See You On the Other Side

January 12, 2006 10:07 AM

Mark Spoon, best known as half of German trance duo Jam & Spoon, was found dead today, apparently of a heart attack at age 41. Jam and Spoon aren't well known in the mainstream, but they almost single handedly invented the dance music genre today known as "Progressive Trance" with their early 90s singles "Stella" and "Age of Love" (Short MP3 samples).
posted by empath (38 comments total)

.
Oddly enough, I heard "Age Of Love" on my iPod this morning on the way into work. I always forget how much I like that record.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 10:22 AM on January 12, 2006

As genres go, progressive trance is no regressive polka.
posted by you just lost the game at 10:24 AM on January 12, 2006

Age of Love is probably best known from being used in the movie "Human Traffic", I think.
posted by empath at 10:24 AM on January 12, 2006

I liked Right in the night. The girl in the the video gave me my first feelings of attraction, shame, and awkwardness.

Sadly I was 20 at the time, though.

I always hated dance music, and the six years Snap were apparently at number one with Rhythm is a Dancer were traumatic for me, but I didn't hate Jam and Spoon at all, not even a bit.
posted by Swandive at 10:26 AM on January 12, 2006

Triptomatic Fairytales 2001 holds many fond wee-hours comedown memories for me. That said,
.
posted by punilux at 10:29 AM on January 12, 2006

2002, dammit
posted by punilux at 10:36 AM on January 12, 2006

Their remix of Moby's Go is something really special (first heard on Nick Warren's Back to Mine CD). This is sad news.
posted by patricio at 10:36 AM on January 12, 2006

.

Stuff like this got me through the dark difficult days of my PhD.

RIP.
posted by lalochezia at 10:44 AM on January 12, 2006

Damn. The Watch Out for Stella mix of the Age of Love was something special. Brings back memories of early-90s Goa ...
posted by carter at 10:51 AM on January 12, 2006

This calls to mind the death of James Stinson, one half of Drexciya (Detroit techno duo), in 2002. He was rather young too, like 33. With a wife and child, if I recall correctly.

Sad.
posted by xmutex at 11:07 AM on January 12, 2006

.
posted by phredhead at 11:08 AM on January 12, 2006

Wow. I liked Tripomatic Fairytales, esp. "Right in the Night", and amazingly, my electronica-averse wife (then girlfriend) loved that song too. I also fondly remember their "Go" remixes, and their dreamy remix of the Pet Shop Boys' "Yesterday, When I Was Mad", from the Disco 2 album.

R.I.P.

(P.S. Can someone explain the significance of this "." business? It strikes me as pretentious and insidery, but maybe that's just me.)
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:12 AM on January 12, 2006

("MetaFilter: It strikes me as pretentious and insidery, but maybe that's just me.")
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:12 AM on January 12, 2006

'.' means speechless, or 'i have no words'.

No disrespect to anyone in this thread at all, but I think it's a bit overused. The only time i'd use it is if i was so dumbstruck by the tragedy of someone's untimely death that I really had nothing to say.
posted by empath at 11:19 AM on January 12, 2006

.
I see it as a point of silence, or a period of reflection.
posted by punilux at 11:22 AM on January 12, 2006

I just don't get making a point of saying that one has nothing to say. *shrug*
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:32 AM on January 12, 2006

Artifice_Eternity: Then think of it of pebbles on the grave, or spades of dirt.

.

Damn. There goes some seriously happy music.
posted by loquacious at 11:59 AM on January 12, 2006

I've always thought that the trite Euro-pop/dance that was popular when we were kids would be the kind of thing that would turn out to be the most nostalgia-inducing to us when we're older - precisely because it formed such a backdrop for a different time, while all the "good" music of that period you would intentionally revisit, thus unintentionally watering down your memory.

Well, I'm not old yet, but Jam & Spoon always seemed to me to be on the middle ground of this equation; they were "90s dance" alright but made actual interesting tunes (to my snobby then-teen ears), and I loved "Right in the Night" and remember it very vividly, even if I haven't heard it in at least five years.

.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 12:09 PM on January 12, 2006

.
posted by wakko at 12:16 PM on January 12, 2006

"Age Of Love" is an uplifting and beautiful dance classic.
RIP.
posted by BillBishop at 12:47 PM on January 12, 2006

Those guys rocked. RIP Spoon.

.
posted by First Post at 1:01 PM on January 12, 2006

Minior nitpick: The Wikipedia says he was 39.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:08 PM on January 12, 2006

"Stuff like this got me through the dark difficult days of my PhD."

Substitute "imprisonment in a concentration camp" for "PhD" and you might be onto something. I know it sounds snarky but I picture someone scratching out a research paper in their own blood on a smuggled in piece of paper whilst humming a catchy tune.
posted by MikeMc at 1:17 PM on January 12, 2006

Substitute "imprisonment in a concentration camp" for "PhD" and you might be onto something.

Too right. Unelss you've survived a tragedy on the scale of the Holocaust or above your difficulties are meaningless and trite.
posted by soiled cowboy at 1:40 PM on January 12, 2006

Wow... eerie. I literally just listened to "Tripomatic Fairytales 2002".
posted by 40 Watt at 1:56 PM on January 12, 2006

"Unelss you've survived a tragedy on the scale of the Holocaust or above your difficulties are meaningless and trite."

I'd say that pretty well sums it up (this doesn't apply to my difficulties just your difficulties).
posted by MikeMc at 1:56 PM on January 12, 2006

.
The tunes live on.
posted by asok at 2:10 PM on January 12, 2006

" scratching out a research paper in their own blood "


The final draft in my own blood? Nooooo!

I only had 5 litres to spare. With corrections, author updates, acknowledgement re-writes, retractions, data smoothing, plagarism and plasma-sales-to-buy-food, I ran out of that shit real quick.

Besides, we didn't get enough iron for our blood to write well. It was a sickly non-congealing maroon rather than a nice thick red. Journal of the American Chemical Society has standards wrt optical density.

Although Tet. Lett. will accept anything except blood of a Tory M.P..

--

PS. They didn't have progressive trance in concentration camps. Just Wagner and happy hardcore.
posted by lalochezia at 3:00 PM on January 12, 2006

Yeah, but they must have had some wicked speed, just look how thin they were.
posted by Joeforking at 3:34 PM on January 12, 2006

damn. well, at least I know how my setlist tomorrow night is going to look.

Odd thing is that just last night I ran across a used copy of 'kaleidoscope', which I almost never see.
posted by geckoinpdx at 3:36 PM on January 12, 2006

They didn't have progressive trance in concentration camps. Just Wagner and happy hardcore

That's why when given a choice between the gas chamber and the discotheque many opted for the gas.

Wow, that was tasteless.
posted by Jawn at 5:04 PM on January 12, 2006

"Progressive Trance"???

"Human Traffic"???

Never heard of any of this stuff. Oh well, might as well follow the crowd:


.
posted by Doohickie at 5:25 PM on January 12, 2006

Comedians: never wow at your own jokes.
posted by dydecker at 5:27 PM on January 12, 2006

What the fuck is "happy hardcore"? That sounds terribly depressing
posted by snoktruix at 7:44 PM on January 12, 2006

Imagine a DOO DOO DOO beat going about 160 bpm with chipmunk-style vocals playing double time on top. Ishkur explains it rather well:

Happy Hardcore is like the spoiled little sibling of the Hardcore family, who got all the breaks, all the looks, all the money, all the chicks and all the successes of life without having to work for it. Just about despised by every other genre, Happy Hardcore is the most popular Hardcore music of all, with its signature chipmunk vocals and silly sing-a-long anthems and shameless hug-a-thon optimism that pisses everyone off to no end. This is the core realm of the candy ravers. Some of the stuff feels so godawfully childish that I feel like a pedophile just listening to it, but it's not all bad.

And dydecker: Damn, that was tasteless. Like Happy Hardcore.
posted by Jawn at 8:52 PM on January 12, 2006

:(
posted by deusdiabolus at 10:32 PM on January 12, 2006

Try as I did, I could never find a place for Jam & Spoon in my record bag. Still, sad news. 41 is too young.
posted by Frasermoo at 1:51 AM on January 13, 2006

No disrespect intended, but “Age of Love” is by Age of Love. Jam & Spoon’s remix of it is great, though.
posted by hilker at 11:15 AM on January 13, 2006