Jam & Spoon

Heralded among the pioneers of trance, the Frankfurt, Germany-based duo of producer Jam El Mar and Mark Spoon (aka Markus Loeffel) made an enormous impact in 1992 with their groundbreaking remix of the self-titled single by Age of Love. After the first Jam & Spoon EP, Tales from a Danceographic Ocean -- which contained their influential hit "Stella" -- they unleashed a barrage of remixed material for Moby ("Go"), Frankie Goes to Hollywood ("Relax"), Deep Forest, and others, all to massive club play; the single "Right in the Night (Fall in Love with Music)" followed in 1993, the first of several of the duo's recordings to feature the American-born vocalist Plavka. That same year, Jam & Spoon issued their full-length debut LP, the two-volume Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 and 2002, which saw a move away from the pile-driving beats of earlier efforts toward a more commercial sound. In 1996, the pair returned with Disco 2001, a happy hardcore/Euro-dance album recorded under the alias Tokyo Ghetto Pussy. Though the next Jam & Spoon LP, 1997's Kaleidoscope, didn't cause much of a splash, a remix of "Stella" became a worldwide club hit in 1999. The duo's trance alias Storm released the album Stormjunkie in 2000. Tripomatic Fairytales 3003, the final Jam & Spoon album, appeared in 2004. Loeffel died of a heart attack in his Berlin flat on January 11, 2006; he was 39 years old. Several Jam & Spoon compilations and remixes have appeared since, and Jam El Mar remains active as a solo producer. ~ Jason Ankeny