toytown tekno 3 of ?

 

Love the sustained japery of the titling here - Horsepower, "Bolt, "Mane Mix"

Oh and apparently there was a "Ministry of Dung Mix"! 

Horse-sourced, of course, in

"Black Beauty" makes me think of amphetamine pills of the mod and Northern Soul era but that's probably an interpretive leap too far

More horse-core

This CJ Bolland aka Ravesignal tune 'Horsepower" was one of the tracks I really loved when I first got into the hardcore techno in the later months of '91 - it came in a batch of CD singles from R&S that also included "Dominator" and "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm". To say I was blown away is an understatement - the combined impact blew me off course, sent me down a whole different life path. (Well, that and a pill). 

I interviewed Bolland in early '92 when over in Ghent to chat with the R&S crew for this Details feature - another course-resetting experience. 

Whatever else it refers to, "Horsepower" must also be a nod to Team R&S as Techno Champions, what with the label's Ferrari-ripped off logo. 

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

Did you know that one of my namesakes is  a top UK commentator on show jumping? (And breeder). Known for his trenchant opinions. 

the new heavy me(n)tal (When Belgium Roiled the World)

 

- Mixmaster Morris aka The Irresistible Force sounds the rave alarm, September 1991, Melody Maker

A different viewpoint from Belgophile Caspar Pound of Rising High (who put out The Irresistible Force album)

Caspar's like, "Altamont? Bring it on, bring it on!"

More from Caspar Pound (plus a bit from Mark Archer of Nexus 21 / Altern-8) from an early 92 special issue of NME. 

Mark Archer still doffs to the cap to K-werk and the Belleville 3 while acknowledging that the genre has now escaped from ancestral clutches - "no-one can claim to have invented this monster called Techno". 

Here also is Joey Beltram in Melody Maker espousing a dark future techno whose spiritual homelands are Belgium and Brooklyn - and confessing to a love for actual heavy metal especially Sabbath (so perhaps hardkore tekno's spiritual homelands are Belgium, Brooklyn and Birmingham)

He also dismisses Frankie Knuckles and Tony Humphries as "old farty music" (shades of punk's Boring Old Farts dissage of the Old Wave)

When I interviewed Beltram in early '92, he claimed he was in the running to produce the next Metallica album!

tekno eye candy #1 of ?? (R&Sthetics)

                                          

and other Belgian releases at the dawn of the 90ties. 

back to the R&Sthetics - some earlier ones when they were New Beat, some later ones edging out of hardcore into trance or 'electronic listening music' - both tending towards the eye-displeasing

                                       

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