the purview of og scene participants and aficionados. Thankfully, the rise to fame of many from the Köln Krew and the mass of labels, record shops, side projects, extracurricular creative endeavors and recordings left in their wake provides us with a pretty clear history.

The launchpad for the Köln’s originators was !Hype, the Kronberg-based label that hosted their first recordings and served as the meeting grounds from which now-legendary collaborations arose. !Hype was a bit of a music mill, capitalizing on Germany’s newfound affinity for American dance music with a deluge of CD’s and records ranging from shit Eurodance to Detroit- and Chicago-indebted underground gems. With few exceptions, !Hype would host many of the first outings from Dr. Walker, W. Voigt, Jorg Burger, Bolz-Bolz and Rootpowder with Cem Oral as studio engineer before he or his brother donned the producer’s helm. The label also appears to have been a reliable source of income for the Krew as almost all released regularly on the label until its 1993 demise, long after they’d moved on to DIY projects and squarely underground sounds. Below are four gems from the !Hype catalog that kickstarted our protagonists’ prolific careers.

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Unlimited Pleasure – Lovemachine (Remix) [1990]

This sleazy, acidic House 12” get’s dangerously close to Eurodance territory, but drums and a bassline from Chicago Jak and endearingly dated ‘80s vocals keep it a fun and cheeky rinse today. The original Lovemachine 12” was one of !Hype’s first releases and seems to have been a minor success, soliciting this remix 12” and a UK release on Tam Tam. Produced by Walker (Ingmar Koch) and engineered by Cem Oral, it’s the first of the Krew’s contributions to !Hype and the first hint of the megalithic collaborations born from early !Hype run-ins. A year later, Walker and Cem would team up to form Techno mega-group, Air Liquide.

Lovemachine isn’t Walker’s first appearance on wax. That honor goes to 1987’s excellent self-released Italo / Neue Deutsche Welle 7”, The Priests And The Robot’s 1. Blue, whose discoid vocals and chunky synth riffs would be resurrected three years later on Lovemachine.

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Alternate States – The Trance EP (Part I-III) [1991]

As a general rule, the Köln boys each have at least two dozen aliases under their respective belts. This one is Walker with early collaborator Jürgen Blömke, who would have his own prolific production career with many, many releases including early 2000’s Deep Techno joints as The Optimizer. Parts I + II give a taste of the freaky, druggy Rave-tinged Techno that would become the sound majeure of the Krew’s output in the early ‘90s. In between the bleeps and squelches lie breakdowns with deep synth choirs and pads that presage the multi-valent Trance career of Jorg Burger as The Bionaut and the Burger / Ink LP, [Las Vegas]. Part III is a throwback to the Krew’s roots in Chicago Jak, with a 303 line sampled from ‘Dream Girl’ by Peirre's Fantasy Club.

The Trance EP (Part I-III) is also the first 12” discussed here to feature Lenin’s mug as the B-side art. Ingmar’s Discogs page claims he’s the great-grandnephew of Communism co-father, Friedrich Engels (who also has his own Discogs page), which would explain the reoccurring proletariate imagery used on records like the We Are Family comp featuring Walker, Can, Cem, Wolfgang and Jorg.

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3 RD Electric – Hydro EP [1991]

Hydro EP is the first of many mega-collabos from the Krew. Written by Wolfgang Voigt, Jorg Burger and the long-running partnership of Andreas Bolz and Gregor Lutterman – the duo that would carry on the 3rd Electric name through long careers in Electro and trippy Techno via their cult labels Electrecord, World Electric, Formic and Progressa. Bolz-Bolz and Rootpowder (Lutterman) created an entire parallel universe whose constellations include names like Keith Tucker of Aux 88, Kitbuilders, Freddy Fresh and ADULT., showing just how far the tendrils of Köln’s first wave would spread. Of course the connections continue on Hydro with Walker producing the quartet.

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House Hallucinates – Prisoners Of Extacy [1992]

By 1992 the Köln dwarf star had already went full supernova. Walker and Cem were ripping live sets as Air Liquide, Blue was setup for trippy Acid / Dub explorations from the whole team, Jorg was churning out loved-up Trance as B. Movements and The Bionaut, W. Voigt had already launched his legendary Mike Ink alias and Structure was pressing plates of tear-out Acid to fuel the proletarian revolution. These are just the main plot lines. All parties were contributing to compilation CDs at a blinding rate and producing one-off plates under one-off aliases. The shuttle was leaving orbit and !Hype’s launchpad was left with one more 12” before its 1993 demise. Prisoners Of Extacy was Walker, Jorg and Herr Voigt firing a parting salvo for the Acid House generation and probably collecting a healthy paycheck to fuel all their new DIY ventures in the process. It was another !Hype hit, garnering remixes and licensed pressings in the US and UK. Prisoners Of Extacy neatly bridged the commercially-oriented days of the !Hype era with the darker, resolutely underground 303 sounds that would dominate the Köln output for years to come.

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