SUPERMATIC

I've really got into the more techno-side of hardcore the last few months, and I'm gonna be posting them up. So lets start with this track by Supermatic.

 Now THIS...... this is what you call a tune.

Atmospheric, dark and brutal. This will rip apart the dance floor wide open and spew pink hellfire out the fissure. For some reason whenever I hear those massive rave stabs I think of alien gods and evil techno knights bashing the fuck out of each other.
Something tells me I've been playing too many computer games.


That 'Open You Miiiind' is sampled from Total Recall which is a film starring Arnold Schwarzengger. Tru Fax.


'Go Bang!' was a really good label, responsible for a hell of a lot of decent tunes. I'll be posting more about them later.






Get this record here: http://www.discogs.com/release/106320

METROID

DAMN I have been slack - haven't posted up a new tune for months. Heres a dope tune I just picked up. 

Nothing too special here, just a straight-up '92 banger. Wicked stabs,  and some nice distorted 'ardcore!' samples. Bit of a filler track, but a really good one none-the-less! This one will proper bang the party!

But it here: http://www.discogs.com/release/324045

DISTANT PLANET GRAFFITI JAM 2012

  

 

Interview with Jay Equinox

Here is a wicked interview with Jay Equinox on the joys and trials of running a Record Store back in the day. You can find it on the rather fantastic blog SONIC RAMPAGE run by Pearsall (a man far more productive than me!).

Enjoy!

click here for Sonic Rampage

WHAT THE FUTURE SOUNDED LIKE

Interesting documentary about the birth of electronic music in Britain. Well worth a watch.

N R G Posse

A release on the classic D-Zone label. Can't remember what the A-side is called.... eveyone ignores it anyway and goes straight for the tune on the flip.
And what a weird tune it is!

A bleepy melody over BIG breakbeats with huge bass rumbles underneath. Tuneful, but nothing special going on.... and then a little squeaky voice comes in from nowhere 'Dirty Asshole! Fucking Jerk! Eat shit! Fuck You!'.

No reasons. No explanations.


The Final Word

Buy this potty-mouthed tune here :http://www.discogs.com/release/131411

UPDATE: Apparently 'The Final Word' was a little battery powered key-ring type of thing. You pressed a little button and it would whisper sweet expletives in your ear. So thats how the tune got its name, and where the samples came from.

Elementary my dear Watson, elementary.

TURNTABLE TERROR

A wicked little dutch number I picked up recently for a mere £3 and a right bargain it was! This is packed full of individuality, I love it. Out on the mighty Mid-Town records, this is THE label for classic early 90s dutch hardcore.

To quote one of the comments on discogs, 'Is it Hardcore, is it Rave, is it Breakbeat, who cares, this tunes makes you move as a dog covered with flees!'

It certainly does.

From the faux-metal guitar at the start, to the screaming diva vocals, to the catchy '2-3-BREAK!' sample this tune makes me jittery like a caffeine-addled kangaroo.

Turnable Terror - Break (Techno Mix)

I get the feeling this one might start getting played out a fair bit (depending on what circles you mix in I guess) so snap it up while its still cheap.

http://www.discogs.com/Turntable-Terror-Break/master/85970

Hip House Documentary

A nice informative 10 min doc about the rise of Hip-House.

Its really good to see Fast Eddie doing his thing... watching this really surprised me how young he was at the time! He had already released Acid Thunder by this point....
I guess if you've got talent it will shine through no matter how old you are.
(I'm still waiting for mine to start - its at a dull glow at the moment)


         

ENTER THE HARDCORE

WRAP YOUR EAR-HOLES ROUND THIS!!!


*********************

What do you do when your construction/demolition droid goes beserk and starts smashing up the place!?!??

You stick this mix on and hope for the best!

Enter the Hardcore by Moronik

2012

I'm sorry   - I've been away too long. If any of the regular readers are still out there - come back! I'm sorry!

Ok - last year was 2011. In case you hadn't noticed lots of things happened.
There was a war in Libya and Col. Gadaffi got smeared. Osama Bin Laden got assasainated by America and soldiers threw his bullet-ridden corpse flung into the sea. There were demos in London every week it seemed... from electricians to students. Public sector workers striked and 3 million of them walked past my window. Mark Duggan got shot and the youth protested nationwide be stealing trainers and burning down Greggs. It was fucking mad I tell you.

But probably the most important thing to happen in 2011 was the birth of a little-known blog in late September, and that blog is right here, before your eyes and entering your brain-banks right now.

You can find that blog here.

So thats 2011 summed up.Whats in store for 2012?

Well my friends, I have been busy.
I now present a weekly show on http://www.nu-rave.com/ every sunday from 2pm-4pm (GMT). I'll be playing the same kind of tunes that you can find in my blog, except with the added bonus of hearing my (weedy) voice.

Also, witness the birth of a new god: Distant Planet a wicked old skool night playing the best in underground old skool tunes, is happening on 25th Feb in London. This will be an on-going event so stay tuned. You can find more information on it here.

Its going to be an all-day party - so you can rave from the early afternoon till late at night! Hows that for value for money? Not only that, there is gonna be a rave quiz, so all you oldskool heads can show off your knowledge and win the CASH PRIZE. Check it out.

I have the honour to be playing at it and also the misfortune of being one of the organisers. So come along and say hi.

 

ACID BEARD MASSIVE

Julian Cobb likes to get around thats for sure. The man produced some WICKED hardcore in the early 90s, really pushing his own brand of mashed up complex beats over harsh techno sounds, hip hop samples, classic and not-so-classic funk breaks. These were mostly released on his own lables Bogwoppa and Dance Bass.

Nowadays Julian Cobb is more widely known as HELLFISH, the owner of DEATHCHANT records, one of the most seminal gabba/hardcore labels of all time.

Shit, I even heard somewhere that Julian Cobb used to scratch for Silver Bullet and his Dad was one of the engineers who made the Technics 1200. (This may or may not be complete bullshit. I can't tell.)



I picked this up just recently - It is well good. Although the tracks are all 1992 tunes you can hear the template that would become the Deathchant formula stamped all over them.

Sweetest Feeling

 

12 Beat






Quantum Leap

But it here: http://www.discogs.com/Acid-Beard-Massive-Cheeky-Rush-EP/release/66738

UNIT-EE & DJ BIZZ

Apologies for the slowdown in posts....I've been sick (lazy) this week. BUT IM BACK NOW.

ARE YOU READY?

ME TOO.
First up is a nice little ragga hardcore ditty I just discovered. Nothing spectacular going on, but a definite feel-good roller. I can imagine this going down quite well on a hot day. BRING ON THE SUMMER! I'm dying here.

Take the Music (remix)

Apologies for the poor quality of the youtube vid - best one I could find.

This record is VERY cheap, £2-3, well worth it in my opinion. Bag yourself a bargain, and if you change your mind, it doubles as a pizza tray. Have I made that joke before? I can't remember.

http://www.discogs.com/release/225881

BOOMBOXY

I came across this via the forum Urban75 which I dip my toes into every so often. Just today I stumbled on an absolutley wicked product which I HAD to share with you.

Everyone likes a kicking soundsystem, about the only drawback to having one, is getting it places. I've spent many a sunny afternoon hanging out in Regent's Park boozing it up. The only bad thing about it, is that the only music we've got is either off a phone or off some tiny speakers somebody has brought along.

Obviously this will not do.

I am a man with, if not taste, at least needs - and trust me I need LOUD music played LOUDLY everywhere I go. I get scared when theres silence as my brain starts talking to me, and if my brain was in your head, you would get scared by silence too. Trust me.

I really hate the look of modern portable stereos. I've been considering getting one of those classic 80s style ghettoblasters - which have a hefty punch to them. Plus of course, you look really cool carrying it on your shoulder.

Problem is though, they guzzle battery power at an exorbitant rate. Eight of those fat batteries cost a lot. Plus those retro ghettoblasters cost a bomb. .

So what to do?

Luckily I found this: http://boomboxy.com/

A trusted audiophile has psychically felt my pain and produced a solution without me even asking him to!

Awesome! Each of these babies come with a rechargable battery which will last at least 12 hours on a single charge - the bigger batteries will go on for a whopping 30 hours or more! And look at them - even if they didn't make a sound, they still look sexy (if you like speaker porn - which I do). And you can carry stuff inside..!

But that is not all. The lovely man at Boomboxy.com does requests. So you can even get your special pokemon lunchbox made into one. This is of course AMAZING. 

I've witnessed a few marches and seen people pushing along little mini speakers on wheels, and thought that was pretty sweet.

Imagine rocking up with this:

  

Everyone would think you were were the bees nees. People would be lining up to wheel it along simply so the coolness factor would rub off by proxy. So there you go - you're own tunes, out of a massive speaker, being pulled along by someone else. Everyone wins.

And check out this one for the ladies.

 For the gentleman raver...

These really don't go for too much considering what you get. They go for about £90 - £300, but unlike modern stereos are sleek, stylish, custom-made, and unforgettable. And you can carry stuff inside as well.


For more information go here:  http://boomboxy.com/

DSL1

Bloody hellfire, I've heard some dancefloor smashers in my time, but this one really stands out. Its proper hardcore.
Found this one while randomly browsing youtube and it blew my head off.

This has the rather cheerful title Be Lucky which is nice, especially when the track itself is absoultely vicious. It twists and writhes likes some sort of vengeful snake-demon with acid for blood. And its not only PISSED OFF, its pissed off at YOU, and now its coming..... straight at you.... I love it!

It has quite a weird intro - it just launches into it.... not that I'm complaining. A lot of oldskool hangs around at the start too much. Get straight in there and get the job done I reckon. Its all gonna be mixed in anyway, so starting the beats 30 seconds into the track is just annoying. Who needs intros anyway? Intros are for LOSERS!

So - this is one tune you can slam quickly into the mix, which will always gets the thumbs up from me.

Be Lucky

Anyway, I've just managed to bag myself a Near Mint copy for £10 - theres a VG+ one still on there for £10.... snap it up quick!
http://www.discogs.com/DSL-Dexmashin-Volume-1/release/408449

THE AMEN BREAK

Fascinating 20 min audio documentary about the most important 6 seconds of music.

Narrated by Nate Harrison

Maladroit's samples the documentary itself to make his own points..

Maladroit -  Amen Motherfucker



The Winstons - Amen Brother     the full original track.

CRIMINAL MINDS

The Criminal Minds will be popping up a lot in this blog, being both champions of the old skool rave, pioneers of UK hip hop and now returned to full effect in the modern era.

As well as releasing some massive hits in the hardcore and jungle scenes, the Criminal Minds were at the forefront of the Britcore scene. It stands as an accolade that they are mentioned in the same breath as Gunshot, Hijack, Caveman, Killah Instinct and Silver Bullet.

But the Criminal Minds had their own distinctive sound. Based in Milton Keynes rather than London, isolated them somewhat, giving them room to breathe and devolop their own take on hard hitting UK hip-hop.

And now they're back in 2011 with this monster...

On the Run (part 2) -   Boom! This is one of the best music videos I've seen for a while - not much happens in it, but it is shot beautifully and suits the track perfectly. It is wicked INTENSE.




On the Run is a track on the Regroup the Loops EP released on Fat Hop - a label pushing old skool sounds with a new skool mentality. In my opinion, you can't make good music without knowing about the past, and this label ticks all my boxes! More about Fat Hop later.



On the Run (part 2) is actually a refix of an earlier version which you can find below.

On the Run - The original was was released on the Widowmaker LP in 2001. This version is a lot more stripped back and bare than the newer vesion, but I think it really works. Kind of like a hypnotic mantra.

The early Ciminal Minds vinyl goes for silly money - im talking about £100 plus. Luckily, lots of their old hip hop stuff were compiled on a release by Rephlex Records this year. Weirdly enough my friend Philippe (DJ Prophane) mentioned he had orded a copy off Amazon around the same time as me. Turned out we had both ordered the last copy at almost exactly the same time!! Crazy. Eventually Philippe managed to secure himself another copy and I bought his one off him.

Philippe is an Assistant Manager of a wicked independent record shop called Rat Records in Camberwell in South London.

To those who say vinyl is a dead format I say go down to Rat Records on a saturday morning If you can fight your way through the mob of glassy-eyed vinyl junkies to the racks, bag yourself some rare wax.
They sell all sorts there and I highly recommend them.


Check out Criminal Mind's back catalogue here - ruff tuff and wicked stuff:
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Criminal+Minds%2C+The?anv=Criminal+Minds

HEAD FACTOR

Picked up this one fairly recently.

This is a top notch feel good slice of hardcore, perfect for a sunny day like today or as an end of night tune. I CANNOT wait to drop this at a daytime party in the summer! Pianos and breakbeats were always a staple in old skool hardcore, but this one really shines through in my opinion.

What I particulalry like about this mix over the others on the record (you get  three mixes of the same tune on this one)  is that, although it uses snippets of Aretha Franklin's  R.E.S.P.E.C.T.  it doesnt actually use the main vocal. It more implies it, and makes you struggle to remember the next line - which is subtle and I like subtle.
Hit them over the head with your subtlety maybe, but still subtle all the same.

This one is quite slow so you'll have to put it with other '92 tracks.

Nuff Respect -

Get it here: http://www.discogs.com/Head-Factor-Nuff-Respect/release/379381



Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation

Narrated and executive produced by Ice-T, this is the first documentary to focus specifically on the connections between crack and hip-hop.

With candid interviews from RZA, Snoop Dogg and others, this is a must-see documentary.