The non-stop Electronic Cabaret of Billie Ray Martin "To describe Billie Ray Martin's sound as soulful would be an understatement. She has the sort of voice normally unheard outside gospel choirs and churches, unless you're listening to Aretha Franklin or Mahalia Jackson, that is." The Sunday Times Magazine "The singer is Billie Ray Martin and she's one of the living legends in modern music history and one of the best voices on planet earth." DJ HELL "No-one seems to understand that one of the greatest soul voices of the 21st Century belongs to a stroppy white German bird who looks like she should hanging out being bohemian and kooky in a Hoxton Café." Boyz Magazine To anyone with a soul, the return of Billie Ray Martin is long overdue. Where the average soul singer seems content to substitute bluster for raw emotion, Billie's voice taps into and lays bare long-withheld feelings, deep-seated memories, and passions beyond your wildest dreams... Boyz scribe, Jack Hanley once said of Billie Ray Martin, "No-one seems to understand that one of the greatest soul voices of the 21st Century belongs to a stroppy, white German bird." Forming Electribe 101 in 1989, Billie gave dance music fans something to think about. Their first single, "Talking With Myself", rode the crest of the deep house wave with highly individual style. Its striking blend of Billie's oblique, other-worldly vocals and lush electro had critics thumbing their thesauruses ragged, leading to it being unanimously declared one of the finest records of the decade. Two more hits and an album followed, as did a Depeche Mode support tour slot. But, in 1992, Billie left the group to follow her muse at leisure, a muse that has been leading her down progressively more adventurous alleyways since infancy. Billie grew up in Hamburg's red-light district with her working-class grandparents, who bombarded her with Elvis and German schlager music and otherwise worked hard at keeping her away from the hookers and harbour-workers that populated her family and the area they lived in. First demos were made at the tender age of five years old. Her teenage years were taken up by an obsession with the songs of Elton John, which was soon to be discarded for a lifestyle of punk, which she lived to the limit in Hamburg and London. In the early '80s Billie moved to Berlin and had her musical sensibilities tweaked yet again: it was the time of the electronic invasion by bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and the early Human League. Billie's conceptions of music were changed entirely. Equally important, she was consciously encountering the soul music of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Aretha and was riding the Motown and Stax revival wave. The goal became clear: after a fruitful time of musical explorations, during which she formed a number of soul and sixties garage oriented R&B bands (Billie and the Deep, an eleven piece soul band with a garage sound, cleaned up in Berlin in 1985-86), Billie moved to London with one mission: to fuse soul and electronics (the intellectual and the emotional). Her move couldn't have been more timely. The arrival of house from Chicago in the shape of Fingers Inc. and countless other pioneers allowed Billie to discover where her musical future lay. The rest, as they say... Since Electribe's break-up, Billie has not only released two monumentally beautiful records ("Four Ambient Tales" and the thoroughly scary "Persuasion", made with the Grid and Spooky respectively), she has also hit the international biz-jackpot they call the charts with her 1996 smash hit "Your Loving Arms", a Europe-wide number one and a top thirty USA hit, which allowed Billie to tour extensively. The album "Deadline For My Memories" (east west) followed; a collection of soaring, sting-in-tail reflections on the subjects of unrequited love and the bizarre in everyday life. The album explored her vision to create music that is equal parts Kraftwerk and Phil Spector. Enthusiastically received, sold out shows confirmed that she had hit a nerve in a public gasping for something real. The nerve is still throbbing... On the last album, "18 Carat Garbage", released in 2002, Billie once again developed and to a point perfected, her dream of "Memphis meets Deutschland". The basis of the songs was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, with the legendary Hi-musicians and members of Aretha's backing band. The legendary House of Blues Studios became the playground for Billie's unorthodox visions, surprising and amusing the traditionally geared Memphis players. A duet with Billie's favourite singer, soul legend Ann Peebles ("I Can't Stand The Rain") on the album's title song makes the buff's heart jump for joy and a lifetime dream come true for Billie. Experimental electronic sounds were added to each song respectfully and only as the last polish to the (much more than 18 carat) diamond. 2005: Two singles appeared on Billie's new DISCO ACTIVISTO label in 2004: "Dead Again": Concerning itself with the imaginary last words uttered by the King as he contemplates his fate, the song comes in three delicious mixes of the old school of aciiiiiiid and at the same time delivering classic Billie Ray Martin song writing. She seems to have done it again on this release, getting closer and closer to her famed Electribe 101 roots. "No Brakes on my Roller Skates": Thrilling electro-punk fused with an infectious pop sensibility and topped off with vertiginous vocals - the song knows no limits, as Ms. Martin screams "I'm going too fast - I've got no brakes on my roller skates!" The re release in 05 is in the making, with mixes by fierce girl, neimo (paris) and futon (singapore). The Billie-penned (and performed) song "Je Regrette Everything" can be heard on "NY Muscle" (Universal), the new album by DJ Hell of Gigolo records fame, and proved to be the star performance at the album's release extravaganzas in Paris and Berlin last November. Ignore the hype and you're left with a classic BRM drama-fest par excellence. Single release is Feb. 2005. February 05 also sees the release of a song she wrote and recorded with Scottish duo Slam. The track, entitled "Bright Lights Fading", will be their new single. It appears on their album as well and has received rave reviews all around. www.billieraymartin.com www.billieraymartin.com/discoactivisto