N-Trance

In 1990 aspiring sound engineers Kevin O'Toole and Dale Longworth launched the eclectic British dance-pop group N-Trance by teaming up to craft instrumental material. Their earliest recordings, one of which reworked a children's television theme into a dance track, attracted scant notice. A more ambitious follow-up, the 1991 track "Back to the Bass," drew interest from 380 Records and led to a contract.

Clearance issues surrounding samples ultimately blocked the single from appearing. The band kept writing and tracking, enlisting vocalist Kelly Llorenna for "Set You Free," then paid to exit the 380 Records deal. After signing instead with All Around the World, they issued "Set You Free" in 1993. Theatrical stage shows featuring dancers, flame-throwers, and additional singers Rachel McFarlane and T-1K helped push N-Trance into the spotlight across the European dance-pop landscape, where the single climbed to number two on the U.K. chart and became the best-selling dance release of 1995.

During that same year the band completed its debut album, Electronic Pleasure, which showcased seven members of its steadily growing vocal roster. N-Trance's stylistic palette likewise broadened to incorporate rap, techno, pop, and Euro-beat. The subsequent single, a reinterpretation of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," scored a major worldwide success and introduced the two voices that would come to shape the group's later identity: Viveen Wray and Ricardo Da Force, previously of the KLF.

Additional chart successes, including the track "Electronic Pleasure," enabled N-Trance to construct its own facility, Deep Blue, in 1996. The next eighteen months were devoted to laying down the follow-up album Happy Hour, which finally surfaced in 1999.