Stu J – Gadget

May 11th, 2012

OK, skipping the obscurities for a second and posting a long time favorite 91 track here… Despite being a relatively early tune, there’s quite a few parts in this one. The hip hop amen / combo break down leading to the simple synth drop works every time! Stu J went on to do some more 4/4 type hardcore stuff… even Gadget part deux already had stomping beats throughout! This one is definitely one of the all-time small label/whitelabel 91 classics in my opinion, simply a must-have for fans of hardcore from that era.

Stu J – Gadget

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Blog to the Oldskool Radio show 5/9/2012

May 10th, 2012

Show last night was really fun, thanks for the regulars who tuned in (Dustone, ImaginaryForces, Ombrios, DavidL et all). Ended up being a fairly moody but not super-dark set of 93-95 stuff (just a few diversions into the dark stuff), letting tracks play a lot longer than usual. Definitely fit my mood to a T, and it was good to hear other people tuned in wanting to hear stuff like that as well… certainly wasn’t in any mood to play happy hardcore or anthemy hardcore. Tried to end with some ragga jungle to bring the mood up a bit, nothing too crazy though.

No stuff from the blog played this time, really just a crate of vinyl I grabbed a little bit before the show and slung together in haphazard fashion.
Last 30 minutes got cut off, but they were less than awesome anyway as I was running back and forth pulling ragga jungle vinyl from my shelves record by record trying to mix it in time. I’ll try to do a real ragga jungle set some point in the future though I don’t dig for that stuff nearly as much as raggajungle specialist DJs

Blog to the oldskool 5-10-2012 tracklisting
(* = request)
T-Power – Circle
T-Power – Square
Outlaw – Searchin
Hyper-on Experience – Disturbance
Flex – Dreams
Tango – Understanding
Brother T + Dylan Dog – Herbalist tenemant
A-Sides + Nut – e -1 – Bell tune
Goldie – Rider’s Ghost
FOI – Learning From My Brother
White Label – Physics
DJ Devine + Essence – What Game Ya Play?
T-Power – Lipsing Jam Ring
Hopa + Bones Feat Oaysis – Mystical Horns
A-sides – My Mind (Bubblehead Mix)
Renegade – Something I feel
Slipmaster J – Groundhog Day
Hello Lover (Desired State Remix)
Chimeira – Deeper Life*
Mind Therapy – Heart of the Jungle
Sponge – The Crash *
Nosebleed – Right Nostrl *
Vertigo – Caution
Red One – The Futurist
Wishdokta – River of Dreams
Metalheads – Angel
DJ Harry + Point Blank – Cape Feare (Original Mix) *
Invisible Man – The Beginning
Amazon 2 – Deep in the Jungle (DJ Rap Remix)
Hired Gun – Pow
Harri + Eddie – Devil in the Dark
Jason Ball – Hornz for 94
DJ Crystl – Crystalize
Peshay – World of Music
DJ Nut Nut – Big Tings (The Dream)
DJ Monk – I Spy
Dubtronix – Kill Some Sounds
Mind Therapy – Love is What We Need

devnull – blog to the oldskool radio 5-10-2012.mp3

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Blogtotheoldskool Radio tommorow, Wednesday May 8th

May 8th, 2012

Just a reminder that the radio show on jungletrain.net is tommorow night, Wednesday from 7pm EST/midnight UK/1am GMT. This week’s show will probably focus more on 93-95, since last time was 92-93 heavy. Always open to suggestions though, so get in the chatroom on jungletrain and make some requests!

Marc Williams – Dream Rush

May 7th, 2012

Here’s a rip which I did over 3 years ago for this blog, but never posted.. I think I ripped this the same time as Intellect – Stimulation, which is on the same EP. It’s likely I chose not to post this since I didn’t want to post multiple tracks off the same record – however, it’s really OK in this case since the EP in question is a 5 tracker, so it’s not like I’m posting the whole thing. Also, I probably like this track just as much as the Intellect one, maybe more so!! Even if the name “Marc Williams” isn’t familiar, many of you have probably heard his tracks before. As a member of both “Homeboy, Hippie and a Funky Dread” and “Project One”, he was partially responsible for such classics as “Total Confusion” and the “Don Gorgon” EP on Rising High. The experience shows in this track, which is certainly a nice little hardcore gem to find buried 3 tracks into an overlooked comp EP… loads of familiar samples well put together, nicely sequenced 92 beats and just the right amount of wackyness (dinosaur sounds, “straight from the jungle”, etc) to be fun without falling into the novelty tune zone by any means. It also doesn’t hurt that this EP goes for $2, as do many of the other goodies on Boogie Beat. Check em out!

Marc Williams – Dream Rush

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Conquering Lion – Code Red video

May 5th, 2012

thanks to David L (reader of this blog) for the link! cool video:

Prong – Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck (Atom Heart remix)

May 4th, 2012

Here’s an neat track I just found on vinyl recently… definitely not up everyone’s alley (not even sure if I’d play it), but may be of serious interest if, like me, you’re into “before their time” tracks which hint at future styles to come. In this case, we’ve got a 1993 remix of the New York metal band Prong, done by Atom Heart (he of Senior Coconut, Atomu Shinzu, Flanger, Roger Tubesound, Erik Satin, and a few dozen more cool projects), where the result sounds suspiciously like 97/98 techstep. Of course, this particular track also isn’t too far removed from industrial metal stuff either, but the chopping and heavy distorting of a break into an almost-2 step pattern is pretty damn ahead of its time! Really cool to hear even if industrial metally stuff isn’t really my bag. I only wish Atom did more breakbeat/jungley stuff back then, I’m sure it would have been/could have been crazy!

Not posting a rip since this was released on epic and I don’t want to be Dee-Emm-Cee-Ay’d back into the stone age…

2 Boasters Featuring Cloud 9 & DJ Pedro – The Traitor (Judas Mix)

May 4th, 2012

Back to the 92s, here’s a bit of a Top Buzz classic. Aside from Cloud 9 who I assume everyone is familiar with, this track was also made by a group called “2 Boasters, A Digestive and a Jammy Dodger” – if that name doesn’t scream “oldskool sillyness” I don’t know what does. Despite the name, this group (possibly Gavin + affiliated producers?) actually have a great track record with releases – all three of them are excellent and seem to have been quite well received at the time. Their earlier track “We are about to take LSD” is a definite jam, though with that sample playing over and over cut with a snippet of Orbital “Chime”, it’s hard to imagine it NOT smashing up the raves!!

Though still quite playable, even for a 92 tune “The traitor” certainly isn’t winning any fidelity awards. As usual, I’m not sure if it’s my copy, the needles, or the track itself. That hardly matters though, as the music is great- starting with classic outlander vamp piano stabs (used similarly to K90 – Bass 1999, though this probably came out first), a bunch of breaks are layered on top and it begins to sound like a fun, messy, functional 92 ardcore banger… at least for the first 1:45. After that, a record scratching sound leads into a lenghty orchestral section accompanied with moody pads, squelchy synths and a less mental piano part. The track finally resolves itself back to banging rave at the end, all in all though it’s a quite well put together tune that I’m sure plenty of people will remember.

2 Boasters Featuring Cloud 9 & DJ Pedro – The Traitor Judas Mix

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DJ Dextrous & Rude Boy Keith – Lovable

May 4th, 2012

This tune isn’t exactly obscure, in fact it’s quite well known and recognizable as far as jungle tracks go. Released on the ace “King of the Jungle” label, it was also pressed on the “Drum & Bass Selection 1″ comp on Breakdown Records, a label Dan Donnelly of Suburban Base ran to release chart-busting compilations of jungle, garage, and other styles. However, I did a quick scan of mp3 stores and couldn’t find it for sale, so download link stays active for now. Normally I don’t post tracks this big but it really is a great 94 jungle track, fitting a number of the more popular 94 sounds into one neat 5 minute, 44 second package. Across this track you get slowjam / r+b melodies plus similar style vocals, ragga vocals popping in and out, big sub bass (almost distorting on my rip – could just be my copy though!), plus a hardcore stab pattern (albeit in 94 key) leading into the dark-as-anything synth from Nasty Habits “Here come the drums”. Class stuff all around!!

dj dextrous – lovable

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Jungletrain radio show 4/25/2012 – mp3 and tracklist

April 26th, 2012

Here’s a recording of the full 2.5 hour jungletrain radio show last night, April 25th 2012. All in all, I was very happy with how this show went – I spent more time before the show picking stuff instead of just mixing whatever happened to be in the crates nearest my turntables, which I think paid off. The show started with stabby 92 hardcore, uplifting but nothing too happy or cheesy. After a while, it moves into more deep and dark tracks, toggling back and forth a bit while getting darker and darker. There’s a bit of a diversion through tracks from the blog, until finally around 1:41 that happy hardcore set I warned about touches down… starting with classic oldskool (SMD1), moving up through a lot of my favorite tracks through about 1998. No tracklist for this part since I’ll probably rerecord this with more tunes as an official mix sometime soon. Finally, I had a bit of extra time so by request I chucked in a couple dutch gabber tracks and 2 classic german tunes.

Thanks for those who tuned in, the number of people checking it live and RTing / resharing the info could still be a lot better though. I’m not sure what I can do to remind people about this radio show, thinking of making an email list but for now the easiest way to remember (aside from just knowing it’s every other Wednesday) is to join the facebook group listed on the right, or follow the twitter account @blog2oldskool. I try to really not spam too much but I give a notices a day or two before, day of, and then right when the show is starting.. as well as posting random other stuff of interest.

devnull – blog to the oldskool radio 4-25-2012

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Track Listing:

Goldseal #1 – A
Wardance – B1
Raving Mad – Addicted (Remix)
Psychoacoustic – Wot Are We
New Era – Remix
Bass Selective – Make Me Rush
EQP – Prophecy
Drumatix – Crank Dis
DJ GT & Rob E – Point Zero
Acen – Close Your Eyes (Optikonfusion Remix)
The Good, Two Bad & Hugly – Give Into Love
Tiny X – Judgement Day (African Mix)
Krome & Time – This Sound is For the Underground
Two Undercover – Unite
Ascendant Masters – Put the Bassdrum On
Overdog – Fuck You Up
Undergrond Frequency – Meltdown Pt 2
Ramos & Supreme – The Journey Pt 1
4 Hero – Students of the Future
Wax Doctor – Herbal Techno
DJ Seduction – Feel So Good
Dark Voice – Dark Night
Fozbee & Cooz – Really Real
Unknown Artist – Trancedance EP
Dillinja – From Beyond
DJ Phantasy & Gemini – I Feel Free
Unknown artist – Indx?
Rhythm For Reasons – Arabian Knights
Citadel of Kaos – A1
Category 3 Featuring Clarkee – Transposer
Secret Squirrel – Commence With the B Line
Tango & Fallout – Positive Chaos
DJ Aka – Farside
Chris Energy – My Vision is Clear
X-Men – My Sound Rule
Adam F – Pressure (Mix 1)
Sub Sequence -State of Mind
Criminal Set – Time Lord
TMR Inc – Sample City
Interception – Let Me Know
***93-98 HAPPY HARDCORE SET**
**COUPLE RANDOM GABBA TRACKS*

DJ Junk – Junk 05

April 24th, 2012

Gotta love those tracks that don’t immediately make too strong of an impression, but slowly grow on you from being in a mix… then when you finally get hooked and look them up, you find out they were hiding in your collection all along! Such is the way with this track, off Junk 05 which I previously posted a different track off of but never gave much mind (or deck time) to. This track has grown on me a ton though, all the elements are pretty “out there” but come together nicely: the weird reversed melody, hiphop vocal chant every 8 bars, and pitch shifted “it’s gonna be a lovely day” vocals. The result track ends up with a king of weird uneasy feel maybe more in-line with 1992 tracks, but definitely something that starts to dig into your brain and make you wonder “what the hell IS that?!” the nth time you’ve heard in a mix…
Big respect to DJ Junk for putting out these cool white label releases back then, lots of nice tracks hidden on the junk back catalog for sure (in spite of the label name!).

DJ Junk – Junk05 A2

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