A tribute to the rave classicsthat defined a generation.
Belgium, the mid-nineties.Two records crossed overfrom the clubs into the UK Top 20.Both were written and producedby two people. This is the archive.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
Scroll to discover
Foreword
An immersive archive
The Prophet Years is designed as an immersive museum experience rather than a conventional website.
It opens a window onto the story of two people who played an important part in the international rave culture of the 1990s, through the original material that surrounded them at the time.
There is no single path through it. Wander through the records, photographs, magazine pages, interviews, charts, flyers and forgotten fragments. Follow what catches your attention and get lost in it for a while.
This is a world before social media, streaming and smartphones, when music travelled through record shops, clubs, radio, magazines, flyers and word of mouth.
The archive leaves room for you to make your own discoveries and form your own impression of the music, the people and the period.
There is no hurry. Explore. Get lost.
Geert Sermon / Dr Vinyl
“All tracks written and produced by C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden.”
The Analogue Theatre — Internal Records, 1996
The story
The Prophet Years
On the record
Every claim on this site is anchored to something you can hold or look up: a pressing, a label scan, an Official Charts entry, a Discogs catalogue page.
Where a source contradicts another, both are shown. Where something is a recollection rather than a document, it is marked as such.
If you can correct or complete an entry, please do — the contact form goes straight to the archive.
By the mid-1990s, Christian Jay Bolland was already an established figure in European techno. After several years recording for R&S Records, releasing albums including The 4th Sign and Electronic Highway, he left the label and signed a new deal with Internal Records.
One year after Bolland signed with Internal, Kris Vanderheyden joined him.
And so, C.J. Bolland became a band.
Vanderheyden had already built a career of his own in electronic music. Recording as Insider, he released “Destiny” on Music Man Records in 1991, a record that became one of the defining tracks of the early European rave era. The success of his music took him around the world, including performances at legendary venues such as The Limelight in New York, while his studio career expanded through original productions and a series of notable remixes for other artists.
The connection between Bolland and Vanderheyden had begun earlier. Vanderheyden contributed to “Inside Out” on Bolland’s The 4th Sign, but by the mid-1990s their occasional collaboration had developed into something much more substantial.
Working together in the Brussels in Kris’s studio The Closet, they began creating the music that would become The Analogue Theatre, released in October 1996.
Contemporary interviews and studio reports document the two working side by side on writing, programming, production and sound design. They describe long sessions spent creating individual sounds, experimenting with analogue equipment and developing a distinctive way of working that became an important part of the album’s identity.
The studio itself became part of the story. Analogue synthesizers, samplers, sequencers and custom electronics were combined with a hands-on approach to sound creation. Equipment was modified and even built specifically for the project, including an elaborate modular system that would eventually become part of the live show.
Vanderheyden is credited as writer and producer on six of the album’s ten tracks, including its two major singles, Sugar Is Sweeter and The Prophet.
Those records took the project far beyond its Belgian techno roots.
Sugar Is Sweeter reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart, while The Prophet reached No. 19. Sugar Is Sweeter also topped the UK dance chart and reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart in the United States.
The Armand Van Helden remix of Sugar Is Sweeter subsequently took on a life of its own. Its combination of house rhythms, heavy bass and swung percussion would later be associated with the emerging speed-garage sound, alongside records such as Van Helden’s remix of Sneaker Pimps’ Spin Spin Sugar.
But the records themselves tell only part of the story.
Behind The Analogue Theatre was a period of intense experimentation: long studio sessions, analogue machines, samplers and custom electronics, sounds sometimes worked on for hours or days, and a purpose-built live system that allowed the music to leave the studio and be performed on stage.
And around all of this, an extraordinary amount of material was produced.
Interviews, studio reports, photographs, reviews, charts, flyers, record sleeves, tour reports, magazine covers and industry documents captured the project as it was happening. The press followed the success of Sugar Is Sweeter, the arrival of The Analogue Theatre, the live shows and even the much-publicised comparisons and controversy involving The Prodigy.
Most of this material belongs to a time before the internet became a permanent record of popular culture.
A magazine appeared on a newsstand for a few weeks and disappeared. An interview might only have existed in one issue of a specialist music publication. Photographs, reviews and studio reports that documented an important moment could simply fade from public view once the magazines themselves were gone.
For more than thirty years, much of the material surrounding The Analogue Theatre has remained scattered across old magazines, press archives and personal collections.
This archive is not an attempt to rewrite history. It is an attempt to uncover a part of it that has largely disappeared from view.
The Prophet Years brings that material together for the first time.
The original pages are presented largely as they appeared then, documenting the creation of The Analogue Theatre, the studio and live work behind it, Sugar Is Sweeter, The Prophet, the success, the controversies and the atmosphere surrounding this particular moment in electronic music.
There is no need to reconstruct the story from memory.
Much of it was documented while it was happening. Now, for the first time, those documents can be seen together.
The rave classics
Two records, one sleeve credit
01
The Prophet
FFRR / Internal · 1997 · 12" vinyl
The track that gave these years their name. Originally appearing on The Analogue Theatre in 1996, The Prophet was released as a single the following year. Its dark, driving production and unmistakable spoken-word sample took it to number 19 on the UK Singles Chart and number 2 on the UK Dance Singles Chart.
One of the defining tracks of the album, and a record that carried the sound of The Analogue Theatre directly into the UK charts.
Writing and production: C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden.
The record that broke out. Cut in The Closet in Brussels, released on Internal in October 1996, and pushed into the American clubs by Armand Van Helden's Drum 'n' Bass mix. Number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, number one on the UK dance chart, number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play.
Writing and production: C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden. Vocal: Jade 4U.
The album the whole archive circles. The pages here return again and again to its two singles: Sugar Is Sweeter and The Prophet.
The Analogue TheatreInternal Records, 1996 — TRULP 13
Internal Records · 1996The Analogue Theatre — sleeve back and tracklist
Both records, printed on the back of the album they came from.
DetailSide Three and Side Six.The Analogue Theatre — Internal Records, 1996DetailThe two portraits on the sleeve, captioned by the label.The Analogue Theatre — Internal Records, 1996
Internal Records · 1996The Analogue Theatre — sleeve back and tracklist
The credit the rest of this archive keeps circling, printed on the sleeve itself.
DetailTen tracks. Six of them carry both names.The Analogue Theatre — Internal Records, 1996DetailTen tracks. Six of them carry both names.The Analogue Theatre — Internal Records, 1996
“All tracks written and produced by C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden.”
The Analogue Theatre, Internal Records, 1996
Mixmag · No. 43, 5–18 September 1996Album of the month: The Analogue Theatre
Wax · 1996More CJ Bolland than you can handle
Impact · No. 26, 1996Analogue Theatre
Knowledge · 1996The Analogue Theatre
A change is coming
1996 — leaving R&S, signing to Internal
The records stop sounding like the old ones
By 1996 C.J. Bolland had left R&S — the Ghent label he signed to at sixteen — and put his name to a five-album deal with Internal, London Records’ dance subsidiary. The press noticed the paperwork. It also noticed something else: he was not working alone any more.
From here on, the writing credit on the records reads Bolland and Vanderheyden. This chapter, and the ones after it, are the contemporary pages that say so.
1996Driven — leaving R&S, teaming up with Kris Vanderheyden
The feature that names the change, in the sentence that names it.
DetailPress feature, words by David Davies, 1996
“Vanderheyden is as much responsible for the new Bolland sound as Christian Jay himself.”
Press feature, words by David Davies, 1996
The Scotsman · Thursday 10 October 1996Jive talkin'
DetailThe Scotsman · Thursday 10 October 1996
Enter Insider
Kris Vanderheyden, as the 1996 press introduced him
Kris Vanderheyden released as Insider, and had recorded for the Belgian labels Bonzai and Music Man before this. He and Bolland met in an Antwerp club called the Rocker. Within a year the magazines had stopped introducing him as a guest.
Atmosphere · Issue 34, 1996CJ Bolland & collaborator Chris Insider — by Mati Parks
A magazine interview billed to two people.
DetailAtmosphere · Issue 34, 1996
Atmosphere · Issue 34, 1996
DetailThe interviewer had not known they worked together.C.J. Bolland — Atmosphere, Issue 34, 1996
Out Soon · No. 41, 28 Oct – 2 Dec 1996
Out Soon · No. 41, 28 Oct – 2 Dec 1996
“CJ Bolland is vanaf nu een duo.”
Out Soon, No. 41, 28 October – 2 December 1996
“CJ Bolland est désormais un duo.”
Out Soon, No. 41, 28 October – 2 December 1996 — the same feature, in French
The Voice · 16 September 1996Sugar Is Sweeter
Even the competition page treated the collaboration as the story.
DetailThe Voice · 16 September 1996
Palatinate · Issue 559, Wednesday 23 October 1996The sweet taste of successThe student paper pairs the two from the first line — “he has teamed up with fellow Belgian Kris Vanderheyden to create one of the most inspiring albums of the year” — and puts the question directly: “How long have you and Kris been working together?”
Taking it live
The studio becomes a two-man stage act
On stageOn tourWearing the shirt
Mixmag · Vol. 2 No. 67, December 1996CJ Bolland — The Point, Dublin
A live review from Dublin. One hyphenated phrase does the whole job.
Muzik · 1996CJ Bolland — Megadog, Leicester University
DetailMuzik — Megadog, Leicester University, 1996
The Guest List · Vol. 2 Issue 2, 24 Oct – 5 Nov 1996Megadog all-nighter, The Rocket, Holloway Rd
And again, at the Megadog all-nighter in Holloway Road.
DetailThe Guest List · Vol. 2 Issue 2, 24 Oct – 5 Nov 1996
1996CJ Bolland, now a two-piece recording artist — with Kris
Detail1996
The Closet
A rented room in a Brussels factory building
Most of the album was made in Kris’s room in a former factory in Brussels. They called it The Closet, and the sleeve prints the name as the recording location.
Future Music · No. 32, September 1996
A four-page equipment feature, written from inside the room.
DetailFuture Music · No. 32, September 1996
Future Music · No. 32, September 1996
DetailKris Vanderheyden — Future Music, No. 32, September 1996
1996
How the two of them actually worked.
Detail1996
“Kris and CJ spend hours working on specific ‘noises’ for their tracks.”
Press feature, words by David Davies, 1996
Atmosphere · Issue 34, 1996On sample CDs versus synthesisers: “we would rather take a sound from a synthesiser and put it through 4 or 5 effects units.”
“It’s complex the way we work.”
Chris Insider — Atmosphere, Issue 34, 1996
Building the machine
The album is named after a synthesizer they built themselves
1996Words: Dave Robinson
A friend of Kris’s found the schematics. They bought the metal and the wood.
Detail1996
Future Music · No. 32, September 1996
DetailFuture Music · No. 32, September 1996
“We got all the components, metal, wood, drilled all the holes, named all the filters… There’ll be about 800 LED’s when it’s finished.”
Future Music, No. 32, September 1996
1996Words: Dave Robinson
DetailKris Vanderheyden, 1996
“We’ve just built a modular system.”
C.J. Bolland, 1996
On the newsstand
The magazine covers, colour and black-and-white
The magazines that put the record on the front — shown as they were printed, colour and black-and-white.
Future Music1996
WaxVol. 1 Issue 6, September 1996
Future MusicNo. 32, September 1996
Future MusicOctober 1996
PulpXpressIssue 3, October 1996
PulpXpressIssue 3, October 1996
Out SoonNo. 41, 28 Oct – 2 Dec 1996
Articles
The press archive — every cutting, complete
Interviews. Reviews. Reports. The mid-nineties as the magazines saw it — scans arriving as they are digitised.
1996
A Load of Old Bolland
Impact · No. 26, 1996
Analogue Theatre
Atmosphere · 1996
Analogue Theatre
DJ Magazine · 1996
The Analogue Theatre
Vox / Select · 1996
The Analogue Theatre
Mixology · 1996
Sugar Is Sweeter
1996
Bolland's Belgian sweet
D-Tour · 1996
The Analogue Theatre
1996
Live Life in the Fast Lane
DetailWax · 1996
Wax · 1996
More CJ Bolland than you can handle
Hot Press · 1996
Buzz Beats Hype Chart
1996
DJ charts — Rhythm Masters, DJ Paulette, Klubbheads, Gusto
Knowledge · 1996
The Analogue Theatre
“CJ Bolland & collaborator Chris Insider.”
Atmosphere, Issue 34, 1996
DetailMuzik · 1996
Muzik · 1996
CJ Bolland — Megadog, Leicester University
Detail1996Detail1996
1996
Driven — leaving R&S, teaming up with Kris Vanderheyden
Mixmag Update — Most Wanted 1 · C.J. BOLLAND — Sugar Is Sweeter · Internal
1
October 1996
Sugar Is Sweeter
United Kingdom
Mixmag Update — The Egg (Megadog/Paradox) 12 · CJ BOLLAND — Sugar Is Sweeter
12
31 August – 7 September 1996
Sugar Is Sweeter
United Kingdom
SarkyCutt — DJ Charts (Dex 'n Jonesey) 5) Sugar is Sweeter · C.J. Bolland (Internal)
5
September/October 1996
Sugar Is Sweeter
Europe
Dutch Klubhoppers — DJ chart 6 · CJ BOLLAND "Sugar is Sweeter" (Armand Van Helden Mix)
6
1996
Sugar Is Sweeter
United Kingdom
Touch — House Ten CJ BOLLAND, Sugar Is Sweeter (Internal)
listed
Issue 63, October 1996
The Fallout
The Prodigy row, the split with R&S — and the label’s published reply
The Prodigy
Reviewers heard The Prodigy’s Poison in Sugar Is Sweeter — filed beside Firestarter and the Chemical Brothers — and the comparison followed the record into the news pages. Both sides are here as they were printed, without a modern gloss.
Muzik · No. 19, December 1996Prodigy slam CJ Bolland
The news story, in full.
DetailMuzik, December 1996.Muzik · No. 19, December 1996
“The melody is different, the vocals are different, the only thing which is similar is the break, and even that’s unintentional.”
C.J. Bolland — Muzik, No. 19, December 1996
Melody Maker / NME · 21–28 September 1996Liam Howlett has the Prodigy's lawyers on the case
The same week, in the weeklies.
DetailMelody Maker / NME · 21–28 September 1996
“The Prodigy giving CJ Bolland a hard time. Not hard enough, though.”
Muzik, December 1996
1996Words: Dave Robinson
DetailKris answering the accusation in his own words.Kris Vanderheyden, 1996
Bandwidth · August 1996Prodigy & CJ Bolland — Phoenix Festival
The two acts on the same bill at the Phoenix Festival — and the live review names Insider.
DetailBandwidth · August 1996
DJ Magazine · 1996The Analogue Theatre
Jockey Slut · 1996Sugar Is Sweeter
Out of Order / The Standard · 13 September 1996Sugar Is Sweeter
Melody Maker · 2 November 1996CJ Bolland — Leeds University
Muzik · 19961996 — A year to remember: The Prodigy giving CJ Bolland a hard time
The split with R&S
Bolland’s account of leaving R&S was printed in the music press. Renaat Vandepapeliere answered it in Mixmag’s letters page. Both pages are below, complete, in the order they appeared.
1996
First: the claim, as printed.
DetailPress feature, words by David Davies, 1996
R&S responds
The label writes back
The complete letters page is below. The reply is signed Renaat Vandepapeliere, Managing Director, R&S Records.
Mixmag · Vol. 2 No. 65, October 1996Letters — Renaat Vandepapeliere, R&S Records
Mixmag · Vol. 2 No. 65, October 1996Letters — Renaat Vandepapeliere, R&S Records
The reply, enlarged. The complete page stays above it.
DetailAnswering the royalties line point by point.Renaat Vandepapeliere — Mixmag, Vol. 2 No. 65, October 1996DetailAnswering the royalties line point by point.Renaat Vandepapeliere — Mixmag, Vol. 2 No. 65, October 1996
1996Driven — leaving R&S, teaming up with Kris Vanderheyden
1996A Load of Old BollandBolland on the R&S years, in an interview from the same season.
Moving On
In his own words
VANDERHEYDEN, IN HIS OWN WORDS
The partnership behind The Analogue Theatre was intense, productive and relatively short-lived. Kris Vanderheyden was involved in the project for around a year, a period in which the collaboration helped shape the records, visual identity and live presentation surrounding the album. According to Vanderheyden, however, as the project developed, a number of issues gradually made it difficult for him to continue.
Eventually, I decided to step away from the project.
There wasn’t one dramatic moment. It was more a combination of things that, over time, became difficult for me to reconcile.
CJ had already been an established DJ before I joined him, and naturally he continued doing those DJ shows. But as The Analogue Theatre developed, I began to feel a growing distinction between those appearances and what we had created together as a live project.
For me, the music from that period had come out of the meeting of two people, two different backgrounds, ideas and ways of working that somehow connected at exactly the right moment. The records, the sound, the artwork and the live show all grew around that collaboration. That was the project I believed in and wanted to represent.
And, to be completely frank, the records we made together became the biggest hits either of us had ever made. That made it even harder for me to understand why the collaborative nature of the project was not always reflected in the way it was presented.
By that point, I was also already working on what was supposed to become the second album. I had created five tracks for it. Some were completely finished, while others were already at a very advanced demo stage. So when I stepped away, I wasn’t simply leaving something that had run its course. Creatively, I was already well into what we thought would be the next chapter.
The other issue was the way the credits were presented.
We appeared together in photographs, on artwork and promotional material, yet when the record was released, my name wasn’t given the same prominence on the front sleeve. At the time, I was told by the label that this had been a management decision. By then, of course, the records had already been manufactured and released, and there was very little I could do to change it.
It was disappointing, particularly because what people were seeing visually and what they were reading in the credits didn’t really tell the same story.
“I had created five tracks for it. Some were completely finished, while others were already at a very advanced demo stage.”
Kris Vanderheyden
Over the years I have tried on several occasions to reconnect with CJ and suggested that perhaps, with so much time having passed, we could simply straighten out that part of the history. There is something slightly strange about looking back at photographs and record covers where we are standing beside each other, knowing how closely we worked during that period, while the billing doesn’t reflect it in the same way.
But I don’t look back on those years with bitterness.
Quite the opposite.
It was an extraordinary period of my life, and I am proud of what we created together. It opened one chapter, and leaving it allowed another one to begin.
I continued making records, had hits of my own, achieved number-one remixes in America and eventually fulfilled a long-held dream of working in Minneapolis, alongside many other projects and adventures that followed.
So this isn’t really a story about what went wrong.
It’s simply where The Prophet Years end and where the rest of my story begins.
— Kris Vanderheyden
Timeline
1991 – 1997
Timeline
The journey through time
From a Roland W30 in a bedroom in Halle to a number one on the Billboard dance chart — and the credit line that did not follow.
Halle, Belgium
1987
Eddy’s Records
A sixteen-year-old Kris Vanderheyden takes a job in a record shop in Halle and saves for a Roland W30 sampling workstation. The demos start in his bedroom.
Music Man Records
1991
“Destiny”
Released under the name Insider, “Destiny” becomes a continental rave record and puts him on stages from Mayday to the Limelight in New York.
R&S Records, Ghent
1992
The 4th Sign
C.J. Bolland’s debut album for R&S. The writing and production credits carry three names — Bolland, Cisco Ferreira and Kris Vanderheyden. The partnership that produces the hits four years later is already on the sleeve.
Two contracts
1994
Bonzai and PolyGram
Vanderheyden signs to Bonzai. C.J. Bolland leaves R&S Records for a five-album deal with Internal, the PolyGram imprint. The two Belgians start working together.
Brussels
1995
Inside The Closet
Sessions for The Analogue Theatre run in a Brussels studio called The Closet — two tracks aside, cut at The Bedside Lab. Six of the ten finished tracks carry both names.
05 October — UK No. 11
1996
Sugar Is Sweeter
The single enters the Official Singles Chart at the start of October and peaks at eleven, staying five weeks. It tops the Official Dance Singles Chart. On 26 October the album follows at forty-three.
17 May — UK No. 19
1997
The Prophet
The second single enters at its peak of nineteen. In the United States, Armand Van Helden’s remix of Sugar Is Sweeter has already taken the record to number one on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart.
On the American pressing of that single, one of the two producers is not named.
Catalogue
1998
Filed as a classic
Sugar Is Sweeter appears on FFRR Classics; The Prophet is licensed to a PlayStation-branded compilation. The records outlive the campaign.
Billboard No. 1
2017
Blondie — “Fun”
Vanderheyden’s remix of Blondie’s “Fun” tops the Billboard dance chart and reaches number two on the UK vinyl singles chart. A remix of Janet Jackson’s “Made For Now” follows it to number one.
Antwerp
2022
Zillion
Robin Pront’s film about the Antwerp mega-club draws close to a million admissions in Flanders — and its double soundtrack album carries both men.
The Prophet sits on disc one. Black Magic, written by Vanderheyden as Insider after he watched the footage and started again from scratch, sits on disc two and runs under several scenes. He had played the club himself, back when it mattered.
Brussels
2024
Back in the room
Bolland appears at Listen Festival for a back-to-back with Nosedrip, built around a Stroom reissue of “Camargue” — and records an RA Exchange there about the Antwerp and R&S years.
R&S Records
2023
Something Flash
Thirty years after the scene he helped build, he releases on R&S — the label the whole story started next to.
Video
One film from the archive, kept on this site. Nothing plays until you press play, and no third party is ever involved.
Drop your flyer / share your story
Help keep the history straight. Send in flyers, photographs, ticket stubs or memories from the nineties Belgian scene — scans by e-mail, the story through the form.
Everything is reviewed before it is published. You can ask us to remove your contribution at any time.
References & sources
Credits, pressings, chart tables and further reading
The receipts
What the sleeves actually say
Every line below is taken from a physical pressing or its catalogue entry. Nothing here is an allegation — it is what is printed, and what is not.
Pressing
Year
Role on the sleeve
Credit
Source
The 4th Sign — R&S Records — RS 92024 CD (CD, Belgium) R&S Records — RS 92024 CD (CD, Belgium)
1992
Written-By, Producer — with C.J. Bolland and Cisco Ferreira
Sources are linked per row. Corrections are welcome — use the contact form and we will amend the record.
Discography
Every pressing we can find
Singles, album pressings, compilations and soundtrack appearances that carry one or both of these two tracks.
Release
Type
Label
Cat. no.
Format
Year
Credit
Release
The Prophet
The track that gave these years their name. Originally appearing on The Analogue Theatre in 1996, The Prophet was released as a single the following year. Its dark, driving production and unmistakable spoken-word sample took it to number 19 on the UK Singles Chart and number 2 on the UK Dance Singles Chart.
One of the defining tracks of the album, and a record that carried the sound of The Analogue Theatre directly into the UK charts.
Writing and production: C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden.
The record that broke out. Cut in The Closet in Brussels, released on Internal in October 1996, and pushed into the American clubs by Armand Van Helden's Drum 'n' Bass mix. Number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, number one on the UK dance chart, number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play.
Writing and production: C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden. Vocal: Jade 4U.
Eight minutes and forty seconds of Brussels techno built over speech samples of Willem Dafoe from The Last Temptation of Christ. Released as a single on FFRR in May 1997 and straight into the UK top twenty.
Writing and production: C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden.
The album. Recorded in The Closet, except two tracks cut at The Bedside Lab. Ten tracks, of which six carry Kris Vanderheyden in the writing and production credits — including the title track and both singles.
The 1997 European reissue adds Electro Power (355 Turbo Power Mix) and Armand Van Helden's Drum 'n' Bass mix of Sugar Is Sweeter. Vanderheyden's writing and production credit extends to tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10 to 12.
The American 12". Five mixes across two sides, including Armand's Drum and Bass Mix and the Monkey Mafia mix.
The catalogue entry for this pressing lists Kris Vanderheyden as Producer [uncredited], and Jade 4U as Vocals [uncredited]. Neither name appears on the record.
Two-track Italian 12" on ZAC Records, carrying Tyrome's Spirit In The House Mix — Tyrome being one of Kris Vanderheyden's own aliases. Sleeve credit: C.J. Bolland and Kris Vanderheyden, producer and written-by.
The Prophet on the Belgian series that documented the era as it happened.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Serious Beats
Year
1997
Country / territory
Belgium
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Serious Beats
CD compilation
1997
Written-By, Producer
Release
Cream Anthems 97
The Prophet in the Cream canon — the Liverpool club's year-end mix for 1997.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Virgin
Year
1997
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation, DJ mix
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Virgin
CD compilation, DJ mix
1997
Written-By, Producer
Release
FFRR Classics
Sugar Is Sweeter filed as a label classic barely two years after release.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
FFRR
Year
1998
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
FFRR
CD compilation
1998
Written-By, Producer
Release
100 Hits: 90s Dance
Both tracks resurface on the box-set circuit.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
100 Hits
Year
2010
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD box set
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
100 Hits
CD box set
2010
Written-By, Producer
Release
The Sound of Belgium, Vol. 3
The Prophet on the compilation series that set out to write the country's dance history down.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
N.E.W.S.
Year
2016
Country / territory
Belgium
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
N.E.W.S.
CD compilation
2016
Written-By, Producer
Release
Cherry Moon — Sunset Edition
The Lokeren club's retrospective, carrying The Prophet.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Cherry Moon
Year
2017
Country / territory
Belgium
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Cherry Moon
CD compilation
2017
Written-By, Producer
Release
Dance Nation 3
An early sign of how fast Sugar Is Sweeter crossed over — on a mainstream mixed compilation within months of release.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Ministry Of Sound
Year
1997
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation, DJ mix
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Ministry Of Sound
CD compilation, DJ mix
1997
Written-By, Producer
Release
Cream Collect Techno
The Prophet filed under techno by the Liverpool club that had made it a peak-time record.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Cream
Year
2002
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Cream
CD compilation
2002
Written-By, Producer
Release
Ibiza: The History of Trance
The Prophet read backwards as trance history — one of many genre labels the record has been filed under.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Various
Year
2004
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Various
CD compilation
2004
Written-By, Producer
Release
Dave Pearce: The Dance Years 1997
The Radio 1 presenter’s year-by-year series picking The Prophet to stand for 1997.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Ministry Of Sound
Year
2009
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Ministry Of Sound
CD compilation
2009
Written-By, Producer
Release
Zillion — original soundtrack
Robin Pront's 2022 film about the Antwerp mega-club, and the double album Universal Music Belgium released with it.
Both men are on the same record. C.J. Bolland — “The Prophet” sits at disc one, track seven, between Tiësto’s “Adagio For Strings” and DJ Jean’s “The Launch”. Insider — “Black Magic” sits at disc two, track fifteen, next to Lords Of Acid and Moby.
Vanderheyden wrote three pieces for the film. After watching the footage he rebuilt one from scratch; the director used it across several scenes. Twenty-five years after the record they made together, the co-writer finally appears on a sleeve under his own name — on the same sleeve.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Universal Music Belgium
Catalogue number
539.743-2
Year
2022
Country / territory
Belgium
Format
2×CD film soundtrack
Type
Soundtrack / sync
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer (The Prophet) · composer (Black Magic, as Insider)
Written-By, Producer (The Prophet) · composer (Black Magic, as Insider)
Release
PlayStation Xtreme Games
The Prophet licensed to a PlayStation-branded compilation — the tracks reaching an audience that had never seen the sleeve.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Sony
Year
1998
Country / territory
Europe
Format
CD compilation
Type
Soundtrack / sync
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Soundtrack / sync
Sony
CD compilation
1998
Written-By, Producer
Release
MTV Grind, Volume 1
Sugar Is Sweeter on the companion album to MTV's daytime dance show — the American crossover in one artefact.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
MTV
Year
1997
Country / territory
USA
Format
CD compilation
Type
Soundtrack / sync
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Producer — uncredited on the US pressing
Various
Soundtrack / sync
MTV
CD compilation
1997
Producer — uncredited on the US pressing
Release
Kisstory Presents Old Skool & Anthems
Two decades on, Sugar Is Sweeter is still being sold as an anthem to the audience that first heard it on pirate radio.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Kisstory
Year
2016
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation, DJ mix
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Kisstory
CD compilation, DJ mix
2016
Written-By, Producer
Release
How Do I Deal
The American single by Jennifer Love Hewitt carries a Danny Saber remix of Sugar Is Sweeter — the track finding its way onto a US teen-film release two and a half years after Belgium made it.
Billed artist
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Record label
143 Records
Catalogue number
9362446142
Year
1999
Country / territory
USA
Format
CD single
Type
Soundtrack / sync
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Soundtrack / sync
143 Records
9362446142
CD single
1999
Written-By
Release
Club Sounds Vol. 3
Armand’s Drum ’n’ Bass Mix on the German club series — the route by which the remix reached the German-speaking market.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Polystar
Catalogue number
553 962-2
Year
1997
Country / territory
Germany
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Polystar
553 962-2
CD compilation
1997
Written-By, Producer
Release
Mixmag — Essential Dance 1990–2000
The magazine’s decade round-up, with the Armand Van Helden mix standing for the nineties.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Mixmag
Catalogue number
MM001
Year
2000
Country / territory
UK
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Mixmag
MM001
CD compilation
2000
Written-By, Producer
Release
Nordic Rave 3
An early Scandinavian appearance for The Prophet, dated 1996 — before the single was even released in Britain.
Billed artist
Various
Record label
Various
Year
1996
Country / territory
Scandinavia
Format
CD compilation
Type
Compilation
Kris Vanderheyden’s credited role
Written-By, Producer
Various
Compilation
Various
CD compilation
1996
Written-By, Producer
Contact
Corrections, contributions, rights enquiries
Use this form for corrections to the archive, scans or flyers you would like to contribute, rights and licensing enquiries, or press requests.
Your message is stored on this server and e-mailed to the archive. It is never passed to a third party, and never used for marketing.
We set no analytics or advertising cookies. Fonts are served from this domain. The only optional item is video embeds: if you allow them, players from YouTube or Vimeo may set their own cookies when you press play. Cookie policy ·
Privacy policy
