Addressing the maximalist tendencies of peak-period hardcore, as exemplified by Acen, in both the Wire review and the accompanying online interview, I mentioned Hyper On Experience as the closest counterparts in terms of hyperactive grandeur.
But I hadn't noticed that just like Acen has come back with new material, so too have Hyper On, with releases on Kniteforce in 2018 (The Family Man EP) and 2020 (a double 12-inch maxi-EP with 8 tracks, so really more like a short album, titled Runs in the Family)
MAXimalizm intact, in full effect.
As is the jokey tradition of family-idioms for titles: see the earlier Fun for all the Family, Keep It in the Family, The Family We Never Had and finally, taking the self-piss, Deaf In the Family (A Sad Title for an Otherwise Splendid EP)
There's also been a slew of remixes of classic Hyper On tunes by retro-junglist youngbloods (or relative youngbloods in some cases), once again through Kniteforce, which seems to be the hub for this kind of thing now. These packages are listed, - questionably? - as albums on Discogs, because they contain the original 4 track EPs and then the same number again of remixes.
Because Kniteforce is doing this thing of keeping it strictly vinyl (a sound business decision no doubt) and listing the obligatory Bandcamp digital option at a deliberately astronomical price (1000 quid) to discourage anyone from taking it, it's quite hard to hear either the most recent of the new EPs or the remix packages online.
You can get soundclip tastes:
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/runs-in-the-family-ep-2x12-vinyl
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/fun-for-all-the-family-ep-12-vinyl
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/keep-it-in-the-family-extended-ep-digital
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/the-family-we-never-had-extended-ep-digital
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/deaf-in-the-family-extended-ep-digital
Some individual tracks also got the multiple remix treatment
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/disturbance-remixes-2x10-vinyl
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/lord-of-the-null-lines-remixes-ep-2x10-vinyl
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/the-complete-bootlegged-foul-play-remixes-ep-12-vinyl
Here and there some have seeped out on YouTube.
MAXimalists meet! Acen remixes "Lords of the Null Lines"
Another collision of old skool legends - Sub Love versus Hyper On
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/legends-vs-legends-vol-3-10-vinyl
Sub Love themselves have had extensive Kniteforce archivalism
https://kniteforcerevolution.com/store/product/sublove-legacy-ep-vol-1-2x12-vinyl
https://kniteforce.bandcamp.com/album/kf105-sublove-legacy-vol-2
https://kniteforce.bandcamp.com/album/kf120-sublove-legacy-vol-3
The reissuing and the remixing is a kind of maximalist endeavour in itself - a lot to digest. Kniteforce getting a bit carried away with excitement!
Thinking back to the golden olden daze... there's so many great Hyper On Experience tunes.... "Imajicka" and "Assention' the twin towers over everything.... the equivalents of "Trip II The Moon" and "Windows" maybe... actually it's more like triplets towers, because of "Lords of the Null Lines," awe-inspiring in both original and Foul Play incarnations
But this is one that I particularly loved for its skidding, turn-on-a-dime breaksmanship
Great title too (a Hyper On forte generally)
Fun video on the making of the Peter Cannon remix of "Thunder Grip"
Taking the how-it-was-made thing to the MAX - Alex Banks "deconstructs" the new-old choon "Cannon Rush"
A remix from the original time that de-maximalizes it, makes it less eventful, more repetitious
Another tune I really liked - so inventive beat-wise
After Deaf in the Family and the 2 On 1 series one-off "Ouiji Awakening", Alex Banks and Danny Demierre went their separate ways - with Alex joining with JMJ to form EZ Rollers and DD becoming Flytronix. Both had their moments....
... but at the time I felt they had succumbed to the general Moving Shadow drift into the too too smoov. (Everyone seemed to upgrade their gear at the same time and also decide that bongos were really cool sound-textures). I found Dimensions of Sound mostly anodyne and over-clean, and didn't bother with them after that. Flytronix similarly quickly lost my interest (the name and the record artwork certainly didn't help).
However, listening again recently, I found much to like in both post-Hyper outfits's output - perhaps because I'm listening at home at my computer, rather than out in a club. It's funny how music (ardkore) that was originally considered too hectic and pell-mell to even be music (according to some idiot ears) quite quickly matured into this very pleasant sound that was compatible with work, driving, having people round for dinner. The musicality that was always there, if you had the non-idiot ears to detect through the frenz-E, came out fully as this deluxe-relax sound. (The name E-Z Rollers captures it perfectly - and the contrast with Hyper On Experience as a name conveys the shift that took place with 2 or 3 years)
It is a shame though that Hyper On in its original manic-epic incarnation never did an album (I suppose the 4 EPs added up to an album of sorts).
They were high on the list of rave acts who could have should have never did discussed a while back here.
Very high up
Second only to Acen...
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