The name comes from the well-known movie Das Boot about the German submarine U 96 from the Second World War. The project's first hit Das Boot (1991) is a techno remake of the film's title melody, which had been originally composed by Klaus Doldinger. An album of the same name was also number one in the German charts. This album paved the way for the commercial breakthrough of techno and house artists in Germany.
The experimental follow-up album 'Replugged' was released in 1993, and saw the group embracing the sound of 1980s electropop, ambient sounds and disco, and was likewise commercially successful despite not being necessarily original. It contained top 10 hits such as Love Sees No Colour and Night in Motion, both of which possessed strong 1980s techno-pop melodies in the vein of groups such as the Pet Shop Boys and New Order. In addition, calmer titles such as The One Russian and Without You, could be regarded as forerunners of what is now known as trip-hop.
The third album Club Bizarre was released in 1995 and indicated another change in sound. Club Bizarre mixed the techno-pop influence with fast Euro trance-like sounds throughout the majority of the album. The hit singles from the album were the piano-led Love religion (featuring vocalist Daisy Dee), the title track Club Bizarre with "classical" harmonies (which was reused later by Brooklyn Bounce) and the rave-influenced Movin'.
Motor Music also released Club Bizarre as an Interactive CD-ROM. The audio part of this CD-ROM includes several music tracks and the multimedia part features a discography, interviews with Alex Christensen and a neat little game for Mac OS and Windows PC.
In 1996 the fourth album, 'Heaven' was released. The album had a commercial sound, still containing some electropop influences, but also a number of hi-NRG Eurodance tracks. On this album new singer Dea-Li (Dorothy Lapi) was featured, she participated as vocalist on four titles.
In the following years singles Seven Wonders (1997), Energie (1998), Beweg Dich, Baby (1998) and finally Das Boot 2001 (2000) were released. Instead of a new regular album, U96 released the compilation Best Of 1991 - 2001 with some new songs from unpublished album Rhythm Of Life. Their last song We Call It Love was released in 2003 as a promo single only. They returned to the German Top 30 charts in 2006 with their downtempo hit Vorbei which featured the vocals of guest singer Ben.
Hamburg
Der Kommandant
U96 Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ruder Sieben Grad Backbord
[Ruder Sieben Grad Backbord]
Langsame Fahrt voraus
Beeilung Jungs!
Gruß Herr Kommandant!
Langsame Fahrt voraus!
Beeilung Jungs!
Gruß Herr Kommandant!
Gruß Herr Kommandant!
The lyrics to U96's song "Der Kommandant" are in German, and they tell us about the orders being given on a ship or a submarine. The first two lines say "Langsame Fahrt voraus, Ruder Sieben Grad Backbord" which means "Slowly ahead, seven-degree port rudder". The same lines are repeated twice, emphasising the importance of these orders being carried out effectively.
The next lines "Beeilung Jungs!" means "Hurry up, guys". This signifies the urgency in executing the orders, possibly indicating that the ship or the submarine is engaging in a military operation. The last lines of the song are repeated twice, "Gruß Herr Kommandant!" translating to "Greetings, Captain!" signifying the crew's respect towards the commanding officer.
Line by Line Meaning
Langsame Fahrt voraus
Slowly moving forward
Ruder Sieben Grad Backbord
Turn Seven Degrees to Port
[Ruder Sieben Grad Backbord]
Turn Seven Degrees to Port
Langsame Fahrt voraus
Slowly moving forward
Beeilung Jungs!
Hurry up, guys!
Gruß Herr Kommandant!
Greetings to you, Captain!
Langsame Fahrt voraus!
Slowly moving forward!
Beeilung Jungs!
Hurry up, guys!
Gruß Herr Kommandant!
Greetings to you, Captain!
Gruß Herr Kommandant!
Greetings to you, Captain!
Writer(s): Ingo Hauss, Alex Christensen, Hayo Panarinfo, Helmut Hoinkis Copyright: Hanseatic Musikverlag Gmbh & Co. Kg
Contributed by Isaac D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Marcin Grymuza
Absolutely fantastic! Alex Christensen rules! I have had it on the cassette at the time when U96 "Das Boot" album was released in 1992 and used to play this song on daily basis. From what I remember, the cassette was an illegal copy of the original product and it was the only available possibility in post-communist Poland those days... The album included a lot of great tracks, so it definitely was not just a "one hit wonder".
Could any of German speaking fellows write down the words of combat messages from the beginning of the song? Vielen Dank :-)
dusanmsk
@Baassbooster It is fucking insane when you worship somebody for a decades and then you found that he is only a face of a band. But this is not only Alex's case and it is veeeery typical in showbusiness (let me name Tiesto [Dennis Waakop], or any 90's eurodance project, where frontman/womans bring at most vocals only and all rest of production was done by teams of people behind). Now I am 40, also a producer and I see it from inside. All my dreams fadet out :D
Baassbooster
Alex Christensen was only a frontman and DJ,true production. Quote from DISCOGS: "It's important to note that Alex Christensen, who was U96 frontman for almost 20 years, never sang any classic U96 hits, neither did he do 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) "
Ursula Mayer
They are from the James Bond - Movie: The Spy who loves me. German synchronisation.
Zorak1988
@Marcin Grymuza "Slow ahead!"
"Rudder to 7 degrees starboard!"
"(confirming)Rudder to 7 degrees starboard"
"Slow ahead!"
yelling "Hurry up,boys!"
Demolka007
Dokładka... Stare dobre niemieckie techno :]
Ewa Nowicka
Ooo taaak
Sebastian Kokoszko
2020 still good :)
krisiic1982 shtira
I remember, back in 90ies, we, 14 something kids, used to record real techno tunes from one latvian dance music station , then swaped tapes and tape from my older friend got the Pulp "messiah" and U96 das boot and THIS GEM! That was A huge win!
JJ Garage
NAprawde niezly utwor...