culture beat - der erdbeermund

this song came to me when i was going through a crate of records that a mate of mine had bought for dirt cheap and asked if i wanted to rummage through. i knew that culture beat had done tracks before the big breakthrough known as "mr. vain", infact i like "no deeper meaning" and have worked it on some euro sets.

most true heads know that torsten fenslau (r.i.p.), the driving force and producer of culture beat (before his untimely death in late '93), had done credible records and really good tracks. most known is abfahrt tracks and it's not-quite-body, not-quite-trance classic "alone (it's me)" and a few other tracks.

i have been given to believe that certain projects were meant for the "underground" and some were for the mainstream and i think culture beat was not meant as underground but this track still shoots for it. it's a track that heads in the know talk about when mentioning fenslau and culture beat.

while i like the track and wouldn't mind playing it out the fact is and it's probably something that's been pointed out before, it's just a re-take on mr. fingers' "can you feel it". the big difference is that the vocal isn't chuck roberts or martin luther king as in larry heard's original, it's klaus kinski.

this track is based around his reading of the paul zech translation of a francois villon's poem (which in german is known as) "ich bin so wild nach deinem erdbeermund". this is intarwebs information since i had no clue on the origins of this one so i don't know the original french title, tried looking it up and i got nowhere.

fingers inc's original came out in '88 and as i wasn't even concious of that track but taken in consideration that the track did get a lot of attention back then and it probably became an insta-classic. maybe that statement is bullshit given the hype that concerns all early chicago and detroit releases but "can you feel it" must have reached this iconic status quite fast given how much it's still is being jizzed over.

fenslau put out his version the following year and saying that he was just remaking a house classic that i want to write seems stupid as even though the original was a hit, he could have easily redone joe smooth's "inside my mind" or whatever. i call this a remake of "can you feel it" but it does have some enought merit grant it to be played and not just be referred as a clone. 

the dark acapella intro in "der erdbeermund" is lovely and sets a nice tone, the groove is really nice and while it does not have the same thump of the bassline or as good of a ride-hat that larry heard worked out it does give the same vibe. fenslau added some own melodies to the table including some plucked keys and a lovely guitar.

as i said it is heavily inspired by "can you feel it" but it does bring new aspects to the table and does them well. i do have to say though that given between the vocal and the instrumental, i'll mostly play the instrumental but i can easily play the vocal.

original vocal: listen here (youtube)

instrumental: listen here (youtube)