Spectators
| Spectators | ||||
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| Studio album from Wolfsheim | ||||
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Publication |
January 29, 1999 |
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| Label (s) |
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Format (s) |
CD, digital |
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Title (number) |
11 (+ bonus tracks) |
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running time |
42:06 (+ bonus tracks) |
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| occupation | ||||
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Studio (s) |
The Factory, Belgium |
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Spectators ( English for, spectators') is the fourth studio album of the German synth pop - duo Wolfsheim .
Creation and artwork
All pieces on the album were written together by the two Wolfsheim members Peter Heppner and Markus Reinhardt. They also produced the album in collaboration with Jose Alvarez-Brill. The album was mastered at Master & Servant in Hamburg , under the direction of Tom Meyer. The album was released under the music labels Metropolis Records and Strange Ways Records and distributed by Indigo . The album was recorded in the recording studio "The Factory" in Belgium .
On the cover of the album - in addition to the artist name and album title - a part of the moon's surface with a view of the earth can be seen. The same cover principle with similar artwork can be found on the single releases Künstliche Welten and Once in a Lifetime . The album also contains a 16-page booklet . The artwork comes from the Graphic Works Ottensen.
Publication and promotion
The first publication of Spectators took place on January 29, 1999 in Germany. In the same year a Europe-wide release followed, as well as a release in the United States in 2001 (under the music label Metropolis Records) and in Russia in 2004. The album should actually be released in Germany a quarter of a year beforehand. In an interview with Laut.de , Heppner revealed that he always wanted to "time" his side projects so that they take place shortly before new Wolfsheim projects in order to support these projects. However, nobody had expected that Heppner's side project with Joachim Witt and the common single Die Flut would develop into such a great success. Wolfsheim wanted to come out with Spectators and Die Flut was still in the German single charts. That was stupid for him and Reinhardt as a band. That's why they postponed the publication of Spectatos for three months. The album consists of eleven new studio recordings. In addition to the regular edition, a “Special Edition” of Spectators was published at the same time . This also includes a second CD with five live recordings. A “Limited Edition” of Spectators was also released at the same time , which also includes the maxi single on Artificial Worlds .
To promote the album, Wolfsheim went on the Spectators Tour 1998/99 shortly before and after the album was released . On August 22, 1999 Wolfsheim played at the Bizarre Festival in Cologne-Ossendorf . The concert was recorded and broadcast as part of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk for the TV program Rockpalast . During the concert, the duo was accompanied by some cellists and violinists . The setlist consisted mostly of past single releases. On the same day, the two Wolfsheim members were also available for a chat on their website. There was also a live performance with Once in a Lifetime on the RTL music show Top of the Pops .
content
The album consists of eleven newly recorded tracks. Nine of the eleven lyrics are in English, one of the lyrics is in German. Musically, the songs move in the realm of dark waves and synth pop . When E is a pure instrumental piece . An EP publication with the title E was planned as early as 1997 , but nothing came of it due to Heppner's illness. In the song Blind Wolfsheim were supported as guitarist by their producer Jose Alvarez-Brill.
The live recordings of the special bonus CD were made during the first part of the Spectators Tour 1998/99 in Essen on October 23, 1998 and Herford on October 24, 1998. Jürgen Jansen made the live recordings. The remix version of Artificial Worlds on the limited bonus CD comes from the collaboration between José Alvarez-Brill and Hubertus Pohlmann. The recording with the Prague Philharmonic took place under the direction of the conductor Mario Klemens. The song F cannot be found on any Wolfsheim album to this day.
| # | title | Author (s) | Producer (s) | length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It's hurting for the first time | Peter Heppner, Markus Reinhardt | Jose Alvarez-Brill, Peter Heppner, Markus Reinhardt | 3:08 |
| 2 | artificial worlds | 3:26 | ||
| 3 | Touch | 4:10 | ||
| 4th | Blind (feat. Jose Alvarez-Brill ) | 3:38 | ||
| 5 | Once in a Lifetime | 3:41 | ||
| 6th | Sleep somehow | 3:13 | ||
| 7th | For you | 3:19 | ||
| 8th | Read the lines | 4:36 | ||
| 9 | I don't love you anymore | 4:23 | ||
| 10 | Heroin, she said | 5:01 | ||
| 11 | E. | 3:26 | ||
| CD 2 (Special Edition) * | ||||
| 1 | A Look into Your Heart (live) | Peter Heppner, Markus Reinhardt | Carlos Perón | 4:03 |
| 2 | Closer Still (live) | Jose Alvarez-Brill, Peter Heppner, Markus Reinhardt | 3:05 | |
| 3 | Leave No Deed Undone (live) | 4:01 | ||
| 4th | A New Starsystem Has Been Explored (live) | 3:45 | ||
| 5 | This Time (live) | Carlos Perón | 3:09 | |
| CD 2 (Limited Edition) * | ||||
| 1 | Artificial Worlds (Radio Edit) | Peter Heppner, Markus Reinhardt | Jose Alvarez-Brill, Peter Heppner, Markus Reinhardt | 3:29 |
| 2 | Artificial Worlds (Praha Edit) (with the Prague Philharmonic ) | 4:28 | ||
| 3 | Artificial Worlds (Club Edit) | 4:17 | ||
| 4th | F. | 3:50 | ||
(*) Producer information for the associated studio versions.
Single releases
Even before the album was officially released, the two singles Once in a Lifetime and It's Hurting for the First Time were released in October and November 1998, respectively . After the album was released, the single Künstliche Welten followed in March 1999. A remix version of Sleep Somehow was released on July 26, 1999 for promotional purposes . For the feature film peas at half past six , the single Blind was released on March 1, 2004 , but in a version without Alvarez-Brill. With the exception of the promo sound carrier, all four official singles made it into the German single charts.
Chart successes in the single charts
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, , Placements, weeks, awards, comments) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
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 AT
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 CH
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| 1998 | Once in a Lifetime |
DE23 (16 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: October 16, 1998
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| It's hurting for the first time |
DE66 (6 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: November 30, 1998
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| 1999 | artificial worlds |
DE66 (7 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: March 26, 1999
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| 2004 | Blind 2004 |
DE53 (9 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: March 1, 2004
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Spectators tour
| Presentation album | Spectators |
|---|---|
| Beginning of the tour | October 23, 1998 |
| End of the tour | March 10, 1999 |
| Total concerts (by country) |
Germany
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| Concerts in total | 17th |
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Dreaming Apes Tour 1996 (1996) |
Spectators Tour 1998/99 |
Casting Shadows Tour 2003 (2003) |
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The following list contains all concerts in chronological order that Wolfsheim played on the Spectators Tour 1998/99 . The tour lasted from October 23, 1998 to March 10, 1999 and took them through a total of 17 German cities.
| date | city | Venue | country |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 23, 1998 | eat | Carl colliery |
Germany
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| October 24, 1998 | Herford | kick | |
| October 25, 1998 | Ludwigshafen am Rhein | Colloseum | |
| October 27, 1998 | Hamburg | Gruenspan | |
| October 28, 1998 | Halle (Saale) | Easy Shorre | |
| October 30, 1998 | Chemnitz | power plant | |
| October 31, 1998 | cottbus | Glad House | |
| November 1, 1998 | Jena | Kassablanca | |
| November 3, 1998 | Nuremberg | deer | |
| November 4, 1998 | eat | Karl colliery | |
| March 2, 1999 | Nuremberg | deer | |
| March 3, 1999 | Cologne-Ehrenfeld | Live music hall | |
| March 5, 1999 | Hildesheim | Four linden trees | |
| March 6, 1999 | Dresden-Leipzig suburb | Old slaughterhouse | |
| March 7, 1999 | Berlin | arena | |
| March 9, 1999 | Magdeburg | AMO culture and congress center | |
| March 10, 1999 | Bremen | Modern |
Contributors
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Album production
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Companies
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reception
Reviews
The American music portal Allmusic rated the album with 4.5 / 5 stars and the reason: "Smooth and sexy, Wolfsheim's mix of bittersweet electronic harmonies and intense vocal style pave the way for lyrics which serve more than the melody. […] From track to track, Wolfsheim go from strength to strength. The dancefloor beats of Once in a Lifetime contrast with the reflective romance of Künstliche Welten , with tracks like Read the Lines giving a jovial relief from the gravity of the rest of the album. The new romatic characteristics have received from Wolfsheim's The Sparrows and the Nightingales days, and what remains is a sound that is more intense than before. Spectators has a wider appeal than synth pop fans, and fans of gothic and related genres of music are also bound to find something in this release. "
The German-language online magazine laut.de awarded 3/5 stars. Michael Schuh from the editorial team assessed the album in the following words: In summary, the album contains melancholy synth-pop paired with a melancholy voice. Spectators is more pop-oriented - “more suitable for the masses” - than earlier works, but in no way encourages trends. With artificial worlds , at least one German-language song is traditionally included on the album. Sleep Somehow can be seen as an experiment , as drum'n'bass bonds have not yet found a place in the Wolfsheim cosmos. Heroin, She Said would be pretty industrial and convince with a loud chorus, the rest is just 100% Wolfsheim. Evil tongues may claim that the duo is a decade behind with their “puristic electro sound”. Certainly all of this is not new and only slightly sparkling, but Schuh still prefers that to all the “commercially horny retort bands”, who make the big noise with the cheapest adaptations of earlier hits and let the German charts degenerate into a list of acoustic atrocities.
Charts and chart placements
Spectators reached position two in the album charts in Germany and stayed in the top 10 for five weeks and in the charts for 25 weeks. In Switzerland, the album reached position 41 in the charts in one week. A chart entry in Austria has remained denied to this day. In 1999, Spectators placed 36th in the annual album charts in Germany. It was the first time that an album could place in the annual charts.
For Wolfsheim this is already the third chart success in the German album charts after 55578 and Dreaming Apes , as well as the first in Switzerland. It is her first top 10 success in Germany . To date, none of Wolfsheim's albums has placed higher in the Swiss charts.
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Awards for music sales
In 2004, Spectators in Germany was awarded a gold record by the BVMI ( Bundesverband Musikindustrie ) for over 250,000 units sold. Although the following album, Casting Shadows, was awarded platinum, Spectators is Wolfsheim's best-selling sound carrier to this day due to devaluations of the lending limits for record awards between 1999 and 2002.
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
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| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
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Germany (BVMI)
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 gold
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250,000 |
| All in all |
1 × gold |
250,000 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfsheim - Spectators. discogs.com, accessed August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Wolfsheim - Spectators. musicline.de, accessed on August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Artist Biography by Michael Sutton. allmusic.com, accessed on August 23, 2015 .
- ↑ Markus Brandstetter: I have no idea about dance. laut.de, October 2, 2018, accessed on October 3, 2018 .
- ^ Wolfsheim - Spectators (Limited Edition). discogs.com, accessed August 20, 2015 .
- ↑ News. grimmfrost.de, accessed on April 27, 2017 .
- ↑ 13th Bizarre Festival August 20-22, 1999 Cologne, Butzweiler Hof. rockpalastarchiv.de, accessed on April 27, 2017 .
- ↑ Marco Müller: Wolfsheim Once in a lifetime (top of the tops 1998). youtube.com, March 14, 2019, accessed September 8, 2019 .
- ^ Wolfsheim biography. grimmfrost.de, accessed on April 27, 2017 .
- ↑ Chart sources singles: DE AT CH
- ^ Concerts. grimmfrost.de, accessed on August 13, 2015 .
- ^ Wolfsheim - Spectators / AllMusic Review by Theo Kavadias. allmusic.com, accessed August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Sympathetic synth pop with heavenly melodies. laut.de, accessed on April 26, 2017 .
- ↑ Wolfsheim - Spectators. officialcharts.de, accessed on August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Wolfsheim - Spectators. swisscharts.com, accessed August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Annual album charts 1999. officialcharts.de, accessed on August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Gold / platinum database. musikindustrie.de, accessed on August 13, 2015 .