Paffendorf (DE)

About

Also known as: Paffendrof, Pfaffendorf

Cologne based electronic act Paffendorf built their sound around the kind of driving euro trance that filled dancefloors across Europe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The group, led by producer Ramon Zenker alongside Gottfried Engels and Nicolas Valli, kicked things off in 1998 with their debut single 'Smile' and quickly racked up a string of chart entries in Germany. Their 2000 track 'Where Are You' cracked the German Top 15 and helped launch the album Dance City into the album charts. Zenker was simultaneously steering Fragma, the project behind 'Toca's Miracle', keeping him at the centre of the European dance scene. Their biggest UK moment came when 'Be Cool' hit number 7 on the UK Singles Chart in June 2002, but it's a much later track that gave them an unexpected second life. 'Under My Skin' became a genuine internet meme after a fan video pairing it with anime character Momo from Sumomomo Momomo spread across the Japanese video platform NicoNico Douga and eventually reached Western audiences, where people started calling it the 'Paffendorf Dance'.