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Somewhere in a dark and remote corner of an exotic European city, tens of
thousands of people
fill an enormous warehouse disco in the dead of the night. Harsh,
rhythmically piercing music
roars from a wall of speakers. Everyone, high on ecstasy and energy,
dances to the point of
exhaustion. By dawn, the cops chase the revelers away. But they'll be
back. It's just another
night in the Rave scene, and from its decadent beginnings, providing much
of the soundtrack
has been Praga Khan and Oliver Adams.
From their studio in the village of Tienen, twenty-two miles northeast of
Brussels, producers/composers/performers Praga Khan and Oliver Adams, the principals behind
D.O., have led the
revolution in dance music throughout Europe. Turning techno -distinguished
by heavy sequencers,
lush vocal parts, and memorable melodic hooks- into the most vibrant and
commercial offshoot of
the rave scene, typified by all-night dance parties and gourmet drugs.
It started in the mid-80s when Praga Khan, then a popular club D.J., picked
up on a Belgian
innovation. "We were slowing down the song 'Flesh' by the band A Split
Second from 45 RPM
to 33 RPM," recalls Khan. "The high notes were still there, but the bass
was really deep." Khan
was one of the first people in the world to augment music with a drum
machine and keyboards,
playing one record plus additional music over it.
Soon D.J.s across the country were deliberately slowing down records --
the craze became known
as New Beat. Khan conceived of recording original material in New Beat,
and later released a
compilation on his own label, Antler-Subway. The album, "New Beat - Take
One" hit # 1,
becoming one of the best-selling releases in Belgian history and
immediately catapulted Khan to a
position of prominence in the Belgian music scene.
Around that time he met, Jade 4U, a beautiful aspiring singer. He also got
in touch with Oliver Adams, a young extremely talented studiofreak. Soon
Praga Khan, Jade 4U and Oliver Adams
were partners looking for new worlds to conquer. "The Belgian sound became
to common at
home," notes Jade, "but other countries were just picking up on it. It
wasn't strictly for Belgians
anymore." Their music -- polyrhythmic, erotic, heavily sampled, and
powerfully sung by Khan
and Jade -- while drawing on the best of industrial and funk -- began to
hit stride, and D.O. began
turning out a string of hit records.
Songs like "Running out of Time," "Moog Eruption" and "Startouchers" were
Top 20 hits in the
U.K., France, Belgium, Italy, and other European countries, and over the
course of three European tours, D.O. has developed a reputation as a
phenomenal live band. "When we do a show, we do it right," says Khan. "When
we played Heaven in London, other labels sent their
Techno bands to see us to figure out how to do it." Adds Oliver Adams,
"We're stage animals.
Most fans and critics see us as a rock band.
Meanwhile, Praga Khan and Oliver Adams can most likely be found back at
their Tienen studio,
doing what they do best -- making hit records. Belgian style.
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