Diesel Christ: the German synthpop project behind the ‘Diesel Mode’ Depeche Mode tributes
A profile of Diesel Christ, the German synthpop project behind “Diesel Mode”, “Gas Food Lodging”, and the Rotoskop project.
Diesel Christ - 1993 (Restored picture)
Diesel Christ was a German synthpop project built around songwriter and vocalist Tom Berger and a shifting circle of contributors including Klaus Gratzel, Thomas Harder, Chris Karagianidis, Chris Block, and executive producer Alex Sacher. The project released three main records: the Depeche Mode tribute album “Diesel Mode (A Tribute To The Masses)” – and the 4-track single “Walking In My Shoes (I Feel Different)” – in 1993 on Pop Factory!, the original-material CD EP “Gas Food Lodging” in November 1993 on SPV Records, and a second Depeche Mode tribute, “Diesel Mode 97”, in 1997 on Fun Factory!. Half of the project’s original recordings were ironically enough produced by John Fryer, the engineer who had worked on Depeche Mode’s first two albums at Blackwing Studios.
The tribute album appeared only two or three weeks after the original Depeche Mode release. “Songs Of Faith And Devotion” was released on March 22, 1993, while “Diesel Mode” was already in shops around early-to-mid April 1993. The chronology of the covered songs is telling. Of the five Depeche Mode tracks, only “I Feel You” had been publicly available before the album, released as a single in February 1993. “Walking In My Shoes“, “Rush”, “In Your Room”, and “Higher Love” were album tracks that had not yet been released.
Since recording at Principal Studios, mixing, glass mastering at DADC Austria, pressing, and distribution cannot be compressed into the two-to-three-week window , the Diesel Christ recordings were made quite before the original Depeche Mode album reached shops. How the project obtained the material ahead of release is not known, but it is believed they did obtain an early copy of the album ahead of the official release, either via the local Mute office or via befriended press people. Funny enough, Depeche Mode released “Walking In My Shoes” as the album’s second single on April 26, 1993. By that date, the Diesel Christ cover of the song was already recorded and pressed.
How the Diesel Christ synthpop project started
Diesel Christ grew out of Diesel, a German duo consisting of Klaus Gratzel and Thomas Berger. Diesel released one maxi-single, “Nowhereland”, in 1990 on Fun Factory! Records (FUNFAC M-3928), issued on 12″ vinyl and CD in several mixes. The song “Nowhereland” later reappeared on the 1993 Diesel Christ album “Gas Food Lodging”. To make it even more complicated, the project also recorded under the abbreviation D.C.
Diesel Christ would have seven members across the project’s lifespan: Tom Berger, Klaus Gratzel, Thomas Harder, Chris Karagianidis, Chris Block, Alex Sacher, and Robert Enforsen. The 1993 recordings featured Berger (vocals, guitar, main songwriter), Harder (bass, keyboards), and Karagianidis (drums), with Block on guitar and Gratzel contributing as co-writer. Sacher served as executive producer in 1993 and moved into the producer role for the 1997 album with Robert Enforsen on vocals.
‘Diesel Mode (A Tribute To The Masses)’: covering Depeche Mode in real time
“Diesel Mode (A Tribute To The Masses)” was issued in 1993 as a six-track CD album on Pop Factory!, distributed by SPV. The tracklist was as follows:
- “Walking In My Shoes” (4:22)
- “Rush” (2:23)
- “In Your Room” (4:47)
- “I Feel You” (4:05)
- “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” (3:20)
- “Higher Love” (4:26)
Five tracks are Martin L. Gore compositions from Depeche Mode’s 1993 album “Songs Of Faith And Devotion”. The sixth, “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, is a Diesel Christ original written by Tom Berger, produced by John Fryer and remixed by Len Davies. The Depeche Mode covers were produced and mixed by Diesel Christ and Len Davies at Principal Studios.
A 12″ white label EP version appeared on Pop Factory! in Germany, and a Spanish 12″ edition was issued by BOL Records the same year.
The 4-track single “Walking In My Shoes (I Feel Different)” held 4 tracks:
- Walking In My Shoes (Sex Mix) (5:02)
- Walking In My Shoes (Andy F. Mix) (5:34)
- Blue Rain (2:37)
- Walking In My Shoes (7″ Version) (3:19)
‘Gas Food Lodging’: the original Diesel Christ material
“Gas Food Lodging” followed later that year, in November 1993 as an eight-track CD on SPV Records, licensed from Fun Factory!. The tracklist was this one:
- “America” (3:06)
- “Dinosaur” (3:38)
- “Gimme Your Gasoline” (3:32)
- “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” (3:19)
- “Nirvana” (3:16)
- “Nowhereland” (4:02)
- “Dust” (4:08)
- “Dangerous” (4:36)
Tom Berger was the songwriter and vocalist across the album, with Klaus Gratzel holding co-writing credits on “Nirvana” and “Nowhereland”, and Chris Block on “Gimme Your Gasoline”. John Fryer produced four tracks on this album: “America”, “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, “Dust”, and “Dangerous”. The remaining tracks were produced by Diesel Christ themselves with Len Davies. The EP was again recorded and mixed at Principal Studios in Ottmarsbocholt, Germany, and its front cover used James Rosenquist’s 1961 painting “I Love You With My Ford”, licensed from Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
The EP tied the project’s threads together. “Nowhereland” carried the 1990 Diesel single into the Diesel Christ catalogue, and “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” repeated the original track first placed on the tribute album.
In 1995, Diesel Christ also contributed a cover of the Simple Minds track “20th Century Promised Land” to “To Cut A Long Story Short (A Tribute To The Pioneers Of Electronic Pop)”, a compilation on the Swedish label Energy Rekords. And that apparently laid the foundation of the 1997 Swedisch turn of the project.
‘Diesel Mode 97’: new lineup, new Depeche Mode album
Diesel Christ returned with yet another tribute in 1997 with “Diesel Mode 97”, a nine-track CD album on Fun Factory!, with this time a Swedish edition on Energy Rekords. The tracklist:
- “Sister Of Night” (4:37)
- “Freestate” (4:42)
- “Hallelujah” (3:01)
- “Useless” (4:33)
- “Useless Link” (2:33)
- “It’s No Good” (9:21)
- “Barrel Of A Gun” (4:29)
- “The Love Thieves” (2:00)
- “Home” (4:31)
The personnel for this new Diesel Christ album had in the meantime changed almost entirely. Alex Sacher stayed on board and produced the album, Andreas Küchenmeister handled programming, and Robert Enforsen, vocalist of the Swedish synthpop band Elegant Machinery, sang lead. MCP mixed the album, Chazz Harper mastered it at Battery Studios in New York, and Swen Roters painted the cover. Note that an unofficial Russian cassette edition titled “Diesel Mode ’98” appeared on Always Records in 1998.
From Diesel Christ to Rotoskop
Klaus Gratzel, co-founder of Diesel and co-writer on two “Gas Food Lodging” tracks, then started Rotoskop.
Gratzel sent tracks to other artists, who added their voices and helped complete the songs. This process resulted in the 2003 album “Revolution: Lost”. The following years were marked by setbacks, doubts and poor decisions, but Rotoskop still delivered remixes for Apoptygma Berzerk, Sono, De/Vision, Torul and Sea of Sin, among others. In 2021 Rotoskop returned as a recording artist, releasing three EPs with six songs each. The newer material focused on the artist’s own music, voice and personal approach.
Rotoskop debuted on Infacted Recordings with the album “Undo/Redo” on March 8, 2024, followed by “Passive/Aggressive“, also on Infacted.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
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