Thomas Schumacher

A respected and popular techno producer and DJ from East Berlin, Thomas Schumacher began his DJ career around 1987, spinning EBM records by the likes of Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, and Skinny Puppy. When he visited the legendary Dorian Gray club in Frankfurt in 1989 he fell in love with Frankfurt techno and began adding records by Der Böse Mann and Konzept to his collection. He then brought the Frankfurt sound to Bremen by hosting his Two Tribes Parties at the Crash and began adding tracks by Detroit's techno legends to his sets. Schumacher and his friend Ilker Yilmaz became the NIP Collective in 1993 when they released the Advanced Structure EP on Pedo Beat Records. Five singles later they went their separate ways with Schumacher reappearing in 1995 on Bremen's Proximate label using the alias Silverstar. A move to the Confused Recordings label found him using the name Elektrochemie LK until 1996 when he signed with Bush Records -- home to another hero, Dave Clarke -- and released his breakthrough single "Ficken?" under his own name. After the successful track he was accepting DJ gig offers from across Europe and working with stage director Andras Friscay who had hired Schumacher and DJ Jens Mahlstedt to score a production of Hamlet in Bonn. His 1998 track "When I Rock" was another huge techno hit and gave the producer the finances to open his own label, Spiel-Zeug Schallplatten. The label released his aggressive debut Electric Ballroom that same year and in 1999 the Japanese label SMEJ compiled some of his 12"s and remixes -- including work for Afrika Bambaataa and Denki Groove -- on the collection Save As: Thomas. His mix series Perlen also debuted in 1999 with Perlen, Vol. 1 on Spiel-Zeug Schallplatten, which would release its own compilation Best Of in 2000. While a second album was promised in 2001, a series of 12"s and mix CDs appeared instead. The sophomore effort, Home, finally arrived in 2006. It was co-produced by Stephan Bodzin who was also collaborating with Schumacher and vocalist Caitlin Devlin for their project Elektrochemie -- no "LK" this time -- signed to Berlin's popular funky house label Get Physical Music. ~ David Jeffries