Billie Ray Martin

"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

"Billie Ray Martin is an absolute revelation."
Ken Hollings, The Wire

"She’s one of the most intelligent, unique and principled artists to have graced the charts.”
Stewart Who, QX

www.billieraymartin.com



Billie Ray Martin describes herself as “a kid from Hamburg’s red-light district, who wanted to be a soul singer, but ended up playing repetitive machine music, while still trying to be a soul singer".

Dubbed the "queen of electronic soul", Billie first came to prominence as a guest with S-Express before leading the acclaimed deep house act Electribe 101, her unique voice hitting both the house scene and charts with a strong infusion of soul. Electribe 101 scored a brace of top twenty hits including the classic Talking With Myself and the album Electribal Memories, attracting worldwide acclaim, before Billie departed to continue exploring other fusions of electronic music, pop and soul.

After releasing the thoroughly scary Persuasion with Spooky and the monumentally beautiful Four Ambient Tales with The Grid, Billie found herself with a worldwide number 1 in Your Loving Arms on East West Records; now considered one of the all-time classics of dance music. Four more top 30 hits and the album Deadline for My Memories followed. The album explored her vision to create music that draws equally on electronic beats and classic soul as influences, and allowed Billie to tour extensively.

She realised a dream by travelling to Memphis to work with Ann Peebles, Carla Thomas and members of Aretha Franklin's band on her next album 18 Carat Garbage. Having recorded tapes worth of soul recordings influenced by the Hi-sound, Billie returned to Europe to add heavy breaks and electronics to the final mix. She followed this with a series of cutting edge electronic productions, including hit collaborations with DJ Hell and Slam and solo releases such as 2008's Moroder-fest Undisco Me which hit the top spots in the UK and US dance charts.

The Crackdown Project released in 2010, featuring Billie‘s takes on Cabaret Voltaire‘s landmark Crackdown album, reinforced her unique position as an artist who appeals to both the uber-cool mags like Flux and The Wire as well as the pop mainstream, achieving 'Song of the Day' status at Popjustice. 15,000 downloads in a matter of days, plus overwhelming press and DJ support made this an unexpected success.

2011 began with the solo single Sweet Suburban Disco, Billie’s tounge-in-cheek take on Italo disco, followed by a collaboration with Hard Ton on the Sold Life E.P., taking her back to her house beginnings and Electribe 101 roots.

2011 also saw the arrival of The Opiates – a project with Norwegian musician Robert Solheim. Their unique brand of electronic music is not readily categorised, but combines a rare match of songwriting with gentle electronic sounds. The Rainy Days & Remixes E.P., served as a prelude to their eagerly awaited full-length album Hollywood Under The Knife released in October. Each song on the album is about another tortured diva, Hollywood actress, failed star... in search of identity, gender and a life beyond isolation. Turner-prize winner Wolfgang Tillmans, who had twice photographed Billie and selected her as ‘most influential woman’ in i-D Magazine, supplied nine previously unseen images for the cover art and booklet.

The album met with support from DJs, press and blogs alike including a four star review in Metro and many ‘album of the year’ entries in major publications. Eight music videos and a UK tour, including a gig at HMV Oxford Street, played their part in gaining The Opiates a growing fan community. A deluxe double CD remix collection entitled Hollywood Cuts was released in March 2012, with one of the mixes being chosen to soundtrack HMV’s Summer TV campaign.

Spring 2012 saw the release of a series of collaborations including Make Me Feel on Terranova’s Hotel Amour album, and Hyper Lust on Motor’s Man Made Machine – both earning widespread support when released as singles across the Summer.

The limited edition DVD Five Takes (A Song About Andy), featuring five movies inspired by Andy Warhol‘s Screen Tests, was released in September. A song entitled On Borrowed Time is presented in five unique takes, with music by electronic producer and soul singer Waterson. This unique project was greeted enthusiastically by blogs and established press alike.

Billie is currently working on her next solo EP and a number of collaborations. She has just returned from London having completed two new dance singles – one being a duet with Aerea Negrot of Hercules and Love Affair on a song titled Off The Rails; the other introducing David Bowie’s After All to the dancefloor.

A full-length soul album is at mixing stage and is to be released soon. An accomplished producer / mixer, she is now offering to lend her studio skills to other artists.

She runs her record label, Disco Activisto, in Berlin and DJs around the world with growing success.

"Billie Ray Martin is the Nico of the rave generation..."
Ben Wood, Bearded magazine