The sound of the Frank Popp Ensemble is special, if not even unique. Modern musical production and pop-appeal with musical styles from the years 1960 till 1972 are combined, like Northern Soul, R&B, Garage Rock, Sampladelica, (Freak)Beat und Soundtracks. The passion for exactly this sound already obsesses Mr Popp for more than half of his life. For several years now, he is travelling nearly every weekend through the Clubs of the world, playing his rare vinyl records. Weekdays he applies himself to work for the Frank Popp Ensemble at the studio, which mostly takes places in a small circle. At concerts, the Frank Popp Ensemble?s live-band transforms the prevailing computer-generated recordings into live music.
The band?s core consists of:
Sam Leigh-Brown (vocals) Frank Popp (Farfisa Organ & samples), Stephan Mohr (Hammond Organ & Fender Rhodes), Lele Lugosi (Lead Guitar), Freddy Rococo (Rhythm Guitar), Tino Turner (Bass Guitar) Adam Kroll (Drums); now and then the line-up is enlarged with a horn section... Frank Popp, actually a graphic designer, shaped all flyers, posters and discs? covers for Unique Records and Unique Club during and after his study. After buying his first computer in 1999, he started to experiment with sequencers and the first track HIGH VOLTAGE uprises, which fancied the Unique labelmakers promptly. Short time later, it comes to the production of the first sixties-soul-song for the Frank Popp Ensemble: THE CATWALK. This is where Popp lets samples and computers collide with winds, Hammond Organ and vocals for the first time. The CATWALK EP appears in the year 2000 on Unique Records and directly achieves the first sales prosperities, particularly in Japan, England and Italy. Popp?s first song HIGH VOLTAGE is subsequently discovered by Warner Brothers Los Angeles and requested for the US cinema-blockbuster "Operation Swordfish" with John Travolta and Halle Berry. The title later finds place in the movie for plenteous 90 seconds. 2001 the second single "Hip Teens Don't Wear Blue Jeans" shall follow, which, after huge acceptance in the DJ- and Clubscene (No.1 of the DCC) , also reaches great radio airplay nationwide. Shortly after that, Unique Records releases the album "Ride On" for the first time, a pick ?n? mix of extraordinary songs, of which the ideas partly are transformed by Frank Popp himself, partly in complex studio sessions with various musicians from the Unique surroundings, as for example J?rgen Dahmen (Harald Schmidt Show Band), Dave Anderson or singer Sam Leigh-Brown, who composed nearly all of the vocal tracks in cooperation with Frank Popp. link:www.frankpoppensemble.de
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