rave revision

this much loved starkcore classik by 2 Bad Mice

is a kind of revision of this from a year or two earlier 

 

The relation is not audible in the original pre-remixed "Waremouse" though - which is astonishingly  minimalistic and stark, just sub-bass boomige and MPC-triggered breaks. 

Trak 1 via this Bleeps, Breaks + Bass vol 2 comp that's well worth an ear-gander

https://shop.mentalgroove.ch/album/bleeps-breaks-bass-volume-two

Trax 1 aka Trak 1 had a bunch of releases, all in 1990-92 - something to investigate 

sample spotting saddo (chemistry lesson)

 

samples ( a sample from?) this tune

 A Britrap track

But where does the original "people of chemistry ... people of rhythm" come from? A Nation of Islam speech? 

It also pops up in this hardhouse track from 2000

Krome and Time's fab remix of "Illegal Subs"

This whole EP - or pair of EPs, with the remixes, is so great

I mean this next one, c'mon - world-historical

Gtting a feel of deja vu as I move inevitably to identify its constituents, like I might have posted them before  (the pathways of desire we trace and retrace, eh? like lines scored into the cerebellum)

mouse is a feeling

as deep, dark, minimal, mysterious, serious, as anything out of Detroit

the raw-ngredients riginal



E-ternal techno roller




the raw-ngredients rmx



wannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaEwannaE




drumtrip = "rhythmic psychedelia" (copyright moi 1995, maybe 94 actually)

(actually that track's not where I got the notion from - it was the reversed drums on Omni "Mystic Stepper (Feel Better)" and just darkcore generally)

that's all done with retriggering on a MPC right (same with "Waremouse")

astonishingly basic technology (pre Cubase etc) used to astonishing effect / astonishingly effectively



a last blast of mousely magick (and only really truly amazing thing on the Two on One series)

This is an EP I regret not picking up with the pic cover and all, although the contents go a bit too far into minimalist moodscapery. main claim to memory is on the technical level.









Hype darking it up



Mice on the auto-rmx



pretty sure I got that square shaped (pic disc also?) 10-inch remix release -- more compelling to look at than listen though as i remember

what ho?! not heard / seen this before




there's lot more great early 2 bad Mice / kaotic kems stuff of course, plus the E-pochal remixes like Blame

this is a fave - esp the woozy "don't wanna lose your love" carousel bit



ruff-hewn riginal

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.

building a bombscare

Robert Haigh explains the hardcore piano vamp

SR: In rave anthems like Landlord's “I Like It (Blow Out Dub)”or Outlander's “The Vamp” or your old pals 2 Bad Mice's beyond-classic remix of Blame's "Music Takes You" - specifically at the break at 3.52 - what is happening on the piano? The effect is very euphoric and UP!!  – is that due to the kind of intervals used (they seem very simple,  major chord-y), or just the rattling-along propulsive nature of the riffs? Sometimes I hear what sounds like a double-chording, like the same chord being played very quickly in succession.  The timbre is also part of the bright optimistic feeling. They also have something of the quality of the player piano about  them. 

Robert Haigh:  In each case here the piano is a sample of a chord. That sample/chord is then laid out across the keyboard and triggered (simply with one finger) at various positions (so it’s always the same chord but played at various pitches.) 

On Landlord, we have a sample of a minor chord which is triggered at four points giving us the effect of G+m - D+m - F+m then C+minor.

With "Vamp", which sounds like the very same sample (maybe eq’d a little differently), the sample is triggered at five points giving the effect of C+m - D+m - Em - F+m then G+minor. 

The sound (which I agree is wonderful) appears to be doubled up and highly compressed and clipped - I suspect all this was in the original sampled chord (probably from a Deep House or Techno track - it’s got a bit of a Kevin Saunderson feel.)

Same deal with 2 Bad Mice. This sounds like a maj 7 chord and again the sample been laid across the keyboard and triggered at various pitches. 

Maybe it’s the artificially quantised nature of the notes/chords which give it the player piano quality. 


^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sadmanbarty from Dissensus offers a further thought:

"there are only 3 minor chords in any key, so the fact that these vamps have 4 or 5 minor chords means that they’re modulating (changing key). 

In pop, modulations tend to be used in choruses or at the end of the song to reach a climax. They’re euphoric and up lifting.

The fact that in hardcore these modulations are constantly happening lends itself to your idea of hardcore as a non-narrative, endless succession of NOWs. It contrasts with the way pop uses them sparingly to delineate structure."

sets adrift on memorE bliss

a treasury of old skool -- Uncle Dugs shows for Rinse FM archived -  including guest sets and chats with hardcore luminaries like 2 Bad Mice, Frost, and Guy Called Gerald.

"Proper oral history" says the Man like Droid.


Particularly enjoyed this one, featuring "lovely bloke" Nicky Blackmarket and themed around 1991 (responding to a request for LFO, Dugs says "Not in the bag mate, that's 1990. Bit of a shtickler I am"), that being the year when Dugs went to his first rave