Girdler Synthetic’s Frantic Classics
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed in London, May 2012
(118:58, 272 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Style: Hard House
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Mixed in London, May 2012
(118:58, 272 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Style: Hard House
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed in Cardiff, March 2012
(99:44, 230 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Style: Freeform Hardcore
Three mixes of banging London acid techno from Paul Girdler aka Girdler Synthetic aka half of Penguin Conspiracy
For quicker navigation:
The Acid Roundabout Volume 1
The Acid Roundabout Volume 2
The Acid Roundabout Volume 3
Happy Sunday! Hope you’re all having a good weekend so far.
For me, not so good, really, as I’ve been laid low with a cold (boo-hoo), which meant that yesterday I didn’t, as planned, re-record the third edition of my Morally Diminished series. I had a first go at it two weeks ago but after having listened to it for a bit I’ve decided that it could do with a slightly reshuffled tracklisting, because although the mixing was fine I thought the flow could be improved slightly. Since a gunked-up nose, a sore throat, and a fuzzy brain are not really conducive to chopping up funky techno, it’s been unavoidably delayed for at least another week or two.
Even so, I didn’t want to get through the weekend without offering up something cool, so, following on from the great feedback about his Weirdo tribute mix, I’m very happy to present all three volumes of Girdler Synthetic’s The Acid Roundabout series of London acid techno mixes. Since these mixes are available elsewhere as single mp3’s, I’ve put up links to them, but I’m hosting the zip packs of chopped tracks for your own audio pleasure, plus I’ve provided covers and cue files.
As with my own Squat Rocking mixes, these are unashamed tributes to the pop-pupilled madness of the London free party scene, pure firing 303 rave mayhem – definitely not the kind of music Simon Cowell will be featuring on his new dj talent show!
Which, of course, is a big part of what makes it so good – this is not music that makes compromises for mass appeal.
If you like these mixes, make sure you check out the new Penguin Conspiracy album, Machines of Love and Grace (right).
Enjoy!
Six mixes of old skool goodness from DI.fm’s Old School Electronica Channel
Update, February 1, 2012: I’m very proud to announce that I have now uploaded Proteus’ mix as well as DJ Meke’s Happy New Yearave gabba mix. Scroll down to the bottom of the page or click here to see them. I’m hoping to get the M-Zone mix as well, but can’t confirm yet as to whether that will be available. Enjoy!
Update 2, February 5, 2012: Even more good news! I now have M-Zone’s mix to download, click here to jump down the page and grab it. If you can help us build a tracklisting for M-Zone’s mix, please leave a comment. 🙂 Also, I’ve now got a full tracklisting for the mix by Proteus, so I’ve stuck it up as a split track zip file as well.
A few months ago DJ Meke (whose Nostrumo appeared as a guest mix a few years back on Sonicrampage) got in touch with me and asked if I would be up for contributing a mix to an end of the year special that he was organizing for Digitally Imported’s Old School Electronica channel. The idea behind the Old School Mix Marathon IV (as it came to be known) was 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.
Having been asked to represent the UK, my answer can be summed up in two words: fuck and yes. Since most of the other dj’s were providing more European music, Meke asked me for a UK trancecore mix in a similar vein to Rampage Turbo 8. Since doing that mix, I’ve been on a real freeform kick anyways, so I happily said yes and went back to the lab and came up with … Rampage Turbo 9. Which turned out really nicely!
This post, however, isn’t about my mix (that’s a topic for a separate post), but instead about the other mixes from the series, which I am very proud to be giving a permanent home to here at Sonicrampage (with the exception of Mario Tekno’s mix, which I felt was not mixed to an acceptable standard). These six mixes cover a massive range of electronic music vibes, from ’91 piano screamers from Deck Jagger to twirling acid trance from Individual to Ciriliox’s bouncy makina and massive hardtrance from Ally Asylum and the German/Finnish showdown of Yoko and Mele to DJ Mindflash’s straight up, unfiltered gabba. Taken together, they offer an excellent primer to 90’s rave music.
Those who know me will not be surprised to find out that I love the Yoko/Meke and Ally Asylum mixes, both of which cover the kind of glorious old fast hardtrance that I featured on Heartcore, but what surprised me was how much I enjoyed Ciriliox’s makina mix. I’ve always been of the opinion that makina (the indigenous hardcore sound of Spain) is a big pile of stinky cheese, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this mix, and even recognised some of the tunes from back in the day. Needless to say, this opens up a new avenue for vinyl acquisition (not that my wife will like to hear that!). Overall, hearing all of the different mixes has been both fun and educational, turning me on to lots of tunes that I didn’t know before, as well as reminding me of some stone classics that I had forgotten over the years.
For easier navigation, click these links to take you straight to your mix of choice:
Yoko vs Meke – Hard Trance
Ally Asylum – Hard Trance
Ciriliox – Makina
DJ Mindflash – Gabba
Deck Jagger – Breakbeat Hardcore
Individual – Acid Trance
Proteus – Hard Trance
DJ Meke – Gabba
M-Zone – Hard Trance
Enjoy the mixes!
click to download a zip file of the mix
Mixed in October 2011
(30:01, 42.3 MB, 192 KBPS MP3)
Style: Dubstep (The Dungeon Sound)
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed in October 2011
(79:57, 183 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Large cover
Cue file
Style: A tribute to UK Hard Trance legend Weirdo
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed in October 2011
(79:56, 92.3 MB, 160 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Large cover
Cue file
Style: Bouncy Techno & Early Gabba
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed in Birmingham, July 2011
(47:33, 109 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Large cover
Cue file
Style: Deep and dark dubstep
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Mixed in Brisbane, December 2010
(84:49, 198.7 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Cue file
Style: A tribute to UK Hard Dance legend Jon Doe
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed in Ottawa, May 2011
(65:38, 90.5 MB, 192 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Large cover
Cue file
Style: Serious 1992/1993 breakbeat hardcore business