This cod-house act from Holland enjoyed a string of UK chart hits in the 90s. They epitomised the style with the irritating chart-topping "No Limits', which featured Anita Dels" diva vocals and Ray Slijngaard's hilarity-inducing chorus of "Techno! Techno! Techno! Techno!". An album of the same name contained further variations on the formula, though arguably of an even lower quality threshold. Slijngaard was previously a chef at Amsterdam airport, while Dels previously worked as a secretary, singing part-time with the Trouble Girls. The men behind the group were Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde, of Byte Records (who previously tasted success with Bizz Nizz's "Don't Miss The Party Line"). Their philosophy was redolent of the Euro-techno axis, but anathema to traditional British views of artistic input. They readily admitted to creating music to satiate a market rather than attempting to build a fanbase around any creative vision. The statistics, while not exonerating them, did prove them to be entirely correct in their supposition - in 1993 2 Unlimited sold over a million singles in Britain alone. "No Limits" was also the biggest-selling European record of the year, while their second album sold nearly three million copies. Earlier success had included the arguably more interesting "Get Ready For This" (UK number 2, October 1991), "Twilight Zone" (UK number 2, January 1992), "Workaholic" (UK number 4, May 1992) and "The Magic Friend" (UK number 11, August 1992). A further run of UK Top 10 hit singles included "Tribal Dance" (number 4, May 1993), "Faces" (number 8, September 1993), "Let The Beat Control Your Body" (number 6, February 1994) and "The Real Thing" (number 6, May 1994). Subsequent singles were not as successful, but still broke into the UK Top 20. They returned in July 1998 with a new line-up on a different label (Big Life Records), but "Wanna Get Up" made a disappointing debut at number 38.
DISCOGRAPHY: Get Ready (PWL 1992)***, No Limits (PWL 1992)***, Real Things (PWL 1994)**.
VIDEOGRAPHY: No Limits (PWL 1993).
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
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