proved to have more than a single note at their -- or perhaps his -- disposal, managing a series of albums and even planning a U.S. tour. German DJ and producer
) had released dance music in his homeland under a number of different aliases during the first half of the 1990s. But he'd become bored with the European music scene and in 1996 transferred his base of operations to Chile in order to begin exploring the possibilities of Latin music, which was, he said, "a pretty much undiscovered planet to me," adding, "It unveils lots of interesting musical worlds to me."
Adopting the ridiculous moniker of
Señor Coconut, he first cooked up
El Gran Baile, a distinctly Latin-flavored groove-a-thon, and did a remix for former
Deee-Lite turntablist
Towa Tei. Then he began to ponder the possibilities of a German-Latin fusion, and found his material in the unlikeliest of places -- the greatest hits of man-machine band
Kraftwerk, best known for their very inhuman, unemotional approach to music (the very opposite of Latin passion). The result was
El Baile Alemán. Although credited to
Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto, it was purely the work of
Schmidt and three vocalists, who took the
Kraftwerk machine ideal and tipped it on its head, putting in programmed cumbia, merengue, and salsa rhythms to flavor the Teutonic stew.
Released as a one-off in 2000,
El Baile Alemánreceived a fair amount of critical acclaim in the U.S., more than
Schmidt had received for any of his other work. In March 2001,
Señor Coconut -- now a real eight-piece band -- were set to undertake a short headlining tour in North America, but visa problems for some of the Chilean musicians forced a cancellation. Two years later, however, the band released
Fiesta Songs, which was followed up in 2005 with
Coconut FM, a collection of Latin club tunes. Their next album,
Yellow Fever, which not only covered songs by
Yellow Magic Orchestra but included all three members as well as other guest artists, came out in 2006. Around the World, released in 2008, expanded the repertoire to include songs from 11 different countries around the world, encompassing everyone from
Daft Punk and
Eurythmics to
Pérez Prado and
Antonio Carlos Jobim.
–
Chris Nickson, Rovi