E Rotic: История Евроденс-проекта Дэвида Брандеса

German Eurodance duo act by David Brandes
the German Eurodance group

E Rotic are a Eurodance duo act formed in 1994 by German record producer David Brandes. The act is best known in Europe for the hits "Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex" and "Fred Come to Bed". E Rotic originally consisted of German born singer Lyane Leigh (real name Liane Hegemann) and American rapper Richard Allen Smith (a. k. a. Ras Ma Taz). The act is known for its extensive use of sexual themes in their songs and music videos.

Brandes knew Leigh from their Xanadu days, active from 1989 1992, where they were both members and one half of the group. In 1994, Brandes released a solo song "Helpless Dancer" with Leigh on guest vocals, before American born Ras Ma Taz joined them to create E Rotic. Together they scored the charts with their first three chart topping singles "Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex", which peaked #45 in the UK Singles Chart and #4 in the Dutch Single Chart, "Fred Come to Bed", #3 in the German Single Chart, and "Sex on the Phone", #2 in Austria, followed by their debut studio album Sex Affairs. Next to E Rotic, Brandes continued, forming other dance projects, such as Apanachee in 1995 with Lydia Madajewski on vocals, who would later also become E Rotic's studio lead singer in 2000.

After the fourth single release "Willy Use a Billy Boy", released in 1995 and peaked #5 in Austria, later in November 1995, both members left the band, due to a disagreement between Leigh and producer Brandes, who were quickly replaced by artists Jeane (Jeanette Macchi Meier) and briefly Terence D'Arby (not to be confused with Terence Trent D'Arby), who himself again was replaced by Ché Jouaner. Thus it has been later revealed, that Brandes was the rapper on all E Rotic releases, except on the first album, where he shared raps with Raz Ma Taz, such on "Take My Love", and Leigh still had to continue to provide vocal work for E Rotic's four follow up studio albums The Power of Sex, Sexual Madness, the Abba cover album Thank You for the Music until 1999 to the Kiss Me studio album due to her contract. Also, raps on their first single "Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex" were not done by Smith or Brandes, but instead were done by Marcus Thomas (aka Deon Blue) who would later join Pharao. Meanwhile, Leigh, and Ras Ma Taz, formed their own band S. E. X. Appeal in 1996. "He promised me a lot of things during my E Rotic time, but never was willing to keep his promises. One of these promises was to produce a mixed video, with both cartoon and real people. We were never shown in the videos and so we had problems with our concerts, cause no one really knew us as persons," Leigh revealed. On 27 June 1996, the group's second studio album The Power of Sex was released, preceded by the latter mentioned lead single "Willy Use a Billy Boy" and followed by the singles "Help Me Dr. Dick", "Fritz Love My Tits" and "Gimme Good Sex", all becoming moderate chart hits, peaking at #18, #16 and #3 in Austria respectively. In 1996, E Rotic were featured in the supergroup, called "Love Message", on the same titled, Masterboy produced charity single "Love Message". They also appeared on the Queen tribute compilation album Queen Dance Traxx, with the song "Who Wants to Live Forever", which also saw a promotional release. The tribute album also featured another Queen song "We Are The Champions", recorded with all artists, who participated on Queen Dance Traxx as a supergroup labeled as "Acts United". In 1997, the studio albums "Sexual Madness" and the ABBA cover CD Thank You for the Music was released with its single releases "Turn Me On", which peaked at #7 in Finland, "Thank You for the Music" and "The Winner Takes It All". The album Thank You for the Music was released under the artist name "Jenn and C." in France. Ironically the music video for "Gimme Good Sex" was also the first one, not being a comic video, but still it never aired and was banned from music channels because of being too controversial for its sexual content, thus Leigh, alongside Ras Ma Taz, left the band earlier, because she wanted to be shown in music videos.

In 1998, E Rotic have released their first Greatest Hits compilation album titled Greatest Tits The Best of E Rotic, along with the single "Baby Please Me" and the megamix "Die geilste Single der Welt" (German for "The Horniest Single in the World") to promote the album in Germany. In 1999, their second and final single from Sexual Madness, called "Don't Say We're Through", was released and later E Rotic tried to enter the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 representing Germany but ended in sixth place in the pre selection with the single "Queen of Light". This was the only time, where Macchi Meier had to perform and sing live, when she was always lip syncing Leigh's and later Madajewski's singing parts on live shows. The song was later added on E Rotic's sixth studio album Gimme, Gimme, Gimme and on Missing Hearts debut studio album Mystery (labeled as Missing Heart), in 2000. After that, E Rotic focused more on the Japanese music market, where they kept more popular when the interest in Eurodance music in Europe waned at the end of the 1990s. In 1999, the fifth studio album Kiss Me was released in Japan with the three singles "Oh Nick Please Not So Quick", "Kiss Me" and "Mambo No. Sex", which all failed to chart. The latter mentioned single, was released on the later released German edition of Kiss Me, retitled Mambo No. Sex with a different track list and cover art leaned on the success of Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" at that time. The release of Kiss Me/Mambo No. Sex also marks the final with Leigh on vocals, who were replaced by Madajewski later in 2000.