Here’s a slower track than I’ve posted lately.. Cool Hand Flex is one of the most prolific-yet-underrated early hardcore/jungle producers and engineers. A lot of his early tunes are split over De Underground and its numerous sublabels (Oddball, IE, Ruff Groove, U No Dat, In Touch etc), though he also did tracks on Brain and Suburban Base. I wouldn’t even say this is one of my top favorite singles by Flex overall, but I totally love this tune: it’s stripped down but solid, with nice layering of drum hits and breaks. The slow tempo makes it mixable with a variety of styles (not just faster 92-94 hardcore/jungle), and the main synth and vocal (“I just wanna hear a good beat” from Dee Lite “Good Beat”) are wicked catchy.
Cool Hand Flex & Uncle 22 – Odd Ball EP (A1)
link removed pending posting on hardcore junglism
A lot of the early releases on the De Underground group of labels were engineered by A Sides. Well worth interviewing for the site, I reckon.
A-sides would def be a good interview, I wanted to interview him last time he came through town, but he had just got off a long flight earlier and was wrecked / went straight back to his hotel afterwards. I did get Mole The Dipper’s contact info from him and tried to interview him as well, but no dice there either. Sorting out interviews for this site is a real pain sometimes 🙂
I’ll hit up Dipper and see if I can get it sorted.