#9 Billie Ray Martin — 15. April

"one of the best voices on planet Earth”: Billie Ray Martin

one of the best voic­es on plan­et Earth”: Bil­lie Ray Mar­tin

Auf die Frage, welche Gen­res sie bee­in­flusst hät­ten, hat Bil­lie Ray Mar­tin geant­wortet, “all except heavy met­al and George Ben­son”. Die Antwort erzählt eine Menge über sie und ihre Art, sich unab­hängig zu machen von Trends, also von Vor­gaben der Indus­trie plus schlechtem Geschmack. Sie hat, will man denn Etiket­ten bemühen, den Soul der 60er (Ann Pee­bles!) und den Groove der 70er, sie hat die Küh­le der 80er und kann bess­er dekon­stru­ieren als alle Der­ri­da-Abgänger der 90er. Aber sie zwei­fle doch, sagt sie über sich, nie an ihren Songs, “eher an meinem Platz in der Musikin­dus­trie”. Zu der sie gehört, ohne dazuzuge­hören: Ihre ersten Erfolge hat sie sich in den 80ern mit Live-Auftrit­ten in Berlin­er Clubs erar­beit­et, auch in Lon­don fing sie bei Null an, also auf den Büh­nen der Clubs. “Your Lov­ing Arms”, ihr Mega-Hit von 1994, ist bei­des, ist Musik­busi­ness pur und Pop­musik erster Güte  —  aber dass sie vor zwei Jahren Roman Polan­skis “Ekel / Repul­sion” (mit Cather­ine Deneuve in der Haup­trol­le) ver­tont und im Lon­don­er Insti­tut Of Con­tem­po­rary Arts vorgestellt hat, ist weit weniger Pop und bekan­nt. Es ist das Faszinierende an ihr, die inzwis­chen 52-jährige zählt zu den Weni­gen im Musik­busi­ness, den weni­gen Frauen zumal, die mit den Jahren immer bess­er, weil unab­hängiger wer­den: Wenn man eh nichts geschenkt bekommt, sagt sie, kann man gle­ich machen, was man will.

Live mit Roy Robert­son an den Tas­ten für wie immer nur 10 EUR  —  ein urban urtyp coup.

Reservierun­gen unter ticket@urbanurtyp.de

Ein­lass ab 19 Uhr mit DJ-Set & Bar, Konz­ert­be­ginn etwa 20:30 Uhr

Hier noch ein paar Zeu­ge­naus­sagen:

She’s one of the liv­ing leg­ends in mod­ern music his­to­ry and one of the best voic­es on plan­et Earth.”
DJ Hell, I‑DJ Mag­a­zine (U.K. / world­wide)

We’ve been wait­ing for the return of ‘the voice’. Well, return she has. This is state-of-the-art elec­tron­ic music.
Ear­bud DJ (online mag­a­zine)

 

“Billie’s been a mile­stone and inno­va­tor in the world of dance music for near­ly 20 years now and remains one of the few artists who can pull off a return that chal­lenges the genre’s cur­rent roy­al­ty.”
Jamie Nic­holes, Noize Mag­a­zine (U.S. / world­wide)

 

 

Bil­lie Ray Mar­tin is an absolute rev­e­la­tion.”
Ken Hollings, The Wire (U.K. / world­wide)

 

The Nico of the rave gen­er­a­tion has returned with a stealth-bomb of a record, with a tranced-out charm of its own.”
Ben Wood, Beard­ed Mag­a­zine (U.K. / world­wide)

Her voice is epic. It recalls Aretha and soul singers of anoth­er era. She’s always been a bit before her time. And those are the rea­sons why she’s not a big­ger star. She may be too tal­ent­ed.”
Brad­ford Shell­ham­mer, Sun­dance Chan­nel (U.S. / world­wide)

Who would have ever thought that old Cabaret Voltaire mate­r­i­al would end up as the foun­da­tion of fine throb­bing elec­tron­ic dis­co in 2010? Bil­lie Ray Mar­tin plays the ice queen to per­fec­tion over var­i­ous flavours of bleeps and bumps.”
Mark E, I Real­ly Love Music (online mag­a­zine)

 

Bil­lie Ray Mar­tin has cov­ered Cabaret Voltaire clas­sics ‘Crack­down’ and ‘Just Fas­ci­na­tion’ in her own inim­itable style. Nev­er has Elec­tron­ic Body Music felt so soul­ful! We love this girl.”
Mark Moore, QX Mag­a­zine (U.K. / world­wide)

One of the most mes­mer­iz­ing vocals in the music world… sim­ply one of dance music’s most haunt­ing pieces of music ever.”
Dan Prince, DMC Update mag­a­zine (U.K. / world­wide)

The ice queen of elec­tron­ic soul, who has been infus­ing sleek beats with hefty dos­es of Weimar deca­dence since the tail end of the 1980s… a vamp-ish robo diva in full flight. Her 2007 live sound­track to Roman Polanski’s Repul­sion, which alter­nat­ed low key torch songs with chilly elec­tron­ic anthems, offered fur­ther evi­dence of her rest­less cre­ative spir­it.”
Kei­th Moline, The Wire (U.K. / world­wide)

“The high priest­ess of elec­tron­ic soul… her voice is unmis­tak­able – rid­den with dra­ma and soul – sound­ing like Mar­lene Diet­rich by way of Dia­man­da Galas.”
Gre­gor Laird, The Skin­ny (Glas­gow mag­a­zine)

A female, mod­ern-day Marc Almond… this E.P. of throb­bing elec­tro-dis­co, torch soul and nar­cot­ic pop is awe­some.”
Jason Riley, I‑DJ Mag­a­zine (U.K. / world­wide)

Avant­garde Deutsche diva Bil­lie Ray Martin’s sub­lime vocals and catchy, indus­tri­al post-punk dis­co…”
Kei­th Bark­er-Main, Metro news­pa­per (U.K.)

“Some­thing like Aman­da Lear gang­ing up with Lau­rie Ander­son to kid­nap a low-key echo of “The Day Before You Came”, an Abba track. Is it any good? Yes, very.”
Unpeeled Mag­a­zine (U.K. / world­wide)

Full of soul and emo­tion… the songs creep into your con­scious­ness and before you know it have tak­en over your motor func­tions. Ooz­ing sex with great elec­tro bleeps and an orgas­mic vocal deliv­ery… a real suc­cess.”
Sean Slings­by, Gig­wise (online)

A glacial quar­tet of mourn­ful elec­tro-bal­lads bathed in sump­tu­ous spa­cious­ness. The low slung Mar­lene Diet­rich-pitched vocals are the icing on the cake… this new ven­ture sounds so fresh, unforced and 2008-friend­ly.”
Beatmag.net (online mag­a­zine)

Bil­lie Ray Mar­tin is the think­ing man’s diva and she can walk up & down my back any­time.”
Dean Thatch­er, DMC Update Mag (U.K. / world­wide)

 

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

Wel­come back Bil­lie!  We put our lov­ing arms around you.”
DJ Tom Novy (review of “Undis­co Me”)