It all started out in 1989 when he asked American rapper Jay Supreme
and German singer Lana E. to join Culture Beat. Their first
hit was called "Der Erdbeermund", which actually means
"Strawberry Lips", but which they decided to translate into
"Cherry Lips". But the real breakthrough came with the songs
"I Like You" and especially with "No
Deeper Meaning", which went top 5 in several European countries.
These singles were all taken from their debut album "Horizon".
In 1993 the new Culture Beat was presented to the world. Lana had left and her place was filled
by Britain's Tania Evans. Jay and Tania proved to be a
winning combination, because the new single "Mr. Vain" went to
number 1 in more than 10 countries, selling over 4.5 million worldwide.
Following in the footsteps of "Mr. Vain", "Get To Get It", "Anything" and "World In Your Hands" all became megasellers. All these songs were taken from "Serenity", their second album.
Just before the videoshoot of "Anything" Torsten Fenslau got killed in a car accident. The big question was of course: "Will Culture Beat continue without their founder and producer?
The release of "Anything" was postponed for a little while, but after a couple of weeks it finally hit the stores... In The Netherlands, it looked like this single wouldn't be as successful as it's predecessors... But after a couple of weeks of lingering in the lower regions of the Dutch charts, it went into overdrive and reached the top 10, peaking at no. 4!!
It looked like Culture Beat had gotten over the loss of their producer; this was backed by the
big international success of the 4th single "World In Your
Hands". "World In Your Hands" was follwed by the
release of a remix album was released.
To back the release of this album, a video was shot for "Adelante", which can also be found on the Serenity album. The video mix is an edit of this album version, and it is the only Culture Beat single as far as I know to only feature Jay Supreme. The video, which was shot in black and white, could be seen on MTV a couple of times in late 1994/early 1995. "Adelante" was also released on 12" vinyl especially for the DJ's, who supported Culture Beat throughout the years. The mixes on this 12" release are the same mixes as the ones on the remix album.
After the remix album it all got a little quiet around Culture Beat. Would they make a new album? Well, I'm glad to tell you they did! Frank Fenslau, Torsten's younger brother, took over as the big man behind Culture Beat.
Frank was assisted by 5 producingteams, who all contributed some songs for the new album "Inside Out", which was released at the end of 1995, exactly 2 years after Torsten's terrible accident!
The first single taken from the album was the titletrack and it proved that Tania and Jay were back to claim back their place as one of the world's leading dance-acts. It went on to be a huge European chartbuster!
"Crying In The Rain", "Take Me
Away" and "Walk The Same Line" are the titles of
the other traxx released from "Inside Out". Each one of
them is a very danceable eurodance song, which stays in your mind after the first time you've
heard it! The cd-maxi single of "Walk The Same Line" featured
a CD-ROM bonus part with loads of information about Culture Beat.
In 1996 Culture Beat contributed one song to the "Queen Dance Traxx Vol. 1 CD". This CD contains covers of Queen redone by dance-acts like Mr. President, Scatman John, Blossom and Magic Affair.
The cover Culture Beat did was the song "Under Pressure". They did a great job on remixing the old Queen song and turning it into a true Culture Beat song! "Under Pressure" is also the last track with Tania Evans.
I formerly wrote that the reason Tania left Culture Beat was that she decided, that she was finally ready for a solo career... This appears to be untrue. Frank Fenslau send me an e-mail after reading this biography and he put things straight.... The producers thought it was time for Tania to leave the group... Well, I guess this clears up everything.
So far, Tania has released one single, which hit the stores in the summer of 1997! This track is called "Prisoner Of Love (La Da Di)" and fortunately for us she has decided to stick to the dancesound which made Culture Beat famous!
Kim Sanders, who's been successful with her solo hits
"Show Me", "Tell Me That You Want
Me" and "Ride", will be the replacement of Tania.
(It's nice to mention that the tracks "Show Me" and
"Tell Me That You Want Me" were both covered by Le Click.)
Kim has worked with the same producers as Culture Beat and she even co-wrote "Worth The Wait", a track on the 'Inside Out' album. If you listen carefully you can also hear her on this track! She is the one who sings '...Friend...'. So it's not really a big surprise to see her join the group.
16th Of Februari 1998... It's time for the new Culture Beat single to hit the stores.... "Pay No Mind" will hit the stores in Germany and in the Netherlands. This single which has a nice beat to it, is slightly reminiscent of "Inside Out", you can finally hear Kim Sanders as the new frontperson for Culture Beat. Jay Supreme has also left, so this really is a new start for Culture Beat.
Four days later the new album "Metamorphosis" can be heard
on the new official Culture Beat site at www.culture-beat.com.
The new album will be officially released in Spring together with the second single taken from
that album!!!!
About the new album Frank Fenslau wrote to me: "...I leave up to you, to decide whether we went too much in to a europop direction or not ... But I can ensure you, our new album "Metamorphosis", which will be released with the second single this spring, is nothing like the La Bouche album..."
"Metamorphosis"... an interesting title. This new album was created under special circumstances. It can be considered as a creative happening as the result of a change of way of thinking. 'Metamorphosis' stands for Culture Beat's ability to adapt to different surroundings and musical styles. Frank Fenslau stated in an interview that it would be easier to NOT change the winning Culture Beat concept of a male rapper and a female singer. But it was crystal clear from the beginning that he sought something new for Culture Beat.
Culture Beat are known as trendsetters in the dance scene and the powerfull engine of the dance-scene, so it was more than obvious to him that the new Culture Beat album would be the beginning of a new era of innovating popular music.
Culture Beat, who were known for their upbeat male/female dance tunes, now sounds more mature
because of the multiple and vibrant songstructures. This change of music style lead to another
major change. Tania and Jay leaving Culture Beat was part of the metamorphosis... because of the
new sound, a new line-up seemed more than appropriate.
The search for a new vocalist didn't take long. Kim Sanders, who had her first hitsingle "Show Me" on Torsten Fenslau's Abfahrt-label, was the logical choice as the new CB vocalist. She kind of has the feeling that the circle's complete and that she's back where she belongs. She owes so much to Torsten and she's proud to be a part of Culture Beat.
You may think that there will not be any rap parts on "Metamorphosis" since Jay has left... but the truth is that there are two songs which do contain raps!!! You can hear rapper N'XT UP on the songs "Pray For Redemption" and "Language Of Love", which by the way is a production of the U96 producer team and Peter "Serenity" Zweier!!
The new album is again produced by the many producerteams of for instance Peter Graber, Perky Park, Nino Tielman and Frank Bulow. One name of the second Culture Beat album "Serenity", which is also the most successfull CB album, returns... Peter Zweier is back and has worked on the new album too! Culture Beat stands for teamwork. Teamwork of so many people to make it one of the best dance acts in the world.
Kim Sanders co-wrote many songs on the new
album, which contains 12 new tracks including "Pay No Mind". She has put many personal
experiences in the songs. Nothing is fictional. Kim certainly adds to the positive way of
thinking which Culture Beat stands for. Never give up, stay positive and you can achieve what you
want.
Culture Beat were known for their fierce hooklines which could be heard right from the start of their songs, just listen to "Mr. Vain", "Anything" or "Inside Out". One part of the 'metamorphosis' is that the melodie/hooklines in the new songs come at a later stage in their songs, and not straight away from the beginning. The new Culture Beat sound invites for you listen to the songs more often and even want to hear more of it. It builds up the tension and then after two or three passages the melody finally shows it's face.
All tracks on the new album are the product of a high amount of time, energy and pain. This means that "Metamorphosis" isn't an album build around three or four hit-singles, but it means that all tracks are a fundamental part of the new album. "Metamorphosis" is an album which sees Culture Beat back at their rightfull place of innovators and leaders of the dance and popscene.
After "Pay No Mind" came "Rendez-Vous", which was done in the same style as it's predecessor. The remixes were absolutely stunning... like the Superstring remix...
October '98 saw the release of already the third single of the new album and it's the song "You Belong"... will this song be able to bring them the huge success they had in the past? Because the previous 2 singles sure didn't have the impact that they expected...
2000 will be the year that the new Culture Beat album will be released. Frank Fenslau stated that they have been working on the new album for a while now. So we can expect new material in 2000. Will Kim still be with Culture Beat? What kind of style will they follow? Who knows...
February 2001. Rumour has it that Culture Beat will be back within weeks with a new song in which they will go back to their eurodance roots. This rumour also confirms that Kim Sanders has left Culture Beat more than a year ago. What's new is the name of the new female vocalist "Jackie Sangster". So Frank.. if you're reading this... please help us out... can you confirm these rumours?
And yes... Abfahrt Records have comfirmed that the new Culture Beat album is finished!! There are 15 new tracks which are bound to keep us dancing... The new vocalist is indeed Jackie Sangster and she has previously worked with ex-T-Spoon rapper Shamrock on a song called "Superflysexylove"!
Culture Beat are now trying to get a deal with a new recordcompany to release the new single...
Yippie! They're back!:)