Old School Mix Marathon V
Seven fresh mixes of old skool goodness from DI.fm’s Old School Electronica Channel, plus a selection of classic 90’s mixtapes
For the second year running, Sonicrampage is very happy to present the official blog post to accompany the Old School Mix Marathon V, a very special project organized by Finland’s DJ Meke in conjunction with Digitally Imported’s Old School Electronica channel to celebrate the best in old school rave music (click here to check out the Old School Mix Marathon IV). As I said before, the goal of this project is to “create a series of old skool mixes from across a range of harder dance music styles, mixed by dj’s from across Europe, that would showcase the amazing music made in the 90’s to nostalgiacs and newcomers alike.”
This year’s edition certainly does that, with specially created mixes covers everything from hard trance to rave to Goa trance to, from myself, acid techno.
Here’s a quick run down of the mixes:
Pearsall Slaves to the Silver Box – My own contribution (of which I am working on a separate, distinct post) is another dark, rumbling acid journey, in a similar vein to previous mixes of mine like Beyond The Valley Of The Acid Vixens and The Waveform Cult. IF you like the mind-expanding capabilities of the Roland TB-303, then this is for you!
Yoko vs Meke Rave’O’Lution – The DI.fm Flashback team deliver 80 minutes of relentless European hard trance, covering both classics and obscurities, as well as some modern takes on the classic hard trance sound from Sound Spectre, Artemis Wave, and Yoko himself. High bpm’s, lots of acid, and gigantic melodies … what’s not to love?
Dawn vs Meke RetroActive VI – Meke’s second appearance, alongside Germany’s DJ Dawn, is another headfirst dive into vintage hard trance, with Dawn’s set covering the anthems, while Meke works in some obscurities from SDD label compilations (and I’ll stick my hand up here and say that I’ve never heard any of these tunes before!)
Dave Elyzium Classic Goa & Morden OMGoa – Both Welsh hard trance dj/producer Dave Elyzium and Finnish dj Morden deliver awesome hour long sets of 90’s Goa trance. I haven’t really listened to this stuff in a while … and so I had forgotten how good it is. It’s easy to joke about psytrance and all of its ‘herders of the moon goat’ hippy baggage, but tune wise this early punchy Goa stuff was pretty damn good. I definitely recommend grabbing both mixes if you like psytrance, or even if you are just curious.
Yoko RetroRaveTekk – Yoko’s second mix is a vintage selection of punchy early 90’s rave music, that rich brew of innovation, rip-offs and general dancefloor lunacy from continental Europe that existed at the moment before hardcore, trance, and techno all became distinct genres with rigidly set boundaries. Awesome.
Spacehopper Classic Gabber – Last but very much not least is this absolutely storming set from Spacehopper, covering some of the greatest ever moments in hardcore techno history. Not for the faint-hearted, this high-velocity brain-shredder of a set brings together awesome tunes from the likes of Hellfish, Tieum, Dolphin, and more, and finishes on what is quite possibly the finest moment in hardcore history … Lenny Dee’s Forgotten Moments. Great set.
For easier navigation, click these links to take you straight to your mix of choice:
Pearsall – Slaves To The Silver Box (Acid)
Yoko vs Meke – Rave’O’Lution (Hard Trance)
DJ Dawn vs Meke – RetroActive 6 (Hard Trance)
Dave Elyzium (Goa Trance)
Yoko (Rave)
Spacehopper (Gabba)
Morden (Goa Trance)
Enjoy the mixes!
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To kick things off, here’s ‘Energy’ by The Two G’s, a 1995 collaboration from two of the absolute pioneers of drum n’ bass music, Goldie and A Guy Called Gerald. 
