First I offer everyone a treat: Just finished scanning an old Muzik mag pages from august 1997 (issue 27) containing a three page interview of Jam & Spoon from their german promo tour when the Kaleidoscope album was released:
Now that´s interesting to read! You must notice the rock´n roll insanity behind these guys motives! It´s important to understand that this text is written in time when electronic music was at it´s peak in destroing all the traditional music styles (ie. rock music) and bands like Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and such had made their impact and were finally coming hugely popular. I even remember a cover from famous British Metal magazine; Metal Hammer where they were forced to admit that the Prodigy was taking Metal to very different direction. The Germans were not left behind even though their angle differentiated from the one that Brits had taken.
Continental supergroups were in one end like Scooter (which made music for the lowest common denominator with really cheeky aproach. I will get back to this business later but not in this text) and the other was dominated by these post war escapists who made the debauchery into form of art! Sven Väth is one of the notorius examples of this genre but I personally think that only Jam & Spoon managed to take it to the absolute limit!
I´m really sad that I didn´t make it to see their live shows or even a Dj set from Mark Spoon ever. I did try though and I should have the flyers still somewhere about the parties where Spoon should have been playing. Unfortunately as he was well known to be very complicated person every single gig that I was going to attend was cancelled for strange reasons. The last attempt was propably a year before Spoons death (that was 11.01.2006).
I do have another Muzik mag from around 2000 where Mark Spoon was awarded by the Caner of the year trophy for most insane acting in the Dj Scene (I´ll try to scan that one too if I find it somewhere). He was also known for beating up customers, club owners and generally behaving badly under influence... Well that´s not the point of this story so now on I will concentrate on their productions!
My understanding is that Jam El Mar was the one with greater production skills and Spoon was more like the front man with Djing ability and the character, but this is just a guess since no real evidence about their studio work has passed my path. The reason that I believe this is the case comes from realising Jam El Mar´s production career started years earlier in the 80´s (Spoon was a Dj troughout 80´s). Another fact is the amount of solo releases and remixes Jam has produced. In the end it doesn´t really matter because both were obviously very good friends and the productions would not have existed without each other´s contribution.
Jam El Mar or Trancy Spacer (or even Rolf Ellmer) made early records himself and in groups, most notable with Dj Dag (Dag Lerner) as Dance 2 Trance. This outfit that preceded Jam & Spoon (though their first album was from 91) basically consisted all the elements that would follow in the later years. Excellent trax include P. Ower Of A. Merican N. Atives, Where is Dag?, Hello San Fransisco, Take a Freefall and We came in Peace. All are good examples of early trancelike sound that was uprising during those times around germany. This sound was heavily influenced by such artists like KLF that had made lush trancey remixes of their big hits. Power was propably the biggest track and a huge hit all around the clubland. Their success propelled literally hundreds of poor copycats! And finally the whole eurodance phenomenon was created by inspired producers from this platform Dance 2 Trance was presenting (I´m not saying they were the only ones that contributed to this genre but they definitely were influential). Dj Dag does need his own praise too but I´m not going to concentrate on his works here (I should propably write something about the German scene generally and definitely about Love Parade and Mayday -parties).
Jam & Spoons story began within legendary R&S label with the Tales From A Danceographic Ocean ep that contained excellent songs: My First Fantastic F.F. was really experimental techno and trance fusion but the really huge track is of course infamous Stella which introduced classic Hold Me Love Me sample (or was this actually singer Plavka who was contributing to great part of Jam & Spoons records later?). The funny thing here is that My First Fantastic F.F. contains same samples as Stella but also the famous samples from Twin Peaks also used by Moby in the legendary Go! I haven´t heard myself but I know that moby actually ended up remixing Stella later on... Anyway around this time british label REACT released Age of Love by Bruno Sanchioni (of BBE fame) and Giuseppe Chierchia with Jam & Spoon Watch Out For Stella Club Mix that was to became on of the most well known classic trance record of all time! It´s funny how they decided to use this opportunity to promote their own production but since both releases are stellar it really doesn´t matter! These two trax together already gave them the legendary status they have in the scene even know!
The release of Stella predicted the forth coming album but who would have dared to ask what was coming? Tripomatic Fairytales was devided into two albums 2001 and 2002 former being more dancefloor orientated work of progression and genious and the latter being one of the most innovative and relaxing chill out albums in the veins of greatest Balearic records (for example William Orbit´s Strange Cargo III). Absolutely everything works brilliantly in both of these albums, from Right in the Night´s hypnotic (and a little cheesy) melodies to Stella´s sophisticated progression to 2002´s chantings and african drums and psychedelic phonecalls. They just work! Find Me (Odyssee to Anyoona) was also released as a single. It is pretty good single but the most innovative track was Follow Me! that was included in the b-side of Right in the Night. Now this one is fine example of the driving and goalike hardtrance that would soon follow! In any case if you have even the slightest interest of the beginning of the European dance movement you need both Tripomatic Fairytales!!!
There is strange information about including and removing trax from these releases and one that was not in the original albums was Angel. This time the better song was however Can You Feel It that was also on the b-side! Heavily acidic hardtrance monster and very much recommended! It also has som resemblance to the next project Jam&Spoon's Hands On Yello - You Gotta Say Yes to another Excess (uff die 12' mix) which in my opinion is the best hardtrance / Europian Rave anthem ever! Hands on Yello as a project was something out of this world, all the remixes are brilliant but Jam & Spoon steal the moment, mainly because Yello is propably the godfather of their sound and appearance! Everything seems so natural in this context and yes the excess is total excess in the case of the song and Jam & Spoons legend!
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