non-FP RMX, or Haigher and Haigher, to the Haighest of Haights

The two FP remixes have inevitably but regrettably eclipsed the splendor of the original versions by Mr Haigh - and who remembers the other two awesome tracks on Vol 3?

"I wanted to be a ghost of a producer" - Timewarp Volume One, ardkore reconstructions by Luna C

follow-up to previous post, in the comment box of which one D Peat informs about this curious  - extraordinary, even - project by Luna C aka Chris Howell of Kniteforce, in which he literally remakes - from scratch - classic hardcore raves and jungle tekno tunes

His rationalisation, for what appears to have been a kind of therapeutic exercise, a form of "memory work" or self-mourning: 

"I... thought what a shame it is that the fast pace of dance music doesn’t lend itself to longevity. The links and chains are lost to time, and so much has been forgotten....  It changes and develops so quickly that people come in, hear a years worth of one style, and then move on. And these old artists made amazing, innovative music that is never heard any more. It made me sad, and it made me long for the so called good old days lol. Only, I did not want to go back to them,. I wanted to bring them to me, to now. I wanted to show them to those who missed it the first time around.

"And like that, I knew I would never find a way forward without going backwards first.

"So I turned to the music of my youth, my hardcore hero’s, for inspiration. Acen, Soundcorp, NRG, Nookie, the huge names like the Prodigy, the tiny and obscure like DSFK. All those great artists that made their names when the music was new, and had no rules. I found myself messing about with one of my all time favorite tracks – NRG’s He Never Lost His Hardcore, and I wondered – would modern audiences dig the old skool tracks if they heard them now? As if they were new, as if they were made with modern technology. I love my old school, but musical production levels have changed so dramatically over the years that no matter how well produced an old school tune is, a new raver will hear “slow, flat, weird”. The weird I couldn’t change – and I wouldn’t, because that is one of the things that made old school so awesome. But the flat sound is simply production, and the speed can be changed.

"Which is what I did.

"The Timewarp set is a set of old school tracks remade from scratch. I gave myself some rules that firmed up as I went along:

1. No sampling the original release. I did bend this rule on aa few of the tracks where I had no other option, but all the others are built with no samples from the original releases at all.

2. Find the original samples sources and get them as clean as possible.

3. The format must remain the same, even if, or especially because, its weird. No adding or changing things – these tracks are not remixes. Where things needed to be added or changed due to technology etc, I did, but I did everything I could to remain in the spirit of the original tracks.

4. Fix what can be fixed, leave the rest alone. By this I mean, some of them just could not work in a modern day setting, but with a few very minor tweaks, could be made to fit.

"The result is Supaset 16, The Timewarp set. The basic premise is this – if these artists were making these tracks today, how would they sound? If a 1992 Acen had been somehow given access to a 2015 studio, how would his track have sounded? I deliberately set myself aside as much as I could – I wanted to be a ghost of a producer, rebuilding the tracks but having no artistic impact.

"I have tried to get as close to the originals as possible in every way possible. Some actually sound like I have magically pitched them up with no audio loss – these are the ones I am most proud of. Some differ from the originals because nowadays, you can either be 4×4 or breaks and bass. Back in the day, tracks often combined 4×4 and a bassline, which works with a light bassline, sort of, but absolutely would not work on the modern dance floor. So with some tracks, I had to make a choice which way to lean. It was important to me that the tracks could be played to a modern audience without compromising the original vibe. I think I have done okay with that bit, the best I could do.

In the end, this set was a labor of love and gratitude. These tracks in their original format shaped my life, and while I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the original artists, I could never explain to anyone how much these tracks meant to me. It was in incredibly difficult set to make. I hope you enjoy it. Now I will shut up and let the set play…."


What an articulate account of a compellingly strange undertaking!

Like this bit:

"I deliberately set myself aside as much as I could – I wanted to be a ghost of a producer, rebuilding the tracks but having no artistic impact.

Listening, they don't sound that different, which is obviously the point. They are  faster, slightly cleaner-clearer, the drums a bit more harder-hitting.

I prefer the cruddy lo-res murk of the originals, but then I am E-motionally cathected to that sound, from the original time, and from countless subsequent replays and revisitings.

But overall, I would say Chris has achieved what he set out to do.  

Here's one of his own classics from back in the day: 

junglestalgia part 156 - "old-new" versus old-old (but once new-new)

producer Eveson tells FACT about his Dead Man's Chest alter-ego, specifically created as an outlet for 90s rave replicas like the Dreamscapes EP and forthcoming Nautilus EP

"As a kid, my main point of reference and window into the 90s rave/jungle scene (aside from the odd festival dance tent during summers; a perk of growing up in Glastonbury) was my mixtape collection – bought, swapped, duplicated, passed between friends and coveted above all else” 

“The music was steeped in mystery… beyond a faceless DJ name, I had no idea how it was made, who created it or where it was coming from. To me those tapes were simply 60-odd-minute aural collages, erratic and juxtaposed with soaring female vocals riding over ragga chants one moment and piano rushes rolling over bleeps and bass the next, all underpinned by machine gun breaks and smothered under the warm lo-fi hiss of a cassette tape.

“The Dead Man’s Chest alias is all about reimagining the vibe, aesthetic and my own personal connection to that era, writing modern compositions that stand alongside the music of today whilst sounding perfectly at home in the mix with the tunes that inspired their creation.”

a classic example of nostalgia for a time when you didn't feel nostalgia - when all that counted was the future-now

and a mixtape he done for FACT mixing up his own new-old tunes with actual old-old tunes (that were once actually new-new)

FP RMX

Foul Play remix of EZ Rollers's "Believe"

the textured drummige on that one! oooh gosh

an obscure one via Man like Droid



a classic one - staggering in both senses drums - true "rhythmic psychedelia" (copyright me, 1995)



one i always forget




another one i always forget (tasty too)



an epochal one



another epochal one

'

that epochal one, somehow surpassed





not forgetting their remixes of their own tunes

the unbelievable





another one is the "dub in u' remix which isn't on YouTube (it's listed up there but turns out to be the original "dubbing you")

"dub in U remix" one ended up on the Energy Flash CD owing to a cock up - good but not what i wanted (i wanted the original "Survival")

and finally

finally

the greatest piece of music of the 1990s in my humble opinion

lotsa competition, including from themselves and from people they remixed

but this is the One

ol' blue eyes

from a while back:  PEARSALL PRESENTS SURGICAL SOUNDS
                                a mix  in tribute to the great Doc Scott

(via Cardrossmaniac2)

still going strong apparently

as are most of the fellows upon whose every release I used to hang breathlessly, once upon a time - Andy C, Dillinja, Dego, Hype, Roni Size, Danny Breaks...

sometimes I ponder the fact that they have now carried on many times the length of time i originally paid rapt attention to their every move - which is more or less 1993 to 1997 - 5 years.

soldiering on... prospering, I hope

perhaps that makes me fickle (although five years is quite a sizeable chunk of time to be fixated on one zone of scenius, one phalanx of genius auteur-producers, wouldn't you agree?)

perhaps that means i'm just sharp enough to know when to leave a party before it gets stale

either way, big up this guy - and these guys's -- chest(s) for ever and always

this one in particular is one of the great artworks of the 20th Century, in my loopy little universe at least



tracklist of that Pearsall mix

01. System 7 – Interstate (Doc Scott Remix) (Butterfly)
02. Empirion – B.E.T.A. (Doc Scott Remix) (XL Recordings)
03. Spring Heel Jack – Hale-Bopp (Nasty Habits Remix) (Trade 2)
04. Olive – Miracle (Doc Scott Remix) (RCA)
05. Nasty Habits – March (31 Records)
06. System 7 – Rite Of Spring (Doc Scott Remix) (Butterfly)
07. The Art Of Noise – Something Always Happens (Doc Scott Remix) (Indochina)
09. Doc Scott – Drumz ’95 (Nasty Habits Remix) (Metalheadz)
10. Doc Scott – Machines (Emotif)
11. Doc Scott – Swarm (Metalheadz)
12. Doc Scott – Tokyo Dawn (Earth)
13. Adam F – Metropolis (Doc Scott Remix) (EMI)
14. Nasty Habits – Shadow Boxing (31 Records)
15. Nasty Habits – Shadow Boxing (Remix) (31 Records)
16. Goldie – Kemistry (Doc Scott Remix) (ffRR)

deejaying memories #1

St John's College, Oxford -  scene of my greatest memory of deejaying and my worst

Me and  Paul Oldfield - my best friend and Monitor co-founder/editor-in-chief - partnered in a "DJ company" that went by various names, including - pardon my cringe - Apocalypso.

Despite our nifty-looking, Paul-designed flyer, we secured very few engagements - mostly they involved us playing modern music, club music, 80s electrofunk imports of the kind that David Stubbs marginally more successfully deejayed to a mostly not--very-appreciative student audience at his weekly night The Meltdown

One time we got a gig doing a Sixties night, though

I was more into garage punk; Paul was more into freakbeat.

That said, that night we mostly played fairly well-known Sixties beat and mod type tunes, weaving in the odd garage or freakbeat obscurity

In the course of the night I dropped this



"You Can Make It" sounded phenomenal on a big(gish) system, in that large hall - with that huge stompy drum beat.

And gratifyingly the kids went wild to it.

What thrilled me was the idea of British  kids in 1985 dancing to a record that quite possibly hadn't ever been played in the U.K. on a dance floor -  might indeed have last been played in a club in America in 1967  - and even then, not very often, since the single was a flop, unlike their other single






That was a great buzz, and overall the night went well - better than our usual engagements.

One thing marred the night, though.

This boy kept approaching the booth with a request.

"Can you play Power Station, 'Get It On'?"

I loathed the song. Didn't have the single. And besides, this was a Sixties theme night.

"Don't have that, sorry. Also, this is a Sixties night."

He came back after about fifteen minutes.

"Go on. Power Station. Play it." His tone both pleading and assertive.

"I told you - I don't have it. Also - This. Is. A. Sixties. Night."

About ten minutes after the latest approach /rebuff, a tremendous sulphorous stench enveloped the deejay booth. I realised that the young man -  clearly believing that despite our protestations we possessed the record but were withholding it out of spite - had gone back to his room  - where he kept an arsenal of stinkbombs for purposes unknown -  and then stamped on a couple of the little yellow vials directly in front of the turntables.

Or perhaps he was a chemistry student and cooked up something special on the spur of the moment.

We soldiered on, spinning "You Really Got Me", "See Emily Play", "Psychotic Reactions", The Sorrows's "Take A Heart" etc as the reek slowly dissipated.

the history of non-nuum

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/07/london-techno-untold-story

actually seems more like the story of the Greater London chapter of  IDM or as it was then known ELM - Electronic Listening Music

not as much as I initially thought there'd be on the banging hard tekno end of things

mostly it concerns Black Dog / Plaid, B12, Kirk De G's label, Irdial-Discs, Mark Broom, et al

the seeping into it here and there of names from outside the capital makes me wonder what makes it London Techno

it certainly doesn't seem nearly as much just-4-U-LDN as you-know-what

anyways, interesting piece, another step towards the total mapping out of UKdance historiography

when's someone gonna do right by trance, then?

don't all put your hands up at once

go to the flow with an E rush me ooh rush me Eeee rush me

The return of Xenophobia with a double album of vintage ardkore!





Press release:

Xenophobia is Sid Truelove (DJ Terminator) and Zillah Minx (The Acid
Queen), founding mainstays of the groundbreaking Anarcho Punk group Rubella
Ballet, augmented by the singular talents of Bert Fuzz (MC Skallywag from Spiral Tribe). 

They were among the first to turn on and tune into the early nineties’ rave scene, Sid’s interest growing out of his long-standing fascination with acid house and its associated pirate radio underground network.

Already established as an innovative compositional talent thanks to his work with Rubella Ballet, Sid resolved to extend his exploration of the new sonic horizons of the times by investing every penny he had into the era’s key electronic equipment; an Atari computer running Cubase a program for sequencing, and a Yamaha SY77 digital workstation and a four-track Tascam Portastudio for recording vocals. Armed with this new technology, Sid set about creating his own style of Rave music with the sweetly mesmeric sound of Zillah’s angelic vocals, enhanced by Skallywag’s unique MC-ing, which imparted the new songs with a tangible sense of being at an actual rave.

Hypo Psycho was Xenophobia’s first release with a 4 track 12” EP being issued in late 1991 on Xeno Recordings (XENO1T)... Into Combat was Xenophobia’s second vinyl offering, a 4 track 12” EP issued in early 1992 on XENO Recordings (XENO23T)

Xenophobia made numerous special guest PA’s with Spiral Tribe at illegal underground events in London and further afield around the M25, moving as fast as the scene itself to stay one step ahead of the Old Bill’s pernicious attentions.

The most famous of these was at Castlemorton in Worcestershire where 65,000 ravers congregated by word of mouth alone to spontaneously combust into the biggest guerilla party in Europe.

At the time of the event, Spiral Tribe were tapping into the zeitgeist’s mainline, their recently released eponymous debut EP ‘Breach of the Peace’ featured Xenophobia's monster track ‘Doet’ that included the compelling lyric ‘Rush your f**kin’ bollocks off’.



Xenophobia’s next release was set to be ‘The Wobbler’ on Kickin Records. However, the label had other ideas; pulling the single and subsequently installing the track as a B-side to ‘Rushing the House’ in May 1992. The lead track again captured the context of the era, being capped by the line “Ecstasy, it really gets me going / Gets me so I don’t know what I’m doin’”.

‘Rushing the House’ stormed straight in at Number 20 in the National Dance chart, Released at the height of the pirate radio days it was getting played on every station, seven days a week.

Telstar snapped up ‘Rushing the House’ and released it on Rave Generator a CD
compilation that also featured the Prodigy, Acen, Altern 8, Messiah, Utah Saints and many more.



Sid recalls a phone call from Skallywag with directions to Castlemorten a free rave initiated by Spiral Tribe. The event provided him with the perfect opportunity to hand out a shed load of white labels to DJs at all the rigs. He remembers being with Zillah Minx and Scallywag, walking into one of the biggest tents whereupon the DJ spotted them and immediately killed the tune he was playing and slammed on a white label of ‘Rushing the House’- The place exploded – everyone knew the words, as by now as it was on constant rotation across the pirate radio underground.

Its pivotal lyric, ‘Go to the flow with an E rush me, oo rush me, ee rush me’ was on the lips of nearly every raver on the scene and is still as infectious today as it was 23 years ago.

Big shout out to Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and many more underground systems, coz the music scene in the UK would not be the same without the sacrifices some of you made for the cause. The introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill made Castlemorten the last quality
free rave of the year and put an end to Raves’ as we knew them. 1992 was the summer we will all remember as when the Government put a stop to everyone enjoying them self by enforcing draconian laws on innocent party goers.

Mid 1992 saw Xenophobia perform as headline act at ‘Rave World’, sending the packed, 5000 capacity, venue into a frenzy with their smash hit ‘Rush in the House’ and ‘The Wobbler’. Rare footage from the night has been edited together for the first time in 20 years and is now available to watch on You Tube. 






Touchdown 95.2 FM was one of the leading lights amid the pulsing galaxy of hardcore radio stations in London. DJ Nut Nut gave the band their Xenophobia in Da House
show. Broadcast live every week, it spun some of the best underground hardcore anthems as well as their own, breaking all the DTI regulations on broadcasting etiquette f’ing and blinding all over the airwaves as if you were actually at a rave.

‘Rush in the House’ has been played year after year on pirate radio and more recently on BBC Radio. 23 years on from its original release, this enduring interest has encouraged Sid to compile a double album of hardcore hits titled Bring on the Rush , featuring original nineties hardcore rave anthems ‘Rush in the House’ and ‘The Wobbler’, plus 14 more hardcore tracks written in 1992 at the peak of the underground hardcore explosion.

The first 50 LPs will get a free download of the 16 track CD with 14 tracks from the LP plus two remixes, an unreleased remix of ‘The Wobbler’ and a more recent unreleased breakbeat remix of ‘Rush in the House’.

For a preview of all the tracks check out the playlist at; 

https://soundcloud.com/sidtruelove/sets/bring-on-the-rush 

COMING SOON August 2015 You Know The Score, H A R D C O R E! ‘Bring on the Rush’ Cat No: XENO23LP/CD

OffTheirNut

tastee nu comp from the Offmenut lott



atemporal hyperstatic nuum-spew, yum yum YUM

track 2, Kid Lib's "Gun Talk" -

lived thru this once
relived it  thrice or thirty times,

still living it
still loving it

step on

all this mustard, i'm disgusted

fellow at ILM makes a handy Spotify playlist of every DJ Mustard single, just about

https://open.spotify.com/user/nminichino/playlist/4LJtvEIPgYSyOARnrCmauc

listening to the whole thing (well until I couldn't go any further) I was thinking how there were tracks on it that were just about the most sonically exciting mainstream-ish things of the last 3 years - "Rack City", "2 On", "Headband", "Paranoid"

but how wearing it was, en masse

formulaic

(fun at first, the chanting marines doing drill being in every track, the "Mustard on the beat" audio-logo)

lyrically and worldview-ly pretty putrid too

i harped on the arrested-development aspect of ratchet the first time i posted about it here and nothing's changed with its nothing-changedness

as supple and vacant Muzak of capitalist unrealism  goes, it's delish, no doubt about that

on Power FM, Mustard and Mustardy stuff blends seamlessly into "Dre Day" and "Forgot About Dre" and "Regulate" ...

the changeless same of false consciousness and reification - West Coast style



interesting sub-theme with these two tracks - this is how things are meant to be (me on top, lording it)