Billie Ray Martin

All Music Guide:

Techno diva Billie Ray Martin was born and raised in Hamburg, spending her teen years in London and Berlin; initially influenced by '60s soul and early '80s industrial, during the mid-'80s she led a Motown-inspired soul band dubbed Billie and the Deep, gaining her first exposure on the Berlin club circuit. After moving back to England in 1987, she formed the techno-pop group Electribe 101, scoring a series of club hits including "Talking with Myself." Eventually going solo, Martin debuted in 1995 with Deadline for My Memories; the first single, "Your Loving Arms," not only reached the UK Top Ten but also topped the American club charts, while its follow-up "Running Around Town" fell just shy of the US Top Ten. Martin resurfaced in 1999 with the Crimes & Punishment EP, which was followed two years later by 18 Carat Garbage, her first album released on her own Sonnenstahl imprint.

Wikipedia:

Billie Ray Martin is a German singer known for her elegant voice and avant garde persona.

Career

Billie Ray Martin has had dance and pop hits in various collaborations and as a solo artist. Initially a guest singer for S'Express (she appears in the video for the song "Hey Music Lover"), she went on to work with the electronic/pop/house-music group Electribe 101. The group's only album was Electribal Memories because it disbanded. Many songs recorded for a planned second album made it onto Martin's solo album—these include “Hands up and Amen” and “Running around Town.”

Billie Ray Martin went on to forge her own solo career. Her first single for WEA was the worldwide hit “Your Loving Arms.” Originally the song only managed to peak at #38 in November 1994, however on re-release the song peaked at #6 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1995, the song struck the Billboard Hot 100 twice, peaking at #87 in 1995 and at #46 a year later. The song was also a success across Europe, reaching #1, and remained on European charts for many weeks. It also topped the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Follow-up singles included "Running Around Town," "Deadline for My Memories," "Imitation of Life", "Space Oasis," and "You & I (Keep Holding On)." All six songs are featured on her album Deadline for My Memories. The album was followed by the single "Honey." Originally released in the UK in 1999, it debuted stateside courtesy of Nervous Records four years later. The song peaked at #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play despite sporadic radio airplay. Her UK deal with React Records, the record label that originally released "Honey," included plans for a follow-up, "Don't Believe A Word," but a deal fell through. More encouraging chart success was to be found in Italy with her collaborations with Italian dance producers Datura: "Mystic Motion," "The Passion," and "Devotion."

Since then, Martin worked with Ann Peebles, Carla Thomas, and members of Aretha Franklin's band on her album 18 Carat Garbage, performed her "Repulsion" show (a live score to the Roman Polanski film) at both the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road and at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, and she continues to release electronic music, such as her releases "No Brakes on My Rollerskates" and "Dead Again." In 2005–06 she released collaborations with DJ Hell and Slam.

In 2002, Sonnenstahl Records released the 12-track CD Recycled Garbage, a compilation of remixes of selected tracks from 18 Carat Garbage. Most prominently, the album featured the Junior Vasquez remix of "Systems of Silence," a song that included a quintessential Martin line: "I just want to dance all the way right down to the core of the black and the white."

Another single, "Undisco Me," was released on Rebirth Records in April 2007, and reached #6 in the UK Dance Chart. She also began a second career as a disc jockey. Her current nightclub, Komputerliebe, in Frankfurt (and soon to be launched in Berlin, where she now lives) is flourishing.

In 2008, Martin formed a new project. Recording as the Opiates, she (and Robert Solheim on production) finished an album titled Hollywood under the Knife. The Opiates made its live debut at Rough Trade, Brick Lane, London, in March, to coincide with the group's first release, the "Anatomy of a Plastic Girl" EP, which was releasaed on Kudos UK.