Just been playing with the Vine app, and have come up with a little video to show you the records featured on my Machines In Love mix, which I recorded over the weekend. Coming soon to Sonicrampage …

Benjy Bars presents The Roots of Ruff Sqwad

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Mixed in London, May 2013
(54:19, 99.6 MB, 256 KBPS MP3)

Large cover
Cue File
Zip Pack (Split Tracks)

Style: Freeform

Direct link to the mix: http://sonicrampage.org/guestmixes/bb/BenjyBars-TheRootsOfRuffSqwad.mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Ruff Sqwad – Anna (Instrumental)
02. Ruff Sqwad – Anna (Instrumental)
03. Ruff Sqwad – Tings in Boots (Instrumental)
04. Ruff Sqwad – Tings in Boots (Vocal)
05. Ruff Sqwad – Together (Instrumental)
06. Ruff Sqwad – Together ft. Wiley (Vocal)
07. Ruff Sqwad – No Bass
08. Ruff Sqwad – Xtra (Vocal)
09. Ruff Sqwad – Underground (Instrumental)
10. Ruff Sqwad – Underground (Vocal)
11. Ruff Sqwad – Awake (Instrumental)
12. Ruff Sqwad – Awake (Vocal)
13. Ruff Sqwad – It’s Nuffin (Instrumental)
14. Ruff Sqwad – It’s Nuffin ft Roll Deep (Vocal)
15. Ruff Sqwad – Down (Instrumental)
16. Ruff Sqwad – Down (Vocal)
17. Ruff Sqwad – Clio remix
18. Ruff Sqwad – Pied Piper (Skepta Remix)
19. Ruff Sqwad – Pied Piper (Gods Gift vocal)
20. Ruff Sqwad – Pied Piper (Scratchy Vocal)
21. Ruff Sqwad – Pied Piper (Stryder Vocal)
22. Ruff Sqwad – From a Place (Instrumental)
23. Ruff Sqwad – From a Place (Vocal)
24. Ruff Sqwad – Misty Cold
25. Ruff Sqwad – Lethal Injection
26. Ruff Sqwad – An Ting
27. Ruff Sqwad – Functions on the Low

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my own grime mix …

Over the last year or so Benjy Bars has been posting on Soundcloud an awesome series of mixes called “The Roots of …”, each of which is a perfectly-formed little tribute to some of the key early figures in dubstep and grime, such as Dizzee Rascal, Mala, Coki, Skream, Wiley, Loefah, and more. I’ve been a big fan of the mixes, so a little while back I got in touch with Benjy to see if he would be up for one of the mixes appearing here at Sonicrampage as a guest mix, and since we are both big fans of East London grime heroes Ruff Sqwad, I’m quite pleased to host Benjy’s The Roots of Ruff Sqwad.

Enjoy!

Pearsall: Firstly, Benjybars, the basics: who? What? Where? When? How?

Benjy Bars: Ben Caldwell, just the wrong side of 30, grew up in South East London but have been living in North London since I was 16.

What’s the thinking behind your ‘Roots Of …’ series?

Well, I suppose I kind of nicked it from Martin Clarke (Blackdown) and whoever else was behind the Roots of EL-B release on Tempa … but yeah I always like mixes which have a proper focus to them; these mixes give you a chance to see how a producer’s output has changed/developed over the years.

Have you had any feedback from any of the artists that you have featured in the ‘Roots Of …’ series?

Yeah, Plasticman (Plastician) put it on his Facebook page and bigged it up, which was good of him, and I think maybe a couple of others might have tweeted the mixes but I’m not on Twitter so I’m not too sure … I should probably get on Twitter really, innit!

Your ‘Roots of …’ series has looked at both early grime and early dubstep … do you have a favorite?

Dunno – too hard to choose. The hype and energy of classic grime is ridiculous, but then I’ve got a lot of love for the early work of Skream, Loefah, Benga, Mala etc …

If you mean have I got a favourite mix from the Roots of series, then probably the Loefah one just cos it was the first one and I’d never really seen his Rephlex/Big Apple tracks in one mix before.

In my personal opinion, Ruff Sqwad were, alongside Wiley, the finest and most consistent producers of the early grime period. Where do you see them in the grime pantheon?

Yeah, definitely – although maybe not strictly ‘early’ grime cos then we’d be talking about Oddz, Eastwood, Alias, Youngstar etc … but yeah, best crew in grime. Others would argue that classic NASTY crew era hold that title but for me it’s Ruff Sqwad, no doubt – their Sunday night sets on Rinse in summer of 2005 … fuck.

Ruff Sqwad producer showdown: Dirty Danger or Rapid?

Rapid. The way he uses horns is sick. Badman producer.

Favorite Ruff Sqwad mc?

Probably Rapid as well actually. He almost sounds like an old skool garage MC sometimes – simple but effective style, although I remember a period in early ’06 when Slicks just went nuts and looked like he was gonna become the greatest MC in the world, but then he kind of fell off. I liked Fuda Guy a lot too; his ‘Easy man …’ bars were the biggest in the scene for a while there.

And Mad Max … what happened to him?!?

Favorite ever Ruff Sqwad tune?

Hmm … fuck! Probably Anna. Those horns! Sick video for that tune as well. Pied Piper and Functions on the Low are also well up there.

What’s the thinking behind the structure of the mix, i.e. moving from instrumentals to vocals throughout the mix?

Just a good way to give equal exposure to the riddims and the bars, I suppose.

Boring tech question: what gear do you use to record your mixes?

Traktor with a controller. Not to boast, but I had the sickest record collection of grime and dubstep … literally impeccable! Got really skint, though, and had to sell it all. Ripped everything first, though, so my mp3 collection is saying a lot!

How did you get into grime in the first place?

Just through radio mainly! I should have been much more into it from far earlier really, specially growing up and living where I did. I had a friend in college who went to all the classic early grime raves like Heartless Crew clashing Pay As You Go etc etc, and I remember hearing people spit early Dizzee bars (‘boxin MCs like my name was Frank’!) but I dunno … I think I just generally wasn’t into music as much back then, but then sometime in 2004 I started to hear grime on radio more regularly and I had another mate who was into it as well. Then from late ’04 to early ’06 I was pretty much obsessed – I just listened to everything I possibly could.

Then later in ’06 i started to hear dubstep sets on Rinse that would come on in between Roll Deep and Ruff Sqwad sets or whatever, and I finally made it down to FWD in summer ’06 and saw plenty of MCs down there in the next year or so … but I’m not gonna lie I reckon I missed the golden age of grime, in terms of raves at least – although I did see Dizzee at FWD with Tubby playin loads of dubs, and i saw a few classic Skepta and Plasticman sets so I can’t complain too much I suppose!

What mixes do you have planned for the future?

I wanna do a Shackleton one, and a Pinch one, and a Ramadanman one, and a Newham Generals … maybe some more …

Check out more of Benjy Bars’ mixes at Soundcloud!

Girdler Synthetic’s Guest Mix for Freeformaniacs Round 9

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Mixed in the UK, April 2013
(118:12, 278 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

Large cover
Cue File
Zip Pack (Split Tracks)

Style: Freeform

Direct link to the mix: http://sonicrampage.org/guestmixes/gs/FreeformaniacsRound9-GirdlerSyntheticGuestMix.mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Transcend & Greg Peaks – Cosmic (Epyx & Cyrez Remix) (Electrode)
02. Grimsoul – Sorceresses (ReBuild)
03. Jerv – Smoke (Electrode)
04. Transcend & Midas – Eternal Prism (Relentless)
05. Ionosphere – PYLAAM (Shanty Remix) (Electrode)
06. JD-Kid – Unforgettable (ReBuild)
07. Douglas – Mycenae (Watchtower)
08. Greg Peaks – Techno Tribe (Electrode)
09. Wyrm – Tendrils Of Reality (Penguin Conspiracy Remix) (Smiling Corpse)
10. Endemic – Loki (ReBuild)
11. Transcend & Kaos Theory – Man On Acid (ReBuild)
12. Penguin Conspiracy – Tripswitch (Electrode)
13. Eryk Orpheus – PVC (Lost Soul Remix) (Nu Energy)
14. Kevin Energy – Crescendos Of Ecstasy (Full On Mix) (Nu Energy )
15. Substanced – Ghost Of The Future (Watchtower)
16. Carbon Based, Shanty & DOK – Finfish (Shanty Remix) (Electrode)
17. Penguin Conspiracy – Reality Distortion Field (Electrode)
18. Shift – Pump (Penguin Conspiracy Remix) (Nexus Media)
19. Lost Soul – Twisted Dream (Watchtower)
20. Eryk Orpheus & Flip – The Gatekeeper (ReBuild)
21. Nightforce & Twisted Freq – The Storyteller (Electrode)
22. Nomic – Rift (N/A)
23. Pain On Creation – Lush (Fatal Error Edit) (Finrg)
24. Le Dos-On – Yksisarvinen (ReBuild)

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Cover: Polar bear enclosure, Central Park Zoo, New York City

Those of you who have been following Sonicrampage for a while will know that Paul Girdler, aka Girdler Synthetic, has been one of the site’s most prolific and talented guest dj’s, with Sonicrampage having hosted his mixes Frantic Classics mix, his Acid Roundabout series of acid techno mixes, and Lost World, his (awesome) tribute to Weirdo. Over the last few years, Paul has also done loads of other great mixes, which you can check out at the Penguin Conspiracy Soundcloud page.

Sadly, Paul is now hanging up the headphones and quitting mixing, at least for the time being. Which is unfortunate! Fortunately, Paul did agree to do a full two hour set for the Freeformaniacs show first before he quit, as well as an interview with Sonicrampage to wrap things up, so please read on to hear more about Paul’s djing, favourite tunes, his various mixes, and his work with Richard Andrews (of Electronica Exposed) as Penguin Conspiracy.

Pearsall: Why hang up the headphones now?

Girdler Synthetic: It’s just the right time to do it. I’ve had some amazing experiences playing out over the years and it’s a great buzz watching the club going crazy when you’re behind the decks, but I haven’t played out as a DJ since 2006 and I’m just too old for the shenanigans that go with it!

I’m not saying I’ll never do another mix ever again, just certainly not for the foreseeable future.

How did you start as a DJ?

Before I got into DJing I was a massive Heavy Metal fan with long hair and played drums in a band. Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse … all the great bands from the 80′s and 90′s is what I was in to.

My mate Ross was the complete opposite, and always used to play the old Dreamscape tape packs whenever I went round his house. Combined with the discovery of illicit substances, after a while the music started to rub off on me and we soon discovered Goa Trance, which then evolved into more tougher stuff like the Reactivate compilations.

I always enjoyed making mix tapes of my favourite tracks so it just seemed a natural thing to learn how to actually blend them together using vinyl and turntables. I decided to take the plunge and bought myself some Technics 1210′s, much to my parents bemusement as they thought I wanted to be a drummer! I spent the next few years teaching myself how to beat match and learning the structure of the tracks.

In the beginning I just used to mix any old genres together – Hard House, Trance, Euro, Acid Techno … but I think that was one of the great things back then as it wasn’t all pigeon-holed and you would always hear a variety of different styles in one night.

Before long I was playing at various house parties and then started co-running my own night at 414 in Brixton called Synthetic with a couple of friends. We didn’t have a clue how to run an event and just treated the nights as one big party for our mates. Needless to say, we never made a single penny, but they were fantastic nights and we even had Jace, Beamish and Tara Reynolds as guests.

Alek Száhala actually made his UK debut at Synthetic!

What was the purpose of your Tribute Mix series?

Once I’d decided to knock things on the head, I wanted to make sure I had a collection of mixes showcasing my favourite tracks from my favourite producers. Each of the artists I’ve featured have been a massive influence on me and I honestly believe they were / are the best producers the scene has had.

Captain Tinrib was the master of the hoover, Weirdo wrote epic tunes like nobody else, Nüw Idol’s dark and driving Trance was the perfect opposite to all the uplifting anthems, and Nick Sentience was always pushing the boundaries. As for Lab-4, they were absolute heroes of mine. God only knows how many times I saw them play over the years – I’d always go to an event if they were on the line-up. Who cares if they weren’t really playing “live”, it was all about the energy they had behind that big rig of theirs and some of the best tunes ever blasting out of the sound system.

What did you love about Pendragon and Escape From Samsara?

Pendragon was the first event I went to when I truly fell in love with the music and the clubbing lifestyle.

My friends and I first decided to try clubbing in 1996 and our first ever event was a Psy Trance night called Otherworld at The Fridge in Brixton, closely followed by Big Sexy Festy Party at Tyssen Street Studios in Dalston. Both nights were fun, but they weren’t really playing the kind of music I was looking for. Undeterred, we tried another night at Tyssen Street called Pendragon …

With absolutely no exaggeration whatsoever, I can safely say that night changed my life forever …

The friends were amazing, the crowd were amazing and the tunes were amazing. After that, I would pretty much go clubbing most weekends to either Pendragon, Escape From Samsara or Frantic and get my Acid Techno fix at Trancentral and Nuclear Free Zone. I didn’t have a care in the world and the vibe back then was just incredible. You just couldn’t beat being on the stage of The Fridge at 6 in the morning dancing your heart out as that final build-up kicks in and the whole club goes bananas!

Great, great times that I will never ever forget.

For anybody who was there, I really hope I’ve managed to re-create some of that magic with my Pendragon vs Escape From Samsara mix. It’s by far my favourite mix that I’ve done and took well over a year of planning to get the right arrangement and source the right tracks that meant so much to me. A big thank you to yourself Randall for helping out with the David Craig track!

What’s the story of Penguin Conspiracy?

Once I was fully immersed in the music I always knew I’d want to write my own. I’d already been doing it with my old Metal band so it just seemed like the next natural step after DJing.

Rich and I have been friends since 1992 and he was into the dance scene way before me. When I started Djing I would always go round his house to find out what all the latest tracks were and we ended up going record shopping many, many times. I knew he was writing his own stuff at the time and told him I also wouldn’t mind having a go at it, so we booked a session with Jon Doe at Alphamagic Studios and wrote the first ever Penguin Conspiracy track “Welcome To The Future”, which was released on Digital Beatz. We then wrote a couple more tracks as The Mexican & Girdler Synthetic, this time engineered by Fade. I’ve no idea why we reverted to our DJ names but they were the last tunes we wrote together for a long time. It wasn’t until Rich started engineering his own stuff years later that we decided to resume the Penguin Conspiracy project and set about writing our first album “March Of The Penguins”, which was an amalgamation of all the genres we loved – Hard House, Hard Trance, Acid Techno, Psy and Freeform.

After 3 albums and numerous live PA’s we decided the time was right to bring the project to an end. I’m incredibly proud of every track we’ve written and its been great fun working with Rich, who’s coped with my constant nit-picking admirably well …

Our last release will be a mix of all the Freeform tracks we’ve recently produced called “Creatures Of Havoc”, which will be out on Electronica Exposed very soon.

Favourite Penguin Conspiracy tune?

Hard Dance – Imitation Of Life
Freeform – Reality Distortion Field

How did you get into Freeform?

I actually didn’t embrace Freeform for a long time. I found the majority of stuff initially released to be a tad cheesy and rather hit and miss, although I did love “Sanctus Dominus” by Helix & Fury and “Lemonade Raygun” by DJ Fury.

It wasn’t until I heard what the Finnish guys were doing that I really started to take notice. I’ve always preferred my music more on the darker side and their tracks were right on the money.

I don’t think Rich and Electronica Exposed get enough recognition for bringing the Finrg sound to the masses.

All time favourite Freeform producer?

I mainly listen to Psy Trance these days so I love the recent stuff by Lost Soul and Transcend. The early tracks of Carbon Based, Alek Száhala, Ephexis and Pain On Creation deserve an honourable mention …

Of the artists of today I think Wyrm is producing some really interesting stuff. Le Dos-On too.

It’s a tough one to call but I think I’ll have to go with … Lost Soul.

You play a wide range of tunes, what’s your favourite style?

I’d probably have to say Hard Dance as it’s the music I started out with and enjoy mixing and producing the most. I prefer my BPM range between 140 – 150, and the older I’ve got the slower it’s become! Gone are the days of playing a record at +8

I have a series of mixes for all the styles I love – “Energize” for Hard Dance, “Ionize” for Freeform, “The Acid Roundabout” for Acid Techno, “Tranceformation” for Trance, and “Strange Vibrations” for Full On Psy Trance. I even did a series called “Sexy Beats” which covers Breakbeat, although I’ve never got round to uploading then anywhere.

What’s your take on the digital vs vinyl debate?

I can totally understand why labels stopped pressing vinyl releases and it started to become a minority – the digital age just made it way too convenient for people to buy – or not to buy – tunes without leaving their homes. Distribution companies were going bust left, right and centre which meant less products were available for the vinyl purists to buy, so the labels had no choice but to adapt to the growing market and make their releases available on a digital scale.

For me, one of the major factors missing from having tunes simply as a music file on your computer is there’s no hands on relationship with the music itself – the feel of the vinyl, the specific RPM it had to be played at, the artwork on the sleeve, the messages cut into the run-out groove… even having a slightly warped record would add character to that specific tune.

One of the best things about being a DJ was the record shopping side of things. I used to love taking a pilgrimage to London with my wages in my back pocket and frequent all the great record shops – Kinetic, Choci’s Chewns, Pendragon, Pure Groove … even HMV back then was a great place to pick up a specific labels’ back catalogue. It was great knowing you had a certain track that nobody else had and it made it unique to your sets or mixes.

When you aren’t involved in music, what else are you up to?

Music is such a huge part of my life that everything I do generally revolves around it. I still write songs and play drums in a band, and I’m always listening to new tunes that come my way.
I’m a big film fan too and love the darker side of cinema and TV series. A cheeky bit of poker every now and again …

Other than that, it’s the usual work, work, work and supporting the best team on Merseyside – Everton!

Favourite tunes ever?

In no particular order …

Lab-4 – Soul Fire – Elementary
Outer Active – Aesophagus Fables – Return To The Source
Gouryella – Gouryella – Tsunami
Star Power – X-Ray O.K. – Stay Up Forever
Pain On Creation – Second Death – Electronic

Any last words?

Thanks to anybody who ever listened to and enjoyed any of my mixes or saw me play out as Girdler Synthetic or Penguin Conspiracy.

I hope my mixes stand the test of time and act as a time capsule which can be referenced upon in the years to come.

My last ever mix will be a Goa Trance classics mix, which will see me come full circle and finish on the music where it all began and will be a fitting end to what’s been an amazing journey within the dance music scene.

God speed, Paul Girdler!

… make sure you listen to this incredible Congo Natty tribute by Uncle Dugs. All junglist crew!

Tracklisting:

01. Rebel MC Feat Tenor Fly – Comin On Strong
02. Rebel MC Feat Tenor Fly – The Wickedest Sound (Don Gorgon Mix)
03. Rebel MC Feat Little T – Rich Ah Getting Richer (B-Line Ruffneck Mix)
04. Rebel MC Feat Tenor Fly & Barrington Levy – Tribal Base (Foundation Mix)
05. Rebel MC + Prince Lincoln Thompson – Humanity (Bass Till Your Head Buss Mix)
06. Rebel MC + Prince Lincoln Thompson – I Can’t Get No Sleep (Jungle Fever Mix)
07. X Project – Walking In The Air (Mix A1)
08. X Project – Inah Sound
09. Conquering Lion – Phenomenon 1 (Catch The Fever Mix)
10. X Project – Dub Plate Special (Ruff Cut)
11. Conquering Lion – Code Red (Wild Apache Mix)
12. Blackstar – Kunte Kinte
13. Blackstar Feat Top Cat – Champion Dj (Blueprint Mix)
14. Conquering Lion – Stamina
15. Rebel MC Feat Junior Reid – Banana Boat Man (Original Mix)
16. X Project – Jah Sunshine
17. Barrington Levy & Beenie Man – Under Me Sensi (Jungle Spliff) (X Project Remix)
18. Conquering Lion Feat Beenie Man – Rastaman (Original Dubplate Version)
19. Blackstar Feat Sweetie Irie – Get Wild (Knowledge & Wisdom Mix)
20. Tribe Of Issachar Feat Peter Bouncer – Junglist Pt2
21. Conquering Lion Feat Beenie Man – Code Black (Remix)
22. Tribe Of Issachar Feat Peter Bouncer – Fever (The Revolution Has Now Begun)
23. Lion Of Judah Feat Bounty Hunter – Emporer Selassie I (King Of Kings)
24. Tribe Of Issachar – Wardance Millennium (Original Dubplate)
25. Tribe Of Issachar Feat Top Cat – His Imperial Majesty (Original Dubplate)
26. Congo Natty Feat Top Cat – Original Sess (Police In Helicopter)

Pearsall presents Squat Rocking 5

right-click on the title and save as to download

Mixed in London in March 2012, using 100% vinyl on two Technics 1210′s and a Pioneer DJM600 mixer
(63:08, 144 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

Click to read my Bangingtunes.com Forum Memories essay

Large cover
Cue file
Zip pack (split into separate tracks)

Style: Classic UK Acid/Hard Trance

Direct link to the mix: http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/sqr5/Pearsall-SquatRocking5.mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Fallen Angel – Little Girl (One Inch)
02. S-J – Estrella (Baby Doc Remix) (Arriba)
03. Distortion Level – The Emotion (Too Strong)
04. Mad Gay Mafia – Pioneers Of The Underground (Mine And Yours Favourite Porno DVD On Acid Mix) (Efadrine)
05. Sentience – Break The System (Full Blown)
06. Captain Tinrib – Changing The Haight (Frequency 8)
07. Dynamic Intervention – Bigger Kicks (Cannon)
08. Jon Doe – Return Of The Bass (Down South Mix) (Public House)
09. K90 – The Mind Of Man (Aquarius)
10. Lab 4 – The Witch (One Inch)
11. Mad Gay Mafia – Going To Hell (Hoovers On Acid Mix) (Efadrine)
12. The Seditionary – Logan’s Running (VCF)
13. DJ Choci – Strange When You’re Twisted (Jon Doe Remix) (Cannon)
14. Jon Doe & Flatfoot Sam – Cadmium (One Off)
15. Teknotyx – Walking Mutants (Acid Test)
16. Cai – Gadget (Primitive)
17. The Councellor – Drugs Are Bad (Jon Doe Remix) (Fair Play)

Note about the mix: This is a mix that I originally recorded as a guest mix for Yoko’s Analog Memories show on DI.fm – it’s an hour’s worth of some of my favorite UK acid/hard trance from the late 90′s/early 00′s. My first idea was to write the accompanying post about Undertow, the awesome London party crew from that time period, as this mix is very much in the style that they played at their parties – hard, fast, and euphoric. However, with Bangingtunes.com shutting down in the next couple of days, I thought I would write about that instead, because BT was a very important part of my life when I was younger. If you enjoy this mix and want to check out more like this, I recommend Paradise Lost and Squat Rocking 1.

Me, 2003

Fair warning time: this piece is long.

A few days ago I received some sad, but not entirely unexpected news, when I found out that the Bangingtunes.com forum was finally shutting down after over a decade in existence:

One of the old forum regulars, Jellyfish, handily put my reaction into less than 140 characters:

Sad to see a unique if completely dysfunctional pocket of the internet disappear in the next few days. cc @tyssen @sonicrampage

— Brad Sprigg (@bradsprigg) April 17, 2013

A very brief history, for those of you unfamiliar with the site:

Bangingtunes.com was originally an online record store, the online presence of Brighton’s Klik Klik Whirly Beep Beep record store (what a name, huh?), a hard dance specialist shop run by Superfast Oz, Kristian, and Jude (aka Slink). Superfast Oz also is well known as a dj and producer, both solo and as part of the awesome OD404 with Dom Sweeten. The forums were, if I am not mistaken, set up in around 2000 to drive more traffic to the store. As time went on the Bangingtunes forums (aka BT as we always called it) became among the busiest and most important forums for UK hard house/hard trance as the scene exploded in 2001/2002. The physical store was rebranded as Banging Tunes, and London’s Kinetec Records was purchased and also became part of the Banging Tunes family. By the mid-00′s vinyl was well and truly in decline, so the stores shut (or, in Kinetec’s case, reverted to the ownership of the staff), while the online store continued on for a few more years. The hard dance scene, which had always been BT’s bread and butter, entered a long period of decline from about 2005 onwards, with record sales in particular taking a hammering, so a few years back Bangingtunes shut down as a retail operation, with Kristian (the sole owner by this point) allowing the forums to continue under the control of a group of volunteer mods. Now, however, he has clearly decided enough is enough (a decision apparently driven in part by the fact that one of the longtime posters, Flymo, was convicted on child pornography charges – apparently the sick fuck had 15,000 images of kids on his computer) and so the site is going to be shut down.

Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that it has continued for this long!

My own personal connection to the site began when I left London to go to Edinburgh University. In London I had gone to many record stores for my hard dance fix (check out my old guide to London record shopping if you’re curious), but in Edinburgh there was a lot less choice when it came to keeping up to date with the latest acid techno, hard house, and hard trance, so I started getting records by mail order regularly. At first I was just phoning Kinetec to order over the phone, but I quickly discovered the Bangingtunes site, which allowed you to listen to short clips of each track using Realplayer (remember that terrible audio program?) … for 1999 this was pretty damn amazing! Very soon I was a regular customer, going on to spend literally thousands of pounds buying records from them over the years, and when they set up the forums I quickly became one of the most dedicated and prolific posters, as did one of my closest high school friends, Dan Durnin.

Over the next couple of years I made many thousands of posts, on everything from music to clubbing to politics to jokes and beyond. Those early years on BangingTunes were absolutely magical – we were a group of young men (primarily) from quite varied walks of life, mostly from (or based in) the UK but not exclusively so, with totally different outlooks, ideas, tastes and interests, but brought together by a common interest in the harder sides of dance music. It was awesome fun participating in the forum, and over the years I learned a lot about music, had many laughs, bought, sold, and traded vast numbers of records, got into some frenetically heated arguments (especially about politics – funnily enough I was a big bleeding heart liberal back then, quite different from now!), and generally had a lot of fun participating in the ongoing conversations.

Tyssen, myself, and Dan Durnin at (I think) Logic, The Fridge, Brixton in 2001

Most importantly, I made a lot of friends through BT, some of whom I would count today as among my closest friends.

Focused as the site was on music and clubbing, it was inevitable that our online banter would move into the real world, as we ended up meeting up at clubs around the UK. Since I was doing a lot of clubbing back then, this meant that Dan and I ended up meeting a lot of people from the BT board when we were out and about in London, several of whom (Jamie Renouf, Alex O’Neill, and Eric Luk) have become lifelong friends, along with loads of others who became good clubbing buddies, and whom we have kept up with over the years since through Facebook and Twitter. Many of the guest dj’s who have graced this very site were first introduced to me through BT’s hallowed purple and orange gates, including Tyssen and Flip, both of whom also became real world friends, as well as guys I have never met personally but contacted after hearing their mixes on BT, like DJ Meke, Girdler Synthetic, and Bongo.

Dance Valley, 2001, l-r, Colin Jones, Dan Durnin, me, random Dutch guy, Tony Reyes, random Dutch guy

Little Satan at the hard house stage

Reach for the lasers!

Feel the gurn!

My personal BT highlight was the Twatted Tour, our summer 2001 adventure (click here for an archived thread planning it). The basic idea of the Twatted Tour was that two of the main forum regulars, Mike Roy (aka Little Satan) from Calgary and Tony Reyes (aka TRWicked) from Seattle, would fly over from North America for a couple weeks of partying, a process which would give a whole bunch of us that were based in London and the south of England a great excuse to meet in the flesh and party (I was back in London for the summer). So that’s what we did! A whole big group of us went partying in Brixton one night – one group, myself included, to Logic at the Fridge and the others to the TDV Memorial bash at Brixton Academy, then we all met up for the afterparty experience in the park across the street in Brixton (highlight of the morning: a twitchy ginger homeless guy coming up to beg and asking for a pound, “for a new harmonica! I promise it’s not for crack …” – we weren’t convinced), then on to Solid Sunday in Harlesden, before decamping that week to Amsterdam for Dance Valley, a monster rave in the countryside outside Amsterdam.

There was a whole big crew of us there for the event, and we definitely made the most of it. Dan, Mike, and I were all in the same hotel in the Jordaan, but we basically just slept there, as the rest of the time we were out and about with the other guys from BT who had made the trip, including Tony, Jon Hollamby (who later moved back to his native Australia), Colin from Ireland, Phil from Devon, Cuffy from Northern Ireland, some Dutch guys I can’t remember, plus a whole load of other people. Dance Valley was an absolute monster of an event – I believe there were 100,000 tickets sold, and since that year was the year that hard house had really boomed, there was an entire outdoor stage just for hard house, which must have had at least 10-15,000 people in attendance! Needless to say, that’s where we spent most of the day, dancing on the side of the hill, looking out over the crowd, stomping away without a care in the world. It was great! Even though I got pretty sunburned, and I was quite hungover (I stupidly got really drunk the night before), it was still an incredible experience, and I’ve included a gallery of photos from the day below.

Getting back to the Dam afterwards was also an incredible experience, but for very different reasons. Since the party ended at midnight, there were supposed to be buses taking people the roughly 25 minutes drive back to the train station, however a bus caught on fire, blocking the entrance and exit from the site, which meant that we had to walk back to the station. To make matters worse, after a day of blazing sunshine the heavens opened up pretty much right after the party finished. So you can imagine our misery, trudging for hours back towards Amsterdam in the pouring rain, having just spent twelve hours dancing. At about four am we finally found a cab to take us back to our hotel. That sucked!

But that was not the end of the Twatted Tour!

Not at all, my friends, not at all.

No, back in London for the next weekend we hit Frantic’s massive Hard House Academy at the Brixton Academy. Good times, good times.

A whole bunch of BT crew at a Retrip party, 2003 (I think), l-r, Ziad Dar (aka Mongoose), dunno, me, Ian Jay (aka Slacky), Jolene Redtrip, Dan Durnin, Dave Crawford

Classic picture from Redtrip, 2003! l-r: Jon Hollamby, Tantrem, Dave Crawford, Dan Durnin, Ziad Dar

Me playing at Redtrip, 2003

More BT crew at Redtrip, l-r Tantrem, Catjane, Al X, Wonga

A lot of my most cherished memories as a dj and as a clubber are related to BT. I got quite a few gigs off the back of being active on BT, both as an individual dj as well as part of collectively organized nights, like playing in an all-BT room at a World DJ Day party in Nottingham or getting booked to play in Wakefield, Yorkshire and Brighton by BT members who were running their own parties. In 2002/2003 we organized our own dj competition called Judgment Night, where board members split up into Team 303 and Team Hoover for a big showdown of sounds. Parties were organized around the country with a final organized at London’s Purple Turtle bar/club, with sets from BT staff Superfast Oz and Slink along with leading producer/dj Jon Doe and the comp winners Noo Noo and Milkman from the BT forums. I myself played at the first party (not as part of the competition, though), which was, hilariously, in the basement of a cheese club in Loughborough, Leicestershire. I wrapped up the night with a freeform set, which was both fun and hysterical – since people from the main club could come down to our floor, you can imagine the looks of absolute horror on some of the faces when they came in our room – vastly, vastly different sounds from the 70′s/80′s cheese they were playing upstairs!

During my set, I saw one girl in high heels, mini-skirt and deep orange fake tan take two steps in the door, look at the people stomping to 175 bpm freeform, and, with a look of total terror, turn around and leg it back upstairs.

Best of all were the Redtrip parties – the Redtrip crew were a bunch of friends from the outskirts of west London who all joined BT at around the same time and who then went on to put on some absolutely wicked parties, first at the Electrowerkz in Islington, and later at the Telegraph in Brixton. Focusing on an open-minded approach to club promotion, the main room always featured a broad range of harder dance music, from techno to hard trance to acid to nu-nrg to freeform, while the second room would showcase drum n’ bass, breaks, electro, hip-hop, and house. I was very fortunate to play for them a number of times, both in the main room and the second room, and I was not alone in that, because they went out of their way to feature many dj’s and live acts from the BangingTunes community.

The forums … screenshotted right before the end

Personally, in recent years I have stopped using web forums like BT regularly. I have not been alone in this, as over the last half decade internet users have deserted en masse tens of thousands of once-thriving internet forums, switching instead to a much smaller number of social networks, particularly Facebook and Twitter. Although in my professional life I am heavily involved in social media, in all honesty I don’t see this trend as a wholly positive thing, because there are a few ways in which internet forums, especially busy ones like BT, were superior to the massive social networks that now dominate internet social media.

Now, I won’t lie, I really like using services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, but I also think that certain things have been lost in the transition away from message boards. Firstly, message boards offer a wider range of expression than the modern social networks. Twitter, by nature, consists of very short messages, and I have found that Facebook doesn’t work very well for longer discussions. Also, the structure of the Facebook news feed makes it difficult to participate in massive ongoing conversations in the same way as you can when you are a message board regular. Forums, on the other hand, can (it’s possible!) facilitate a very detailed level of communication, or they can just be about posting simple jokes, or images, or … whatever. You can do, and say, a lot with them.

Also, because most message boards were historically oriented around a single topic of interest, they offer a great method for meeting people you would not ordinarily meet, united as you are by a common interest. Music boards like BT (or some of the other clubbing boards I used to frequent, like Gurn or HarderFaster) were particularly good in that respect, because there was a real world social aspect baked in, i.e. you might have been communicating online during the week but on Friday and Saturday nights you were often physically present at the same clubs at the same time, so why not say hello? Indeed, I met a previous girlfriend through HarderFaster – I was in a club and I was saying hello to someone I knew from the boards, and they introduced me to their friend Vanessa, who was also on HF, and off it went from there … More prosaically, it was very common to either meet up for a drink before a club night, or to just arrange to meet at a certain point, i.e. all meet by the bar at midnight or whatever. Now, it could be that my lifestyle changes have influenced this, but since I switched to using social networks over message boards, I have stopped meeting new people from the internet – the reverse has happened, that I have met people in real life and then got to know them better through Facebook (i.e. met someone at a wedding and then ended up getting to know them through Facebook), but I have not met someone cold off of Facebook or Twitter.

Why is this?

My guess is that because message boards allow you to slowly but consistently get to know someone it is, from a psychological standpoint, easier to make the jump to meeting them in person, especially if your mutual topic of interest is something as inherently social as music. With modern social networking conversations with strangers are much more disjointed and intermittent – it’s much harder to build an active relationship over time in the same way, at least in my opinion.

Obviously, though, forums are lacking something in comparison to Facebook, Twitter, et al., which is why they have been slowly dying. In fact, I can see it here at Sonicrampage when I look at traffic patterns over the past three years. From 2010 to 2012 this site has seen only a modest amount of year-on-year growth in unique visitors and pageviews, yet the composition of the referrals has changed quite substantially. Today, a much larger proportion of my traffic comes from Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, and a much smaller proportion comes from message boards like BT. The dynamics of this traffic have changed too – a link on a message board can continue to send regular traffic through for days, weeks, or even months, whereas now with Facebook and Twitter most of the traffic a new blog post will get will arrive in the first day or two and then that’s it. Therefore whenever I post a new mix it does not seem to get as much attention as it would have a few years back. Admittedly, part of that may be down to the fact that dance music lovers have an unbelievable cornucopia of mixes to access (for free!) 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through sites like Soundcloud and Mixcloud.

So what do forums lack, exactly? I suppose the first thing to mention is design – not many people have thought deeply about making message boards look better from a design standpoint, and it shows. In comparison to modern gold standard web or mobile services, most message boards look, by internet standards, archaic. The user experience of most message boards has remained the same for about ten years, despite massive changes and improvements to the user experience of other parts of the internet. As addictive as message boards seemed to be, they also are clearly not as compelling, in the end, as social networks. I’ve been wondering why that is and my guess is that message boards always needed lurkers and casual posters to keep things ticking over, so that it wasn’t just the same stale group of people – my theory is that with the rise of the big social networks many of these less dedicated users were among the first to stop looking at message boards. As the casual users drifted off, message boards became the same people, the same recycled topics, and just the same old same old in general, and so the more dedicated users started leaving to go elsewhere. Thus did so many forums slowly die off.

It’s also worth pointing out that venture capital-backed social networks have the advantage of being able to use high levels of analytics to deeply understand their audience, and they have the resources and engineering talent to put that information to use by constantly improving their product in order grow user level as well as increase the length of usage sessions. By contrast, most forums were set up to service a specific community, and were built with off-the-shelf software without any real desire or need to constantly upgrade the user experience.

This is something Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times touched on in her excellent piece, “The Old Internet Neighborhoods”:

The Internet forum, that great old standby of Web 1.0., has become an endangered species.

Many boards are stagnant or in decline, if they even still exist. Several once-thriving boards on the women’s site iVillage have closed up shop. Big fan-fiction boards haven’t seen real action in years. Last month, a once-popular eight-old-year British board about mental health went dark with a note: “The Internet has changed significantly.”

These are serious signs of the digital times. Message boards were key components of Web 1.0 — the Web before broadband, online video, social networking, advanced traffic analysis and the drive to monetize transformed it.

If urban history can be applied to virtual space and the evolution of the Web, the unruly and twisted message boards are Jane Jacobs. They were built for people, and without much regard to profit. How else do you get crowds of not especially lucrative demographics like flashlight buffs (candlepowerforums.com), feminists (bust.com) and jazz aficionados (forums.allaboutjazz.com)? By contrast, the Web 2.0 juggernauts like Facebook and YouTube are driven by metrics and supported by ads and data mining. They’re networks, and super-fast — but not communities, which are inefficient, emotive and comfortable …

(The) forums were spontaneous, rowdy and often inspired Internet neighborhoods. For millions of users, they quickly became synonymous with “The Internet.” … Still, for all their importance to individual Web users, the boards were almost invisible to anyone intent on profiting off Web traffic — and so they’ve been nearly written out of the history of the Internet … Sure, funny and stirring things happen on Facebook and Twitter, but their protocols, which stress accountability and striving over anonymity and play, tend to make social exchanges routine.

That’s about it from me – if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading!

If you want to check out the old days of the BangingTunes forum (and see some hilariously immature posts from myself), the Wayback Machine has an archive here, and if you want something a bit more up to date, some of the BT forum users have set up a sequel forum, which can be found here.

And of course if you want to share your own memories and favorite moments from the BT forums, please leave a comment below.

To finish off, here’s a gallery of pics from Dance Valley 2001:

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That’s it! RIP Bangingtunes.com

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Pearsall presents Slaves To The Silver Box

right-click on the title and save as to download

Cover by Pirate Vereker

Mixed in London in January 2012, using 100% vinyl on two Technics 1210′s and a Pioneer DJM600 mixer
(65:02, 155 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

Large cover
Cue file
Zip pack (split into separate tracks)

Style: Old School Acid House/Techno/Trance

Direct link to the mix: http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/silverbox/Pearsall-SlavesToTheSilverBox(OldSchoolMixMarathonV).mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Lenny Dee vs DJ Edge – 303 + 606 (Edge)
02. Ray & G.O.D. – Love Inside (Time Unlimited)
03. Kult of Krameria – Love & Happiness (Warning Inc)
04. Winx – Hypnotizin’ (Sorted)
05. Hardfloor – Trancescript (Harthouse)
06. Underground Resistance – Communications Silence (Underground Resistance)
07. Nostrum – Acid House (Mono Mix) (Time Unlimited)
08. The Rising Sons – Afghan Acid (Toxic 2 Remix) (Extortion)
09. Emmanuel Top – Lobotomie (NovaMute)
10. The Aloof – Mind (Instrumental) (Flaw)
11. Tim Taylor & Dan Zamani – The Horn Track (The Pump Panel Remix) (Missile)
12. Time Stretch Armstrong – The Driving Force (Stay Up Forever)
13. Awex – It’s Our Future (Plastic City)
14. Tesox – Go Ahead London (Plastic City)
15. Wicked Wipe – Rok Da House (Original Slaughterhouse Mix) (Virtual)
16. DJ Randy – Enter Load (Smoke Free DJ Tools)
17. SOB – Intent To Deceive (Cluster)
18. DJ Misjah & DJ Tim – Access (X-Trax)
19. Millsart – Step To Enchantment (Stringent) (Axis)

Download the other Old School Mix Marathon V mixes

Although this mix has already been featured on Sonicrampage alongside the rest of the Old School Mix Marathon V mixes, I thought that it would be pretty neat to also do a separate post where I talked through all of the individual tracks, in order to give a bit of background, as well as to explain the thinking that went into planning, programming, and mixing this set. So that is what I have done!

Additionally, you will have noticed that the cover of this mix is particularly excellent, and is way better than my usual efforts … because it was not done by me! The cover was done by an old school friend of mine, Tom ‘Pirate’ Vereker, a guy with whom I spent many a happy night raving to acid techno in various dingy London squat parties back when we were teenagers. Since Tom is now an artist in San Francisco, it seemed highly fitting that I ask him to do the cover. I love the result!

All of the artwork featured in this post is by him, so please watch the two embedded videos, and make sure to click through and check out his site!

303 + 606 – The mix kicks off with a hardcore track from two rave legends – Lenny Dee and DJ Edge – that I have actually played at the wrong speed, i.e. 33 rpm as opposed to its ‘correct’ 45 rpm. At its normal speed this is a somewhat crappy acid tune with tinny drums, whereas played slower it becomes a much fatter slice of hypnotic acid house, a minimal roller that pays excellent tribute to two of Roland’s iconic synths, the 303 bassline machine (i.e. the legendary silver box of the title) and the 606 drum machine. A perfect start – simple, elegant, and compelling.

Love Inside – Gregor Dietz and Raymond Beyer released a number of excellent hard trance tunes on Time Unlimited in the 90′s, my favorite being Target Planet, as featured on Rampage Archives 4. Flip that tune over and you have Love Inside, a stripped-down acid roller, where clanking drums meet infinitely regressing 303 lines. As you can tell, what I was trying to achieve at the start of this set was the establishment of a hypnotic, almost minimal, vibe where the listener is slowly drawn in to the sounds, before the mix gets harder, faster, and wilder …

Love & Happiness – … A process that continues with this tribal acid number from Portugal’s Kult of Krameria. I am not sure I have ever actually heard this tune played in an acid set, which is a shame because it is an excellent little number, which I’ve loved ever since first hearing it on the Portugal: Totally Mixed compilation. It’s not particularly complicated – typical 90′s tribal house drums with a little acid stab over the top – but it fits the vibe like a glove, and provides a nice jumping-off point for the next tune.

Hypnotizin’ – After three tracks of sparse acid house, all clanking drums and rippling 303s, it was time to switch things up, which is why I dropped Josh Wink’s classic Hypnotizin’ next. Philadelphia’s Wink was, in my personal opinion, one of the greatest American techno/house producers of the 90′s, and one of the finest exponents of 303-abuse, period. His most famous acid tune was, of course, the legendary Higher State of Consciousness, where funky breaks met a metric fuckton (actual scientific measurement) of screaming 303 euphoria. Hypnotizin’, while less famous, is a tune that I have always actually preferred, due to its lovely combination of deep house vamps, chunky breakbeats, and, eventually, squealing acid. Excellent stuff.

Trancescript – No vintage acid mix is complete without a tune from the German acid masters: Hardfloor! Having utilized Trapped in the Silver Box and Into the Nature on previous mixes, I again turned to their epochal album TB Resuscitation to pick out this gem. Metronomic beats and slowly thickening layers of acid drive this tune onwards and upwards towards a euphoric breakdown …

Communications Silence – … Which I pretty much skipped entirely! Who needs a big hands in the air moment when you can just quickly segue into more pulsing acid, right? And what pulsing acid it is, from Underground Resistance’s brain-scramblingly awesome Acid Rain III double-pack. Like much of the finest Detroit techno, this manages to derive a massive dancefloor punch from a relatively limited sonic palette. Basically nothing more than a kick, a hi-hat and an acid line, this is a fine example of how less really can be more. It also which mixes beautifully into the next tune.

Acid House (Mono Mix) – As with Ray and G.O.D., Nostrum is mostly known for his hard trance (check Meke’s Nostrumo mix to hear all of his biggest tunes in one sitting), but when he wanted to he could also kick out other styles, like this wonderful acid techno gem, a tune guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any acid lover.

Afghan Acid (Toxic 2 Remix) – Next up is this vintage remix from New York’s Damon Wild and Ray Love. Like so many other great acid tunes, this one kicks off with a solid 303 groove that slowly builds and develops as more layers of acid are strung across the top of the rhythmic structure, like crazy criss-crossing patterns of laundry lines between tenement buildings. As with Trancescript, this tune builds to a big breakdown (this one Middle Eastern-flavored, hence the title) which, in order to keep the groove going, I skip.

Lobotomie – And with the next tune up being as good as this Emmanuel Top classic, why not skip the fluffy breakdown and get on with things? France’s Emmanuel Top was the master of long, deep, dark acid tracks, his ice cold sound a perfect sonic distillation of a particular feeling: that moment when your mind and body would lock into sequence with the music and you would dance until morning without complaint. This is music for dark, dingy warehouses, for those unexplainable dancefloor moments that are beyond rational conception, that special collective hypnosis that occurs where hypnotic music meets a dark room. Can you imagine a track like this in the Ibiza sunshine?

Mind (Instrumental) – The Aloof were a kind of early 90′s dance music super group, bringing together members of The Sabres Of Paradise, Red Snapper, and West London Deep, with vocalist Ricky Barrow. Their output was mostly early trip-hop and various experiments in dub-influenced downbeat electronica, but they also made some more pumping stuff, including some decent dubby house bits (and some progressive house, but since I have no interest in prog house, I’ll just skip that!). Amongst their 4/4 tunes was this one, which is a bit of an unknown acid monster. Hypnotic, pulsing, highly danceable – this is real trance music.

The Horn Track (The Pump Panel Remix) – The Pump Panel were responsible for one of the great acid tunes, Confusion, as featured in the vampire disco scene at the start of the first Blade film. They were also responsible for a whole slew of other brilliant acid tunes, such as Ego Acid and this remix, where they morph Egyptian Empire’s hardcore classic into a stomping acid techno monster … approach with caution!

The Driving Force – At about forty minutes in, I figured it was about time to throw in a tune from the London acid techno crew, so I chose this relatively unknown b-side from Time Stretch Armstrong, aka The Geezer and D.A.V.E. The Drummer. Generally speaking, this isn’t really a London acid techno mix, so if that’s more what you are after, I’d suggest checking out my 7D The Seven Dimensions of Euphoria mix from last year for 90 minutes of pure squat party acid mayhem. This particular tune works really well in the context of this mix, serving as a bridge to the final third of the mix, which is on more of an acid techno-trance tip than the earlier part of the mix.

It’s Our Future – Anthem alert! If most of the mix up to this point was fairly obscure, It’s Our Future is anything but. A monster acid techno-trance tune from Tom Wax and Thorsten Adler, it was an anthem in techno, trance, and acid circles, hammered by dj’s as diverse as Tony de Vit and Carl Cox, as well as being the top track of the 1995 Berlin Love Parade. Built around a killer acid loop and a voice repeating “it’s our … future” over and over and over again, this one worms its way into your head and refuses to escape. If you’ve ever heard this one in a club, you’ll know just how efficiently it destroys dancefloors.

Go Ahead London – As does this track! Another Plastic City classic, this hypnotic acid monster is a fine example of German techno engineering.

Rok Da House (Original Slaughterhouse Mix) – Wicked Wipe was a collaboration between Holger Wick & Peter Ohnacker, a.k.a. Hoschi and R-Damski, two of the best German hard trance producers of the 90′s. As you would expect from them, Rok Da House is absolutely massive, thumping rhythms coated in crazed acid, with an explosive drop erupting from a quirky, downtempo, almost rock-ish breakdown. Yes, this is another dancefloor beast – by this point of the mix the jugular has been well and truly grabbed and I am just not letting go. If the whole point of doing a mix like this is to gradually build the intensity upwards, there comes a point at which you have to just go for it. That point has been reached.

Enter Load – DJ Randy is another favorite producer of mine. A Dutch master of the junction of techno and trance, his Smoke Free DJ Tools label released some absolutely essential tunes in the 1990′s, with tracks like Pandomia, Fusion, More and More, or this one, Enter Load, working equally well in techno, hard trance, hard house, or acid sets. Which is a rare and useful thing! In fact, just to underscore his consistency and versatility, this is actually the third track from this twelve inch that I have used in a mix, with More And More having appeared on Eurotrash 2 and G.O.D. appearing on Eurotrash 3. Enter Load itself is a pounding techno-trance workout, all relentless kick, crashing percussion, and punchy stabs – simple but oh so effective.

Intent To Deceive – Here’s another banging bit of acid techno from one of the leading squat party techno labels. Except this one appeared on Cluster, which was for a long time the scene’s designated non-acid label. Confusing? A bit. Even so, this tune is somewhat different to the more traditional London acid techno sound, and as such fits very well within this whole mix. It’s a relentlessly driving acid banger, without any hint of the usual trance-style build-up-and-breakdown formula used on labels like Stay Up Forever, Routemaster, Smitten, and Bionic Orange. A hard kick and some relentlessly modulating 303 – what’s not to love?!?

Access – I usually pride myself on trying to go beyond just the obvious classics, so that my mixes are both fun to listen to and (yes! I’m really saying this!) educational at the same time. What can I say? I really enjoy digging out the lesser-known gems and showing off my knowledge of the more obscure corners of dance music. But that does not mean I am against anthems … no sir! And what better way to finish off this mix than with two of the mightiest acid techno anthems ever committed to wax? Access was probably one of the biggest tunes of 1995, a crossover monster that found its way into the sets of some of the biggest names in trance, techno, and acid. Like a truly great pizza or hamburger, Access doesn’t do anything massively different from a million other acid tunes … it just does it better. Pacy and beautifully structured, its rock-solid kick and distinctive beeping coda immediately grab hold of the dancefloor as the swirls of acid build and develop to a euphoric climax. 18 years later, it’s still as fresh as a daisy, and will continue to destroy raves until the end of time. A true classic, and certainly the best tune ever released on X-Trax. Misjah and Tim have never topped this.

Step To Enchantment (Stringent) – To finish off I have gone with perhaps my favorite acid tune ever, the utterly mind-blowing ‘Step To Enchantment’ by Jeff Mills, under his Millsart alias. As far as I am concerned, this is pretty much the platonic ideal of acid techno – hard-charging rhythms overlaid with multiple layers of churning, twisting 303 lines. I first heard this as an end-of-the-night tune at a techno party at Edinburgh’s Wee Red Room back in about 2000, and within a couple bars I had charged the dj booth to find out what it was. I’m not the world’s biggest Jeff Mills fan – honestly, a lot of his stuff leaves me a bit cold – but this is just incredible. I can think of absolutely no better tune to finish this mix off with.

And that is that … I hope you enjoyed the ride!

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Today the Tuesday Time Machine is headed back to 1997 with The Shining, a vintage slice of techstep from the legendary Optical!

Best known for his long-running partnership with Ed Rush, Optical (known to his mom as Matt Quinn) was originally a solo producer, responsible for many excellent releases like this one, which appeared in 1997 on Metro Recordings, a label owned by his brother, Matrix. It’s not a particularly complicated tune, but a highly effective one. For the first minute and twenty seconds there are no beats, just deep, atmospheric chords, with the first hints of percussion percolating through at about the one minute mark. When the beat finally drops, it is a crisp two-stepper undergirded by a grimily distorted bassline, the legendary Reece bass tortured into a new shape. And that’s … about it. A simple and hypnotic tune – if you’re listening to this on headphones you can’t help but move, and if you are on the dancefloor you find yourself swept away without being really conscious of it.

This is hardly one of his most famous tunes, but it is one that I have always really liked. If you like this, you should definitely make a point to check out the Ed Rush and Optical albums Wormhole and The Creeps, which are both fantastically produced slabs of that minimal neurofunk sound (which they, of course, pioneered).

Pearsall presents Rampage Turbo 16 (An Electronica Exposed)

right-click on the title and save as to download

Mixed in London in March 2013, using 100% vinyl on two Technics 1210′s and a Pioneer DJM600 mixer
(62:47, 144 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

Large cover
Cue file
Zip pack (split into separate tracks)

Style: Freeform Hardcore (A tribute to Electronica Exposed)

Direct link to the mix: http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/rt16/Pearsall-RampageTurbo16(ElectronicaExposedTribute).mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Sonic – Inside The Ride (Electronic)
02. Carbon Based & E-NRG – Jerk Awake (Electrolysis)
03. Dodgee & UFO – Timespan (Digital Beatz)
04. Shanty & DOK – London Town (Electronic)
05. Tracid – Horatsu (Electroplates)
06. Alek Szahala – Tlaloc (Electronic)
07. Pain On Creation & Fea – Unconsciousness (Electroplates)
08. Oli G & Gammer – Photex (Digital Beatz)
09. Shanty – Time’s Trouble (Electronic)
10. Tazz & Element – Enslave The People (Digital Beats)
11. AC Slater – Informavore (Electronic)
12. Menace II Society – Cougars Bass (Blizzard Boys Remix) (Electronic)
13. Tazz & Narcotic – Cut No Slack feat MC Cooper (Electronic)
14. Tazz – Take It All Back (Electronic)
15. Tazz & Concept – Elm Street (Digital Beatz)
16. DSU – Interference (Digital Beats)

Cover: A polar bear at New York’s Central Park Zoo, taken November 2012

For my latest Freeformaniacs mix, I have decided to do a tribute to Electronica Exposed, the group of record labels run by Richard ‘Shanty’ Andrews. In my eyes, Shanty is a bit of an unsung hero of the freeform scene, both as a producer and as the owner of labels like Digital Beats/Beatz, Electronic, Electrolysis, and Electroplates, and the more recent Electrode, all of which have been responsible for some of the finest moments in freeform history. Since I’ve always been a big fan and supporter of Electronica Exposed, digging into my collection in order to string together a proper tribute seemed like an excellent way to follow on from the epic Rampage Turbo 15.

Of course, this is not quite the definitive tribute – given how much good music that Shanty has released, that would be a basically impossible task!

Given Electronica Exposed’s vast and varied output, boiling it down to an hour was a bit like hiring someone – you start off with rules to enable you to quickly eliminate people (sorry job-seekers, but that’s how things work in the real world). So, just as someone with spelling or grammar errors in their CV is binned immediately, I decided to start with a simple rule and go vinyl only (even though I still have the borrowed CD decks so I could do a vinyl/digital combination if I wanted), enabling me to straight away eliminate anything that hadn’t come out on vinyl. Going vinyl only (besides being more comfortable for me technically) helped reduce the possibilities to a more manageable level. Even so, EE’s vinyl catalogue is still very deep, so a further edit was needed, which is why I also decided to exclude the EE tunes that appeared on my Finrg tribute, Rampage Turbo 10, something that immediately made the task of picking out an hour’s worth of stuff that much easier.

For those who are not familiar with Electronica Exposed and its various sub-labels, I am actually in the process of collaborating with Shanty on an epic interview – we’re aiming to create the definitive freeform interview … but that isn’t quite ready yet, so here’s a little potted history of Electronica Exposed instead …

Basically, Shanty’s first label was Digital Beats, which started off releasing trancecore back in 1998 through the distributor Alphamagic. After eleven (excellent) releases, Digital Beats shut down, followed by a several year gap where Richard produced and released hard trance/nu-nrg before Electronica Exposed was established in 2002 as an umbrella company for Shanty’s various freeform labels: Electronic (for freeform), Digital Beatz (for the rougher, ravier side of freeform), and Electrolysis (for crossover hard trance/freeform tracks). That was the beginning of a period of massive creativity, both from UK-based artists like DOK, Tazz, Impact, Concept, and, of course, Shanty himself, as well as from the creme de la creme of the emerging Finnish scene, such as Carbon Based, Alek Szahala, Re-Form, and Pain On Creation, all of whom were first signed and championed in the UK by Electronic. I remember being absolutely blown away by the standard of tracks like ‘Cyclone’, ‘Superstition’, and ‘Ultimate Protection’, and Shanty signed all of them!

As time went on and the freeform scene went increasingly digital, so did EE, which switched from releasing vinyl to releasing cd compilations featuring an ever wider range of freeform artists from across the world, such as Nightforce, Twisted Freq, Lost Soul, and many (many) more. More recently, Shanty has switched directions again, releasing the purely digital Freeform Exposed compilations on a requested donation basis (btw, DONATE TO ELECTRONICA EXPOSED).

Over the years, EE has released a massively diverse range of hardcore dance music, from big kick party tracks to dark and twisted Finnish tunes to acid-fried trancecore and beyond, a variety that I really wanted to represent in this mix, which is why I have selected tracks from all of Shanty’s main hardcore labels. The mix kicks off with some slightly slower, trancier tracks before the intensity level is gradually driven upwards through the appearance of vintage Finrg from Alek Szahala and Pain On Creation & Fea and classic freeform from Shanty, Tazz and Element before reaching the final third, which is a celebration of the simple pleasures of the big, bouncy kickdrum, including several tracks from Tazz, the undisputed master of party freeform. The mix concludes with DSU’s Interference, which has perhaps the most unhinged acid line in the history of hardcore. A thing of hair-raising beauty.

So, that’s it from me. I hope you enjoy the mix, as well as the other mixes that are on the way.

Have a wonderful weekend.

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An occasional feature where I grab a record from my collection … and write about it

On today’s edition of the Tuesday Time Machine, we are going to look back at a vintage, yet relatively unknown, Dillinja remix – his 1995 remake of Alex Reece’s Basic Principles on Metalheadz. Unlike a lot of Dillinja’s most famous tunes from that era, this is not a tear-your-face-off Amen smasher designed to completely annihilate the dancefloor. Something like that wouldn’t really make sense, given the fact that the original, in true Alex Reece style, was a mellow, jazzy roller designed for the dreamier floors (and for top-down summer driving). So, instead of going completely berserk, the Dilli-man reaches a nice compromise, draping Reece’s summery chords and vocal vamps over some properly iron-plated drums and stomach-punching bass that hint at the total madness that Dillinja so often unleashed. However, by practicing some restraint, this tune retains a versatility that it might not have if it really went balls to the wall. As such, it can work either as a tougher moment in a mellower set, or as a lighter moment in a harder set, or just as a nice vibing tune in the midst of a rollers selection.

Plus, because it is not one of his better known tunes, it is available really cheap on Discogs.

Want more Dillinja? Check out the History of Dillinja mixes by The Law.

If you want more drum n’ bass/jungle, here are my three most recent mixes:

King of the Rollerz – My DJ Zinc tribute
Dark Side of the Nuum – Vintage ragga jungle
Urban Takedown – Classic mid-90′s jump-up