YOU

As synthesizers grew more popular from the mid-seventies onwards, an increasing number of groups swapped the classic instruments of a rock band for sequencers and synthesizers. Pioneers (and paragons) of this electronically created music included of course Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching et al, who represent the “Berliner Schule” (in contrast to the Düsseldorfer Schule which developed around Kraftwerk and Co.) A hitherto less celebrated, yet outstanding exponent of the Berliner Schule was the Krefeld combo YOU. Udo Hanten and Albin Meskes teamed up with another iconic figure of electronic music, Harald Grosskopf, to issue two fantastic albums as the 1980s began. Without disowning their Berlin role models, YOU nevertheless came up with their own hypnotic mix of sequencer patterns, synthesizer melodies, pulsating drums and sporadic acoustic guitar phrases. Now and again they even ventured into experimental territory. Tracing YOU’s path from the idea of founding a band to the release of their first LP, one encounters a host of illustrious characters from the electronic/Krautrock music scene. Peter Baumann, for example, a member of Tangerine Dream for so many years, who was the first to hear the material played to him by Hanten and his guitarist Uli Weber at his Paragon Studios in Berlin. They also met Harald Grosskopf here, a member of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser’s “Kosmische Kuriere” and former drummer with Klaus Schulze. Großkopf was a member of Manual Göttsching’s Ashra band at the time. Which just leaves sound engineer, the legendary Conny Plank. It was he who suggested that YOU and Grosskopf get together to set up the Spiegeltraum Studio in Krefeld, with Grosskopf supplying the recording gear and Hanten the musical equipment. Grosskopf completed “Synthesist”, his most famous work, before YOU recorded “Electric Day” halfway through 1979. It now appears with four bonus tracks on Bureau B.