Corker Number Two, and the final third of the FSOM trilogy : Beyond (1993)

This one has they're biggest success, "Welcome" on it. I think I can safely say I was the first person to play it out at a rave (the week it was released), but since it was to a near empty room at 11pm at night it probably doesn't count. For you trainspotters out there, the piano intro comes from D-Mob's late 80s pop house hit "C'mon And Get My Love", while the "Welcome" sample is courtesy of a Gino Latino italo house number from 1988, also called "Welcome" (duh!). There's also clear reference to Mr Monday's "Future" - big with Davide Carbone - in the way the stab patterns are constructed at the breaks.
Massive party tune for a peaking room (and for years I think I told Davide that every time I saw him while I was nutted, much to his bemusement of course).


"International" is a disappointment - owing everything to Ian Pooley's "Message (All Over The World)" on Force Inc. (1991) and adding nothing that improves on it. But "Track Six" is a choice little techno number, slow in tempo, grounded by a neat breakbeat and with a red flavoured rhythmic synth lolloping lazily above. It's the perfect track to play to an emptying warehouse when you don't feel evil enough to fuck with tired heads. "Sub-Zero" is classic Steve Robbins acid - and the kind of track you could play to an emptying warehouse when you do want to fuck with tired heads.


Fans of FSOM will know that I've missed some of their work; yes, they had more than three releases, but apart from 1995's "Flashflood" I don't own them. I do have their CD Album Prologue though, so I can always post some more tracks later - "Pleazure" and "Equinox" are sure to make an appearance.

Discogs
A1  Welcome
A2   Sub-Zero
B1   Track Six
B2   International


Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire 

Corker Number One - Prisoners of Ecstasy (1992)

Forget about the American rave remixes, what you want here is the nearly 12 minute long trance mix, a blinding piece of scorching early 90s acid, produced by the German trio of Jörg Burger (The Modernist), Ingmar Koch (Air Liquide) and Wolfgang Voigt (Mike Ink; co-founder of Kompakt records). These guys must have had a hundred plus aliases/projects between them, I don't know how they kept up with everything organisationally - but they are German after all...

A female voice breathes 'We're prisoners of ecstasy" and a gentle washing intro is overcome by the TB-303. When the claps begin you know you're in for a serious workout, and once the kik drum commences the track really begins to pump. There's lots of freaky synth sounds filling out the mix and also the hysterical screams of some bird (who may be supposed to represent the throws of ecstasy, but more than not just annoys me). It's one of those records that should be played solo from the very start, and I've seen Frank De Wulf play two copies of it to lengthen the intro out even more to fine effect.

Discogs

A1   Prisoners Of Ectasy (Trance Mix)
B1   Ravetasy (New York Techno Mix)
B2   Prisoners Of Ectasy (Garage Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

In Order To Dance, or In Order To Kill

A few years ago, there was a really good blog going InOrderToDance. I think the dude was Canadian - but he posted some really good stuff, mostly out of his own CD collection. If he ever re-posted, he always gave due credit. In the end he got pretty agitated with inane questions from dumb asses about passwords, download errors and the like - (but you sort of have to accept that not everyone is fully clued up about zip files and so on if you want to be a blogger). What really got his goat though was when other spaz buckets started re-upping his posts as their own.
Today I can fully concur.

I don't own anything I post - the original artists have that priviledge - but I've taken the time to dig my old vinyl out, rip it, clean it up a little, normalise it and convert it to easily digestible mp3s for everyone's pleasure.

Now some fuckers (from the same forum that so annoyed InOrderToDance no less) have seen fit to repost my stuff as their own. They've even been defended by other forum members. I'm having a rather pleasant discussion with some of them at the moment... follow it here (you'll need a translater though because they write in Russian). Once again, I can't stop (don't want to stop) cyberspace sharing my uploads - but please don't go and relabel them as your own. Oh, and for anyone who still plans to, go out and find your own music you lazy fucks, because I've got some real corkers lined up to post here and if they find their way in to your posts everyone will know where you got 'em.

Gypsymen - Hear The Music / Bounce (1992)

An absolutely fantastic release on the short-lived New York house label E Legal. Once again it's a Todd Terry and Zahid Tariq production, and once again the duo are in top form.

I think there are two really good examples of taking a vocal sample and cutting it up to create something new (and better). First off is Orbital's use of a reversed loop of Kirsty Hawkshaw taken from Opus III's "It's A Fine Day" to generate the spectacularly lush melody of "Halcyon".

And then there is "Hear The Music", which chops up a guy saying something to the effect of 'Hey buddy, do you do hip hop?' and builds a song around the variations. David Morales on remix duties probably didn't hurt either. Other releases added more remixers, but from what I've listened to on youtube they're pretty crap. All the gold is on this release folks.

"Bounce" is a solid piece of dark house music, perfect for a dingy basement club with only a strobe light to illuminate the dancer's gyrations. Both these tracks more than stand the test of time, and you could probably still play them to a house loving dance floor today and get a good response.

I bought my 12" after hearing "Hear The Music" on the excellent 1992 Sasha mixtape Magic Carpet Australia - bought whilst on one of my record buying jaunts in Sydney. Not sure how widely available the mix is, but I think I'll pull out my cassette deck one day and upload it.

Discogs

A1   Hear The Music (Def Club Mix)
A2   Hear The Music (Def Dub Mix)
B1   Bounce (Wild Warped Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

808 State release Blueprint

I think it is to celebrate 21 years since the release of ninety, or maybe they just wanted some more cash/recognition. Either way, the boys (mostly Graham Massey probably) have decided to release a sort of greatest hits, but with some of the choons reworked or remixed. Thankfully, they've stayed true to their leftfield techno roots and there's no audible sign of any electro house sellout. Or UB40.

The've had the good sense not  to touch "Pacific State" - it's already had more goes at it than Tori Black - and some tracks like "Firecracker" have just been tweaked enough to keep them lively; the rehash of "In Yer Face" ain't nothing too special, but "Cobra Bora" and "Cübik" have had the full benefit of remix love bestowed upon them and the results are good. "Cobra Bora" keeps the same structure as the original but reworks the phrases - I really like it.
There's even a few new tracks - "Spanish Ice" is pretty good vintage 808 State. Oh, and for those who missed it, there is Aphex Twin's 2001 rework of "Flow Coma": relentless acid house to fuck you up proper.

You can read a review and preview tracks here, but I'm not linking any downloads for something that just got released. There's also another remix of "Cübik" you can download for free from 808 State's own site here.

I'm Coming Hardcore

Now I'm not much for English hardcore, happy hardcore, or any of those other speeded up breakbeat sounds. I never much liked the Prodigy (Android excepted) - I hated Charly from the moment I first heard it and I still do today. To me, most hardcore was derivative, uninspired and pretty stupid; why would I listen to it when I could get down to quality European rave or American techno?

Yet for every rule, there is always the exception.

The original was released in as part of a 4 track EP in 1991, and is nothing more than a pale breakbeat paced imitation of Together's "Hardcore Uproar". I don't remember hearing it when it first came out. But in 1992 it was remixed and re-released on a double A side 12" - the other track being the quite horrendous "Take Me Away".

"I'm Coming Hardcore (Remix)" is really just a clever appropriation of samples, but fuck it is done well. It steals from noisy Belgium rave techno (Set Up System's "Fairy Dust"), the emotional horn melody comes straight from the 1989 New Beat track "We're Gonna Catch You!" by Bizz Nizz (which also provides the 'The rhythm is hot' sample. Tyree's "Hardcore Hip House" gives up the 'I'm Coming Hardcore' hook. Not to mention inspiration from Together's "Hardcore Uproar".

By all rights, it should be a mess; but instead it is a glorious piece of high energy that's guaranteed to bring a peak on and send a dancefloor stupid. It weaves a wonderful line through cheese, euphoria and mindfuck; I remember my good mate Squid (who incidentally provided the name for this blog) almost wetting himself in anticipation as the opening chords poured out of a recovery's speakers back when this track was first out. 

Still a magic track today.

Discogs
A1 I'm Coming Hardcore (Remix)

A2  I'm Coming Hardcore (Original Mix)
B1  Take Me Away (Sub Bass Mix)

B2  Take Me Away (Original Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire