1993 - the UK Rave scene at its finest
The Drum & Bass Arena forum collective have very willingly compiled a list of their favourite tunes from this era containing some absolute gems.
DJ Modus kindly compiled a YouTube playlist so you don’t have to wade through the pages to find hours of classics. So sit back, turn up the speakers and press play..
Link here
Dream Magazine presents - Blazin’ Bass Mixed by DJ Swanee
Given away from with Dream Magazine issue 28 this was a nice introduction into the world of Collusion Records and some other well known bits from the likes of Trend, Adam F and IQ Collective.
Download here (download is all 12 tracks, add them into iTunes together)
United Dance The New Frontier (full pack download)
http://www.mediafire.com/?4gx5cffm8iytd
Recorded on 18th April 1997 at Stevenage Art’s & Leisure Centre this was one of the last United Dance events I remember attending.
I have some other rare United Dance packs I really need to convert, this one was converted last year but I think I forgot to post it on here.
A diverse line up of the following:
SY
Vibes
Vinylgroover
Brisk
Dougal back to back Hixxy
Hype
Slipmatt
Swan-e
Force & Styles
SS
Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter
Ramos & Supreme
Kenny Ken
Darren Jay
MC’s included Fearless, Freestyle, Junior (RIP), Charlie B (sadly), Magika and a very young Whizzkid
RAW Drum & Bass Summer Anthems
Ready for next month? Here’s a taster of what’s coming soon.
More information on the night can be found here
01) Yazz - Abandon Me (Aphrodite & Mickey Finn Remix)
02) DJ Zinc - Polkadots
03) Michelle Gayle, MC Det & Ed Solo - Feel Me
04) Mickey Finn - It’s Not Over
05) Undiluted - S-T-E-V-I-E
06) Lily Allen - Smile (Digital Soundboy Remix)
07) Krust & Zinc - Again
08) Shy FX & T Power - Feelings
09) Calibre Feat. MC Fats - Drop it Down
10) Potential Bad Boy - Off Road (Grunge Mix)
11) Usher Feat. JD - My Way (Bootleg)
12) Serial Killaz - You Never Know
13) Benny Page - Screwface
14) Roni Size - Bite The Bullet
15) Top Cat - Sweetest Ting (Benny Page & Marcus Visionary Remix)
16) Serial Killaz - My Sound a Champion
17) Serial Killaz - Worries Inna Dance (Remix)
18) Tom & Jerry - Maximum Style (Remix)
19) Fabulous Baker Boys - Oh Boy (Aphrodite Remix)
Don’t forget on Monday 05th March I have some very special guests on my Rapture FM show.
The one and only Deadline UK are making a trip over from sunny St Neots to grace the turntables with 2 hours of Jump Up Drum & Bass. Featuring none other than DJ Lines and DJ Dzs flinging down a mass of upfront tunes and no doubt a few classics along the way.
MC wise we have Cambridge’s finest, Simbad Fresh providing the lyrical banter.
Chat room and live video feed as usual plus the set will be recorded for download.
Live Monday 13th February MC Linden D on Jamie’s Return to the Jungle show on Rapture FM from 8pm GMT.
Expect some big Jungle tracks to be laid down alongside some of Jamie’s favourite tunes from the last 20 years. The combination of Jamie’s selection and Linden’s vast array of lyrics is sure to be something you don’t want to miss.
The show will be recorded live and hosted for download on Tuesday 14th February.
Tape Crackers: An Oral History Of Jungle Pirate Radio
I stumbled across this fantastic looking documentary via the DNBA forum, probably the only worthwhile bit of information to grace the website since 2001.
Surprisingly I have never heard of this DVD, it’s existence has sadly gone unnoticed until now so the anticipation of actually watching and reminiscing is stupidly high.
You can pick up a copy for yourself here
I’ll write a proper review after I have watched it 100 or so times.
Here’s the blurb from the website:
‘Tape Crackers’ is a vital documentary focussed on one guy, Michael Finch, and his amazing tape collection of pirate radio recordings made in the mid-late ’90s. The premise is basic: place Michael and some of his most prized c90s in front of the camera and let the man talk. The result: a punters’-ear recollection of an amazing period in UK music culture, charting the shifts between Happy Hardcore/Jungle/D&B/Garage, or what has contentiously become known as the ‘Hardcore Continuum’ thanks to Simon Reynolds.
Michael is a passionate and thoroughly endearing orator, spilling profuse knowledge on MCs, the variety and breadth of the junglist FM bandwidth, the raves, the clothes, and most importantly, the vibe. Although this era only occurred little over 15 years ago, the fact that it was all pre-internet (or at least widescale internet use) gives some sharp contrast to today’s fingertip cultural reach and some context that many older heads will relate to, while youngers are recommended to watch for educational purposes.
Although the period covered falls a little bit later than the golden era - 1990-1993 - the anecdotes and Finch’s compelling delivery basically render that almost irrelevant . You can just see memories wash over him with each tape he puts on, and you’re reminded of the absolute frustration and euphoria of hearing a track on pirate radio that you would never ever get to find out anything about, or know who it was by, or ever get to hear again - save for the worn out cassette copy you just made. Apart from all the anecdotes and recollections - including a really nice overview of London’s Junglist pirate radio scene of the mid 90’s (even touching on the birth of Rinse), what you really get from Tape Crackers is a snapshot of a bygone era and one man’s obsession with it - and it just makes for utterly compelling viewing.
Don’t miss.
![Blocks & Escher - Sagan b/w Broken [Narratives Music]
EDJ favourites Blocks and Escher turn up the heat this week with the introduction of their new label Narratives Music. The emphasis here is on ‘releasing music which encapsulates the atmosphere, emotion and excitement’ that made them fall in love with the genre in the 90’s’. So a label that is deeply personal and not afraid to show it, good news! Music is undoubtedly a deeply personal thing and too many labels trying to be all things to all people is partly the reason why the majors and the mainstream industry at large is in the state it is in today. People don’t feel the connection with music that they once did, predominantly because everything is so homogenised and essentially impersonal. I invites the question, why should somebody feel obliged to pay for something that is aimed in such a corporate scattergun fashion at anybody the marketing model’s remit picks up? I’m not condoning the theft of music and to be fair the factors outlined above generally don’t apply to our beloved genre, I’m just saying it’s partly understandable when you take them into consideration and apply them to the bemoaning masses.
Anyway, enough about that. Narratives’ first release lets two typically raw and pulsating rhythms off the leash for our aural pleasure. On ‘Broken’, heart melting synth lines and breathy vocals entwined with stone cold breaks produce an indefinable fusion that sounds quite unlike any other set piece of music out there in the realm of 170bpm at the moment. ‘Sagan’ with a percussive journey that twists, turns and rolls up and down throughout certainly keeps the listener on their toes. Both tunes are a healthy testament to the notion that you can take the polished sheen off of drum and bass and still make it listener friendly. A little bonus for digital lovers and supporters of those who buy from the labels online store over at Surus is a solo effort from Escher, ‘Cymbal Runner’ that’s been doing the rounds for a while now.With such a personal slant on the ethos of the label, I thought rather than the usual waffle that litters these reviews, it would be good to ask Phil [Blocks] to try and give us an idea of some music that inspires, particularly him and how this relates to the sounds we hear in the vinyl tracks, ‘Sagan’ and ‘Broken’. The result was as expected, a very broad spectrum including cult classic acts like Joy Division, Kate Bush, Radiohead and Neil Young, alongside some offerings from the more obvious sources of Photek, Boymerang and Susumu Yakota. The later of these creative sources offer the more obvious sonic assimilations. Having listened to Narratives001 it would difficult not to cite a Photek in the inspirations bracket. His penchant for making such succinctly underground, but ultimately tactile sounding music is a very close fit with B&E’s style. Not to say that Narratives001 is full of Photek rip offs, far from it. What struck me was the mutually innate melodic charm of both ‘Broken’ and Photek’s ‘Aleph1’. The hypnotic synth work in Kate Bush’s ‘Running up that Hill’ has always been a personal favourite. Less obviously though, the staunch attitude of an artist so uncompromisingly her own (although actually this tune had to be given a different name to that originally intended for fear of losing commercial appeal!) To me this reflects how B&E have carved out a strong identity of sound for themselves in the scene, build a good following and still manage to stay true to their craft. Having never taken the time to indulge in the buzz surrounding Thom Yorke and his ever influential band, I was shocked at the frantic percussion in Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’. ‘Creep’ this is not and although this may be a slight fallacy of logic, you can see how it may have influenced some of the more experimental electronic music to have graced our ears over the last few years. Another citation worthy of note is the general level of atmosphere that the tunes on Narratives001 create. Generally a building sequence of melodic elements is pretty standard these days but to let the composition get overcrowded and convoluted is all too easy in my mind. When you listen to the young Mike Sheridan’s ‘Stjernekiggeri’ (yeah I can’t pronounce it either) or the veteran Yakota’s ‘Imagine’ you are treated to a master class in how it’s done in the very subtle way witnessed in both ‘Broken’ and ‘Sagan’.One of my favourite things to do is garner an understanding of what influences artists to write the music they do. Some references are more blatant than others. Sometimes you can hear them at a micro level IE a particular sample or sound. Others are more macro, the general feel and atmosphere of a track or the artistic outlook. One way or the other I always enjoy coming away with an enhanced sense of understanding and affinity with an artist. Understanding for obvious reasons but affinity because you feel you’ve been given a personal insight into the mind of somebody whose work you respect and appreciate as a contemporary. That is part of the charm of not only this experience but the whole ethos of Narratives Music as an entity. With that in mind I have to whole heartedly recommend you keep a close eye on the future of the label.
Review by Tom (Taken Root) - follow him on Twitter here
Listen to the audio here](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxwbccZ3Ae1qb47iuo1_400.jpg)
Blocks & Escher - Sagan b/w Broken [Narratives Music]
EDJ favourites Blocks and Escher turn up the heat this week with the introduction of their new label Narratives Music. The emphasis here is on ‘releasing music which encapsulates the atmosphere, emotion and excitement’ that made them fall in love with the genre in the 90’s’. So a label that is deeply personal and not afraid to show it, good news! Music is undoubtedly a deeply personal thing and too many labels trying to be all things to all people is partly the reason why the majors and the mainstream industry at large is in the state it is in today. People don’t feel the connection with music that they once did, predominantly because everything is so homogenised and essentially impersonal. I invites the question, why should somebody feel obliged to pay for something that is aimed in such a corporate scattergun fashion at anybody the marketing model’s remit picks up? I’m not condoning the theft of music and to be fair the factors outlined above generally don’t apply to our beloved genre, I’m just saying it’s partly understandable when you take them into consideration and apply them to the bemoaning masses.
Anyway, enough about that. Narratives’ first release lets two typically raw and pulsating rhythms off the leash for our aural pleasure. On ‘Broken’, heart melting synth lines and breathy vocals entwined with stone cold breaks produce an indefinable fusion that sounds quite unlike any other set piece of music out there in the realm of 170bpm at the moment. ‘Sagan’ with a percussive journey that twists, turns and rolls up and down throughout certainly keeps the listener on their toes. Both tunes are a healthy testament to the notion that you can take the polished sheen off of drum and bass and still make it listener friendly. A little bonus for digital lovers and supporters of those who buy from the labels online store over at Surus is a solo effort from Escher, ‘Cymbal Runner’ that’s been doing the rounds for a while now.
With such a personal slant on the ethos of the label, I thought rather than the usual waffle that litters these reviews, it would be good to ask Phil [Blocks] to try and give us an idea of some music that inspires, particularly him and how this relates to the sounds we hear in the vinyl tracks, ‘Sagan’ and ‘Broken’. The result was as expected, a very broad spectrum including cult classic acts like Joy Division, Kate Bush, Radiohead and Neil Young, alongside some offerings from the more obvious sources of Photek, Boymerang and Susumu Yakota. The later of these creative sources offer the more obvious sonic assimilations. Having listened to Narratives001 it would difficult not to cite a Photek in the inspirations bracket. His penchant for making such succinctly underground, but ultimately tactile sounding music is a very close fit with B&E’s style. Not to say that Narratives001 is full of Photek rip offs, far from it. What struck me was the mutually innate melodic charm of both ‘Broken’ and Photek’s ‘Aleph1’. The hypnotic synth work in Kate Bush’s ‘Running up that Hill’ has always been a personal favourite. Less obviously though, the staunch attitude of an artist so uncompromisingly her own (although actually this tune had to be given a different name to that originally intended for fear of losing commercial appeal!) To me this reflects how B&E have carved out a strong identity of sound for themselves in the scene, build a good following and still manage to stay true to their craft. Having never taken the time to indulge in the buzz surrounding Thom Yorke and his ever influential band, I was shocked at the frantic percussion in Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’. ‘Creep’ this is not and although this may be a slight fallacy of logic, you can see how it may have influenced some of the more experimental electronic music to have graced our ears over the last few years. Another citation worthy of note is the general level of atmosphere that the tunes on Narratives001 create. Generally a building sequence of melodic elements is pretty standard these days but to let the composition get overcrowded and convoluted is all too easy in my mind. When you listen to the young Mike Sheridan’s ‘Stjernekiggeri’ (yeah I can’t pronounce it either) or the veteran Yakota’s ‘Imagine’ you are treated to a master class in how it’s done in the very subtle way witnessed in both ‘Broken’ and ‘Sagan’.
One of my favourite things to do is garner an understanding of what influences artists to write the music they do. Some references are more blatant than others. Sometimes you can hear them at a micro level IE a particular sample or sound. Others are more macro, the general feel and atmosphere of a track or the artistic outlook. One way or the other I always enjoy coming away with an enhanced sense of understanding and affinity with an artist. Understanding for obvious reasons but affinity because you feel you’ve been given a personal insight into the mind of somebody whose work you respect and appreciate as a contemporary. That is part of the charm of not only this experience but the whole ethos of Narratives Music as an entity. With that in mind I have to whole heartedly recommend you keep a close eye on the future of the label.
Review by Tom (Taken Root) - follow him on Twitter here
Listen to the audio here
Bass of the Trap? BM Funksta?
God knows, but this is a potentially unreleased dubplate from the mighty Aphrodite around 1997. Sampling the same sample used in Mystery Man’s ‘DJ Business’ from 92 and bringing the standard Aphrodite bassline that made him famous it’s a wonder why this wasn’t released past dubplate.
The well know BM Funksta and the VIP featuring The Jungle Brothers uses prety much the same structure although does away with the samples used in this version which pretty much made the original what it was.
Aphrodite’s kept pretty quiet about this one, no feature on his Soundcloud account and certainly nothing official from his well maintained Facebook page.
Who knows where it ended up or what the story was behind it, sadly it doesn’t look like it will ever see an official release.
Return to the Jungle radio returns this evening on Rapture FM bringing a whole host of classic Jungle tunes mixed with a bit of upfront Drum & Bass.
Show starts at 8pm and goes on till around 10pm.
You can now stream Rapture FM via your smart phone so no need to even go near a computer this evening. Just use the Tunein app
Anyone that misses out can stream the audio in a few days from my Mixcloud page.
*All bold text contains links
