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!'.
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.
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.
Big ups to the Hughsee for giving me an ID on this! The man is incredible - you just give him a snippet of a tune and he tells you what it is. Oldskool to the bone!
Anyways, this is one track I found on some old mix, which is proper dope. A fat grainy bassline, brutal '91 style breaks and ghostly chants. This is right up my alley. Plus you've got Darth Vader moaning about the Darkside again. I tell you, if my dad kept going on about it like he does, I would cut his hand off with a lightsabre too.
Yes to Satan - Best name ever? There are other versions of this tune but this is the Bonus Techno version, which is what I've got.
I've been hearing quite a few remixes of this recently, techno, electro, dubstep all horrible.
There is only one Horn Track and it is this one.
One word - DEVASTATING.
The Horn Track -That intro with those horns. They go right through you. Some rather daft samples from Egyptian Lover lull you into a false sense of security. And then these big heavy amens come bludgeoning out of the speakers and punch you in the face BAM!! And thats just the start.
Weird synths and some more daft samples from Egyptian Lover keep the track rolling until those horns come back again! Even more devastating then last time...! This track is like a sonic weapon!
Use responsibly and aim away from the face.
I really like the Public Enemy 'kettle boiling' sounds toward the end. I've always liked that sound haha.
This was sampled by loads of people (including the Prodigy) and there are many different 'versions'.
But this is the one.
You can buy this on a genuinely round record here:
On the simply amazing Strictly Underground label, Marc 'Ruff' Ryder produced some wicked tunes under the alias Hackney Hardcore. All the tracks had a down-tuned sound to them giving them a much less euphoric vibe, but still no less 'ravey' for it.
The result was a far more 'serious' sounding rave track with a lot more grit and street cred. I always think that they sound like what rave tunes sound like in the rain. Bit hard to explain.... its probably easier if you just take a listen!
Dancehall Dangerous - '91 breakbeat number here. Queasy-sounding synths over a sizzling bass. Very much a grimy squat sound on this one.
Caught With a Spliff (remix) - this is such a well-produced track, especially for 1992. Theres quite a few mixes knocking about, but this is my favourite one and the one that seems to get played the most. The synths go so well with the whip-snap-crack percussion - you could definitely see the direction hardcore was going, heading towards a more jungle broken up beat. Absolutely love this one. Its a shame the youtube video doesn't continue to the end as there is a little dialogue between the police and a ragamuffin. It has some bleeped out swearing at the end on a locked groove - so it will go on forever... 'bleeping hell mate! bleeping hell! bleeping hell mate! bleeping hell' ... ad infititum
Rave Scene '93 - You can see from this how the scene is progressing - the music is getting faster and taking on a much more jungley vibe. This is a really lush, darkly euphoric track. The cheeky prodigy sample is a great touch.
Its almost HALLOWEEN! So time for some spooky tunes....
Heres a couple of tunes by the Psychopaths, both of which featured in my Halloween mix that you can download here.
Nightmares - Not often you come across a tune which is genuinely scary. The children's rhyme at the beginning sets the tone of general spookiness until the music proper kicks in with a very simply layered arrangement, and an absolute KILLER basssline, which twists and snarls aggressivley and just won't leave you alone. The vocals samples are spot on and Freddie's voice seems to dreamily emanate from somewhere below the floorboards. If the Nightmare on Elm Street films shit you up as a kid, then you'll get a real buzz out of dropping this onto an unsuspecting dancefloor. It could be considered a bit camp/kitsch, if it didn't do the job just so damn well......
Killer Mummy - Now this one goes all the way over to camp, but is all the more fun for it. With a really hyper synth line and a surprisingly groovy bassline, this is great for halloween parties or if you want to play some 'fun' horror. The 'time to play!' and 'killer mummy..... don't let her near!' samples are just plain silly.
Fun tune for fun times. And the record cover is just plain wrong.
Is Britcore coming back? Its hard to tell really. There definitely seems to be renewed interest in it, and with the Criminal Minds active again, perhaps this heralds a return to the UK's golden days? Austerity Britain might be the catalyst for a harder-edged sound in UK hip hop since Grime seems to have imploded and American hip hop sounds like a robot gangster having sex with a chipmunk.
Britcore was a strain of the UK Hip Hop to emerge in the mid-80s and early 90s and unless you are a hardcore hip hop head seems to have been largley forgotten. I certainly didn't know anything about it until last year, and at first I didn't really like it. Generally I prefer classic 80s US stuff and I never really thought much of UK stuff although I liked some Grime here and there.
As for Britcore, I'd heard some of the more obvious ones like MC Duke stuff and Silver Bullet, but that was about it. Once I made an effort to look into it though, I couldn't get enough! I still only know a few tracks from some of the more well-known acts, but they are proper up there!
Britcore was about spitting rapid hard-hitting lyrics over hard beats and sounds (which often had a gothic bent to them), much more raw than the US stuff hapenning over the pond. Britcore acapellas ended up being sampled over and over in the rave scene and practically all of the more well-known ones come from MC Duke or Hijack.
Since I'm hardly an expert in Britcore, I'll stop chatting shit in case it turns out I'm completely wrong, but heres some examples of the gems i've found:
HIJACK - The Terrorist Group Hijack were AWESOME! They got signed to Ice T's label, Rhyme Syndicate, but of course it all went tits-up. Looking like a cross between the Wu-Tang Clan and Slipknot these guys meant business. They have been rated as the best UK hip hop group of all time, although I guess that comes down to personal preference. Very much Brixton's answer to Public Enemy, Hijack put UK Hip Hop on the map. Kamanchi Sly's voice is fantastic.....just don't mention Chuck D.
GUNSHOT - 25 Gun Salute This track is slick - I love how it flows and unlike Hijack (above) its real London accents you can hear. Ruff tuff and wicked stuff.
CRIMINAL MINDS - Urban Warfare Criminal Minds went on to do great things in the rave scene, releasing ground-breaking hardcore and jungle, but before all that they were a straighforward hip hop act. Hailing from Milton Keynes they had thier own style and brought their own sound. Halo is a GREAT scratch DJ, and DJ Spatts was a really talented producer who since became a fantastic one.
DJ Hype is a wicked drum and bass producer and DJ, and is well up there as one of the big boys in the scene.
However what most people don't know is that DJ Hype used to tear out some terrific hardcore in the early 90s. They are all extremely polished and give off Hype's classic hip hop vibe he became so well known for.
The first two tracks are more early morning numbers, very bleepy. These were collaborations with The Scientist and both The Bee and The Exorcsist have become classics of the genre. The Bee made it to #1 of the independent dance music charts and was very ahead of it's time (1990).
The Bee -heres a trivia fact for you - no bees were recorded in this track.
The Exorcist - no exorcists were recorded in this track either.
The Scientist and DJ Hype were also Kicksquad who were mentioned earlier in this blog with their amazing bass bleepy monster 'Champion Sound'.
Welcome to Violence - This is one of my all time favourites even though it can be difficult to mix sometimes. This is DJ Hype under the alias The Warrior, and this tune is a b-side released on the AMAZING label Strictly Underground from 1992. It has a lovely bassline and wicked scratch samples and the key change is sooooo good. Even the bridges are sexy as hell. This is just one of those tunes which has all the right bits in all the right places. Just have a listen and I defy you to not like it!
Lets Go! - Again, this ones on the Strictly Underground label. There were so many quality releases on this label, it almost feels like cheating using them, beacuse they were all so gooooood. This is quite a simple techno banger with Noise Engineer on the production and DJ Hype on the scratching - and what scratching! Classic '91 style with rave stabs over a four 2 the floor beat this track just builds into an ABOMINATION of face-melting rave-fuckery (which is a good thing). A really powerful track which will have everyone bouncing off the walls! Un-fucking-believable!
Still feeling the horror vibe so heres another horror hardcore track to put some fear into you!
This came out in 1991 on Hithouse Records as one of the B-sides on Dreams of Santa Anna by The Unknown. It is truly hardcore and no mistake! It has really crisp production with all the sounds nice and clear. When the tune drops it is positively terrifying and that blood-curdling scream puts all others to shame...... A great tune to play in the woods in the middle of the night!
The Unknown is a pseudonym of Holy Noise who were behind the second tune I put on my Halloween Mix.
Those Rotterdam guys knew how to put together pure evil!
