Best R&S track?

Come on guys!

No one's suggested an alternative for my favourite R&S tune yet... Must be pre-94 old skool (nothing past 1993 please). Only other requirement is that you can't nominate "Dominator" because it is shit.

I do want your thoughts on this  - maybe 17+ years of hindsight has promoted some of less famous tunes to classic status...

Secret Desire - White Light / Anna Lies (1990)

All across the UK in the early 1990s record shops launched their own music labels, and many became important definers of the dance movement... Zoom, Vinyl Solution, 23rd Precinct... the list is long. Sadly, many died due to poor/inexperienced management (the record biz wasn't as easy as some hoped), changing tastes or a loss of interest from their owners.

London's Vinyl Solution had the good fortune of having Bizarre Inc. and J. Saul Kane (Eon, Depth Charge, etc.) on its roster, but although it managed about 100 techno flavoured releases, its time had come by the end of '94. The over-appreciated Bizarre Inc. overshadowed some of the other talent:  Subject 13 and Secret Desire for example. But these acts produced some quality tunes, and for me they are far easier to listen to 20 odd years later than "Playing With Knives".

Secret Desire's double A side 12" features two seriously good pieces of techno; "Anna Lies" is hard-arsed dance floor fuel, fucking with your head and feet as it pays homage to Detroit and Orlando Voorn's looping synth styles. Meanwhile "White Light" takes you on more of a head trip, but this is one for a big empty warehouse. Very haunting and a lot of energy comes out of its snare patterns.

Nowadays, with patience not what it once was, these tracks might be thought of as a bit too repetitive to justify their 6 and a half minute lengths, but in the right [head] space they might just be perfect.

Discogs

A1 White Light
B1 Anna Lies

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

A really fuckn good New Order remix

What can I say? THE greatest electronic band of all time!

Even better than Kraftwerk or Underworld - and that's some seriously stiff competition. Don't bother to argue though, it's purely subjective.

Pretty much the entire New Order and Joy Division back catalogue can be found here, but as far I can see they don't have this up.

5-8-6 was recorded for the 1982 opening of Manchester's Hacienda, apparently it originally came in at 22 minutes, but thankfully they shortened it for the album release.

These 2001 Peter Black remixes keep it sparse and deep, and the fantastic dub dispenses with the vocal altogether to accentuate the grinding bassline. Perfect 5am munt music.

Apart from Shep Pettibone and Arthur Baker (who helped define their sound back in the early 80s), very few remixers have done New Order real justice. But Peter Black gets them, and gets them good.
It's amusing that all three of these guys are American and isolated from the English Acid House scene, but get it more than anyone who was part of it.

Discogs

A1 5-8-6 (Peter Black Remix)
B1 5-8-6 (Peter Black Dub)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Sasha's First Remix; but is it any good?

A quick look at that bastion of electronic knowledge, Discogs, shows that 'The Man Like' has been credited with over 275 remixes so far, but this is his first. Widely considered a bit of a classic in early progressive house, but it's not one of my favourite tracks - certainly there's a very good intro built around a "Take me, take me higher..." vocal, but after that it really only just plods along.
One thing I can say for sure, is it is much better than the original.

Discogs

A1 Came Outa Nowhere (The Worldwide Mix)
B1 Came Outa Nowhere
     (Sasha's Take Me Higher Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

The Best R&S Track

Right off, I just wanted to point out that it's not really my intention to get in to posting tracks from the big players (Soma, UR...) because given enough time they'll all be relaunching on Beatport or similar - if they haven't already. And besides, if it's still in print you should be supporting creativity and paying for it.
I believe R&S is moving in the digital re-release direction too, although I'm not sure that label boss Renaat Vandepapeliere is altogether interested in looking backwards; me thinks any money he could make from his back catalogue would just go towards financing new acts.

When I think back about R&S, I can see it pretty much defined the early 90s for me. I spent a good amount of time searching for its latest releases or looking for other labels' output that followed on from the R&S sound. So many classics - the Ravesignal series; Radical Rob's "Monkeywah"; RHC's "Fever Called Love"; Spectrum's "Brazil"; the "Order To Dance" compilations. Mostly big room rave flavours, but also just straight up quality techno from the likes of Joey Beltram and Kevin Saunderson too.

So what is the best R&S release?

Resistance D's remix of DJ Hell's "My Definition Of House Music"?
Or something from CJ Bolland: "Mantra", "Camargue", "Space 3001 (Remix)", the absolutely storming Exclusive UK Remix of "Horsepower"?
Outlander's "Vamp"?
"Stella"?
Possibly even "Dominator" or "Mentasm"?...

Well, my favourite R&S choon is by Dave Clarke as Directional Force.

"Parameter" begins with a little speech about the potential of midi technology to create music with no boundaries (classic techno attitude that!) before moving into some very lush and melancholy pads. Quickly building into storming techno it hits a peak with a hard as fuck proto-jungle Amen Brothers breakbeat. But the track really gets good after this initial break, dropping back to just the kick and bassline before introducing a simple but beautiful one note melody and some really fat analogue pads. Then some fantastic ringing bells come in over the top and we're back to that banging breakbeat.

Rivals anything from Detroit for emotional depth and dancefloor energy.

As is often the case with classic tracks, "Parameter" is not the title track to the release; the two other tracks are more straight up acid-fused techno, quite hard for their day, but both quality choons with a good trippy edge. They haven't aged as well as Parameter, but care. Back in '91 I had to swap my copy of "Exposure To Little Electronic Noises" on Stealth to get a hold of this 12", which really hurt. But it was worth it.

Dave Clarke left the R&S fold after this release (something about money and how he felt he wasn't getting his fair share), but it'd be years before he put out anything of this calibre again - and even then, I don't rate his Red series all that highly. The Parameter EP was recorded and mixed in Renaat's Ghent studios so maybe he should get some credit for nurturing a classic.

Your submissions for best old school R&S track are most welcome, but must be pre-94 (not 1994 or later). And you can't vote for "Dominator" because, let's be honest, that track is crap. And not "Kinetic" either. I own it, but don't really like it. "Mentasm" shits me too, but it is a classic (spawning a few billion pale imitators) so you can vote it in if you want.

Discogs

A1  F.O.
A2  Parameter
B1  Forever

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Tektonics Mixtape (1998)

Another from the archives, this time on the uptempo trance-techno tip; gets pretty acidic in the end.
No tracklisting, but after a quick listen through I can give a rough idea of what's in the mix:

Terry Lee Brown (Straylight?); Secret Cinema (Timeless Altitude); Warp 69 (A Natural High - Dave Angel Rework); Luxe-Live (Live Steam); Jan Driver (Filter); some more Terry Lee Brown; early Chris Liebing as La Folie; lots of Dutch tech tunes; some banging Chris Cowie; a touch of goa and the pumping acid of Massimo Vivona's Kinetico project....

Done on two 1200s and a pretty basic mixer, the mix moves along well enough and the mixing is not too bad either. Most importantly, the tracks have pretty much stood the test of time and are still worth a listen.

Tektonics Mix (cassette recording - 2 x 45 minutes, 128kb) mediafire

The Wee Papa Girl Rappers - Heat It Up (1988)

Fancy a bit of quality English hip house? Twin sisters did the rap, while the musicians who went on to form the Fine Young Cannibals were in charge of the beats. Fine so far, but it was Kevin Saunderson dropping the track in acid that truly made this a classic.

Discogs
A1 Heat It Up
B1 Heat It Up 

     (Acid House Re-Mix)
B2 Heat It Up 

     (Instrumental Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Area 10 Featuring MK - Get It Right (1991)

Here's some more from second-wave Detroit cat, Marc Kinchen. He was mentored by Terrence Parker and his early output was very techno. As Separate Minds he released "1st Bass" in 1988; it sampled a sound from Konami's 1987 stealth fighter video game Metal Gear to generate an outrageous melody, then laid a vocal loop from Saunderson's remix of The Wee Papa Girl Rapper's "Heat It Up" over the top to create dance floor mayhem. In taking that video game sample and using it to create music, Kinchen was really pushing the concept of techno - a genre whose name was symbolic of where it came from, how it was produced, and where it was going. Probably only electro (the 80s form, not the current dross) could claim a similar relationship between intent and name.

Having served his apprenticeship in Detroit, MK headed to the bright lights of New York where he became a leading exponent of dubby deep house (see K.E.L.S.E.Y's "Baby Can (M.K. Dub)" on the previous 313 Detroit post here). Eventually, he became one of the city's top remixers, helping Celine Dion and Betty Boo to achieve chart success... so no one's perfect.

For those of you who like your banging club techno from the turn of the millennium, Carl Cox's Intec imprint will be well known. I think one of its best tracks is Deetron's "Don't You Know Why?" from the Alien Entertainment EP (Discogs). Rocking:

But essentially it's just a rehash of  "Get It Right", which is uptempo vocal house music bedded over manic percussion (the vocal is courtesy of Aretha Franklin's excellent 1983 release of the same name). MK also introduces some great techno noises later through the mixes, adding depth and twisting them in new and pleasingly darker directions.

This release also has quality straight up Detroit techno in "Divisions" and another house cut in "Feel The Fire".

All in all, really good stuff from a not too well known release.

Discogs
A1 Get It Right (R. Flack Ooh Mix)
A2 Get It Right (M.K. Mix)
B1 Feel The Fire
B2 Divisions (Techno Mix)
B3 Get It Right (S & M Mix)
B4 Get Up Early (Remix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Trust In 6 - Life In Ecstasy (Instrumental Mix) (1990)

Picked this up in a second hand record shop in Seattle in '94 at the height of grunge rock. Couldn't believe my luck; and I think it only cost a few dollars to boot.

I had got the vocal mix on that very fine 1991 compilation Techno Trax; a very decent introduction to German techno trance. But to be honest, it is very rare techno that sounds good with a vocal over the top - rarer still if the vocal is male and exponentially rarer still if they are singing or talking in German - I can only think of one successful example, Konzept's "Hypnotic Beats" (according to Mijk van 'Microglobe' Dijk, the lyrics are pretty silly, but since I can't speak German all I can go by is that they sound pretty cool).
I can't think of any successful examples of a German singing in English, let alone the singer being a man. Hence, the problem for the vocal mix of "Life In Ecstasy"...

So no vocal mix here, just the instrumental. And what a top tune too, an all time favourite. Very strong and energetic, with a wicked synth line that comes out of a swooshing intro. Quite a mental climax too.

Discogs
Life In Ecstasy (Instrumental Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Supertronic Co. - Sunrise (1992)

"The ultimate opening record for the morning set (especially if it's on the beach). A gorgeous intro, full of birdsong and throat singers. Sounds a bit like portions of KLF "Chill Out". Perfect build up of percussion... then second bass drum hits with a nasty breakbeat and it's all over... arms in the air business. Wonderful arrangement; layers of twinkling keys and comp'd chords fade in and out like waves. Better have another serious record to follow and be ready to mix out; this slice of heaven ends too soon!" (Shalako, Discogs 2005)

Couldn't put it much better if I tried; this is another outing by Jeff Hype (Transformer 2, Liquid Empire, Ravebusters - fuck he basically did most of those early 90s rave classics didn't he?!). It does sample the same throat singers (or frog calls?) as The KLF's Chill Out, and once it kicks off it really does end too soon.
Up there with the best breakbeat of all time. The rush inducing snares are up there too.

Glorious.

Discogs
Sunrise

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

[Thanks to Tricky for the rip]

I'm also putting up the mediafire link to my mate Davros's 2010 reinterpretation here, performed live at the last Arm In Arm Old Skool Party. It's not too radical a shift, but does add a nice break and grooves it out a bit at the end. Not bad.

Techno Grooves Mach 4 (1991)

The best of the series: "Techno Slam" is the big track, but all are excellent shades of techno - there's the rave of "The Aaaaaaaah", "Instinct" and "Rhaaa !!"; the acid of "100% Of DX-ing You" and all out jacking fest of "I Like P*Z".

Nothing too smart, but good to dance to none the less.
And the track names are pretty cool too.

You can find this release pretty easily online, but sound quality is not great so I uploaded mine.

Discogs
A1 Instinct
A2 Rhaaa !!
A3 100% Of DX-ing You
B1 I Like P*Z
B2 Techno Slam
B3 The Aaaaaaah

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Sound To Light - Breeze (1991)

More solid Euro Rave; a totally rocking number from the He Butcher EP on Germany's Overdrive Records. Verging on hard trance, it's one of the best tracks to dance to off your head - a perfect blend of uplift and hard grating beats. Like the sample says, "yiiaah."

Discogs
Breeze

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

RJ's Rule - Rave This Nation (1991)

So what is rave and what is rave music? A proper definition would be the music that featured at the first dance parties - by definition, a rave is a wildly boisterous party (usually with music) - so in the mid '80s this might have included some disco, hi nrg, early American house and balearic tunes that took in everything from Manual Gottshing to Hall & Oates.
Okay, but that's not what I think of as rave music. For me, a rave was not just a party with music - it was an opportunity to dance your heart out to quality electronic tuneage. While lots of folks were happily wandering around in some kind of euphoric stupor amazed by the lighting rig and the pretty patterns they could make in the air with their glowsticks, me and a few other like-minded warriors saw the night as an opportunity to go to war with the DJ, pushing our bodies to keep dancing to the non-stop techno music coming out of the speaker bins. If any e-d up rave bunny dared come up to to talk shit while we were rocking our groove they were certain to cop an earful of "fuck off, I'm dancing..."
Our favourite tunes weren't noisy, overly fast or that hardcore sounding; mostly they were European, energetic and just a little bit on the trippy side. But unlike straight up trance (which could kill a dance floor quicker than a round of special-k), these tracks were great to dance to. I've already posted some like Digital Boy's Kokko and Full On Sound's Mayhem, but this is the quintessential rave anthem.

The "Raw Substantial Mix" opens with a sample taken from the Woodstock (1969) documentary at the point when the organisers have realised that they can no longer control the gates to the event because of the massive crowd numbers. From the main stage they announce to the half a million party people that...

"It's a free concert from now on. That doesn't mean that anything goes; what that means is that we're going to put the music on here for free."

And then we're off into the realm of heavy duty 4-by-4 kick drums and a pumping bassline. Every 16 bars or so, some new component comes in to the mix, upping the urgency and the call to dance. My favourite part has to be the speak'n'spell chant (taken from an old electro track) mid way through that signals the oncoming (and all too short) climax. The "Fly Tech Groove Mix" is less manically energetic, darker and pretty good too; while the third mix is more of a bridge track.

So who were the RJ's?
Just one guy actually: Ramon Roelofs, better known today as Charly Lownoise. With his mate Mental Theo, he's gone on to produce some of the most god awful Dutch hardcore ever put down on wax and helped create that atrocious brand of dance known as Hardstyle. A pity.

Discogs
A1  Rave This Nation 

     (Raw Substantial)
B1  Rave This Nation 

     (Fly-Tech Groove)
B2  Rave This Nation 

      (People Of All Nations 

       Dancing Together)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

My Favourite Mashup - "Stand By Acid" (1991)

I know mashups are supposed to be a fairly recent concept, but this one comes all the way back from 1991. I first heard it on a mix tape I received as a newbie raver and had no idea that it was basically the overlaying of a classic soul track over the seminal acid house track. For a long time, thanks to the label art, I thought it was by Mr Lee - but Discogs revealed the true author of this masterful mix is Darren "Rocky" Rock, who may be better known as part of The Problem Kids, Xpress 2, and countless other dance acts.

Essentially, it's Phuture's "Acid Tracks" overlaid with Ben E. King's "Stand By Me"; not much else to it apart from a siren sound intro, but - as Warhol and Duchamp have proved - genius is in the idea, not the effort (although I suspect Rocky probably knocked it up as a live mix on two decks so it probably took a few takes to get right).

I picked up my copy at a second hand record fair years ago for $10 - bargain.
The b-sides are also quality acid house (Laurent X's "Machines" and Alexander Robotnick's "Problèmes D'Amour") but they're still available so go get them elsewhere.

Another top mashup of the period is by Rhythm Doctor; it's another outing for Phuture but this time with "We Are Phuture" combined with The Art Of Noise's "Moments In Love". I don't own a copy but I know folks who do so I'll post it if they let me...

Discogs

Stand By Acid

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Selected tracks by The KLF

A little while ago I posited that Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond might rightly be considered as true pioneers of electronic trance. For the most part, The KLF owned all the rights to their own music, publishing it through their label KLF Communications. According to Discogs, in May 1992, they officially ended their music careers to pursue new artistic endeavours; they also deleted their entire catalogue of releases. I've checked Beatport and Juno and there was no KLF to purchase, so it seems that the two remain committed to art over profit.

I thought I would post a few select tracks only - there are extensive tribute site here and here and both have plenty of downloads available if you want to delve further...

First of all, "What Time Is Love?" in its two best forms - "Original Pure Trance" (1988) and "Live At Trancentral" (1990). I've said it before, but the Pure Trance mix is just so way ahead of its time that I can only think of one other track to compare it with, Humanoid's "Stakker" - both from England, both released in '88, both completely rewriting the dance floor template, both glorious mind fuck inducers.

The original mix of "What Time Is Love?" is very bare, has a slow tempo and a haunting sci-fi bassline fusing its melody and subtle kick drum. A Dr Who-like 'ooooooohhh' runs throughout to massive effect.

In 1990, the boys updated their tune (with a bit of help from others such as New York's Lenny Dee), totally transforming it into a high energy rave monster that pioneered the transfer of stadium rock excess to dance music. Everyone from The Prodigy to Underworld and 2 Unlimited took notice.

Discogs

What Time Is Love?
(Pure Trance Version)

CD Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Discogs

What Time Is Love?
(Live At Trancentral)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

"3am Eternal (Pure Trance Version)" (1989) is taken from the excellent Warehouse Raves 4 compilation - it's also got the Pure Trance Original of "What Time Is Love?" and a heap of other hard to find goodies (I'll probably post that too at some point). It's quite blissful, with a laid back vocal and a hypnotic groove. A few years later, it too got a stadium update leading to commercial chart success - The KLF had embraced cheese once more.

Discogs

3am Eternal 
(Pure Trance Version)

CD Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Cauty and Drummond didn't leave the underground altogether though, at the end of 1990 they reverted to a previous moniker, The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, and put out the apocalyptic techno of "It's Grim Up North" in a limited release of 350 single-sided 12 inches on grey vinyl. No label text, no obvious artist identification - just a plain grey inner label.

In Melbourne, only one person had it - Mr Terry "H2O" Ho, and he DJed at the massively influential Maze underground night at The Commerce Club.

People waited all night to hear The Grey Record and embrace it's locomotive techno as it stormed out of the speakers and through the smoke machine across the dancefloor and into our shattered minds. It too got remixed and re-released (with new vocal and an awful guitar break), but the original was by far the best.

Discogs
A1 It's Grim Up North
(Original Club Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps 

MP3 ...mediafire

Shi-Take - Don't Look Back In Anger (1994)

More goodness from Billy Nasty and Steve Jones, this is their second outing under this moniker (and first released as a promo in '93). I'll also put up their first "(In The Age Of) Perfect Virtue" - an altogether different track, but very classy - when I get around to recording some more tracks.


The Club Mix is proper hard progressive house, peak time music to dance your arse off to - very percussive and bassline driven, with a crazy "ma - ma - ma" chant to boot. Even my mate Will-E-Tell, the techno don of Melbourne (and who positively hated most things progressive house) liked this track - although he'd never play it in a thousand years. The Dub Mix and Touching The Spirits are a bit less energetic, with a bit of added tribal percussion and fx - more for building a set up than rocking it out. Still good tracks though.


You can find "Don't Look Back In Anger" in the mix on my Another Hard House Experience mix here.

Discogs

A1 Touching The Spirits

A2  Don't Look Back In 

      Anger (Road Rash Dub)

B1 Don't Look Back In 

      Anger (Road Rash Club)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Update: Live @ Arm In Arm 5 - Tracklisting To My 2010 New Year's Old Skool Mix

OK peeps, I've had a few requests for track info for my last set post (which was a while ago, and I do plan to do more ... no really, I do.) For those who don't read past blog posts, this mix was born from a 1 hour live set I played at an old skool party late last year. It was my second outing with the laptop and ableton live (version 6). I cut all my tracks up into parts and pre-prepared for my set by arranging the parts into something that flowed with a little bit of cohesion. On the night I used a midi keyboard to trigger the parts as I deemed fit - looping and rearranging on the fly. But being a dickhead, I forgot to record it.
Coming up to New Year Eve, I sat down and re-performed the set as best as I could remember, and then cleaned it up a bit, adding a few extra effects and fine tuning some of the cuts. I also chocked on an extra half an hour of favourites.
It's a pretty pumping choice of choons from '88 to '91 and moves along at about 130bpm or so; for anyone who wants it you can find it here. As always, thanks for listening and all comments are welcomed...


Electrotête - Grigri (Remix)
Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5 - White Lines '89 - Part II (Short Version)
T99 - Anasthasia
Subject 13 - Eternity (Spiritual Club Mix)
The Raid - The Party
Quazar - Midsummernight's Dream
R-Tyme - R-Theme (Dramatic Mix)
Xpansions - Move Your Body (1991 Remix)
Piece - Free Your Soul (Future)
Rhythm Section - Check Out The Bass Bass
FPI Project - Going Back To My Roots (Vocal Version)
Trust In 6 - Life In Ecstasy (Instrumental Mix)
CJ Bolland - Horsepower (Exclusive Remix)
Brainstorm - Rock The House
Konzept - Hypnautic Beats (Ambient 1990 Mix)
Cubic 22 - Night In Motion (Original Mix)
The Shamen - Pro>Gen (Land of Oz)
Earth People - Dance (Club Mix)
The Melody - I Want Your Love
Frankie Bones & Lenny Dee - Hold Me, Squeeze Me (Vinyl Zone Mix)
Moby - Go (Voodoo Child Mix)
MIC - OOBE 2
Spectrum - Amplification
Mental Mayhem - Joey's Riot
Art 1 - Olympia
Altern 8 - Real Time Status
FSOM - Melodia
Inner City - Good Life (Magic Juan Mix 12")
Ramirez - La Musika Tremenda (DJ Ricci Remix)
Quadrophonia - Quadrophonia (Original)
a little bit of anti-acid house media hysteria off youtube
Neal Howard - Indulge (Club House Mix)
Tronikhouse - Multifunction (Multi-Mix)
Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid (Snowman Mix)
PKA - Let Me Hear You (Say Yeah)(Bass Bins At Dawn Mix)
Yin Yang - Oh-One (Oh-Too Mix)
S'Express - Theme From S-Express
Adamski - Bass Line Changed My Life

Some Other Worthy Sites To Check...

On my regular missions to pillage as much old skool as my connection will allow, I find a lot of good shit - much of which I keep a secret and don't share. But I am not a totally selfish fucker - especially when it comes to good DJ mixes (which are harder to find than you might think)...

Obviously, there is Tim Acid's The Acid House - he regularly puts up good mixes, mostly focused towards Balearic or proper late 80s acid house. If you've not visited, do yourself a favour and git over to it...

Then there is Californian DJ Ellis Dee's site - it's not too pretty to look at, but all the mixes I've downloaded have been worth the effort (but mind out, not all are old skool).

A Jackin Phreak is someone I've only just discovered; he's French, but I'm not going to hold that against him too much. Doesn't look like he's been that active for a couple of years and that's a shame because this guy knows his old skool acid house; his mixes are laced with obscure gems as well as the classics and he combines them all rather well with contemporary tracks of complimentary flavour. Hot stuff.
Even better, the dude has produced some great revivalist acid house and hip house that you can preview here before buying/stealing elsewhere.

Other acid house revivalists include Kings Of The Universe, and much of their work is available for download on Soundcloud. I quite like their remake of Tenaglia's "Music Is The Answer", "Acid Is The Answer" - because if dropping acid isn't the solution, then dancing to it always is.

Oldskoolmixes.com is a bit out of date (seemed to have migrated to crackbook), but still has plenty of good stuff to find - although because a lot of the mixes come off 20 year old cassettes the sound quality can be quite shitty. A pity, because the DJ Hype pirate tapes are really quite entertaining.

2 tracks that pump...

Thinking about the last post on The KLF's contribution to sample-based music as a method of achieving pop chart success, brings to mind "Pump Up The Volume" by M/A/R/R/S, the first of the do-it-yourself-by-not-doing-it-yourself sample-based house music UK # 1, way back in 1987. Everyone's got a copy, so no need to post it here; but I will put up 2 of Timo Maas' 1999 reinterpretations. There's a third mix in a break beat style on the 12" but for some reason I didn't feel the need to record it so you won't find it here. Sorry.

Timo Maas (or Maas On Plastic here) couldn't secure a full release - so it remains one of those secret weapons to drop to a pumped up party; gritty, techy, but not very deep.

In a different vein, I've also got Mr Lee's "Pump That Body" from 1990. Not his finest work, but a good example of 1990s hip house, a style which had well and truly reached its peak by now. By the way, it's also a good track for a pumped up party.

Discogs

A1 Mix 1
B1 Mix 2

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Discogs
A1 Pump That Body (Club Mix)
B1 Pump That Body (Radio Mix)
B2 Pump That Body (Underground Club Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

The Timelords - The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) (1988)

Recently I found a html version of this classic text online. I've saved it as a text file (so as to delete all those embedded adverts) and encourage you to take a look. It's not exactly a magnum opus - only 36 pages when printed out onto A4 paper, and it took en easy 3 lunch breaks to read.
Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed. Very well written, intelligent, humorous and enlightening.


For those not in the know, The Timelords are King Boy D and Rockman Rock, also known as Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty - but you might know them better as The KLF. Cauty was also half of The Orb (with Dr Alex Patterson). They produced one of the greatest ever rave techno tracks in "What Time Is Love? (Live At Trancentral)", and also some of the worst pop dance ever with "Kylie Said To Jason" and "Justified & Ancient" featuring Tammy Wynette. These guys are geniuses - of real artistic merit, and not afraid to take the piss - hence "Justified & Ancient" I suspect.
Apart from their pop sensibilities, the KLF probably launched the ambient dance movement with the "Chill Out" album - which even 20 years on is still fucking brilliant; I also submit that they helped define what proper trance music is with their original pure trance mix of "What Time Is Love?". Released in 1988, it is a serious piece of blissed out mind fuck - way ahead of any of the Belgium/German New Beat of the time.
I don't think any of their catalogue is still commercially available so I might post a few of their choice cuts later.


Anyway, in 1988 Drummond and Cauty got a #1 in the UK pop charts with "Doctoring The Tardis", which basically laid parts of the Dr Who theme over the rhythm and beats of "Blockbuster" by Sweet and "Rock & Roll, Part 2" by Gary Glitter - both glam-rock hits.
I would never rate this as anything more than a lager friendly mashup (I remember getting down to it at an underage nightclub when it was released; yes, it's a sad memory), but it was one of the first success stories of blatant audio sampling as creative endeavour. The duo claimed it had been a conscious effort to make a pop hit, and wrote a manual on how they did it - with a money back guarantee that anyone else could do it too. At least one band claimed to have made a #1 following it - Edelweiss' "Bring Me Edelweiss" - it is a truly dire piece of turd, and it sold 5,000,000 units. Go figure.


How did they do it?
How can you do it?
Read the book - even now it's still relevant, and a great insight into the act of musical creation and of the music business in general.

Wikipedia

text file ...mediafire

Tyree Cooper - supa dupa 80s house producer

Along with Fast Eddie, Tyree was king of the late 80s Chicago acid house and hip house sound. Both guys were probably a bit more commercial than other cohorts such as Adonis or Mike Dunn, but they were also more successful, so there you go.
According to Discogs, by 1987 acid house was already beginning to sound played out to Tyree - it was after all over 2 years since the release of Phuture's "Acid Tracks". So his contribution to the acid sound, made on a borrowed TB303, was intended to signal that acid was over. It may well have died out as quickly as it had been born if it stayed in US clubs, but it was in late 87 that the UK caught on to the whole house sound and discovered just how fucking good acid sounded on e... "Acid Over" became a hit.

Tyree though was more comfortable with the growing fusion of rap and house - hip house; most of his 80s discography is embedded in it one way or another. Together with rapper Kool Rock Steady he created 1988's monster smash "Turn Up The Bass", rivaling Fast Eddie's "Yo Yo Get Funky" as the definitive American hip house tune.

Discogs

A1 Acid Over (Tyree's Mix)
A2 Acid Over (Union Jack Mix)
B1 Acid Over (Original Mix)
B2 Acid Over (Piano Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Discogs

A1 Turn Up The Bass (Hip Hop Remix)
B1 Turn Up The Bass (Original Mix)
B2 Turn Up The Bass (7" Edit)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Early prog house from Vinyl Blair

Steve Jones & William Nastri (aka Billy Nasty) made a number of choice harder edged progressive tunes together in the early 90s - one day I'll post some of their work as
Shi-Take on Zoom...


Billy's early claim to fame as an up and coming DJ was to attempt to mix out of Hardfloor's "Acperience 1" at the main breakdown at some techno event not long after the track had been released. Seems Billy didn't consider the track worthy of a full run; however some of the (male? intoxicated? drug fueled?) punters disagreed and got around to the decks to physically right the wrongs. I suspect that after this brush with danger, Billy has forever after not fucked with "Acperience 1". But I digress.


Here we have 2 releases on Leftfield's Hard Hands label; "The Trancespotter / Scratch N Sniff" from 1993 has it's moments, but I think "Horsework" (1994) is the better release, and the title track is about my favorite of any of their work. Good, dark progressive house with a bit of drive and direction; a mental breakdown and lots of little noises in the mix.

Discogs
A1 The Trancespotter (Turbo
     Nation Trance Groove)
B1 Scratch N Sniff (The One
     Billion Dub Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Discogs
A1 Horsework (Vinyl's Source Radish Mix)
B1 Dope (Vinyl's Green Gold Mix)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Morgan King - I Am Free (1993)

A few posts ago I put up the total rave banger "Mayhem" by Full On Sound, a very European sounding track (Germany, Belgium?) - but actually it was by two English lads - Morgan King and Nick Hook (Nick E.). They were quite good at doing early 90s style German techno, another of their aliases was Bassrace (and that appeared on the first Techno Trax compilation, a very influential double pack of vinyl for me). Well it seems a few years later, the two guys had done a 180 degree turn and headed down the progressive road. Nick in particular was an important player in the progressive scene early on, playing a big role in English labels OM and Whoop. As far as I know, he's still at it. 
But this track is by Morgan King - who I believe dropped out from dance music not long after its initial release in 1991 (around the same time and on the same label as Mayhem) - and it's more of a classic than anything Nick Hook has put out. Many of you will know it from various Sasha and Digweed DJ mixes, but I'm only presenting the Slam/Soma mixes here. The 9 minute Soma Mix is the pick of the pack, quite slow and I used to pitch it up quite a lot. Don't think I'd debase it like that nowadays.
I don't really like any of the vocal versions (or the Leftfield ones either), so you'll have to look elsewhere for those...

Discogs
A1 I Am Free (Soma Mix)
A2 I Am Free (Slam Mix)


Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

Tata Box Inhibitors - Plasmids (1994)

Gaston Steenkist and Alex Dijksterhuis (better known as Dobre & Jamez, The Trancesetters, Jark Prongo, Basco - or any other number of project aliases) pull off one of their finest moments here as the Tata Box Inhibitors. In "Plasmids (Placid Mix)" you have a gradually building epic that isn't techno, trance or acid house - it's a bit of all three. To a certain extent, a lot of their work follows a formula (slow build, big break, big release, long out) but if it works why not. The other two tracks use similar sounds and patterns but to completely different effect. They're also excellent. Check Discogs for other reviews.

A1 Plasmids (Placid Mix)
B1 Plasmids
B2 Spanning
Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire

313 Detroit compilation (1992)

Well regarded on Discogs, but the housier or more abstract tracks have aged better than the big room techno ones. My favorites are Marc Kinchen's "Baby Can (M.K. Dub)" and Carl Craig's "Free Your Mind (Future)", but there is plenty to meet all tastes. Reel by Real's "Distance" is an absolute bleep-style classic - if you like this you should check last year's Martin Bonds retrospective "20 Years Surkit" for more Class A Detroit stylings.
  

A1 Dark Comedy - War Of The Worlds
A2 Reel By Real - Distance
B1 K.E.L.S.E.Y. - Baby Can (M.K. Dub)
B2 Piece - Free Your Mind (Future)
C1 Subterfuge - Unconscious World
C2 Santonio - Electricity
D1 Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes - Warwick
D2 69 - Desire


Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire