Blank & Jones
German duo Blank & Jones, real names Piet Blank & Jaspa Jones, hit the German dance charts with their trance singles 'After Love', 'Flying To The Moon' and 'Cream', the later of which made serious impact in the UK. More recently they released the single 'DJ Culture', featuring the spoken vocals of Dieter Meier of the Swiss cult project Yello.
12": Cream
[DVNT31X / DVNT31XR]
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Released 6/99 on Deviant. Licensed from Kontor Records. Written & produced by Piet Blank, Jaspa Jones and Andy Kaufhold. Whilst the 'Long Version' of this track is a magnificent slice of pumping progressive house its shadowed by the 'Paul van Dyk Mix', whom takes it one step further, creating a corking trancer that sounds very similar to his remix of Binary Finary's 1998. Big guitars, huge riffs, driving rhythms = PvD at his best. On the second 12" Andre "9pm Til I Come" Tanneberger provides a delicious trancey mix that will hit home on the melodic trance floor.
CDS: Cream
[BANG0015]
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Released 1999 on Bang On! Written & produced by Piet Blank, Jaspa Jones and Andy Kaufhold. See above for review. Thanks to Brian Harris for this information.
12": After Love
[BJ001]
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DJ promo released 2000 on Nebula. This rare, single sided vinyl features an excellent hard-trance, 303 driven remix of 'After Love' by Quake. Thanks to Charlie for the vinyl.
CDS: DJ Culture CD2
[KONTOR133]
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Released 2000 on Kontor Records. This is CD2 of a 2 CD set. Written & produced by Piet Blank, Jaspa Jones and Andy Kaufhold. Words on track 1 by Dieter Meier of Yello. Thanks to Brian Harris for this information.
CD Single: DJ Culture
[ORCDM53689]
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Released 2000 on Orange Records. Licensed from Kontor Records. Written & produced by Piet Blank, Jaspa Jones and Andy Kaufhold. Words on track 1 by Dieter Meier of Yello. A string of rather lame singles followed after 'Cream' and it looked as if Blank & Jones were destined to live in the shadow of their 1999 anthem. However, i'm glad to say that DJ Culture is a mighty fine trance number - not quite in the same league as 'Cream', but nontheless a cracking tune. The 'New Club Mix', 'KayCee Remix' and the rather briefly titled 'Remix' are all along the same lines and don't vary much from one another, whilst the Thomas Schumacher Remix is a deep and dark techno tinged version. I'm not sure when this gets it official UK release, but it deserves to be big.
CD Single: Beyond Time
[0121775GAG]
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Released 02/01 on Edel Records GmbH. Licensed from Gang Go Music GmbH. Written and produced by Piet Blank, Jaspa Jones and Andy Kaufhold. Track 3 remixed by Jam & Spoon, track 4 by Steve Helstrip, track 5 by Darude vs. JS 16. Following rather quickly after 'DJ Culture' is Blank & Jones latest uplifting trancer, 'Beyond Time'. All of the mixes / remixes on this single follow a very similar style (i.e trance) and hence this single lacks variation, even though there are three additional remix artists contributing, plus two mixes from Blank and Jones. The Club Mix is average in its own right, but it is somewhat overshadowed by Darudes remix which steps on the throttle and goes for the jugular (and no, there are no Darude acid riffs here!).
12": Nightclubbing Remix EP
[GG047 / GG048]
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Released 9/01 on Edel Records GmbH. Licensed from Gang Go Music GmbH. Written and produced by Piet Blank, Jaspa Jones and Andy Kaufhold. Addtional remix and production on
track 1 (disc 1) by Liquid Love; on track 2 (disc 1) by Airwave; track 1 (disc 2) by Yoogie van Bellen & Wilfried Belz; on track 2 (disc 2) by Solid Sessions. Limited edition to 1000 copies. Original versions from the album 'Nightclubbing' [0126972GAG]. A solid bunch of remixes, the best of which is the Solid Sessions Remix of 'Secret & Lies' which is a smooth progressive trancer. The Saints & Sinners Remix is more percussive based and quite hypnotic. The remixes over on disc one are more trance orientated, with the the Airwave Remix being the better of the two (not sure about the words in the breakdown though). If you don't mind commercial sounding vocals then the Liquid Love Remix will be worth playing too. I've not actually got the original versions yet as I haven't got the album, so I can't comment on how different these remixes are.
CDS: Desire
[0134505GAG]
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Released 2002 on Edel Records GmbH. Licensed from Gang Go Music GmbH. Written and produced by Piet Blank, Jaspa Jones and Andy Kaufhold. Addtional remix and production on track 3 by Bart Claessen and on track 4 by Olaf Dieckmann. Taken from the album 'Substance'. The Short Cut is taken from the Original Mix, which is the more commercial sounding of the two main mixes due to very girly backing vocals. The female spoken sample of "desire" is very effective and is put to good use in the superior Bart Claessen Movin' Remix, which retains all the elements of the original (except, thankfully, for the backing vocals) whilst managing to convert this into a charging trance anthem. Another top tune from Blank & Jones.
Note that this CD is copy-protected, so that it cannot be played (and therefore copied) in a computer CD-ROM drive. Hopefully this type of copy-protection will catch on in the near future.
Other Info:
For further information on Blank & Jones see their official web site .
