Scooter seems to be constantly re-inventing itself to ensure that it stays up to date with the everchanging world of popular music. Starting out as a happy hardcore rave band, I highly doubt that the guys from Scooter could have possibly imagined the various styles that they would be covering over the course of their musical career. And I positively doubt that they could have imagined arriving at "Lass Uns Tanzen" here, a wicked electro-house monster that will chew up the club dance floors! They must place some of the credit for this new direction with their new band member, Michael Simon, who boasts a heavy house influence.
This single, which is the second off their 2007 album release "The Ultimate Aural Orgasm", starts off with the basic treatment: the harmless Radio Edit. Fostering only one line of lyrics from the normally outrageously wordy H.P. Baxxter, this track is much different than anything Scooter has ever produced before. With a solid (and slightly liquid) electro bassline, this track builds up its momentum as H.P. gives us the line "Lass uns tanzen oder ficken oder beides, denn morgen sind wir tot." This line loosely translates to "Let us dance or f*** or both, because tomorrow we'll be dead." It's classy, is it not? After a wicked climax (and H.P. shouting "DENN MORGEN SIND WIR TOT!", we are force-fed a more straightforward repetitive electro sound, soon accompanied by a siren sample, that really sounds great in a dance club, but also could be enjoyed as you dance alone in a dark bedroom. This process will repeat itself a second time, but the primary instrumental chorus will be later accompanies by a high-pitched beeping that just seems to match the pace and the atmosphere of the tune. Scooter here has proven that it can handle electro-house just as well as any native house-kateer, for this track is raw, powerful, and ready to rip your head off! It's also great as background music when driving down the highway, as I've found.
The Alternative Club Mix is a little bit different, but does not stray excessively far from the original version. Harbouring a slightly different beat (and a slightly less powerful synth overall) at first, eventually it builds up a slightly thicker version of the main electro-chorus, and this is where Scooter has opted to place the vocals, instead of during the build-up. It works, but to be honest, I still prefer the original (radio edit and album version, which are identical except in length).
And then there's the DJ Zany Remix. Those who may know DJ Zany's previous work should anticipate what to expect here; those who have never heard of DJ Zany will come to find a great departure from the original version of this song. DJ Zany is known for hardstyle bangin' tunes, and his remix brings an entirely new structure and melody, only borrowing the vocals from Scooter's version. This song has a rather attractively funky bassline for a while, beginning around the 1:18 after a series of tinkered H.P. vocals. After a while, an oddly unfitting but serene piano aria arrives, but this is soon transformed into a standard hardstyle synth melody that really has no connection to the original "Lass Uns Tanzen". Overall, it's not a bad song, but it's more like a completely different song altogether, reflecting Scooter's version very little.
Scooter has also been kind enough to crank out a B-side for this single, and thankfully they've learned from their mistake from "Apache Rocks The Bottom" and given us a full-fledged song, not just a last minute effort. Te Quiero is a difficult song to categorize, not only because it doesn't feel very much like a Scooter song at all, but also because it's half electro-house driven by an usual analog synth of sorts, while the middle partition (you could call it an extended bridge if you like) could easily qualify as Spanish trance, complete with Spnaish vocals. However, the Scooter piano is present in this portion, so it still has a slight Scooterish edge. However, no matter what it is or is not, I still particularly enjoy this track, even though there does seem to be an imbalance between the two different genres present in this track that don't always sync up stylistically. I can still recommend this track, as it just might get some more toes tapping.
This release also features the music video for "Lass Uns Tanzen" as a bonus multimedia element. The "Night Version" is featured here, which will up the ante on the sexiness, and also remove the annoying coughing noise that the censors placed over the word "ficken" for German television airplay. That's right, a coughing noise -- not a bleep or even just a blank noiseless space. The video is not one of their best in my opinion, but it can still be entertaining. It is set at a masquerade where all the partygoers are wearing masks. The guys from Scooter aren't the main focus; instead, there is more attention paid to the other people there who are drinking and removing undergarments by their own will. Watch out for the singing painting too. You also get a "Making Of" video and some behind the scenes pictures from the video shoot.
This song actually surprised me, and proved that Scooter has the ability to produce music that encompasses a broad range of styles. The other nice thing about this song is that it's an original composition -- they didn't dip other artists' pools of work to dig up anything here, which is something Scooter hasn't appeared to be able to do for a single in years. Kudos to Scooter for trying something new. This song has not been reaching the apex of any dance chart, but it's nice to see Scooter doing something different for a change.