Pearsall presents There & Back 009: September, Hardcore 1992-1994

Pearsall presents There & Back 009: September, Hardcore 1992-1994

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Pearsall · There & Back 009: September, Hardcore 1992-1994

Recorded in Berlin, November 2024
100% Vinyl
(75:15, 173 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

Direct link to the mix:
https://sonicrampage.org/mixes/thereandback/Pearsall-ThereAndBack009-September-Hardcore1992-1994.mp3

Tracklisting:

Dr S Gachet meets Funky Junky – Logans Run [Funky Junky]
Technosaurus – One Day We’ll All Be Free [Parallax]
DJ Wax – Moments So Dark [8205]
Fast Floor – On A Level [Smooth]
Electronic Experienced – V-10 Overload [Basement]
Space Cube – Outbound [Riot Beats]
Bass Ballistics – Fantasy (Unknown Version) [Masterpiece]
N-Joi – Drumstruck [deConstruction]
Urban Shakedown – Burnin Passion (Camden Mix) [Urban Shakedown]
Tek 9 – Partz One & Two (Manix Remix) [Reinforced]
DJ AKA – Farside [Soapbar]
Secret Squirrel – Seeing is Believing [Bogwoppa]
Lewi Cifer – 99 Red Balloons [Daddy Armshouse]
Uncle 22 – On Top of the World [Pure NRG]
Enforcer – Dam Tuff (Remix) [Awesome]
Rhythm Section – The Chainsaw (Hard Mix) [Rhythm Section]
Ellis Dee – Can’t Believe It’s Real [Silent Justice]
Ellis Dee, DJ Krome & Mr Time – Free the Feeling [New Dimension]
Harmony & Xtreme – Temple of Doom [Section 5]
DJ Gwange – New Creation [Legend]
Out of Order – Right Guard [White Label]
Q-Tex – Equinox, Celebration, Essence, Integrator [Evolution]
Lemon D – Pursuit thru the Darkness [Infrared]
DJ Seduction – Really Dark (But Not Too Dark Mix) [Impact]
Citadel of Kaos – Drums of Freedom [Boombastic Plastic]

For the ninth mix in the There & Back series, I went all in on an old skool hardcore selection. This is not my first time exploring this style; in fact some of my most popular mixes of all time have been old skool ones, such as

This year’s series has been all about serious crate-digging, and this mix is no exception, because I really wanted to go beyond the obvious anthems and pull out some cool and interesting stuff. This era of music was absolutely studded with incredible tunes, so it’s a shame that so many old skool mixes are drawn from the same bundle of 30 or so big anthems.

Why not go deeper?

It’s boring to always hear the same stuff, right?

Hence it’s fun for me as a dj to really dig through my collection and pull out gems I’d forgotten I’d owned, like ‘Seeing is Believing’ by Secret Squirrel, as well as stuff that I’ve always wanted to feature in a mix, like Lewi Cifer’s ’99 Red Balloons’, which turns an extremely famous 80’s pop song into a total rave slammer.

It’s also hopefully fun for the listener – even long-time fans of old skool hardcore might hear something that’s fresh for them. And for newcomers it can also be an educational experience; there’s a whole universe of great early UK rave tracks out there!

Let’s focus on five particularly interesting tracks:

Technosaurus – One Day We’ll All Be Free

I got this on a really amazing EP called The Best of Invention, released on my friend Vali NME Click’s essential label Parallax Recordings, for whom I did an album mix a few years back. Invention was an early 90’s hardcore label that did a few incredible releases before completely dropping off the radar – just like many labels of that era! Running a label is hard work and once the initial burst of enthusiasm is gone it’s hard to keep going. Vali did the scene a great favor by tracking down the guys behind the label and convincing them to let him re-master and re-release the tracks. A killer EP – well worth tracking down!

Space Cube – Outbound

This track is quite a curiosity, because it’s from Germany, unusual at a time when most breakbeat rave music was coming from the UK and in Germany itself the rave scene was much more focused on four to the floor hard techno and hard trance. Even more curiously, this is the work of two well-known techno dj/producers, Ian Pooley and DJ Tonka. Still, this (and the flipside) are perfect examples of breakbeat hardcore – great riffs, powerful bass, pumping breaks.

Lewi Cifer – 99 Red Balloons

German pop singer Nena’s 99 Luftballons (re-released in English as ’99 Red Balloons’) was one of the biggest pop songs of the 80’s, and this bootleg mix is, well, quite something. Later on happy hardcore got really ridiculous with the sampling (the DJ Vibes version of ‘Hey Jude’ was my personal low point) but this is just an insane banger – the one time I had the courage to play it in a club it absolutely went off. People went insane for it!

Q-Tex – Equinox, Celebration, Essence, Integrator

Q-Tex was an alias of Scottish hardcore hero Scott Brown (or Scott Brooooon!!!! if you ever listened to any Rezerection tapes back in the day), who was and is a very talented guy. Mostly known for making 4/4 hardcore, initially in the Scottish ‘bouncy techno’ style as well as Dutch-style gabba, this is one of his few breakbeat releases, and it’s quite an oddity, because it’s actually a megamix of four different tracks, two of which were never released. It’s really good, and just goes to show how talented a producer he was, that he could so effectively turn his hand to a style outside what he normally made.

Citadel of Kaos – Drums of Freedom

Citadel of Kaos was a collaboration between Jason Cambridge (better known as A-Sides) and Jan Salisbury, and they were responsible for some great hardcore EPs in the early 90’s, of which Part V was possibly the best, and on which the concluding track of the mix, ‘Drums of Justice’, is my personal favorite.

I love this tune!

I love the rough and tumble drums.

I love the melancholy piano that comes in about halfway through.

I love the quirky sample.

Taken together this tracks provides a clear signposting to the jungle sound that would soon emerge – from the chopped-up drums to the more complex emotions expressed by the piano, quite revolutionary at a time when hardcore tracks were either super euphoric or super dark, sonic emotions rendered in crayon. It’s a miniature masterpiece, and a great way to finish off the mix.

That’s it – enjoy the mix!