the revenant rush

this is my fave tune off the Pearsall new-old skool mix in the previous post 

uncanny  - a simulacrum so faithful and precise it's like time travel



but  that tune7 years old in itself  so to hear it now is to truly get lost in the atemporal zones innit

this one also good not quite as a rushgasmic



another wicked one from the Frenzy Journey EP



snips n clips from the whole EP



another (and in fact the only other) EP on KHK Records - Sample Case











the label was based in Finland!

Yell-O-Phase, the label founder, carries on with releases on labels with names like Paranoid, Switchblade Digital, Ravenoyz Recordings  (that one's based in the Canary Islands!) and Raveskool Recordings

each one of which could be a rabbit hole into a micro-universe of retrorave

but i got things to do today, and perhaps (as much as I've enjoyed listening to these Thumps and Bumps and Yell-O-Phase tunes) possibly better things to do with my life

or do I?

get euphoric

new mix by Pearsall of nu-skool rave - "tracks that capture the spirit of '92 while using modern production techniques"

Tracklisting:

01. Try Unity – Time To Believe (Rave Radio)
02. Soundbwoy Killah – Tell Me (Warehouse Rave)
03. Manix – Hold Dis (Reinforced)
04. DJ Jedi – Acid Test (Rave Radio)
05. Trigger Happy – Vol. 2 (Side A2) (Trigger Happy)
06. Pete Cannon – Here We Go Again (Kniteforce)
07. Systec – Dreams (Peace On Wax)
08. Boykz & Chapman – Relapse (Enormous Mouse)
09. TenTun – Bass Drum (Rikka Jam)
10. Innercore – Suspense (Peace On Wax)
11. 2 Bad Mice – Gone Too Soon (Sneaker Social Club)
12. DJ Jedi – Utopia (Jedi Recordings)
13. Thumps & Bumps – Hardcore Sound (KHK)
14. Systec – Hardcore Generation (Peace On Wax)
15. Stormski – Come Selector (Stay On Target)

release rationale in full here


extracts:

"One difference between then and now is that production standards have clearly improved – these tracks sound crisp in a way that relatively few 1992 rave tracks do. High-end audio mastering technology was a luxury for the few back in the day, whereas every random bedroom producer today has access to the kind of tools that would have been an impossible dream for all but the wealthiest old skool rave producers.

"Another difference is that the march of time has ensured that producers are much more aware of how to program their tracks in a dj-friendly way – I flipped this mix together in one take and everything slid together quite nicely, which is emphatically not the case with many tracks back in the day, as they are often plagued with random bars throwing the mix structure out, strangely-triggered samples, sudden drops and the like....  so many producers were self-taught and basically unaware of how to structure their tracks to make life easier for a dj. For the listener, this unpredictability is part of the charm, but for a dj it can be hair-tearingly frustrating, as you think you have safely navigated the mix in for landing only for something incredibly weird to appear out of nowhere and send the whole mix flying off into fiery oblivion."


Looking forward to Pearsall's promised next mix Get It 005 - "devoted to dark 1993-esque rave sounds"

Rewind for his earlier mixes of new-old skool

Future Proofed




Get It 003 - devoted to ragga-junglish nu-core tunes



interesting discussion of the general issue / idea of new-old skool tracks) over at The Next Groove blog

"In my opinion, imitation (and nothing but imitation) can only take us so far. It seems to me that if we want to recreate the energy of the old school Hardcore era, we have to dig deeper than its plasticity, to unveil what its spirit and approach were, rather than its specific sonic palette. Hardcore was a bastard genre, a sort of Frankenstein's Monster taking bits and pieces from other genres of that era. Techno of that era. House of that era. RnB of that era. Hip hop of that era. Dancehall of that era.

"If we want to bring back the sense of catharsis that the older generation experienced, we have to start by creating our own bastard genre of today. Taking bits and pieces from the music of today. Techno of today. House of today. Dancehall of today. Etc. And we also have look at new genres that have sprung up in the last two decades: Dubstep, Grime, Funky House, Alternative RnB, Drum n Bass, Afrobeats, Afroswing, Gqom, etc, etc. Only then, I think, can we get our own "being there", our own "being part of something new and special", and our own "feeling of freedom and reverie". "

Phan phic

DJ Phantasy is one of the true skool grrrrrrrreats from back in the day, yet how could this series of releases celebrating his 30 Years in Da Biz be anything but phormulaic phrozen-phuturism?

"First is a track called Hypocrite with Kanine, which is a techy banger. I have something with grime don ScruFizzer called Bad2DaBone and Sound Killa with my boy Shabba D ... There is a third part planned as well, plus some...  stuff I am working on with my bruva Macky Gee. And on top of that SaSaSaS have some releases planned too." 

Not his fault, though, not at all:  it's the surrounding culture that's changed.

A question of scenius depletion, not genius decay.

Cos even the names are shite these days (ScruFizzer!)

How it once was - from his first 3 Years in Da Bizness of Ruffness













Look, he deserves to make a living in perpetuity for having done those tunes.

never mind the balearics

Ibiza A Short Film About Chilling from Racket Racket on Vimeo.

bonus chillage

kiss my orb

well i'm embarrassed - wot with being an accredited historian of this subject and all - that i had never heard this early Orb EP The Kiss.

apparently it was " based upon samples taken from KISS FM, a New York radio station"

spasm #2

not dance music, but some kind of postpostmetal blast beat hyperspasmus

sounds like it could be programmed or drum machined into existence

but who knows eh? it's a one-man band at any rate.

wouldn't it be funny if metal - which one tends to think of as supremely physical music, strenuous in excelsis, muscled, sweaty - became a subset of electronic music?  all the "effort" vaporized into sets of digital decisions, blocs of information dragged and tweaked

perhaps some of it already is

(via andrew parker)

spasm #1

well that is pretty mad

a recommendation from my boy Kieran

he also likes this, which is not as manic but pretty peculiar, droopy, tone-smeary stuff





all unfamiliar stuff to me really, games music - i must have played a video game perhaps a dozen times in me life. completely bypassed me.

watch ya bass bins

sometimes i think this crazy archival (ardkival, even) culture of ours has gone a bit far, stripping the mystery a little as the frontiers of non-knowledge get pushed back further and further, everything documented and annotated and mapped -  tidied up



but then on t'other hand,  it is kinda cool that someone at The Ransom Note has dug up the story behind the voice that goes "watch ya bass bins i'm tellin ya" on Altern-8's "Infiltrate 202"

Turns out they they it sampled from a Sheffield pirate radio station - not necessarily this particular show, but this station - SRC aka Sheffield community Radio, which then became Fantasy FM - and this deejay duo, Astrix & Space



i went a-lookin' on account of this wikkid UKG tune that Cardrossmaniac2 dropped earlier this week



which doesn't as far as i can tell actually feature the vocal bit from  Chris Duckenfield  (aka Astrix - he also worked for Warp in the shop and various other functions)

just a folk memory allusion, maybe, or simply a perennially applicable warning! (you got bass bins, you better watch 'em)

the oil-slick noxious B-line on the G.O.D. tune made me think of another Sheffield connection - a later temple of bass boom - Niche



see, it's all connected...  there's these threads...  there's a word for it, it's on the tip of my tongue...






Astrix & Space i.e. Duckenfield and partner Richard Benson pop up here actually remixing "Infiltrate 202" !





other remixes, one by an illustrious name but not really lustrous






Ah Duckenfield and Benson it seems were RAC, a Warp act whose name rings a faint bell (stands for Richard And Chris)



That would qualify as late bleep maybe -  from 92

And this is arguably very late bleep  - from 1994





The sound getting a bit clean and fiddly by this point - not a great need to be keeping a watchful eye on those bass bins anymore



Yeah bleep to bassline via UKG - that would be the better line to follow