German techno act that made his name in 1991 with the chart-topping commercial success of the track "Das Boot" based on the theme music to the movie of the same name. The name "U96" is the designation of the U-boat featured in the film. U96 consists of Alex Christensen (frontman and DJ), Ingo Hauss (vocals, instruments and programming), Hayo Panarinfo (instruments and programming) and Helmut Hoinkis (management). Former members are Skadi Lange (1991-1995, vocals and instruments) and Dea-Li (1996 / 1997, vocals). U96 also had some guest singers (Daisy Dee, Carol Bailey, Lia Lane). U96 started in 1991. Their first big hit was Das Boot. Firstly nobody was interessted in releasing the single. But with the help of Alex Christensen's girlfriend at that time the single has been release by Polydor. The record went up to position 1 in the German charts, and stayed there for 16 (!!!) weeks. Other big hits are I Wanna Be A Kennedy (1992), Love Sees No Colour (1993), Love Religion (1994), Club Bizarre (1995), Heaven (1996) and Energie (1998). The style of their first two albums (Das Boot, 1992 and Replugged, 1993) was more in the Techno and Electro style. With the release of their third album (Club Bizarre, 1995) they changed their style completly into the more commercial dance and trance style. In 1998 they tried it again with the in this time popular electro-pop style, but without big success. In 2000 U96 released Das Boot 2001, a remake of the classical Das Boot, but with more vocals and a big remix package (Cosmic Gate, DJ Errik, DJ Mellow-D, Blue Nature, Schiller, Avancada). In this year also their Best Of-Album had been released. It has a nice tracklist, but their biggest hit Das Boot is missing. In 2003 U96 gave their comeback with the single We Call It Love. But it also had no big success. In March 2006 the new single "Vorbei", featured by Ben, was released. U96 now changed their style from Trance / Hands Up to more commercial Pop. On this production there was only Alex Christensen who produced it, so U96 doesn't consist any more of the team Matiz / AC. The new team of U96 consists now of Alex Christensen and Steffen Häfelinger. It's important to note that Alex Christensen, who was U96 frontman for almost 20 years, never sang any classic U96 hits, neither he did any major sound programming or composing. Most male vocals, including "Love Sees No Colour" and "Night In Motion", were done by Ingo Hauss (his recognizable voice also can be heard on certain Boytronic tracks and post-U96 project called "Potemkin").

• published: 11 Nov 2013
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