Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Mystery Tune #22 - Baby Won't You Be My Sweetheart


protochill



someone on the socials pointed out the chill-anticipatory quality of this ELO tune, can't remember who (Matt Diehl? Rob Chapman?)

but it's also rather like contemporary things by Ralph Lundsten




ghost step




immaculate -  if pointless -  repro


Thursday, March 26, 2020

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

ghost house







Paul Oldfield, Royal House, Melody Maker, autumn 1988



Sunday, March 22, 2020

Mystery Tune #20 - Somersaulting Morse Code Vamp


Lethal B(eats) (Rave R.I.P.)














MC Lethal who is from Stoke On Trent was resident MC at legendary Midlands rave clubs, Shelley's & Entropy in the early '90's. Arguably he was the first 'Rave' MC to move into recording & production with singles 'Ravedigger' & 'The Phantom' for Network Records. His break came when he was working as a part-time shop assistant in Kaos Records in Stoke-On-Trent. Daz Willot (DJ and shop manager) offered him £20 a night to drive him to his gigs. Daz then encouraged him to pick up the mic and MC for him.














fidgety flickery



Wednesday, March 18, 2020

sample chain

in reverse chronology




most likely from




most likely from





from





the Bomb the Bass stuff is more proto-hardcore epi-electic sample-collagey than I remember -  an ancestor to  DJ Trax and Hyper-On


Sunday, March 8, 2020

a sample in the dark





what are the songs sampled in this? cos there's a lot of soundbites and good vocal licks

- "ain't it wild?"
- "legal-shun" (that's what it sounds like to me)
- "but criminal" or "buck criminal" (sounds like Public Enemy to me)
- "wrath of the psychopath" (presumably from Lords of the Underground "Psycho"?)
- "wake up" or "waco"




the top one is my favorite mix but these remixes good too








Two other killer tunes on the same EP makes this Hype's counterpart to Rufige Cru Darkrider EP






These tunes forever associated for me with this electrifying life-shaking moment of pirate madness, where both appear with the Ras Project "Walking in the Air" Aled Jones sampling tune in the  middle




Now, what's that track about 20 minutes in with the "why don't you give a little love" lover's rock entreaty sample?




The Trooper EP and Remixes are good enuff i spose -  remember feeling slightly disappointed when I heard them (after "Shot"/Weird Energy"/Can't Understand" )...

So this is my other fave Hypechoon of around this time



And perhaps even more so in the Johnny Jungle remix version off of The Joint.



The Joint might actually be my favorite ever jungle compilation -  partly to do with it coming out just as I was getting to grips with the landscape of the scene, not long after I made contact with both Moving Shadow and Suburban Base

I like the strength-in-numbers idea of pooling resources to do a compilation together:  the scene still very much the underdog and outcast, banished to the shadows, trying to get attention

The Joint II wasn't nearly as good, or as special a moment, and around that time, or a little earlier maybe,  Moving Shadow had done its own far superior comp Renegade Selector Series 1, on its Re-Animate sublabel.

Now that actually might be the best jungle comp ever, track for track

Even better than superb Drum and Bass, Selection 1 - Suburban Base's equivalent go-it-alone-again move (and on their own compilation sub-label Breakdown) although it's a close run thing

But back to Hype... there was much more greatness to come .... "Roll the Beatz"... "Computerise"...
"You Must Think First"... ...  "Rinse Out"... the "RIP" remix

Sunday, March 1, 2020

pandemonium



sluggish snakes of Roland 303 battle it out with an encroaching fog of Roland Alpha Juno 2 aka The Mentazm Sound

off the Tranztechno EP 1991



Tranztechno - a year or two before the word 'trance' takes off

And the sound anticipates the 303-resurgence sound of "Hardtrance Acperience" (gruesome pun which i only just fully got - acid experience / acperience)  and the wave that came after Hardfloor (another painful pun although I should talk really)

rest of the EP not as compelling as "Acid Pandemonium"

This other top tune by Mundo Muzique is completely different in vibe but lovely



"Mentasm" is why Edmundo Perez deserves eternal fame, and while Beltram tends to get the credit - with the exception of "Energy Flash", he never made anything on his own nearly as a good or as consequential as the Second Phase track - so perhaps Perez was the secret sauce, the potentiating extra dose

Then there's the track that Ed and Joe made with Richie



the Plus 8 stuff was smack in the middle between hardcore and trance - did the sear/surge thing well - somehow i never find myself digging it out

but remember being shook by this when i first heard it



now it sounds a bit slow,it seemed really fast and punishing in 91