Rising High Collective

Namely one Casper Pound of the Hypnotist fame, and also the man who formed Rising High Records, and vocalist Plavka (b. Los Angeles, California, USA). Pound’s ancestry extends to spells in A Homeboy, A Hippie, And A Funki Dred, before he found Top 75 success no less than seven times in his own right, and also navigated three Top 40 remixes into the charts, including the Shamen’s ‘Pro-gen’. Plavka came to fame via the former group, gracing their first Top 30 cut, ‘Hyperreal’. She came to London in 1989, immersing herself in the rave scene and passing herself off as a journalist in order to make the acquaintance of the Shamen. But after they broke through together she quit the group to concentrate on projects where she could have more input into the songwriting, in addition to her much-admired operatic soprano range. She met Pound in 1991, the duo releasing their first single, ‘Fever Called Love’, in December of that year, for R&S Records. It was a stunning recording, above and beyond the novelty value of hearing a techno track with genuine vocals. It was not until the summer of 1993 and a Hardfloor remix that the song really took off, however. After slightly misfiring with ‘Reach’, which was nevertheless a minor hit, ‘There’s No Deeper Love’ (whose lyrics quietly provided a text on astrology and the formation of the universe) proved another club hit, this time with the progressive house faction. They made an acclaimed appearance at the 1993 Reading Festival, as well as many PA’s at venues like the Ministry Of Sound, Heaven and Camden Palace. The Liquid Thoughts EP provided further well-received slices of deep trance. They additionally recorded together as Dominatrix (two EPs, Possession and Discipline) while Plavka released a solo single, ‘Maximum Motion’ (all on Rising High or their Ascension/Sappho subsidiaries), and guested for Jam And Spoon (‘Right In The Middle’).