Bizarre Inc

Bizarre Inc were a dance-pop/house/dance band from Stafford, England, that formed in 1989 as a duo of English DJs Dean Meredith and Mark "Aaron" Archer (not to be confused with the film producer of same name).

Career

The group formed as Meredith and Archer formed a duo to start an acid-house/techno project under 'Blue Chip Records'. The first releases were (and still are) only available on 12'' vinyl: "It's Time To Get Funky" (BLUE C14R), later renamed to a mere "Time to Get Funky" (BLUE C14RR); and the 6-track debut album Technological, both written and produced by Meredith and Archer.

By 1990, Archer left Meredith to work as producer and writer with different house and techno projects, a greater part of which were for Network Records. He was also known as DJ Nex for a long time; later on he released material under names such as Mr. Nex, O.P.D., Xen Mantra; and others including Nexus 21 and Altern-8 with co-producer Chris Peat. Still in the same year, two other experienced DJs joined Bizarre Inc. to fill Archer's place, thus forming a new trio: Andrew Meecham and Carl Turner. Their first 12'' they released together was "Bizarre Theme" / "X-Static" on the now-defunct record label, Vinyl Solution. This first track got a moderate acceptance, but the next, "Playing With Knives" was to be their greatest success, whose vinyl (7'' and 12'') releases were issued on a couple of different European labels.

One year later, the album Energique followed. Also in 1992, the group Blue Pearl scored another hit by using "Playing With Knives" as a basis for their track, "Can You Feel The Passion". In 1993 Bizarre Inc twice went to number one on the United States Hot Dance Club Play chart. "I'm Gonna Get You" spent two weeks at number one in January (also hitting number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100) and was followed by "Took My Love," which was number one for two weeks in late April. Both tracks featured lead vocals by female session singer, Angie Brown. A third song (featuring Yvonne Yanney, "Love In Motion," peaked at #4 on the U.S. dance chart in late 1993.

All three of Bizarre Inc's hit singles appeared on their second album, Energique, in 1992. They also released a third album, Surprise, in 1996. This album credits the singer Angie Brown as part of the band line-up, rather than as a featured artist, and she was also the co-writer on several tracks. It featured three singles, "Keep The Music Strong", "Surprise" and "Get Up Sunshine Street".

Meecham and Meredith have continued releasing new music under the name Chicken Lips. In the UK, their biggest singles remain "Playing with Knives" (#4) and "I'm Gonna Get You" (#3), the latter of which was a crossover dance-pop hit and was one of the biggest sellers of that year.^[1]

Discography

Albums

• Technological (1989) Blue Chip Records
• Energique (1992) Sony Records
• Surprise (Some Bizzare/Mercury Records) (1996)

Singles

See also

• List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References