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Leaders of the Italian house music movement of the late '80s, Black Box was primarily comprised of club Daniele Davoli, computer whizz Mirko Limoni and clarinetist Valerio Semplici, a trio of studio musicians known collectively as the Groove Groove Melody production team. Semplici was a clarinet teacher and played in the La Scala Classical Music Orchestra in Milan. Davoli was a well-known Italian club DJ (known as DJ Lelewel), largely at the Marabu Starlight Club, while Limoni was the computer and keyboard whizz kid of the trio and had previously engineered for Italian pop act Spagna. They are based in the Regio D'Emillia area of northern Italy. Acclaimed among the most successful producers in all of Italian dance music, Groove Groove Melody helmed dozens of singles each year at their peak like Starlight ("Numero uno") and The Mixmaster ("Grand piano").
In 1989 they teamed with singer and model Katrin (born Catherine Quinol, born in France, Paris, with Guadeloup descent) as Black Box, debuting with the single "Ride on time". She was spotted by Spagna's guitarist at a club. The single became the first of a series of Italian house records to crossover to the UK charts, staying at number 1 for six weeks in 1989. Controversy reigned when it was realized that the single had sampled the voice of singer Loleatta Holloway from the "Love Sensation" (released in 1980) single she made with Dan Hartman in the late 70s. An agreement was eventually worked out with Salsoul (who owned the rights) as both companies benefited from 800,000 UK sales. Black Box hired Katrin to lip-synch to Martha Wash's vocals for the group's videos. She also appeared at "live" shows, mouthing to a pre-recorded track.
A series of Black Box hits followed, among them "I don't know anybody else" and "Everybody everybody". The first album "Dreamland" was released in the first middle of this year. The real star of this album is Martha Wash, whose full-bodied, gospel-influenced belting on the smashes hits like "I don't know anybody else", "Everybody everybody" and "Strike it up". For some titles, they use the guitarists Roberto Fontalan, Sauro Malavasi and Raimondo Violi, and the saxophonist Rudy Trevisi.
The radio presenter and DJ Robert Levy-Provencal (RLP) megamixed "Ride on time" with "Magic atto II" (another Black Box production) and remixed "I don't know anybody else". In the end of 1990, they released "Fantasy", a revamp of the Earth, Wind And Fire hit, all of which featured too an uncredited Martha Wash on vocals and broke them into the US market. They released in France a rap version of "Fantasy" under the name "Get down feat Stepz".
Black Box returned with "Strike it up", as well as the "Mixed up!" collection, that is comprised of remixes of songs of "Dreamland". "Strike it up" was the group's third (and essentially last) big single in the U.S., and is arguably the finest dance cut on the album, rap by Stepz, like "Get down". The single "Open your eyes" is released not much time after.
They were also responsible for, among other remixes, ABC's 1991 comeback single, "Say it".
At the same time, Lonnie Gordon flew off to Italy and met Black Box who had a hit album happening at the time. There she recorded "Gonna catch you". Internal legal problems with Supreme Records lead to a two year delay in the release of the album "Bad mood".
Black Box present a new production, Bit Machine featuring Karen Jones. The first of the five sample of the forthcoming album is called "It's time".
Soon the last sample of their first album "Dreamland", "Hold on" is released, and totally remixed by Lelewel & DJ Coccoluto.
They released a new single "Rockin' to the music", that passed widely unnoticed, the first sample of the forthcoming new album "Positive vibration".
For the summer, the '89 hit "Ride on time" is remixed by Two Men (Davide Riva & M.Benassi "DJ Benny") with the title "Bright on time 1994 remix" and they take the opportinity to release a new track "Not anyone", with a new singer Charvoni, who attributed her voice to the group Brothers in Rhythm in 1990, among other things. Charvoni become the new diva to headline this world-renowned group and she continues to perform as the lead vocalist for Black Box, winning the hearts of fans across the globe with her brand of soul.
Two Men remixed some futures songs of Black Box under the name "Benny smash mix". They euro-remixed too some titles of the group Bit Machine, in this case, the most known, "Somebody real" (featuring Daisy Dee), released this year.
In the beginning of the year, Black Box release "A positive vibration", track of the album with the same name, which, incorporates elements of Diana Ross' legendary smash "Love Hangover".
They remixed some other projects like TSD ("Heart and soul") and Pop Corn ("Tap-moi-là").
Black Box return effortlessly with yet another explosive hit with "I got the vibration", remix of "A positive vibration".
Black Box release a new single, their second revamp, "Native new yorker", composed by Sandy Linzer & Denny Randell in 1977 for the group Odyssey.
The last track of the album "Positive vibration" and the last real single too was released, in principle in promo only. His title : "Fall into my love".
Five years after, a new remix of "Ride on time" , also called "Bright on time" is released, but with much lesser success than the first one.
"Everybody everybody 2002" is released in June in white label, in vinyl only.
Spacedust (Solaris) takes on the might Black Box classic and turns it into one of the hottest club remixes. With a bit of filtering and a kickin' new drum line underneath, the Solaris boys have turned this classic floor-packer into an absolute essential.
Some weeks after the release of the second part of the "Ride on time" remixed by Melted Artists, Black Box released a new series of remixes too under the name "Ride on time 2003 feat Loleatta Holloway". Strangely, the mixes are the same on the both CD and vinyl.
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