Site migrated to www.blogtotheoldskool.com

I've moved the site over to www.blogtotheoldskool.com Now there are actual direct links to tracks instead of rapidshare links. I'm not going to be updating

blog2theoldskool.blogspot.com

anymore, so please change any bookmarks to point to the new site.

in fact, let me try this..doh, javascript redirect didn't work.

rapidshare = stupid... real hosting soon

I just noticed some files on the server can't be downloaded by people who don't have premium rapidshare accounts, since more than 10 people have downloaded them... tommorow I am going to migrate all files on the blog (and maybe the entire blog) to a real webserver, so no more waiting for rapidshare downloads... also, I just got back from a 3 week trip to Europe, I picked up a TON of deadly stuff I will be posting over the next few weeks, including some rare whitelabels I've never heard of before.

DJ Fokus

DJ Fokus is without a doubt one of my favorite lesser known 93-95 artists. Originally releasing on the label Blueprint Records, his first release "The Theme" bw "Disengaged" is an in-demand amen smasher, fetching high prices these days. He followed this EP up with a solo outing on the same label, before releasing 2 EPs on his own label Suicide Records. All of these EPs featured heavily cut up beats and deep atmospherics, as well as the engineering talent of the amazing Pete Parsons. Following the Suicide Records releases, he did several more EPs on Dee Jay and Lucky Spin, also engineered by Pete Parsons (who engineered many of those tunes), before disappearing from the dnb world.




DJ Fokus - Vexxed



DJ Fokus - Watch Out
DJ Fokus - Media




DJ Fokus - Get a Bearing


Probably my favorite tracks by DJ Fokus is "Brave New World", off one of his later EPs on Lucky Spin. The other side of this release is probably more well known, having been featured on the popular Promised Land Vol 1 compilation. However, "Brave New World" has some of the sickest drum programming I've heard in any tracks from that time.



DJ Fokus - Brave New World

Mind Therapy pt 2

I already did an entry on Mind Therapy, but only scratched the surface w/ the one EP mentioned there (admittedly a great record). Here's several more bits of their stuff.

Their first EP was on the Jack In The Box label. This label was more of a distributor (I've definitely seen a sticker from them on some old records I own).

This EP precedes any of their E3 EPs by 2 years, and is thus a lot slower. However, the production is quality and it's a decent tune for sure.

Mind Therapy - Pushing Pot

Their next record was E3001, a 6 tracker with less-than-stellar production but some excellent tunes. The breaks are really nicely chopped but, because there's 3 tracks a side and the production is a bit thin to begin with, some of these don't hold up so well. However, there's a nice 4/4 version of the "ecstacy is safe" tune off E3005, already posted in a previous entry.


Mind Therapy - Ecstacey is safe - techno mix
Mind Therapy - Drum Beats Go Like This

The next EP was a bit of an improvement.... especially of note is the B side, which features a pretty wicked cut up drum-solo in lieu of a regular funk break. Because of this + the really sparse nature of the tune, it could almost be considered "proto-choppage", alongside the brown + dangerman tracks of the time.


Mind Therapy - Run Reel
Mind Therapy - Ruffneck Bizzness

Bay B Kane Interview , pt 3 (final part)

Apologies for the delay in this part, I've been on tour / vacation in Europe with spotty internet access.. I'm posting this final portion of the interview comes from Madrid, Spain. Thanks a ton to Mel for doing this interview, anyone interested can reach him at .
Enjoy - Pete

Track You're Most Proud Of

The track I'm most proud of is a very difficult choice for me...as I'm proud of everything that ive done musically. But if I had to make a top 3 of my own tracks it would probably be...

1. If you Believe
2. Thunder
3. Jungle Warriors, joint 3rd lace with Hello Darkness.

As for what created the most buzz...it was indeed Thunder.

Trouble with uncleared samples

I've never really run into trouble as such with uncleared samples except for just one time and that was a tiny vocal sample that said "and it sounds good" which appeared on the Hello Darkness Remix "Rood Darkness". The vocal in question belonged to one of the most popular mc's of that time MC GQ, who used to mc at the Paradise Club...but of course it got sorted out and as far as I'm concerned he was trying it on really or to be blunt, takin da piss... And because of that he got AIR-PIE!! lol. Having said that, he still remains as one of my favorite MC's of all time.

Satin Storm

I want to take this opportunity to mention something which I forgot to before, and this should have been in part one of this interview really but somehow slipped my mind at the time so apologies... Anyway what I want to mention is Satin Storm. I'm sure some of you old skool fans will remember that name...well Satin Storm (which was Travis Edwards and his girlfriend) were the owners of the first ever studio that we used back in the Break The Limits days. In fact, we recorded BTL part 1 & 2 entirely at the Satin Storm studios and I want to thank him for all the help he gave us and for trusting us. At that time we were flat broke and had to do a deal with Travis to trust us until we released the BTL part 1 Ep and recouped some money before we could afford to pay him for the studio time. I just want to BIG him up to the MAXIMUM... And yes we did go back as promised and payed him for the studio time plus a little extra for taking that chance to allow us to record in his studio without pay initially.
I also would like to just state that BTL was the inspiration behind the success of Satin Storm and I know that he would agree with that statement without hesitation...we also worked with him again later on during the Nu-Matic period, as both Travis and his girlfriend whose name totally escapes me at this time (sorry) toured with us as our dancers on stage for pa's. Where-ever you are today, I'm sending you guys a massive Thank You and wish you all the best.

Pennywise Remix

Pennywise was Symphony Sounds, that's the label and distribution company, and they distributed my tracks for a short while and that's also how I met Sherry the other half of Rood Project. The reason why it was so different to the original was coz I had nothing to do with the original, and for the remix they wanted it to be totally different.

DJ'ing / Production Collabs

I've never dabbled in DJ'ing but did many PA's all over the UK, including Liverpool University sharing the bill there with The Prodigy. I also played in Warrington, Manchester, Colchester, Anglesey and various other locations around the UK.
I worked with many different producers during my time as a jungle producer, like...

1. Mickey Finn
2. Peshay
3. T Para
4. Cool Hand Flex
5. Chris Energy
6. Darren Jay
7. Hopper(of Hopper & Bones)


8. Sherry(Rood Project)
9. Lee Muspratt(Darkenator)
10. Loxy

...and if I've forgot anyone which is highly likely I apologize. But my favorite Colaborations were...

1. Sherry (Rood Project)
2. Mickey Finn
3. Peshay

Favorite Jungle Tune of All Time

My favorite Drum & Bass / Jungle Track of all time is, without any hesitation..."Here Come The Drumz" by Doc Scott. For me this track defines what Drum & Bass was all about, and Doc Scott has always been one of my favorite producers. Sadly I never got to work with him. I reckon if we had ever collaborated the result would have been legendary... BIG UP the Doc Scott.

Changes in the Scene From Hardcore to Jungle / the Influence of Ragga

I was involved in the scene from 1991 to 1996 and yes I saw a lot of changes throughout that time in the music...as for my feelings about Hardcore/Rave evolving into Jungle/Drum & Bass, it was an inevitable step forwards as we in the UK are and always have been a very racially mixed and blended society. Although the hardcore sound was by no means a predominantly white/caucasian sound, as more and more people of different colours and backgrounds were joining this underground movement, the flavours of the music evolved to accommodate these changes. As for me, being an immigrant myself (originally from Turkey), I grew up around both black and asian culture and was always into reggae and soul/jazz funk. Therefore it was a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

Raving Days

Yes, I was indeed a big raver in those days... I got mashed up on a regular basis and used to rave till da sun came up. On many occasions we used to head out to secret meeting points and wait for instructions on where this weekends big illegal warehouse rave would be..lolol..those were great times for real.
But my favorite rave was TELEPATHY, which was every saturday at an old warehouse in Marshgate Lane in Stratford E16... I'll never forget the time I caught a couple having sex inside a bassbin enclosure!!! And the BASS was THUMPING and they were oblivious to anyone or anything except each other and the rhythm.

Disappearance from Jungle

My disappearance from jungle was both sudden and final...
During 1996 things started to change within the jungle scene, both musically and label politics-wise... Sales of jungle tracks were minimal and a lot of small independent labels had already disappeared, and I had already seen the writing on the wall. It had become too risky to release tunes on Ruff Guidance as sales figures were not good enough. On top of that, Whitehouse Records were no longer the "Buzz Central" they once were either, so there was a general slump in the popularity of jungle.
I remember going to see Andy Bailey at Whitehouse and playing him some of my latest tracks, he said "listen m8 i really like these tracks, but the word from upstairs is that we are slowing right down on jungle releases until further notice"... I knew then and there that nothing would ever be the same again, and that the end of an era was just around the corner. In reply to what i had just heard, I thanked Andy for all his help and support and told him that I understood that this was out of his control, that I was probably not gonna be in this game for much longer, and left the building.
I never returned to Whitehouse, and that was the last time i saw or spoke with Andy. But I would like to BIG him up here one last time for everything that he did for me and all the good ideas and the support during my time at Whitehouse, so wherever you are bro BIG RESPECT to you.
Shortly after my final meeting with Whitehouse i decided enough was enough and decided to leave the music scene and move on... But not before i pulled off one last scam!!! Not musically of course but financially.
I went to the bank where my label account had been over the years and gave them a big story about how and why i needed to borrow £15000, and they were only too happy to lend me the money against my studio (which was valued at £50.000) as security...cool!!
I got the money and the next evening cleared my studio and moved to a new house... I think you got the picture by now...lolololol.
So i want 2 take this opportunity to BIGUP the NatWest Bank for their stupidity... lol.
I spent the following year doing pretty much nothing, in fact i felt as though i was in some kind of vacuum...i was lost!!! I eventually snapped out of that trance-like-state and started to mess around with PCs, and never looked back...
I am now an IT professional i have a Bachelors Degree in Information Systems and Computer Science with Honors.

Making Music These Days / Any Unreleased Tracks?

I no longer make music, not professionally or as a hobby. But my daughter who is 9yrs old has a real talent for singing and I'm thinking about going back in the producers chair, maybe for a short period but long enough to produce a good demo for her... I guess time will tell whether I do or not.
I do have a bunch of tunes that never got released on DAT and I would be more than happy to discuss releasing them if an opportunity came about and there was genuine interest.
Unfortunately I no longer have any vinyl of any description, but I have every track i ever produced all on DAT.
When i hear about copies of my releases from back in the day exchanging hands for a lot more money than when they were released, i feel a bit ANTIQUE like!!! lol...Nah seriously though, it kinda makes me feel like i have achieved something and that something has stood the test of time... I feel proud really, coz around 15 years ago I remember paying £100 for an original 7 inch copy of AMEN Brother which is the track that contains the legendary Amen Breakbeat.

Last 3 Albums Bought

The last 3 albums i bought were...

1. Ror Shak - Deep (for those that don't know, Ror Shak is Stakka)
   
2. 2-MOVADO - Anyway
   
3. 3-TI - Paper Trail
   

Nowadays my taste in music hasn't really changed too much...having said that, I do like some of the good GRIME artists like Wiley..JME..Roll Deep..N-Dubz to name a few. But my first love music-wise was..is..and always will be hip hop. That will never change. Plus needless to say Drum & Bass. But there isn't really much d&b coming out these days, but I usually grab anything by Bukem and Good Looking. Also Dillinja who happens to be one of my all time favorites in jungle.

Thoughts on the Current Music Scene

The music scene has gone through many changes since the days when I was producing... some changes I liked and others I loathed. But I guess most people would say the same if asked the same question. On the whole, I'm sad that jungle/D&B hasn't really survived or rather hasn't progressed and evolved enough to keep itself alive, but of course this is partly due to the fact that the sound of jungle was never really meant to be commercial. That ironically means that it was always doomed to become extinct some day... especially as that generation who created it gradually grow older and moved on, and so that whole scene which was once very much united and buzzing is no longer there. But I know that we the junglist have made a much loved and respected place four ourselves in history and that will never change, coz it has been carved into TIME 4 EVER.

The End / Shout-outs

Well my friends, the time has come to wrap this up... NO!! not for Christmas..lol but to bring it to a close... Its been great taking this journey back in time and back through the archives of my mind and memory... I want to say a HUMONGOUS Thank You to PETE. Because without him this wouldnt have even existed, plus i wanna BIG him up again for being a good friend even tho weve never met face to face so to speak, but never the less you're just as much a friend as the guys from around the way in my hood BIGUP! Also i wanna thank all you junglist and junglettes past and present whoever and where-ever you are... BIGUP ALL JUNGLIST MASSIVE!!
And just a few more personal BIGUPS to the following for making a difference within my life...(not including family as they know already theyre BIG!)...
Andy Bailey..Noah Charlery..Mark(Soul Trader).. Matt Edwards..PESHAY..Mickey Finn..LTJ Bukem..Tony Fagan(T-Para)..Chris Energy..SHERRY(Rood Project)..Jah Tubby(JTS)..Terry and Darren (TellTales)..Cool Hand Flex..Dj Randall...and all the people that i came into contact with through jungle... way too many to remember, let alone list here but no less important and no less deserving for a BIGUP!! Love to all music lovers around the globe in every city and every hood...Get rid of the GUNZ and Knives STOP ending lives including your own PEACE..

Bay B Kane interview, pt 2

Continuing with the interview, part 1 is below or click here for it.
Also, anyone looking to contact Bay B Kane can email him

Different Aliases

I will try to answer the question about all the different aliases which i released tracks under. First of all, lets see how many i can remember...

Bay b Kane

Kid Thunder

Double Tee

Rinca

Code K

Intelligent Junglist

Icon

Parallel

These are the ones that i can remember, but there may have been one or two more still..lol.

The reasons behind having all these different names were quite simple really..

1. Sometimes it was purely for STEALTH reasons... especially with experimental tracks.
   
2. A way of releasing many tracks without over crowding or overexposing an established artist name.
   
3. Because of certain styles or sounds, which can be associated with a specific name or artist as the case may be.
   

Have a Break

"Have A Break" was indeed one of the very first strictly jungle breakbeat sample-friendly cd's. During a conversation with Andy Bailey, who was the label manager at Whitehouse, I was telling him about the time when I encountered Johnny L's management people running around like headless chickens frantically phoning people up and saying "Johnny needs breaks"... "he needs original breaks can you help?"... hahaha!! And we were cracking up (as you do) and he said that it would be great to do a full length CD of exactly what we were talking about: Breaks, but not just breaks by themselves... variations of breaks, break bounces, chopped up edits, all that type of stuff which I used to spend hours constructing sometimes. I was slightly against it at first, but then Andy said "I dont want you to include anything that you haven't used before". That persuaded me to go ahead and compile this breakbeat cd over a period of 4 weeks...

Of course, some people may remember the slogan for that chocolate wafer bar called KitKat which was "Have a Break..Have a KitKat"... so we did the cover and the name like the KitKat wrapper!! Dunno if we were infringing any copyrights there but who cares..lol. And so it was released and (surprisingly) did fairly well. I've since heard many tunes that borrowed breaks from "Have a Break" but I'm not gonna mention any names, coz i don't want to put anyone on da spot... Plus, it was intended exactly for that purpose, so BIGUP everyone who used samples from "Have a Break".

Studio Equipment

This is a good question and I'm gonna tell you exactly what kind of setup i had back in 1990 to 1996, studio equipment wise...

my mixing desk was a 24 into 8 into 2 SECK with a totally silent phantom power unit...i really loved that mixer.

AKAI S900 and an S950, giving me 16 seperate sample outputs

Roland JUNO1 as my main keyboard and midi controller

Alesis Qudraverb and a Midiverb II for effects

KORG M1 rack module

ATARI-STFM computer which I ran strictly and only CUBASE on for sequencing and
arrangements

My monitors were TANNOY Berkeley 18inch dual concentrics for the final 5 years.

My studio was named THE FRIDGE because it was in an old industrial refrigerator which had walls that were 4 feet thick, that consisted of sheet metal brick then sand and brick and sheet metal again!! Amazing soundproofing, very atmospheric... I remember marathon sessions in there with Mickey Finn, T Para and Sherry (my Rood Project partner)...and it's no exaggeration for me to say that hours and days used to go by without being noticed in there, as you had no concept of time of day or night as it had no windows. It was an amazing place to create music.

Someone, somewhere must know about this unknown white label - VR001

For my first post here, it's an unknown white label and a plea for any information about this - not one person I've played this to has any idea what it is, including the Discogs seller that mis-sold it to me as VR001 - Dr. Skuf - Sensi / The More I Get The More I Want (http://www.discogs.com/release/235173)

The vinyl does indeed have the same etching as Dr. Skuf in the runout - VR001 - and it's a three track EP, so again just like Dr. Skuf, and this copy I have here has written in biro on one side "VR001 - Dr Skuf" and then, strangely, " Ruff No. 2" and "Vibe Records" in biro on the other side.

There's no Vibe Records on Discogs or Rolldabeats with a matching release, so the only thing that makes any sense is that the VR001 catalogue number implies Vibe Records, release 001.

Anyway, all that boring stuff aside it's a really good three track EP! But it's definitely not the Dr. Skuf release. In fact, the three tunes on it are hard to even compare to anything as guesswork. One sounds a bit like a classic mid-'93 Basement Records tune, one sounds similar to a 4 Hero / Tom & Jerry production, and the last one sounds like a typical obscure '92 or '93 bedroom white, something like Reckless B - Crackman or some of the earlier Bogwoppa or Vicious Pumping Plastic releases.

Here's all three tracks as MP3s - can anyone solve this? At the moment it's a mystery artist on a mystery label, and the only copy I've ever seen in many years of buying and selling old skool vinyl. Really curious about this...

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=2a677c51d206f3caab1eab3e9fa335ca147a8d7274ad1a52

Bay B Kane Interview, Pt 1

Anyone who thinks they know oldschool but doesn't own at least a few Bay B Kane releases should be ashamed of themselves! From 1990 to 1996, Mel Tanur aka Bay B Kane was one of the most prolific and influential hardcore/jungle producers around. Tracks like "Hello Darkness", "Bagpipes in Effect" and "Quarter To Doom" are some of the best that early 90's hardcore/jungle has to offer.

Around 1996 however, these Bay B Kane releases seemed to stop completely. While some of the other biggest producers of that time have popped back up in recent years with reissues / interviews / reunion DJ sets, I'd never heard any word about Bay B Kane. So, I did a bit of searching around, found him online, and posed him the question which oldschool jungle nerds like me want to know: "what ever happened to bay b kane??"

Thanks to all the B2VOSers who suggested questions for this interview. I tried to fit in as many as possible. In fact, because there were so many, Mel and I decided to split the interview up into a few parts.

Origin of the name "Bay B Kane"

The name Bay B Kane originally came about as a dedication to my son Kane who at the time was a baby...so I named an ep bay b kane and dedicated it to my son. At the time there was no intention of takin that name on as an artist name or anything like that...when the ep was released it quickly became one of the most popular eps of that time and there was huge interest within the underground scene, and somehow certain djs started to identify me as Bay B Kane whenever I came into contact with them. Amongst those djs were Mickey Finn..Darren J..Chris Energy..Grooverider to name a few... and so I also started to warm to the idea of keeping it as my professional/producer name. And thats basically how I got the name Bay-B-Kane.

...Incidently those who own a copy of my album "Guardian of Ruff" can see the real bay b kane (my son) on the back cover, pictured drawing circles in the sand...at the time aged 3yrs.

Influences

My influences to list individually would take too long and would probably be boring to read but lets just say that the biggest influence for me without a shadow of doubt was HIP HOP...from beginning to the present day hip hop still remains as the biggest inspiration within my life from a music point of view.

As for what inspired me to start making what then would have been referred to as Hardcore, it was a combination of few elements...

1. being sick and tired of not getting anywhere within the music industry as a hip hop outfit (which I will go into more detail about later)
   
2. being sick and tired of not having enough money
   
3. a burning desire to create music which ideally would be unique and fresh but in a non conformist and not within the boundaries that existed at the time musically sort of way.
   

Origins of Break The Limits

Break The Limits was the foundation that enabled myself and Matt Edwards to pretty much pioneer and lead a movement from within the underground scene which was getting stronger by the day and I'm very proud to be able to say this... Getting back to the question of how did myself and Matt meet...we met while we were still at school. Matt was a dj (dj Youth) and back then I was an MC!! Yep that's right, I used to be a rapper and very hardcore hip hop...after hearing Matt do his stuff on the decks I knew we had to put our heads together and do something to put UK and even more importantly East London on the map..

The events that followed in the next two years would again take too much time to run through but I'll just say that we put ourselves in as many peoples faces as we possibly could...we played at parties, we played in clubs... you name it we did it, and in the end we got signed up with a small independent label called TUF which stands for The Underground Family.

They were a husband and wife team and were two of the best people I've ever worked with, but the trouble was they had a very limited budget so things always moved very slowly. But through TUF we got valuable experience and we got to work with the likes of Sylvia Tella and Double Trouble and many more... I even did a show with Rodeo Jones at the legendary Brixton Academy as one of the warm up acts for the Public Enemy concert...

Eventually we put out a 12inch single called "Reality". At the time we were called "The Eastside Chapter". But the single didn't do very well and was the end of that chapter 4real, and what came next was born out of sheer frustration and desperation and it was called BREAK THE LIMITS.

Break The Limits

Myself and Matt Edwards we were at the most crucial crossroads we had ever had to cross, and as I've mentioned before, out of sheer frustration and desperation came Break The Limits...
We decided to call it this coz it was exactly what we intended to do, coz for so long we felt that we was being strangled by do's and dont's and rules and regs which collectively we called "the limits". All we wanted to do now was to break them even smash them into non existance...

I am extremely proud to say we did exactly what the name suggested; we broke all the limits, and if whoever put them there happened to get in da way, we smash dem too...same speed!!!

I'm not going into full detail at this time about the Break The Limits catalog or what we achieved as its all there written on the wall of history forever, but I will just say this: Break The Limits was nothing short of an all out REVOLUTION and nothing less!!

Instead I will proceed to answer the question about Nu-Matic(XL-Recordings).
First of all, I have to say that the birth of Nu-Matic became the death of Break The Limits!!
By now the well established and respected Break The Limits was everything to us... we lived and breathed BTL 24 /7. We had just released a white label limited pressing (500 copies only) of a 4 track EP we called "Fragmental" EP. Within 3 days, we received a phone call from XL saying "wow we want dis, we want to sign you guys up" and all dat waffle... After many meetings with A&R's and company officials and eventually with the man himself Tim Palmer, we agreed to sign a contract with XL-Recordings, but under a new name, coz I wouldn't let them have "Break The Limits" for a sum of £50.000.

The EP came out on XL and we toured all over the UK doin PAs and promotions and photo shoots, and I hated all this and all dem record company pricks and I let dem know at every opportunity... You see, the thing is I'm from da hood and proud of it, and I'm the kind of person no amount of money can buy and if you approach me the wrong way I'm more aggressive than a wounded pitbull!!!

The unrest which was growing day by day was easily felt: more and more disagreements and arguments, and I had pretty much had enough. But little did I know that behind my back there were other things going on, and Matt had changed almost into a different person alltogether. Just at the time when I felt as though we weren't even friends anymore, Matt came with a bombshell...

Well, it was in fact the end of "Break The Limits" and the end of an era...so we split everything down the middle. I let Matt take over the XL contract and Nu-Matic and I took over what was once our studio and we parted company...
So I had no involvement with Spring in my Step not the track or the video and wasnt even invited to the shoot..and so that hopefully answers the questions about Nu-Matic and spring in my step and Break The Limits.

Bay B Kane begins

As the BTL chapter came to a definitive close, I knew I had a lot more to offer musically and so I also knew that what I had to do now was going to be a real mission, not to mention a tuff test for me as an individual and as a producer... I got straight down to business and came up with the name for my new label: "Ruff Guidance", and called upon a good friend and top street level designer Steve Davis of SPLAT Design to draw me a logo to go with the name, and BANG! In a matter of a few hours, Ruff Guidance was ready to roll...

A typical hip hop type cartoon character wearing a puffy flight jacket and a typical slightly aggressive slightly egotistical stance best describes the logo...Big respect to Steve for drawing that little guy who appeared on the label from there on till the end.

Luckily for me right from the word GO there was great response to this new beginning but obviously by now there was fierce competition from many other small labels as well as the big ones. But I feel proud to say Ruff Guidance held it down, and as time moved ever forwards carved a modest but well respected place within theunderground scene..."Good Good Sensi" Ep became a big hit on the underground and by now I was working with many different artists such as Peshay..Mickey Finn..Darren Jay..LTJ Bukem..Chris Energy..Hopper..George Kelly(One Tribe)..T Para (Parakat)..to name just a few!!

It was around this time that I bumped into a guy who I had known for a long time as one of the top rave promoters of that era, who used to run The Living Dream which was in the top 3 serial large scale raves of all time. His name is Noah Charlery, in later years he became one of my best friends and still is to this very day... but getting back to the story, when I bumped into him suddenly he said "you heard of the label KIKMAN?" so I was like "yeah, of course" and then he went on to say that it was his label and at the time he was working with T Para and Dance Master and that was the beginning of the KIKMAN chapter right there. Over the coming months and indeed years, I released many tracks on KIKMAN too... oh and yes I always got paid... where I come from, people lose their lives over money matters or discrepancies if you like, so yes I always got paid.

Whitehouse Records

A year or so down the line and things were rollin nicely and the distribution company that always moved my releases announced they were starting a label "Whitehouse Records", and I was one of the first artists they approached along with Bizzy B..Skanna and Remarc... I remember the first ever meeting we all attended at the label HQ, during the meeting Bizzy stood up and turned towards me and said "how do we know were gonna get paid by these fuckers man?", and I replied "relax bizz they've got a huge warehouse full of vinyl and I don't think they would wanna come to work one day and find it all turned to vinyl soup!!" hahaha...the expression on Andy's face (The label manager) was unforgettable but needless to say that marked the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership between myself and Whitehouse Records.

Whitehouse Records and Bay-B-Kane partnership was one of the key advancements within my career as a producer without a shadow of doubt... This partnership allowed me to reach an audience that I hadn't been able to before, as Whitehouse as well as being part of a large distribution company (Mo's Music Machine) also had a distribution deal with Polydor International who were and still are a huge global music giant. Of course this meant that my releases on Whitehouse would reach everywhere, not just in the UK but around the world.

I released a double Ep 2x 6track Eps in one giant package, I'm pretty sure this was the first of its kind and it went BALLISTIC!! Whitehouse couldn't press up enuff of it and were delighted with the results, which gave me very big status as far as the label was concerned... Almost overnight I had tracks raining down on me from artists who either wanted to get signed or to license tracks, or to have their tracks remixed by myself... and so I did a lot of remix work over the following months.
During this period I also struck another deal with Whitehouse to do a series of EPs which would consist of tracks from artists who I had collaborated with... this series we decided to call "4 STAR" and these were released on a bi-monthly basis, and on 2x 10 inch vinyl with 2 tracks per disc. This also for me was another highlight within my career coz it gave me an opportunity to work with different artists from my hood and guys who were friends of mine in most cases... many of whom had wicked ideas but not the means to be able to make dem materialize.

During this time I worked with..Loxy..Cool Hand Flex..Chris Energy to name just a few, but also the one and only time I got back in da studio with my ex-BTL buddy Matt Edwards, who sadly had pretty much disappeared from the music scene by then, due to things not working out with XL Recordings. So we did a one off track called CRACKERJACK under the name Double Tee & Mr E. The 4STAR project ran until we reached volume 4 and was one of my personal favorite projects.

"The Guardian of Ruff" album

I'm pretty sure that most fans of jungle / drum&bass will remember I also released an album through Whitehouse Records which was unheard of at the time for an individual artist... It was that same attitude of "break the limits coz we're just that type" which was the driving force behind taking such a bold step, as I always wanted to be the first to do whatever it was and the release of that album "Guardian of Ruff" remains as the proudest moment of my career on a personal level.
Before I move on, I must mention one more very important point in time, which was the time I collaborated with a young American lady named Sherry...together we created "The Rood Project", and after an initial EP we released through Symphony Sounds, we produced what was to become my biggest ever hit to this day: THUNDER. Sherry was one of a kind and I've never met anyone who got under my skin as much as this girl, and she was an inspiration to say the least.

The first time I played "Thunder" to Whitehouse it totally blew them away, and it pretty much blew everyone else away from there on and was a huge hit. I lost count of how many compilations we licensed it to and how many djs were chasing me for dubplates before it was released, but only four djs had that privilege and they were: Peshay..Randall..Mickey Finn and Bukem. And I wanna take this opportunity to thank them right here for all that they did for me and for the music on the whole...Nuff Respect!

Part 2 coming soon

Out Of Orda

I'd never heard of Out Of Orda until recently, when someone ripped me a clip of the "renegade" EP. After hearing the first 2 songs I was totally hooked. It's got decent production and weird "not quite in tune" melodies which, in this case, work really well.

After getting that EP on vinyl, I ended up tracking down their first EP "Overdose". The first one isn't as great, but has a few jams on it.

I still have no idea who "Out of Orda" is. rolldabeats claims the second single is by Paul Smailes, aka New Decade. However the first EP says "All tracks written & produced by V Robson". Its also pretty clear that these two singles are by the same "Out of Orda", because of the track titles (one called "zone 7" on the first EP, one called "zone 8" on the second EP).
Here's two tracks off Renegade (not my rip), and Overdose (my rip)

Out of Orda - Renegade EP:
Plimpy Ed
Zone 8

Out of Orda - Overdose EP

Overdose
Zone 7

Teknarchi

Long before he started putting out techstep jams, Optical (aka Matt Quinn) put out some tight tunes under several other aliases - Little Matt, Teknarchi, HEAD F.U.K.,even some suprisingly quality oldschool happy hardcore tunes as Just Another Artist.

Here's a couple of nice dark jungle tracks he put out:

Teknarchi- Flashback
Teknarchi - Free Flow

In addition to that solo EP, Quinn released a record on bear necessities w/ nut-e-1:


Nut E 1 And Technarchy - Tuneful

Progression

Onto some non-white label but still very small label stuff- Progression put out a few quality EPs back in 1992. Their main big track was "on a rubbish tip", which had several different versions split over their original EP on Ruff, Tuff & Wicked Stuff, as well as their EP on "Nuff Said Recordings"


Progression - on a rubbish tip (Recycled Mix)




Progression - Jungle Dream

2 Bad Mice playing London in November

Just a quick note, I'm going to be playing a party in November with 2 Bad Mice and Lenny Dee.
Click the flyer for more info:

Powerslide

Here's a white label I know basically nothing about. It's a decent 91 style track, not many people seem to have it on discogs. Pretty technoey, good diva vocals, acidy synths, etc. Not much else to say except check it out!

Powerslide - Noise (Elevated Mix)
[Discogs Info]

Tribal Sons

I'm not entirely sure who "Tribal Sons" were, as there's no info on their records... the fact that they were on a release w/ Noise Factory (which was "licensed from 3rd party"), indicates they might have been connected to 3rd Party / Kemet / Ibiza. They share a somewhat similar vibe to some of the acts on those labels, perhaps closer to some of the stranger tunes on Limited E Edition though.

The "Back Home" EP is a quality EP of ragga tinged hardcore, with some slightl weirdness keeping things interesting:

Tribal Sons - Back Home 12"
a1. back home
b1. don't fight
b1. x-ta-cee


This last track is off a compilation on Entity Records, featuring 2 decent Noise Factory tracks and 1 track by another artist.

Tribal Sons - Drop It

got Enya Hardcore?

I don't have time to write up a comprehensive post on a single artist today... instead, here's a collection of tunes that all share the same (in this case seriously cheesy) sample source: "Orinoco Flow" by Enya.

The first track is from a good 92 whitelabel by DJ Trace - Supposedly titled "Rudeboy Hardcore" according to Discogs, though my EP doesn't say that anywhere I can see. It's got quite a few different parts and changeups, overall a quality tune.


DJ Trace - Rudeboy Hardcore

This next one isn't as good, but the other songs on the EP are pretty nice. In fact, all 3 Nightbreed EPs on Little Giant are quality and easy to find. This track also rips vocal lines from Human Resource "Dominator" and T99 "Anasthasia".


Nightbreed - Never Been to Orinoco

This next one is one of the better tracks, off the classic label Absolute 2. I'm not sure what else Deluxe did, but this EP is wicked:


Deluxe - A1

The final track is off one of the harder-to-find and more expensive EP's by Grant Nelson (Wishdokta). This track uses a secondary part of "Orinoco Flow" instead of the main melody, and has some singing from Opus III "fine day" pitched up to the sky:

Double X-Posure - Go With the Flow

MC Duke

Plenty of oldschool hardcore producers started off as b-boys, hip-hop DJs, and even some as MC's. Of those, few if any were as accomplished in hip-hop as MC Duke (real name Anthony Hillaire), who produced plenty of wicked jungle/hardcore alongside his DJ, DJ Leader 1.

One of the greatest things about MC Duke is that his hip hop tracks played a part in influencing the hardcore/jungle scene which he then stuck around for. Specifically, his track "I'm Riffin'" is one of the more heavily sampled hiphop tracks in hardcore/jungle (and that's saying a lot). The drums in this track were produced by Simon Haris for Music Of Life productions, which was responsible for many of the more heavily sampled breakbeats in jungle/hardcore. While not as famous by name as the amen or think break, the "i'm riffin" break is easily recognizable to anybody who has heard a decent amount of 92-94 tracks.

MC Duke - I'm Riffin (Smokin Beats)

wav edit from 101's breakbeat collection:
MC Duke - I'm Riffin - Smokin Beats (wav excerpt)


Not only were the beats in "I'm Riffin", heavily sampled, but the acapella was as well. Duke had a great low voice which pitched up nicely to hardcore speed, and there were plenty of sampleable lines.
MC Duke - I'm Riffin (Acapella)

For Jungle tunes, he produced under several aliases - E.K.U.D.C.M. (which is just MC Duke spelled backwards), Double H Productions, E. Kude, Konspiracy, etc.

One of his best known jungle tracks is "How dark it is", which includes a sample of Duke saying "I can't believe how dark it is!". For some reason, most of the vocals in his jungle tunes are pitched up, even though he could have easily recorded them at the right tempo for the track.




E.K.U.D.C.M. - How Dark It Is (Remix)

Another quality EP, where the "how dark it is" track originated:



Double H Productions - Noise Level 1


Under the name E.Kude, he did several wicked singles on Boogie Times (pre-Suburban Base label). "Never Let Go" is the only one I own, though I probably prefer "Don't Be Afraid". The vocal at the beginning of "Never Let Go" is used in other tracks, including Yolk's "music for the people".





E. Kude - Never Let Go


Finally, here's a record credited to E.Kude on Discogs, though there's nothing on my copy of it to indicate it's by them. Pretty nice EP sampling a few big tracks from the time, including "feel real good":
DJ's Experience -Side A

MC Duke also produced an LP of samples for Suburban Base's sublabel "Bluntly Speaking". This might have been because he was sick of being endlessly sampled and not getting cash for it (the Double H Productions record even had "sample this and get smoked!" printed on the label). Despite sounding like a dream for subbase / oldschool fans, most of the samples don't have anything to do with jungle/hardcore, and instead are straightforward sample CD fodder like 808 and 909 hits. Granted, that stuff was probably indispensible to producers back then, but for a Suburban Base sample record, I would have much rather heard some Rachel Wallace acapellas or some signature sounds from the sub base studio.

The only standouts in my opinion are a few good vocal samples from the Duke himself:


gettingbusygonna.wav
listen to the beat go boom.wav

Hyper On Experience - 92 Demo

Hyper on Experience are my favorite hardcore/jungle act ever. No other group finds such a sweet spot between experimentalism and dancey-ness... combining well written melodies with crazy chopped drums and unique programming. "Deaf In the Family" is probably their best EP, since it's at the peak of both their melody writing and choppy drumming. It has great artwork too.


Here's a treat I found on an another blog which has since been taken down - a 1992 demo from the group. It was originally ripped by MattyC on B2VOS from a promo tape the group gave him. The tape itself sounds like it was recorded sometime between the release of their first and second EP, since there are complete songs from the first EP, but just 1 possible early version of a song from the second EP. What's great about this tape is that most of these tracks were never released, and never appeared in any mixes which I've heard. They're a lot rougher than most later Hyper-On stuff, but just as amazing.


Hyper-On Experience - 1992 Demo

1. Unknown ("fantasies are no escape")
2. Unknown ("give yourself to me")
3. Uknown ("can't wait tonight")
4. The Frightener
5. H.E. Anthem
6. Unknown ("we're all dancing on a thin line")
7. Unknown - possibly an early version of "Assention (to the 9th level)", since it uses chunks from that tune.

You can buy "Deaf in the Family" on RHAPSODY or ITUNES. Here's the EP on Youtube:
Hyper On Experience - Deaf in the Family
A1. Time Stretch [YOUTUBE]
A2. Lords of the Null Lines (Original [YOUTUBE])
B1. Imajicka (Smiley Rock Mix)
B2. Thundergrip [YOUTUBE]

Magnox - Ragamanic

Here's a cool white label I got while buying a bunch of EPs in bulk years ago. There was some garbage in the lot, but I also ended up with STU-J "Gadget" and this EP, both of which are wicked 91 hardcore jams.

I have no idea who Magnox were... it looks like they released one EP prior to this one. If anyone can tell me any information on them, I will add it here. "Ragamanic" has some massive portamento synths and decent ragga vocals, and since neither of those elements seem to be going out of style in electronic music anytime soon, I'm sure these tracks will still be of interest to some people. Once the synths kick in on the little ragga vocal breakdown, it starts to remind me a bit of Knifehandchop of all people (?!!)



Magnox - Ragamanic (A Side)

In theory there's supposed to be two tracks on the A side, but they kind of merge together, so I recorded the A-side as one long mp3.

Moonwalk EP

Here's a great 92 white label which is reasonably well known, but I figured I'd post it anyway.

I'd heard a rumor that Aphrodite was involved with this, and confirmed today that it is indeed by Aphrodite & Claudio from Urban Shakedown... this makes sense because of some of the sounds in the track, not to mention the overall awesomely choppy amiga production. Specifically, the pitch down effect is one of my favorite sounds in a lot of Urban Shakedown / early Aphrodite Recordings tracks. Because of the low bitrate of the original sample, pitching it down ends up having an unintended bit-degrading effect at the same time which has yet to be reproduced in any new sequencer/vst effects I've heard... just hearing that tiny fraction of a sound instantly brings me back to the good old days of screamtracker / 8 bit samples / mod files.



Moonwalk - A1


The A1 and B1 tracks on this EP are the standouts, In particular A1 (posted below) has a great intro section with the beats and melody massively chopped up together before the track stabilizes. According to Aphrodite, he actually threw out a box or two of these EPs a couple years ago, not realizing that they were be in demand... Thankfully they still aren't TOO expensive as far as obscure white labels go (currently 10-20 pounds on discogs), but I'm sure it'll continue to go up in price over time.

Edit on Sept 25, 08:Here's another track from the EP - some samples from the first tune, but combined with a crazy gated zipper/laser sound. Dope stuff. This track isn't from a personal rip, so it probably sounds better than my rip of the first tune (my needles suck right now)

Moonwalk - B1

Nick Ball - E-Motion EP

Some releases take a while to adjust to, and get better and better with more listens. Other releases start off sounding great but the novelty wears off over time. I'd say Nick Ball's "E-Motions" EP is a bit more towards the latter for me. I still like it, but it was definitely a record which I was REALLY into at first, but which wore off after a few weeks of owning it. This is especially true of "We gonna rock", which uses the classic Landlord "I like it" piano line. The synth is pretty mad and works well with the piano, the drums are tight. Everything is going great until it drops into a happy piano part early on... the same one as in Vibes & Wishdokta - "Peakin' Through My Window". This just kills the track momentum in my opinion. Nonetheless, it's a good tune on a good EP, well worth checking out.



Nick Ball - We Gonna Rock

Mind Therapy - Boss EP

I'm always on the hunt for old tracks with THE most mashed up, choppy, interesting break patterns, especially ones that don't fall back on an amen/think combo but instead layer up a bunch of lesser known breaks into tasty polyrhythm lasagna.

Probably my favorite record in this style is Mind Therapy "The Boss EP". I remember finding this EP for $2 or so in the bargain bin of a Boston DNB store (4 Front / Knowname - RIP). I was having an uneventful day record buying-wise, asked the store owner about it and he said "oh, that's just some old stuff". I put it on the turntable and my head promptly exploded SCANNERS style. Super chopped and layered breaks, really fast for the time, nice familiar samples, an all around excellent record. The first track on the EP is my favorite, great super choppy drums and an awesome breakdown using a sample from "Harder They Come". The second track is also top notch. B side doesn't hold up quite as well but has some nice reggae sampling on the first tune.



Mind Therapy - Boss Song

Mind Therapy - Ecstacy is Safe

Deja Vu / 786 Recordings

Two of my favorite 90-92 labels which not many people seem to care about are Deja Vu and its affiliate label 786 Recordings. In particular, releases by Naz Khan and David Hope under various names/combinations: Naz Aka Naz, Recall, Mind of Kane, Dread, etc.

One thing which makes these labels so fun is that, for the most part, the earlier records in their catalog can be picked up for peanuts on discogs/ebay. Listening back to the tunes now, it's understandable why they might not be everyone's cup of tea: buzzing and distorted synths, frantic harsh sounds without much in the way of catchy pianos or anything happy. However, given that a lot of popular dance music has moved in that direction (distorted portamento synths being the new "rock guitar"), I'm suprised we haven't seen more of an interest in some of these tunes.

Here's a few of my favorites:



Mind of Kane - Stabbed In The Back

Absolutely great track - frantic beats, nasty bass and synth work. The track starts off heavy enough, but just wait until the super distorted synth drops in at 1 min...




Dread - Quantum Leap (b)

Dread - Quantum Leap (a)


This is a really fun single. On the B side, you get an absolutely smashing classic mentasm-sampling tune, suitable for playing alongside any big 91 style tunes. On the A side, you get a really strange/ crazy sounding track which borders on experimental music. At one point in the tune (1:38), the synth lead breaks down into some ridiculous fast portamento thing that sounds like the synths jumping off the keyboard and running down the street naked and screaming. Not a track I would rush to play out, but certainly an interesting and cool tune.




M.U.M. - The Water Paradox

Another nice single with buzzing synths, heavy breaks, etc. Also, another EP that goes for peanuts. Discogs doesn't have any artist info for MUM (Mass Underground Movement), and my record doesn't say anything since it's a white label... but based on its similarity, I'd bet this was probably the work of either Naz Khan or David Hope.

HMS & Fineart (Raveology)

One of my favorite things in 92-95 tunes is the variety of rhythmic patterns. In the transition from more standard drum machine programmed beats to using looped breakbeats (largely from hiphop records), some producers got seriously inventive when it came to chopping up and rearranging these breaks / layering them with other sounds. Case in point: this track by HMS & Fineart under the single-release alias "Raveology".


Raveology - Who's The Cymbol

DJ HMS was much more well known for his hardcore/gabber live sets and his productions, which he released on his own Boscaland Recordings label. In spite of this, he did numerous other more jungle oriented releases on Little Giant under various aliases, including the highly sought after Ben From Del Bosca - El-Bland-E EP. Sadly, he passed away earlier this year.

HMS & Fineart also released a single on Scott Brown's Twisted Vinyl label in 1995. This EP was much more 4/4 hardcore oriented, but still had some breaks alongside the distorted kicks.
2 Men, 2 White Coats and an Asylum - 4 3 2 1

As an added bonus, here's the DR. S Gachet set where I first heard that "raveology" tune:
DR S Gachet - Live At Home Studio

First Post

The purpose of this blog is to try to provide information about some of the amazing (mostly lesser known) hardcore/jungle releases put out from 1991-1995, as well as some of the artists.
Mp3s of tracks and live sets will be posted. Most tracks will be from long-deleted and extremely hard to find singles, where the only people making money on them now are collectors re-selling them second-hand. No labels which have tracks readily available on sites like BeatPort or Itunes will have links posted (if there are links, they will be to those sites rather than to mp3s). Still, if any artists want me to take their tracks down, just let me know and I'll do it immediately - This is not meant as an mp3 dump, but to raise awareness about some mega-obscure but great music.