GIRLS UNDER GLASS BIO
The year is 1999 A.D. ... The electro-industrial three-piece Lineup...
Zaphor (Volker Zacharias) - vocals and guitars, Axel
Ermes - guitars and bass, Hauke Harms - Electronics
(live crew Marcus Giltjes -drums, Mark Wheeler and Raj Sen Gupta guitars)
... more than a decades worth of work of the trio know as Girls Uunder Glass!
The alternative scene has changed much over the past decade; more and
more bands have proved that their idea of crossing and melting different
elements in music - from Metal through Electro -Trance to Industrial can be
successful. The Hamburg, Germany based Girls Under Glass are leading
innovators of musical openness and known for their overlapping mixture of
styles since G.U.G's founding in 1986.
After twelve years and nine European releases (1988-1997) - Humus,
Flowers, Positive, Live at Soundgarden, Darius,
Christus, Down in the Park, Exitus, and Crystals and
Stones - Girls Under Glass are still leading representatives of
modern alternative music. This reputation has given G.U.G. members Zacharias
and Ermes the chance to play an important role in the beginning of Cassandra
Complex in 1990.
1997 brought the release of G.U.G.'s Firewalker in Europe which was
considered by the media at the time as the toughest, most aggressive
and uncompromising Girls Under Glass album to date, which continued to
push the band far ahead of its peers in the Electro/Metal/Industrial and Wavescene with their unique multi influence and diverse style.
Now comes the long awaited Girls Under Glass anthology Nightmares - spanning over a decade of work with rare, and unreleased material,cover versions, remixes, and brand new tracks including a dance floor cover version of the seminal John Carpenter title Halloween.
The influence and importance of Germany's Girls Under Glass in the
genre has garnered the attention of fellow countrymen and industrial
giants KMFDM and Die Krupps both whom have remixed G.U.G. tracks that
will be appearing on the first ever Girls Under Glass North American release on Van Richter Records.
Now the year is 2001 and the second and most ever anticipated U.S. release of Girls Under Glass... (one of the most influential Gothic / Darkwave and Industrial bands on the underground scene for the past two decades).
This new compact disc contains the seminal Madonna hit title track
Frozen (Ray of Light) remade in the GUG signature image. Bruno Kramm of
Das Ich offers up a brilliant mix of the song "Wings", and the number
one synth pop band in Europe - Wolfsheim - contributes with their
compelling vocals on the dance track "Grey in Grey". Rounding out this
great Disc is the Firewalker angst single "The Bitter End" Even though
this new release is a mere thirty minutes in length it has six hugely
significant songs on it with contributions from the premiere Artists in
the darkwave,gothic synth pop and industrial genres.
Frozen is a record that can seriously be considered as a more accessible
NIN Broken!
Girls Under Glass goes back to its gothic and darkwave roots with their
latest release entitled "Equilibrium". This album comes with the bonus
Kraftwerk cover version "Radioaktivitat" by the GUG side project Trauma.
Chronology
by Volker Zacharias
- 1986 Girls Under Glass were founded by Thomas Lücke (singer), Hauke
Harms (electronics & keyboards) and Zaphor aka Volker Zacharias
(guitars)
- 1987 first record was recorded: HUMUS For this record Dr. Fluch
joined the band and played the bass guitar.
- 1989 Girls Under Glass supported bands such as Fields Of The
Nephilim, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and were just big stars in the german
gothic-wave-scene. At this point of time the band was playing togther
with two guest musicians (Marcel Zürcher, drummer of Abwärts, Schwansee,
Shanghaid Guts) and Olaf O. (Bassplayer)
- 1989 FLOWERS (second album was recorded). Members: Thomas Lücke
(vocals) Zaphor (guitars) Hauke Harms (keyboards), Axel Ermes
(bassplayer). Axel joined the band and was integrated into the real band-line
up. Axel and Zaphor played at this point of time parrallel in the german
cult band CANCER BARRACK
- 1990 Axel and Zaphor left CANCER BARRACK and concentrated on the
third GUG album. Main singer Thomas Lücke left the band and Zaphor take
over the singers part. Rodney Orpheus of THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX produced the
third GUG album called "Positive" and started a friendship with Zaphor. Zaphor
joined in THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX studio and live-lineup and is still
working together with Rodney these days. This year was really a year of changes
and re-starts. PROJECT PITCHFORK were playing their first Gigs as support
band for the Positive-tour.
- 1992 DARIUS the 4th album was recorded. This is the first record
recorded with a real drummer (Marcus Giltes, ex PINK TURNS BLUE). As a
new guitar player Girls Under Glass welcomed Raj Sen Gupta.
- 1993 CHRISTUS was recorded, also with Raj Sen Gupta plus Markus
Giltjes. For the following tour Raj left the band and Girls Under Glass
were working with Robert Wilcocks of SLEEPING DOGS WAKE & COBALT 60.
- 1995 CRYSTALS & STONES was recorded as a trio again (Zaphor,
Axel, Hauke. The band recorded this record in their new own studio. Die Krupps
did a remix of Die Zeit, which became another big club hit in Germany). For
this record the band was touring with Robert Wilcocks again. Additional drums
on tour were played by Tippi Agogo (musician from Vancouver and close
friend to the Legendary Pink Dots and Skinny Puppy musicians-scene)
- 1997 FIREWALKER was recorded. The hardest record GUG did ever.
Totally inspired by the american industrial metal & electro music scene
such as NIN, KMFDM, Stabbing Westward, Gravity Kills etc. Girls asked ex
KMFDM drummer Rudi Naomi to join the band for the tour. GUG toured together
with Deathline Int´l, an german-american-electroact.
- 1999 The seminal anthology record "Nightmares" and the first ever U.S.
release was made. The record includes the biggest hits of GUG's career as well as out of print and new unreleased tracks including a remake of the classic track "Halloween" by John Carpenter.
- 2001 The strongest GUG material ever which includes the Madonna cover
version, Das Ich remix and Wolfsheim vocals track on "Grey in Grey".
- 2006 Equilibrium is released which the press deem- a seminal Gothic masterpiece. Also includes hidden and rare out of print tracks from the GUG side project Trauma Fractal I
Side-Projects and relatives:
- Trauma (Hauke Harms and Zaphor) were founded 1993. Releases: Fractal 1 (93), Construct (95), Phase III (99)
- Cassandra Complex (Zaphor joined the band 1990 and is still playing with them)
- Cancer Barrack (close friends of GUG, Zaphor was singer of Cancer Barrack from 1989-1990, Axel was founding member of Cancer Barrack and leftthe band 1990)
- REC a one-off project founded by Peter Spilles of PROJECT PITCHFORK and York Eysel of LOVE LIKE BLOOD (Axel and Zaphor playing several instruments on several songs)
- STILL SILENT (Mindy Kumbaleks project. MINDY is keyboard player of GOETHES ERBEN, theatre music act, cult in germany. Zaphor playing guitar on several tracks. Musicians from many german bands join in the project NEFKOM (Axels project together with Markus Reinhard of WOLFSHEIM.
- 100% electronic music, inspired by Kraftwerk). Founded in 1995, two records Traum-B (Axels and Haukes Goa, PsychedelicTrance-Project) founded in 1998, compilations and live gigs. No album out so far.
- NEUSTART followupband of NEFKOM together with STALIN singer Christoph. Crazy, weird music with even weirder lyrics that would definitely be on censorshiplist in the USA.
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