Clubland

Few house projects of the early nineties were assembled as deliberately as Clubland, a Swedish-British act put together in 1990 by Jan Ekholm, the boss of the BTECH label, alongside the British duo Dave Rawlings and Ronnie Herel, who had come from Quartz. Morgan King later joined as a songwriter. Its debut album, Themes from Outer Clubland, passed its vocal duties between a rota of singers and performers: the American hip house duo 2 in a Room, the British rapper Stepz, and the Swedish singers Zemya Hamilton and Kayo Shekoni.

Between 1991 and 1992, five of its songs entered the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and three reached number one: "Hold On (Tighter to Love)" and "Hypnotized", both from 1992, along with "Let's Get Busy", credited to Clubland featuring Quartz, which dated from 1990. "Set Me Free" topped the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart and reached number two on the Club Play listing. In 1993 the second album, Adventures Beyond Clubland, won a Swedish Grammy for Best Album. Hamilton died of multiple sclerosis on 24 December 2015, aged 50.