Their first single was an instant international hit. "Can't Help Myself " reached top 10s all over the world. "Turn Da Music Up ", their second single was less successful, but still did very good in clubs all over the world.
The first two singles featured rapper Da Smooth Baron MC. He was joined by female vocalist Gail Robinson in "Turn Da Music Up". After these two singles the project was put on hold for nearly two years.
It wasn't until the end of 1993 that the Boer brothers presented new material
under the name 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor.
Together with this new material they also presented a new line-up. Da Smooth
Baron MC and Gail Robinson made place for D-Rock
and Des'Ray.
Additional Info D-Rock:
D-Rock was part of the 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor even before Da Smooth Baron
MC joined the group! He was supposed to be the rapper on the first 2 Brothers
single "Can't Help Myself". But
because he was occupied with some other things at the time, he made the choice
not to join the 2 Brothers as their rapper. So he introduced the 2 Brothers to
Da Smooth Baron MC.
The first single with Des'Ray and D-Rock was called "Never Alone". It's a eurodance song about different races all over the world living in peace and harmony together. As Des'Ray sings in this song: .....Black And White, Dancing Together... Side By Side We'll Make Things Better... You're Never Alone.....
This tune went straight to the top of the Dutch charts, stayed there for weeks and eventually turned gold. After "Never Alone" they went on to have several huge international hits, including "Let Me Be Free", " Fly (Through The Starry Night)", "Come Take My Hand" and of course "Dreams (Will Come Alive) ", their biggest hit to date, which was taken of their debut album with the same title. "Dreams (Will Come Alive)" went no. 1 in Holland and scored major top 10 hits in countries like Italy, Spain, Belgium, France, Israel, Norway, Sweden, South-Africa and many other countries.
Des'Ray and D-Rock weren't complete strangers in the world of music. Des'Ray,
whose real name is Desirй Manders,
had previously worked with Bobby and Martin on another danceproject called Fun
Da Mental. A nice thing to mention is that she was in the Dutch
charts with two singles at the same time in 1993! Once with the 2 Brothers On
The 4th Floor ("Never Alone") and
the other one with Fun Da Mental ("Dancing On A
Higher Ground"). In 1996 she graduated Cum Laude at the
conservatory (Jazz music) and therefor is one of the few dance artists with a
real musical education!!
D-Rock released a solo single called "I Can't
Believe It's Over" before he joined the 2 Brothers On The 4th
Floor. Unfortunately for him the single didn't do that well.
After Ray and Anita had left 2 Unlimited the 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor can be considered as one of the most successful dance acts of the Netherlands, together with Twenty 4 Seven and T-Spoon. Until now they've had 10 consecutive top 10 singles in their home country and several top 10 hits in Norway, Sweden, Italy, Israel and many other countries.
Italian top dance act Cappella produced
some remixes for one of the 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor singles. "Fly
(Through The Starry Night) - The Remixes" was released a couple
of weeks after the original version and it featured 4 mixes done by Cappella and
Alici. These mixes include a Happy
Hardcore Mix, a Mars Plastic Mix and two C.C.Q.T. Mixes (one
radio and one extended).
These mixes have that typical Cappella-sound and this, combined with the vocals
of Des'Ray and D-Rock, sounds amazing!! I hope these two fantastic acts are
going to work together more often in the near future!!!
The 2 Brothers have so far released one Christmas-carol. "Christmas Time" is based on another 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor single, " There's A Key", which was released a few weeks earlier. The pounding happy hardcore beats were taken away, the lyrics were altered and some Christmas sounds were added to create a real X-Mas atmosphere.
1996 also saw the release of their second album simply called "2".
Besides the hitsingles it also contains some good R&B traxx, which indicates
a future change of style for the 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor. If you're lucky,
you'll be able to get a copy of "2" which includes the bonus
CD-ROM! It contains clips of most of their hits and it even has 2 Megamix
videoclips, a "Euro Megamix" and a "Happy Hardcore
Megamix". These videoclips are pretty unique, because not only the
songs have been mixed together, but the videoclips have also been 'megamixed'!!
If you're unfamiliar with "Eurodance" or "Happy Hardcore" you should check out the first album "Dreams", which is full of eurodance traxx and the new album "2", which contains several happy hardcore traxx!!
In May 1997 they released the last single taken from the "2"-album.
"One Day" is the first R&B
track the 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor ever released.
The video to this song has been shot in sunny California, and it features Des'Ray as a Madame Futura and as a girl who works at a gas-station. D-Rock is the big man with loads of money. He's headed for Las Vegas to gamble, but has to stop at the gas-station for refuelling. But while refuelling his car, Des'Ray takes all the money out of D-Rock's bag and fills it with old newspapers. When D-Rock arrives at his destination he finds out what has happened. He goes back to the gas-station and searches for Des'Ray, because he figured out that she stole his money. While he's inside the station Des'Ray gets in his car and drives away... with his money!
It's a real cool video to a real summer hit classic! The maxi-CD features 9 tracks. It also contains some happy hardcore remixes, which were done by Critical Mass and Lipstick and more R&B flavoured mixes. "Real-X" was also included on the maxi-single!!
In
August 1997 they released another eurodance stormer called "I'm
Thinkin' Of U". This single was a cover of a Sister
Sledge song. Transformed into a new and very dancable eurodance track
this single went top 10 in no time.
The video that belongs to the song is the follow-up to the video from "One
Day"!!!
This time D-Rock wants his money back and sneaks together with 2 female villains
to Des'Ray's villa where she's throwing a party. Fortunately Des'Ray has already
been informed about D-Rock's whereabouts, so she's knows what to expect. So she
sets up a trap of her own!!! How it all ends?? Well, you'll just have to see the
video for yourself!!!
Additional information:
A while ago (1995) Bobby & Martin Boer released a single called "Eye
Of The Tiger" by the name of X-Generation.
This track is a cover of the song made famous by Survivor
and the Rocky movies. The vocals on this track are done by Des'Ray and it
wasn't officially released in the Netherlands, but was aimed at the foreign
market. If you happen to stumble upon this hi-nrg eurodance track, check it out!
It's well worth listening to!
Seven months after their previous single "I'm
Thinkin' Of U" Des'Ray & D-Rock are back with their new
single!!! And wow!!! What a change of style!!!
The new single, which was released at the end of March, is called "Do You Know?". This song is a remake of the old Diana Ross classic "Theme From Mahogany". Will covering songs be a new trend for the 2 Brothers On the 4th Floor?? This is already their second cover in a row!
Back to the song... After reading the previous few sentences you might have well figured out that the new song isn't a eurodance song... Nope it isn't an R&B song or a happy hardcore track either!!! "Do You Know?" is a EuroClassic/Classic Pop song in the style of Sweetbox's "Everything's Gonna Be Allright" and "Don't Run Away".
The stomping beats have dissappeared and been replaced by classical instruments,
which are almost identical to those used by Sweetbox. Besides doing the chorus,
you can also hear Des'Ray sing the opera part which is very reminiscent to one
done by Sissel in The Rapsody's "Prince Igor".
Both Des'Ray and D-Rock are very happy with this song and they like the change
of style!!
This song is quite good, because it stays in mind after the first time you've
heard it. Des'Ray's vocals are very sublime and D-Rock sounds as vicious as ever.
The 2 Brothers seem to be one of the few dance acts around to be releasing 'songs
with a message'. Just listen to the lyrics carefully and you'll understand what
I mean. With this song comes a beautiful videoclip which is definitely worth
seeing!!
With Eurodance on it's way back to the top and them releasing a completely different single, I really hope that they know where they're going to... But fortunately for us both Des'Ray and D-Rock have stated that they still like eurodance, so the new album will certainly feature several new euro tracks!
And
yes... they kept their promise... They're back with a new stomping single called
"The Sun Will Be Shining". Des'Ray
and D-Rock return to their eurodance roots with this track which brings back the
familiar 2 Brothers bassline!!! It's dancable like "I'm
Thinkin' Of U" and has got that feel of "Let
Me Be Free" and "Fly".
Great overall track. A must have for the true eurodance lover.
Additional info:
The 'glassmaster', (the original, which is used to press the CD-Maxi's), of
"The Sun Will Be Shining" was lost
just before it went to the CD manufacturer. They thought it was stolen, but
someone at their recordcompany CNR Records had
send it to the 2 Brothers fanclub by accident. The fanclub returned it
immediately and now "The Sun Will Be Shining"
is available in the stores near you!
Both the 2 track single and the CD-Maxi contain a CD-Rom bonus track! Both have
the videoclip of "The Sun Will Be Shining"
and the CD-Maxi contains a bonus called "The Making
Of... 2 Brothers In Venezuela". Furthermore the CD-Maxi contains
club mixes by Mark van Dale With Enrico, Dub
Foundation and Dance Therapy.
Especially check out the Dub Foundation Mix... it's got an absolutely amazing
mainhook, reminiscent of the one used the Carlos songs "Rush Me"
and "The Silmarillia"!!
Februari 1999 will be the month that the follow up to "The Sun Will Be Shining" will be released!!! The title still remains a secret... But you will be the first to hear about this new single...!!! Can't wait to listen to the copy of the new song, Bobby!!!
Today (15-01-99) I received a copy of the new 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor
single for a sneak preview!! The title is "Heaven
Is Here"...
For "Heaven Is Here" the 2 Brothers
completely updated the sound to the current future trance hype, creating one of
the most catchy and powerfull songs of the moment! Des'Ray does all the vocals,
so she sings verses and the chorus! The new 2 Brothers single is a perfect
example of future trance... the new generation of eurodance songs! It's got that
catchy euro feeling and it sounds as up to date as any Sash! or DJ Quicksilver
song!
Remixes were done by Olav Basoski, D-Rock and Marco V. & Benjamin!
Oh
yes... it's October 1999... and today I received the front of the CD cover of
the new 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor single... The follow-up to "Heaven
Is Here" is finally here! It took them 8 months to release a new
single, but here they are! A smashing new dance track is about to be released!
The title of the new single is "Living In
Cyberspace" and it is a cover of the old Trance-X single "Living
On Video" It is scheduled for release in the Netherlands on the 29th of
October! This is new single is also the last pre-release of the new album which
is scheduled for early 2000!
