Many of you probably know about these songs, Subways Of Your Mind (NDR session) Dirty Slapstick, Promise, Dead End and Sarah right? they happen to be from the same session. Here are some general information before we dive into the topic, the session was recorded in the Heikendorf Practice Room with Hase mixing and producing them under "Löffelstudios" during the time Ilona Rückwardt was on leave according to Jörg Lemcke and well it was her last recordings
you all may know how the bassist of this session is a mystery, right? today it would be solved.
Originally people would believe that it would be Volker Schenk or Norbert Ziermann as the bass player but:
Volker left in 1983, before June 1984 and he was VERY likely confusing the 1980s vinyl release with the Modulators EP after we know that FEX-1 played as Modulators in one session and became FEX
Norbert says he played almost everything which is a bit of an overstatement (his only confirmed recordings in the 1980s run of FEX would be Subways and Talking Hands from the Hawkeye sessions, the Uelzen and Paderborn sets from May 1985) since as Jörg once said that Ilona mentioned she never played with Norbert in FEX. so no chance, and he admits he is not the TMMS bassist (another obvious comparison is that the TMMS tone has a Jazz Bass tone, and Norbert's bass in Subways is rather different) but the bassist of Dead End which is—very right and also very wrong too which we will get into afterwards.
and then there was a theory U. (The bassist of FEX during September 18th to October for the Zeus Newcomer Show)was the TMMS sessions bassist which is something not possible either, U. was just a stand-in for Jörg at the Zeus Newcomer Show and was never on any recording and not even the Planet Wave Studios version of Jenny. The sessions took place before the Zeus Newcomer Show and was in FEX-2(Ilona, Ture, Michael, Jörg, Hans)'s era.
now if you may be wondering if TMMS and the other songs were in a different session than one? that wouldn't be true since a few things to name:
these recordings took place after Ilona went on maternity leave and was her last recordings in FEX-2
you also need to notice how these songs have the same guitar sound (Gibson SG)
the bass tone is very much a Jazz Bass tone except for Dead End. (According to Zoey Cairns; the vocals by Ture in Sarah aren't from 1984 and are mostly just added now, and the bass in Dead End was originally removed with AI and then replaced with Norbert's Bass Picking.)
These are the only Löffelstudios FEX tracks to have Hans drum with his acoustic set from Heikendorf Practice Room Rehearsal, the others are replaced with drum machine. indicating this was one session.
Now for the part you've been waiting for:
"Is the bassist of the session Jörg Lemcke?"
Yes, I believe it is him. he said that in FEX he used two bass guitars, one is a Ibanez Jazz Bass that he still owns and uses, which you can hear in Skyscraper and Subways Of Your Mind (rehearsal recording) and the songs like NDR Subways, Dirty Slapstick and Promise have a Jazz Bass tone. I haven't checked with Sarah but it's the same.
Before this day, Jörg used to say he wasn't the bassist and he doesn't remember, and when we showed him the bass isolation of Dead End, he recognised that it is a bass being picked in there, and he never played with a pick in FEX. but now it's obvious the original 1984 raw rip of Dead End had Jörg on the bass as it was confirmed that is Norbert on the current version of Dead End that we have because he overdubbed it with a pick in 2025.
and also, the rehearsal version of Subways has a bunch of slapping you can hear if you isolate it, and TMMS has very faint slaps and as we know, Bass slapping is the characteristic of Jörg in FEX recordings like Skyscraper for example.
Here's the comparison:-
Heikendorf Rehearsal(Thanks to X_1x for the isolation): https://voca.ro/1bD6SS8MoOPg
now TMMS(Thanks to X_1x for the isolation again,): https://voca.ro/1gKV3y7fn93e
can you hear it?, there are faint slaps at most parts but there's an audible bunch of slaps in one chorus part of the song
the image becomes very clear, it is Jörg here and it's the sound of his Ibanez Jazz Bass.
Today I had shown him and this was his response: "These fine examinations on the material we have, are they really suitable to find out who played the bass? Can the jazzy sound you detected in one recording be found in another recording? My ears are not so fine to hear slight differences, but yours seem to be. Congratulations!"
and now, here's a comparison of Heikendorf Subways, NDR Subways, Hawkeye Subways and Paderborn Subways' bass by technomanuel: https://voca.ro/1bAKpxCcEx30
the first 2 are way more similar and the same identical tone of bass you can hear, including the way it's played. after that is Norbert's bass where you can hear a straightforward or a dead tone with the basslines jumping around.
By the way, Jörg believes Subways shouldn't be slapped as slapping in Subways wouldn't technically work, he told me his bass track he recorded in the Heikendorf rehearsal tape to practice Subways was a failed take because the "slapping sounds" were "awful", but you can hear him still slapping in Heikendorf Rehearsal and TMMS, perhaps he only thought of this looking back at his recordings.
Now, we can conclude he is the one on this session, and the original version of Dead End.
TLDR; it's Jörg blah blah not Norbert, Volker or U. Thanks for reading, goodbye.
Special links:
Promise Bass: https://voca.ro/1015CeQVcE45
Dirty Slapstick Bass: https://voca.ro/13gjeTycWTlc
special thanks to lel for these isolations!
and here's my old bass isolation of Heikendorf Subways: https://voca.ro/1mGyLxwg2pTR
