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.