blog to the oldskool

Trying to make up for the weeks of lazy posting, here’s another nice tune – this time some stripped down 91 hardcore. This track is way more basic than what I usually like, but it more than does the trick – a simple breakbeat, a catchy vocal sample (”get up, feel the dancefloor justice!”) and an even catchier piano part… good stuff!! I originally thought this was by the Boogie Beat artist Kenetic, but Discogs is claiming it’s by the same guy (Michael Hazell) who did the awesome Golden Girls “Kinetic” EP with Phil Hartnoll of Orbital.

Kinetic – Dancefloor Justice

Been a bit lazy about posting this week, so here’s a sick obscure whitelabel to make up for it. Absolutely no idea about the artist behind it, but both sides smash it! Tracks have quite a few little changeups and combine a more techno hardcorey sound with quality breakbeats. Maybe not my typical favorite style of stuff but a really nice single nonetheless. Also, both tracks are high quality instead of there being just one strong side.

Existence – Zebra

Here’s a tune that’s pretty much the opposite of what I posted on Wednesday, and not my typical favorite type of tune. However, this track has wormed itself into my head and just won’t leave! It’s a straightforward housey hardcore track from late 91/early 92, male vocals and all.. nothing crazy going on but solid music, big bass, and there’s been at least few times this week where the “Rushinnnnnn!!!!” or “the music changed” lines have popped into my head.

I’m not sure about the artist behind this – Discogs says “Masquerade”, and backs it up with a separate EP with a similarly named track (indicating this might be a 92 remix of the original on that EP).. I can’t find sound for that EP to verify that, just nabbed a copy for a few euros on discogs though so I’ll find out in a week or two. My copy of the EP has a sticker on it which says “hope & dave – rushing (HD001)”. It looks like a pretty old sticker, so it could be the actual record info from BITD…. OR it could be a sticker put on by a previous record shop based on them guessing what record it is. Either way, it’s a great catchy & obscure hardcore tune.

Hope & Dave – Rushing

Here’s a great 4 track EP which was featured in a few mixes, including an Easygroove summer 92 mix that’s one of my favorites. The A side features 2 mixes of a track called “Ecstasy”, which uses that famous whispered “ecstasy” sample plus a Dune sample more famously used in Smart Systems’ “The Tingler”. Both mixes are good albeit very similar, however this B2 track is my favorite from from hearing it so many times in the aforementioned Easygroove mix. “Code 4″ uses beats from “never try the hippodrome” (or sampled from the same source) and I think Aphex Twin’s remix of Mescalinum United’s “We Have Arrived”. Definitely a solid whitelabel jam which might sound familiar even if the name of the record isn’t.

Code 4 – Code 4

Here’s a reasonably well known white label from 1992. Part of what makes me like this EP is the variety in the tunes, as you’ll hear in the two representative tracks below – one is a deeper heavy track that stays pretty straightforward, while the other is a weird bouncy track that changes up every 8/16 bars. I’m pretty sure I didn’t like “Magic Piano” much when I first heard it, but for some reason it was the first track on my old ipod and so I ended up growing to like it after being woken up to it every day for a few months (I had one of those alarm clocks that wakes you up with your ipod).

Ionosphere also did the Just 4 Me EP which, while decent and certainly easier/cheaper to find than “Hypertension”, didn’t hold a candle to the first EP in my opinion. They also did a number of happy hardcore singles after that which I haven’t heard.

If you like these tunes, check out the Ionosphere webpage, where you can buy a compilation of their older tunes plus download a bunch of free tracks. Because the “Perfect Hibernation” tune is for sale on itunes/trackitdown, I’m not putting a download link below, just the streaming player.

Ionosphere – Perfect Hibernation

Ionosphere – Magic Piano

Here’s one for the obscure white label crew. This EP definitely isn’t for everyone. The production on it is super low-fi (putting the “grimey” tolerance of even ardent oldskool obscurity fans to the test), however for some reason it sounds absolutely GREAT to me when blasted loud. It sounds like it was released around 91, given that’s when the First Zephania release came out, I’d tend to think it came out that year or was at least written then.

Zephania – A

Zephania – B1

Back to the obscurities… not much to say about this one. I think it has an Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark sample in it, but I don’t know that group well enough to say what track. Plus the classic “I can’t quite understand it” vocal which I don’t know the source for either, except that it’s been used in quite a number of oldskool tracks. I’ll probably post another track which uses the same sample later today if I have the time. Breakbeat is from “Radio Babylon” of course.

[DISCOGS]
Underground Manuevers in the Dark – I Can’t Understand

Someone wrote me on discogs a while back asking me to post this EP since it was so obscure… It’s a decent single, not really my style drumwise (I’ll take low-fi choppy breaks over more drum machine sounding beats, at least for hardcore stuff) but the music is pretty good. Also, this EP is definitely eclipsed by the Down To Earth / Nostalgic EP. That EP happens to be one of those pricey hardcore singles which is actually worth the price based on the music, not just some obscure-for-the-sake-of-obscurity mediocre EP made expensive by it’s small pressing numbers.

Insomnia – Raise the Roof