Kai Tracid, born Kai Franz in 1972, hails from Europe's trance capital Frankfurt am Main (Tracid is, in fact, a blend of the two words trance and acid). Armed with model looks as well a fine ear for both underground and commercial sounds, he was playing at some of Germany's top venues -- such as Frankfurt's Dorian Gray nightclub -- only a few years after starting out in the record-spinning business. Tracid began the assault on the dance scene with his own music in the mid-'90s. His first major success was the single "Your Own Reality" (1997), which made it all the way into the German dance Top 30. It was then that he caught the attention of German disco and pop producer Frank Farian -- the man famous, and infamous, for such acts as Boney M. and Milli Vanilli. Working on projects for Farian gave Tracid the opportunity to build his own studio. During 1998-1999, he came up with the top club tune "Liquid Skies" and the well-received Skywalker EP. At about the same time, he was releasing other popular tunes under different monikers -- such as "Only the Strong" and "Waveshaper" (under the name K.), "The Spice" (Arrakis), and "Vater Unser" (Der Verfall). ~ David Peter Wesolowski