mike ink, walker, khan, djungle fever, air liquide, jammin unit: search & destroy

air liquide: awwww, how could anyone talk bad bout air liquide? i'm sure there's lots to destroy but search: "This is Not a Mind Trip"... so so classic. i think they started to lose the plot a little once acid house peaked, but then again who didn't?

by "walker" do you mean Stewart Walker?

i heard Der Laeufer the other day, fleetingly, and that seemed a pretty good track.

i think i also forgot to mention last time that i quite like dj ungle fever red light district vol III, a red 10", theres a yellow 10" with walkers business card on too.

Mike Ink:
Search the the original version of Love Inc.´s "R.E.S.P.E.C.T.", one of the best house tracks of the nineties. The Love Inc. album "Life's a Gas" is also worth a listen, though it has all sorts of unusual samples, and it's not exactly dance music.

Walker (who is, of course, Dr. Walker, the second half of Air Liquide):
The Khan/Walker EP "Sleichfahrt" is good if you like rigid experimental techno. I'm not familiar with Walker's solo material, though "16 Lovesongs for the Spice Girls" is a great name for a record.

Khan:
Definitely destroy "1-900-Get-Khan", it's bad lounge electronica. Search the 4E record "4E4ME4YOU", which is good instrumental hip hop sort of stuff with great beats.

Air Liquide:
Search almost anything they've released in 1992-1996. "Nephology" is their best record, but basically you can't go wrong with anything of that period. "Anybody Home", their latest record (1999) has some nice techno tracks, but also some uninspired electroclash tunes. Don't get me wrong, it's a good record, but not quite as original as AL's previous releases.

Jammin' Unit: He seems to be the more conventional half of Air Liquide. His solo material is good neo-electro/dub, but nothing exceptional there. "Dropout Dub" is track worth of of listening.

As for other releases of the Cologne posse:
German Electronic Foundation/G.E.F. (Walker, Khan & Jammin' Unit) has released some nice experimental tracks througout the nineties. Kerosene's solo material is much like Jammin' Unit's: good listenable electro, but nothing special there. The same can be said about Khan's and Kerosene's duo LP "97 98". UMO (Unidenified Musical Objects) is sort of a Cologne superstar group: it features Jammin' Unit, Walker, Khan, Kerosene and Adel Dior. Their second LP (UMO 2) is a good compilation of weird and experimental tracks, but their third (The Karaoke Album) is utter shite: boring electroclash at it's worst.

Air Liquide did 'Mythology' didn't they? 'If there were no gravity, you'd be in mythology'. I love that line, I love that song.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/aacb7s

I finally found a copy of Air Liquide's Liquid Air & Mandragora (their first two EPs on one CD) in a Berlin fleamarket, and dammit if their shit wasn't tight from the beginning. The tracks there are a bit lighter and trancey than what followed, but they've already begun to find their voice, so to speak. I mean, obviously they have this cosmological UFO thing going on that a lot of people had at the time, but the way they squeak towards acid and make it creepy and menacing and odd is more interesting than almost any other cosmic trance/ambient artist. Does anyone even make creepy cosmic ambient techno like Air Liquide or Biosphere's Patashnik anymore?

Has anyone heard the albums they've made after Anybody Home, by the way? Like I said upthread, I was kinda disappointed with that album, not because it's bad, but because they moved from something no one had done to something everyone was doing at the time, so I haven't really been interested enough to check the newer stuff.

I wish I could find the Zulutronic (which was Jammin' Unit and someone else, I think) album somewhere, the couple of singles I have are the shit.

I had that - from memory, it's not bad. Best tracks first.

Hmm, I see someone's selling it used on Amazon, but the price is over 30 dollars, I wonder if if it's worth it?

Fun fact: Mary S. Applegate, who wrote the lyrics and did the female vocals on Air Liquide's nineties tracks used to write lyrics for pop artists in the eighties, including the lyrics to "The Power of Love" by Jennifer Rush (which was later covered by Celine Dion).

Has anyone heard the albums they've made after Anybody Home, by the way?

They had one out a couple of years ago called Let Your Soul Be something something, which if I hadn't been sent it in the post I doubt I'd ever have known about. It had its moments

there are really solid electronic dub tracks in the Deaf, Dumb And Blind album by Jammin' Unit, no wussy dreamy wishy washy type shit.

Khan & Walker's Empire State Building is a deep techambient classic imo, nearly as flawless as Mike Ink & Jörg Burger collabs (and also on Harvest). btw J. Burger is sorely missing from this thread as he worked with most if not all of these guys too. he deserves to be taken apart on a separate page if only for his unbelievably fine releases as The Bionaut.
Ink has a couple threads here but they tend to die very quickly.

if you need srsly funky acid (for any dark, shameful reason) search I Love You More Than Sex Can Say by Madonna 303 (=Jammin'Unit & Walker)

ehh it's "Deaf, Dub and Blind", not "dumb". I am.

I just ordered Empire State Building, because I really like Schleichfahrt, the previous Khan & Walker album. Has anyone heard the stuff they did as Global Electronic Network?

Lushlife Electronica is the underappreciated gem of this whole scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwIhi9sExts

I had completely forgotten that video, I saw that years ago on a bootleg vhs tape. Thanks for posting that!

I've spent the last two hours picking through that guys promo videos and I understand why techno was so compelling in the 90's. Wading through a couple hours of Smashing Pumpkins, Letters to Cleo, Tricky, Curved, CIV and Beck videos is damn hard work and slightly depressing.

I didn't know there was a video to "R.E.S.P.E.C.T.", I never saw it back in the day. Quite trippy!

I'd love to hear more of The Bionaut's stuff, but it's quite hard to find these days. Maybe the next time I'm in Berlin again I'll try to hunt down some of his records.

I believe that the Bionaut compilation that Matador released a few years back is available on itunes. It's a pretty solid intro but misses out on some of the better album/ep cuts. The best releases are "Lushlife Electronica" and "Please Teenage!," esp. the Mike Ink remix on the latter which amazing.

For some reason I've been craving to hear "This Is Not a Trip" lately. Both Acid Resistant mix CDs on Sm:)e/Profile are really fucking good, esp. the first.

Burger/Ink - Las Vegas is essential. Might be my fav techno lp.
Also Mike Ink's Studio 1 series for the minimalists.
Was always fond of Air Liquid's Nephrology, awesome heady acid.

Las Vegas is indeed great, ahead of it's time too. And Nephology is one my favourite LPs ever, the spooky cosmic acid/techno/ambient stuff Air Liquide did in 1993-95 is something I've never heard anyone do before or after.

there was possibly a dim west coast breaks connection back then somehow..? Not that I would know.

Khan's No Comprendo has some choice tracks on it, it's his "collaborate with a bunch of different singers and make acceptable poptunes" album

all the stuff these guys collectively released on Caipirinha in the late 90s was EXTREMELY hit-or-miss for me. I remember liking maybe one or two tracks from UMO 2 and that's it

it's his "collaborate with a bunch of different singers and make acceptable poptunes" album

i really like that one with Julee Cruise

The UMO records hardly represent these guys at their best, true.

I think some really fun stuff from these guys is on the mille plateaux Electric Ladyland comps

I agree, listen to "Zulutronic" by Cowboytronic for example, which is on the second EL comp. And "Chromoplastic", a great Air Liquide tune which quotes Sibelius, seems to have been released only on the Trance Europe Express 3 compilation.

"zulutronic" is great

ha yeah Chromoplastic is like my favorite Air Liquide ever and that comp was the first I heard of them

I hate when that happens and you're doomed to disappointment from there on out

If you like "Chromoplastic" you should check out Nephology and the first half of Black. There's many great tunes in the same vein there, especially "Araras", "Knifflige Fragen", and "Stratus Static".

I found Cobra EP (from 1997) by Trinkwasser while digging the record stores in Berlin, and I quite like it. Apparently Trinkwasser was a synth pop project by Jörg Burger and some other guy named Heller with vocals in German, I assume the Heller guy is the vocalist. It's really quite fun, 80s-style synth pop with a house vibe. In 1999 they released a single called "Extraleben" (that's what got me into Trinkwasser), which is even better, it's less housey and sounds more like genuine 80s synth pop and is really catchy. Too bad Burger & Heller seem to have abandoned the project soon after that, I imagine it might've been more popular now in the late 00s, when 80s synth pop sound is trendy again.

I've been meaning to dig deeper into Jörg Burger's stuff, so could anyone recommend me some other releases by him that would sound similar to Trinkwasser or Lush Life Electronica?

Oh yeah, and I would definitely recommend Khan & Walker's Radiowaves (from 1995) to anyone who's into this sound. It's got a similar experimental cosmic acid vibe as Air Liquide's early 90s releases, but it's more minimal and rigid (though still quite trippy). I'd say it's one of the best records to have come out of this scene, almost as good as Nephology. Too bad nobody seems to be doing this sort of trippy UFO acid/techno/ambient anymore, the key players (Walker, Khan, Jammin' Unit, Khan) have moved on to doing nice but kinda bland electro/electronica or minimal stuff.

Whoops, I meant to write "Walker, Khan, Jammin' Unit, Burger", but accidentally wrote Khan twice.

there was possibly a dim west coast breaks connection back then somehow..? Not that I would know.

― blunt, 26. marraskuuta 2007 19:23 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I know Air Liquide was connected to DJ Soul Slinger (though I think he's from New York), he did some remixes for them and possibly the other way around too. And Sm:)e released a couple of Air Liquide comps in the US.

You can get "Extraleben" here:

Trinkwasser - Extraleben

So, I finally got myself a copy of Khan & Walker's Empire State Building, and it's really quite good! It's more like the Radiowaves stuff than Schleichfahrt, a really nice and trippy piece of acid ambient, except that unlike with the Radiowaves recordings, in here K&W don't even try to pretend it's dance music, even if there are some house beats. There's also a cool M.Flux remix included that sounds more like late 90s minimal techno than the ambient stuff on the main album.

It really feels like these Cologne guys were doing something totally unique in the early-to-mid-90s, too bad Khan, Dr. Walker and Jammin' Unit all seem to have turned away from it by the late 90s. It would've been interesting to hear how this sound might've progressed when minimal became more popular in ther 00s, as this kind of acid minimalism is somewhat different from the dubby minimal techno that became more prominent.

if the latest micro-trends in the techno scene prevail then you might get a chance to

Ah, I'm not really following the current technno scene, is someone doing stuff like this at the moment?

yeah, but i'm not telling who

Okay.

I got a copy of Electronic Dub on Rising High recently. It's a collab between Caspar Pound, Walker, Jammin' Unit and Laurence Elliot Potter (who was responsible for the Friends, Lovers and Family trance in early 90's.). It's 6 tracks of tripped out ambient electro dub, nice enough. I can't think of anyone making this sort of music these days. The Move D and Benjamin Brunn from '08 or stuff on the Bine label maybe. It's hard to think this sound would be in favour again though. However I kind of associate it with recessional times - so fingers crossed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1fci1oDb2k&feature=related

That sounds interesting, have to look into it. I knew about the Air Liquide - Rising High connection, but I didn't know they'd collaborated with Caspar Pound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Cgw96liiA&feature=related

Looks like someone's uploaded the video for "Cowboytronic" by Zulutronic on Youtube. This is a really cool tune, one of the better examples of the more electro/breaks kind of sound that Air Liquide & co went for in the late 90s. Does anyone know what's the song that's sampled in the beginning and end of it?

i had forgotten how amazing Global Electronic Network is. so syncopated! so funky! so techno-yet-not-the-right-tempo!

Yeah, it's dope. You should check out Khan & Walker's Radiowaves and Empire State Building too, they're pretty much a continuation of their G.E.N. sound, just under a different name. Don't get their Radiowaves II, though, at that point they'd already moved to the boring electro sound both Khan and Air Liquide adopted in the late 90s.

Here's a more general Search & Destroy, to answer the original thread title:

SEARCH
Everything Air Liquide released between 1991 and 1995.
Anything by Global Electronic Network.
The first three Khan & Walker albums (Radiowaves, Schleichfahrt, Empire State Building).
The Electronic Dub album (Air Liquide + Caspar Pound).
Anything by The Bionaut / The Modernist (he's pretty much the most reliably solid artist of this bunch), particularly Lush Life Electronica and the Trinkwasser singles.
Burger/Ink's Las Vegas.
The early-to-mid-90s singles by Love Inc./Mike Ink.
Kerosene's 1990s albums (he was better at doing nu-electro than any of these other guys).
The Zulutronic records.

DESTROY
Anything Air Liquide made after 1995 - boring electro and breaks.
Khan & Walker's Radiowaves II - more boring electro and breaks.
Khan's solo albums - more boring breaks, plus some "pop" music and Khan's sleazy vocals.
The U.M.O. albums - this was some kind of a Cologne supergroup, but the albums are just not as good as what the individual members did by themselves.
The Kron and Pentax records (by Reinhard Voigt) - dude is just not as good as his brother.
The Love Inc. album - weird use of samples, this sounds more like soft rock than the sort of techno Mike Ink released previously under this name.
The Mohn (Burger/Voigt) album - what a disappointing comeback for these two! Where are the beats?

you forgot the Super 8 series, some of which is outstanding, mainly the bits that blend live-sounding drums and keyboards with a relentless electro-techno aesthetic.

Interesting, I've never head of that, who is it by?

Khan's solo albums - more boring breaks, plus some "pop" music and Khan's sleazy vocals.

totally disagree. "no comprendo" is a great album, "say goodbye" being a perennial club classic. the live gigs he did with kid congo powers to support this album (some also with julee cruise) were fantastically great fun.

The Love Inc. album - weird use of samples, this sounds more like soft rock than the sort of techno Mike Ink released previously under this name.

i used to love this album. hadn't played it for years but dug it out recently. it has dated a bit but there's still some great music on it, particularly the epic t-rex sampling "life's a gas".

xpost these - https://www.discogs.com/label/3339-Super-8

super 8.5 is the real pick.

didn't know this was online -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk7hG_cdd_k

kid next door listens to Chromoplastic on his paper round, swagger on him, he thinks he's the midfield general

Okay, I can at least understand liking Khan... It's not my cup of tea, I don't care at all about that sleazy leather pants rock aesthetic, and I was pretty disappointed that dude went from doing cool minimal/experimental techno to that. But if that kinda sound is your thing, yeah, I can get it.

But the Love Inc. album is utterly bizarre. I loved the stuff Mike Ink did in the early 90s, "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." is among my top 5 techno tracks of all time, so I was pretty excited to see he had a whole album out under that name, with even a remix of my favourite tune on it... And then it turns out was just an assortment of sounds that make no sense together. Like, what made him thing he could just loop 10 seconds of some 70s blues rock tune, put a beat under it, and that's your tune?! Even the "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." remix was waayyy worse than the original. It's just baffling. I tried to listen to that album every once in a while for a few years, just to see whether it would finally click, whether there was some genius to it that I hadn't realized yet, but no, it's just silly.

It feels to me like the album was an experiment that didn't quite work, and thankfully he never returned to that sound; the next year he came out with the equally unique but much more satisfying Gas album, as well as Burger/Ink stuff... I've nothing against musicians experimenting with stuff, but sometimes the experiments can have pretty stupid results.

tuomas what do you think of the voigt "studio 1" stuff?

It's okay. A bit too dry and conceptual to be really good minimal techno (kinda similar to Richie Hawtin's late 90s minimalism in that regard), but not bad.

yea i agree with that, i think if i am in the right frame of mind i can find it really thrilling (same w/ hawtin's concept 1 material) but i often find it hard to just throw on and enjoy

I don't think any of the Cologne guys really excelled in doing "proper" Berlin style minimal techno. Reinhard Voigt's attempts at it are even more boring than Wolfgang's. I much preferred them doing wetter (like the Gas albums) or freakier (like the early Air Liquide and Khan & Walker material) or funkier (like The Modernist's house tracks) stuff.

Frankly surprising recent discovery from a family gathering which ended with us just putting a load of records on - my mum really likes Say Goodbye by Khan.

the Mohn album is classic. lol @ "where's the beats"

modernist stuff is boring except i like the Triola album

studio 1 stuff is just dj tools, the brinkmann remixes are kind of fun, though.

This thread got me listening to Zulutronic for the first time in ages, and goddam if the first album still isn't a banging piece of freaky electro acid techno! Of its time and still timeless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmYUbLoaARk

One project I forgot to mention was German Electronic Foundation, who released some acid stuff in the early 90s... This was Khan/Walker/Jammin' Unit/Bionaut all together, the music is faster and harsher than most of their other projects, but it's still nice if you prefer the early 90s Cologne sound. All the G.E.F. material was reissued on a CD comp back in 2002.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nx4ULIs4X8

New Khan LP/2x12 on the Libertine. Unsure whether it was tracks produced in the past or new new material. Really good though - best thing on the label since the Phil Merrall 10".

Interesting... Is it techno, or in the sleazy electro style he adopted later? Cos I don't really care for the latter.

Techno. It sounds like possibly recorded around mid-late 90s. There's been a few Cologne era re-issues but these aren't familiar. Poor samples online only and I haven't played properly yet..

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/khan-libertine-traditions-08/693263-01/

not happy about the price :(

definitely some of the same nice, rough, live-sounding drums he was using on the late-90s singles

Okay I had no idea that Jammin Unit is actually Khan's brother!!

I also really want to believe that their real names are, as Discogs claims, 'Can Oral' and 'Cem Oral'

i can confirm they are.

Brilliant. I have been digging deep into both of the brother's back catalogue over the last few years. A lot of it has been my musical tonic as I'm rattling around the house during lockdown. I have all the recommendations by Tuomas above and disagree with a few of the 'Destroys'.. not mentioned here but Second Circle label put out a mini best off Khan's 90s material last year called Blue Box Sessions.

I can also see that Super 8.9 is on the horizon.

!

the original 12s are some of my most treasured records.

Some of them are expensive.. I ummed and ahhed on paying £60 for a VG copy of Super-8.5 and it got sold while I was weighing it up.

I also really want to believe that their real names are, as Discogs claims, 'Can Oral' and 'Cem Oral'

yup, super 8 reissue forthcoming.

also, the incredible EFS by H.E.A.D. is being reissued later in the year.

Super-8.10 is a joy, includes a new track 'My House' and some tracks from the CD only Caipirinha label from the late 90s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR2LKGjK7NY

nice

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm5Sji4A3Wl56ZVGYGP2wFyLqR8Ay62_X

"In Waves" tremendous

More muscular, thick, electronic, warm, slashing than previous releases, which felt somehow archaic, dry, rasping, echoed, reverbed, recorded in some abandoned engine room. These feel more upfront and present

All wonderful anyway of course