Hardfloor

Acid, House and Techno changed the landscape of the German music scene ever since the end of the eighties. Producer Ramon Zenker (born 11.11.1969) and DJ Oliver Bondzio (born 7.29.1976) were ahead of this new movement right from the start. In 1991 they formed Hardfloor and had their first success with the release "Once Again Back/Drug Overlord" on the well-known label Eye Q.
Only a few months later Hardfloor released their "Hardtrance Acperience EP" on Sven Väth 's cult status label Harthouse. This EP made them famous for their innovative sound far beyond European boundaries, the song "Acperience 1", which even made its way into the UK charts, is still one of the milestones of Techno culture.

Only one year later the first long player "TB Resuscitation" was released, followed by other great and successful Albums such as "Respect" (1994), "Homerun" (1996), "Best of Hardfloor" (1997) and "All Targets Down" (1998).

In 1998 the popular label K7 released their tenth X-Mix-Compilation called "Jack The Box", for which K7 managed to persuade Hardfloor to do the track listing and mixing of this album. On this compilation Oliver and Ramon present tracks that have influenced them the most, especially sound wise. This sound is called Acid House and the instrument that immediately comes to mind is the TB 303 built by Roland. The TB 303 is the centre of the Hardfloor sound, but break beats and Trip-Hop elements spice up the audio experience of Hardfloor, finally resulting in the side-project called: "dadamnphreaknoizephunk".
Hardfloor also managed to gather a huge fan base in the land of the rising sun. They had their first gig in Japan in 1994 and ever since Ramon and Oliver keep on returning every year to celebrate with one of the most enthusiastic audiences of the world. As a special "thanks" for the Japanese fans Hardfloor often release Bonus Tracks, not available in other countries. They also remixed tracks for many Japanese artists and contributed a track for play station-game: "Ghost In The Shell". Of course, many other states all over the world are glad to welcome Hardfloor in their clubs. Australia, the USA, you name it. Oliver and Ramon played the big festivals: Tribal Gathering (gb), Universe (gb), Arivika (SWE), Mayday (D), Time Warp (D), Nature One (D) and Quart Festival (NOR).

Apart from working as producers Hardfloor are very requested remixers for International pop acts like Depeche Mode, Mike Oldfield, New Order, Human League, Mory Kante and Anne Clark, as well as more underground style Techno acts like Robert Armani, Secret Cinema, A Guy Called Gerald or the Rising High Collective.

After a slightly longer break in which Oliver and Ramon produced the two "Dadamnphreaknoizphunk" albums "Take Off Da Hot Sweater" and "Lost & Found", hardfloor founded their own label in 2003 www.hardfloor.de. Here they released a coupleof 12"-Vinyl and in 2005 their 6th album "4 Out Of 5 Aliens Recommend This".
Parallel to its release the album was presented in live-shows worldwide.

HF began the year 2006 with their second mix-CD. To the 15th anniversary of HMV Japan they chose tracks from their early career surrounded by mostly German Acid numbers from the early 90s.
After some more 12"-releases ,the new Versus-Series launched in December 2006 (starting with the 12" HF009 Rob Acid "Blueprint" vs Hardfloor "Hitchhiker Habits" and follows by Andresandreas "707" vs Hardfloor "it's him, it's him")
September 2007 they will release the brand new album "The Life We Choose". The style of the album can be described as typically Hardfloor, which could nearly be called a genre of its own. The duo's last album was inspired by 80s Acid from Chicago, and now Hardfloor returned to their own roots in the midst 90s combined with influences of Dadamnphreaknoizphunk,Oliver and Ramon's side-project (melodic 303 lines!).
Under the category Acid, you will find 9 brandnew tracks, for instance the technoid "...Me, three", to the dark "It's Ok" and the electro inspired "The Life We Choose". The album also contains club burners like "The Trill Acid Theme" and "Who You Gonna Call?". The tempos of the tracks vary from 117 to 132 bpm except for one Downbeat-Acid-Track.