######| ## ##### ## ## ###### ###### #####| #| #| ## ## ## ## # ## ## ## #| ######| ## ####### ## # ## ##### ## ##### ####| #| ## ## ## ## ### ## ## #| #| ###### ## ## ## ## ###### ## #####| Underground Rave-magazine InterNet version Issue #3 Release date : 15th December 1994 (C) Megawatts 1994 EDITORIAL ######### Welcome to Planet-E issue #3 ! This edition is a little bit late due to the summer holidays (no InterNet activity) and because I had to wait for contributors (generally, University starts on end October...). But now, it's out :-) For, this issue, nothing very special. I have improved a lot the label list, I have taken some articles related to drugs (Sound Advice serie) in some Eternity (Uk rave paper zine) issues. I also used again Trap's xtc & lsd articles, coz I think they are useful and should be read by every newcommer. For the breakbeat fans pleasure, this issue is full of brekbeat reviews (some breakbeat fans seem very active on the net :-). But I hope to have more techno/house/ambient reviews in the next issue. For the people with modems out there, we have now a few 'official' distribution site (they can collect your articles/mods/pics too !!). This list will grow frequently. Look at the 'How to be a reporter' section for more details. Please contact us if you want to be a Planet-E distribution site too! However, the mag should be near you, coz of the worldwide spread... I think I should also give a short description about the structure of this ascii version. There are the main section (underlined by some '#' characters) and the sub-main sections are underlined by some '=' characters. The main sections are: Editorial / Event Reports / The Scene / The Club Reports / Record Reviews / General Information / Drugs Information / The reporter list / How To be a reporter / Thanks The record reviews are listed by alphabetical order. I suggest you to take a look with a fast scrolling at the scructure in the different sections and then, if you need to, use the 'Search' tool of your editor if you want to pass through some articles. Have fun! :-) For issue #4 I'll try to have some interview with some great artist/dj... I hope I'll manage to! Hope it could be out at mid February. Appologies to the people who have Amiga computers, coz of our enourmous delay for the issue #2. We are looking for people who could do that more seriously... But it should be ok. The PC version has just been started. It should be out in a few weeks. Check It Out! Remember, for those who have an InterNet access that the 'official' ftp site for the mag is hyperreal.com:zines/planet.e where you'll can find all the version of all the issues. Keep the vibe Alive and Rave On!! And send me some Stuff!! :-) Psyched / Planet-E editor / 14th December 94 EVENTS REPORTS ############## THE BELGIUM RAVE ================ Name; Belgium Rave Where; Keizershallen - Aalst - Belgium When; Thursday 7th July Organisation; B&W 2 Dance Halls - 1 Rave Zone - 1 Mellow Zone * Dj's - Jan (MCV - Illusion - Carat - Dance Opera Records) - Frank (Globe - Illusion - Dance Opera Records) - Tofke (Illusion - Globe - Carat) - Zzino (Montini - BCM) - The Bountyhunter (Bonzai Records - Montini - BCM) - Franky Jones (Mayday - Love Parade - Mystery Land - Bonzai Records) - U4EA (Montini - Rave Injection) - Bubba (Montini - Dance Opera Records) - Clif (Tienen) - Enzo (Tienen) - Yves Deruyter (Bonzai Records - Energy 94 - Cherry Moon) - Roel Reynders (Dream Your Dream - B&W - Planet Hardcore - Bonzai Records) - Joe C. (Bonzai Records - Blitz) - Marko (La Rocca) - The Fly (Bonzai Sensei - Mayday - Mystery Land - Extreme) - Deg (Mayday - BWP - Bonzai Records) - Paul (Cafe D'Anvers) - Yven (MVC Paal) - Dave Davis (B&W - Music Convention - SPA) - Jopan (WIF - Pure Dance) - Steel (Extreme - Montini) - Marco Bailey (La Scala - Dance Opera Records) - Joel (Rumba) - Dave (Qu - Planet Hardcore) - Franky (Cherry Moon - Illusion) - Sandy (Cherry Moon) - Phi-Phi (Boccaccio Life - Extreme - At The Villa) - Kevin (Balmoral - Illusion - Carat) - Kalpa (Music Man - Kalpa Records) - Philippe (Tam Tam) - Peter (Freak - Nota Bene) * Live Acts - Dream You Dream (Bonzai Records) - Jones & Stephenson (Bonzai Records) - The Bountyhunter (Bonzai Records) - Phrenetic System (Bonzai Records) This was supposed to be the biggest Belgium rave party, but they didn't succeed. (The Rave Explosion Part III is still the biggest) I guess there where about 5.000 people that night. As you look at the name 'Belgium Rave' and the dj. line-up you can see that all the dj's and live act's are from Belgium, a 100% pure Belgium rave. I arrived rather late (again :) around 00.00 Am. The first couple of houres when i was there were not that good, they played a little bit to commercial music (and i hate that!). I mean no 2unlimited or Capella, but a lot of wellknow Belgium stuff, mostly from Bonzai Records. I didn't hear all the dj's and i don't remember them all (the ones i've heard). * Roal Reynders You probably know him from 'Dream Your Dream' they scored lots of top hits. He is not that a good dj, he plays lots of wellknow things, things i've heard already 1000 times. He has earned his name because he's so famous with Bonzai under the name 'Dream You Dream'. * Yves Deruyter Fucking awesome! Really good music, perfectly mixed and again mostly Hardtrance, yeah! Watch out for him at Energy'94. * The Fly Played at bit the same style like Yves Deruyter. But i think he is not that a good mixer like Yves De Ruyter. Overall is was good. * Live Act Actually the same live act as on MAYDAY 6, except that they now played 5 songs i think, (in full lenght) and on MAYDAY 6 a couple of 10, but only a couple of minutes from a song, kinda like a little mix from all their successes. In the beginning lots of things went wrong, sounded funny! :-) I've heard some other Dj's to but i don't know who they were. Because at that moment there was no presentation anymore :( But they were some good ones between them! Especially the guy who played around 05.00Am. The music system: Really big! There where about 50speakers in the hall. On the flyer they said 'Biggest loud and light show ever seen at a Belgian House Party' i guess they were right! The quality of the music was also good, maybe a little bit to loud. Light System: Also very nice, 2 lasers, a lot of strobos, smoke-canons, spots... I think they used the system not good enough, with such an equipment they could do much better i think. Conclusion: not a bad party, but i think they played a little bit to commercial shit (or should i say 'wellknown- stuff'). After 3am it was really nice! All the kids with their Bonzai-Shirts were gone and the played very nice hardtrance stuff! Yeah! I wished it was the whole evening like after 3am :) The UnderTaker - Gent, Belgium TRIPLE X ======== Name; Triple X Where; WestGasFactory/Gasholder - Amsterdam When; Saturday 6th August 94 Organisation; Oscillate The first time I read about this event was sometime in spring when I was strolling around in a Dutch fido echomailarea (muziek.028). In august there would be a big cultural festival called 'Triple X' in Amsterdam which would include a kind of ambient/intelligent techno festival in a huge gastank. It wouldn't become 'just another rave' but when I heard names like Orbital, Sun Electric, Mixmaster Morris and Autechre, I had become 'rave-horny' enough to buy a ticket... After a relaxing 2 hours journey from Belgium to Amsterdam we finally found the site which was a big industrial site near downtown Amsterdam. We were 1 hour early so we sat down as we saw more and more people arriving, resulting in a large crowd before the one and only small entrance. Another remarkable thing that there were *loads* of English ravers (after all, Oscillate is an English organisation, which was a great thing for the general atmosphere, altough Dutch ravers are wild too :-) The entrance was opened at 23:00 but due to the bad organisation at the entrance we were only in after midnight :-( But after we entered the gastank, we realised that it was worth waiting ! The site itself was *faboulous* ! Imagine a 50 meter wide, 15 meter high cylindrical gastank with in the middle a large stage with loads of light, sound and big balloons hanging on top. In the meantime lots of visuals (flying fishes etc) were projected on the curved wall. In the back there was a lit- tle alley leading to a much smaller spherical tent where people were laying down, staring to live visuals by HEX or touching some magnificent 'ice-sculptures'. It made me think to those legendary Woodstock Trip-tents :-) For the music : as we entered there was already Pentatonik playing, not bad but merely a kind of warm up for the groups to come. In between there were anonymous Oscillate DJ's playing relaxing ambient and some intelligent techno (although they didn't listen to numerous request from friends to play some Mu-Ziq tracks :-) Now it was partytime: Higher Intelligence Agency hit the stage, I don't remember anything from it, it just remember it was the first group to set fire to the crowd. After those guys had finished I went out to check out the foodstands outside, this was very well done : a variety of exotic and vegetarian foods were available together with several obscure chinese smart drinks (things like dear tail extract :-) At least there were no hamburgers'n fries, a good thing ! When I re-entered the tank I also noticed a 'safe house' stand where you could get your 'E' tested to be a real one or obtain information and a 'black list' with dangerous fake pills. In fact this was a kind of hypocrite situation as there was a very tough check for drugs at the entrance but I think that such alternatives as this should be done at every major rave outside Holland. It saves a lot of trouble and accidents ! Orbital-time now ! I remember the two brothers coming up in the completely dark tank with headmounted lights, kicking off with a lot of new material from 'Snivilisation' as well as a lot of golden oldies like Impact, Remind and Halcyon (as the last track !!) Gosh ! It's no use trying to explain how good these guys are on stage. I saw a lot of great techno on stage including Cosmic Baby, Speedy J and The Drum Club but Orbital is the best I ever saw. No miracle that their live performance on Glastonsbury festival (a rock festival !) was voted as best one ! Go out and see them ! Another break to go outside and get fresh air which was the reason I missed a big part of Autechre, altough one of my favourites too. Great intelligent techno with complex robotic rythms. After them a lot of people left. It was about 5am and the first light was shining throug the entrance door (uuurgh, this is what I hate about summer) I had high hope on Sun Electric but it turned out they did a 'special ambient set'. Most people however were still full of energy and wanted some action because the music was extremely ambient. Luckily the guys from Sun Electric recognized this very well and threw off some extremely good hardtrance for the last 15 minutes of their gig. The last artist was Mixmaster Morris who did an excellent job in creating a spacy end-of-the-party atmosphere, making you leave with a smile :-) To celebrate the night we drove off to the seaside (only a 30 minutes drive from Amsterdam) to open a bottle of champaign on the beach and have a little swim (ravers aren't what they used to be :-) All in all I give this event a 9 out of 10, everything was very well organised, except for the chaos at the entrance. And maybe they should pay attention to the fact that there is always one place on the party were people can dance. I really like the concept of Oscillate, but people go out to move. Oscillate should offer the best of both worlds ! Dominique Poncin - Brussel, Belgium ENERGY'94 & THE STREETPARADE ============================ Name; ENERGY'94 House & Techno Festival and Streetparade Where; Hallenstadion and streets of Zuerich - Switzerland When; Saturday 13th August 1994 Org; E-Nergetic and Karma Sutra Oh dudes, I can't still believe so many people came up for this very good event. This kind of week-ends let one dream about it until next one, one year after! More people than previous edition but less good quality music: is that the price we have to pay to have more ravers ??! Ok, let me start ... I arrived with 2 friends of mine at Zuerich at about 3pm (the parade should be started at this hour) and we park the car near the main station (very hard to find some car parks in the city!) and take the tram. What a great feeling to see all these party people walking through the streets to join the meeting point of the parade (especially on the Bahnhoffstrasse, the richest street of Switzerland). It make you feel as you are in some kind of TeknoCity, and you would like it to be the same the whole year! Then we stopped and continue walking to join the parade. Obviously it hasn't started yet (at 3.15pm) and a lot of people were still joining there. This time, the location of the parade was near the lake, less closer to Zuerich's center (last year, the parade ran in Zuerich's core) but here, the streets are larger. We saw a truck who ran in the same way as us to join the place and the music and shouts at this time provided some excitement to everybody. It was a long time I haven't seen as many people wearing some mad stuff and I really enjoyed it. We stoped walking at about 300m of the place and waited the first truck which had already started moving. Waaaa, this truck provided some good stompin techno and I were already moving my body B*). Only a few people followed it coz a lot of other trucks had to follow. The 2nd truck played some garage and some gays & travestites were dancing and following it among some nice girls. I was very impressed by the quantity of persons who were still waiting on the place and we waited the last truck. I think there were 13 trucks in total. Only 1 house truck, several playing the Marusha/Westbam style (followed by a large number of people) one gabber truck and the last one (the biggest truck, with a very impressive sound-system) was playing some ... ... Breakbeat!!!! I was so pleased by that (ehhe, I'm break- beat fan for years!). I couldn't imagine all these people dancing and enjoying this music. Some mags are right: break- beat is getting more popular in Germany! So, I followed this truck for about 1 hour (we only ran 300m at this time :) and then we tried to walk until the first one. At this hour a load of citizens were looking the parade and it made me feel a little bit like in a zoo ;-) (but it was fun to see all those faces, eheh). Too many people were on the streets now and it was quite impossible to walk. We finally managed to reach the first truck which couldn't almost move due to the incredible number of people around it. As Zuerich hasn't any Carnival or something like that during the year, a lot of citizens were taking photos. We continued the parade until 7pm (and a lot of people were still there). It was time to eat something. Where?? hmmm... at McDonald's. Huh! sorry! I should say TeknoDonald ehheh :). Full of ravers, it's much better,no? ;*) 8pm. Time to go to the Hallenstadion (it's early I know, but it's the choice of the driver, and that's not me [respect, Terrorist!]). Tickets were already sold out at this time. And this year it was even more easy to get in than last year No more than 2 minutes queue. They made some searches but, unlike as written on the flyer and last year, one could bring in his camera. Before continuing let me write the line-up : DANCEFLOOR 1 (main arena) ------------------------- 6pm till 8.10pm : Some Swiss dj's 8.10pm - 8.50pm : Dj Tobias 8.50pm - 9.10pm : Confusion A (live) 9.10pm - 9.50pm : Robert Leiner hasn't appeared. DJ Noise has replaced him 9.50pm - 10.50pm : Jens Mahlstedt 10.50pm - 11.10pm : Genlog (live) 11.10pm - 11.50pm : Ralphie Dee 11.50pm - 0.50am : Yves De Ruyter 0.50am - 1.10am : Aurora Borealis (live) 1.10am - 2.10am : Westbam 2.10am - 3am : Gangsta 3am - 3.40am : Marusha 3.40am - 4am : Paragliders (live) 4am - 4.50am : T-Bass 4.50am - 5.10am : Mike Ink (live) 5.10am - 6am : The Prophet 6am - 6.15am : Perplexer (live) 6.15am - 7am : Loftgroover 7am - 7.40am : Hype 7.40am - 8am : Energy DANCEFLOOR 2 ------------ 6pm - 7pm : Toney D 7pm - 8.30pm : Rhythm Doctor 8.30pm - 10pm : George Morel 10pm - 11pm : Djaimin 11pm - 0am : John Aquaviva 0am - 1am : Robert Armani 1am - 1.50am : Dave Clarke 1.50am - 2.40am : Carl Craig 2.40am - 3am : Acid Jesus (live) 3am - 3.50am : Luke Slater 3.50am - 4.10am : Drax (live) 4.10am - 5.10am : Juan Atkins 5.10am - 6.10am : Robert Hood 6.10am - 6.50am : GFX 6.50am - 7.30am : Colin Favor 7.30am - 8am : Erik F There was also a large merchandising/ambient cinema chill-out hall with various ambient dj's including Katrien Klausing from R&S, Upstart the owner of Munich's Disko B label and Aquarium from Paris. I arrived at 8pm coz I thought there would be a big queue, but this year, there were different points for entry and the searches were quite quick. This year, unlike previous one, one could go in with cameras, drinks... So, finally, after some checks of the place, we have entered the dancefloor 1. The place hasn't impressed me so much this year, I wanted the same columns as last year with some strobos inside! But this year, the strobos were in 3 pyramides which were used as stage (the biggest - 10 meters height! - was used by the dj's and the others by the lives and dancers). Nice stage! DJ Tobias was playing, and I must say he was quite ok. Then Confusion A sucked and Robert Leiner - who I was waiting for! - hasn't appeared and Noise, the successful Swiss dj has played. I have only heard 10 minutes of him and then I left for the Ambient hall. I was a little bit tired coz of the street- parade and all the walk I have done to reach the car. So, I have sit on a chair and have a chat with some friends. Then I moved to the door at 11pm to have a meeting with Eye of the Shadow and Boomer (hi dudes! B-) from the DeRave and the IRC and some girls. I returned to the dancefloor 1 to check out the sound of Ralphie Dee. Some strong tunes, but nothing interesting. Then Yves De Ruyter played. I was waiting for him after all the good things I heard about him (ahah, The Undertaker ;-) In fact, he was *very* bad. He played almost some silly house. I was very disapointed. :-( After him, I have moved to the dancefloor 2 to hear Dave Clarke. This room was little (10*25m) and there wasn't anough lights and strobos. Dave Clarke started. He played, like the previous dj's, some house tunes. I expected acid! I waited 10 minutes to see if he change style but it was always house. So, I left to the dancefloor 1. The bad point is that just when I left he started playing some good acid! Eheheh, a friend has been right to laught about me ;-) I have just seen the begining of Westbam's set and I didn't stay for a long time there (I don't like him :-). I moved to the ambient hall and watch a little of Marusha's set there on the big screens. Hmmm, bad music. A friend told me she even stopped 2 or 3 times the music during her set and she has said "thank you" in the mic :-) That's a fucking thing to do! I moved to check out Acid Jesus. Hmm... that was nice! Nice acid. Nothing too hard and furious. It was quite nice. Then Luke Slater came. I was really expecting him, after hearing a lot of times a tape I have from him. In fact, I expected some really nice acid and he played a house set :-( Too bad. He even had an "Acid Park" tee-shirt! After him, it was time for Thomas Heckmann, the man behind Drax and Age. Waoooow!! His live was *really* live and totally experimental!!! I have never seen such a thing before! He played some patterns of his 303 (he has 4 303!) and he wrote some on the moment! He even played with his own built synth! I must say that sometimes, the sound fucked and the melodie weren't really good. But it was so nice to see and hear someone enjoying his improvisations and trying something really different that all these fucking DAT lives! Cool! When he finish I moved quickly to the dancefloor 1 to check out Mike Ink. I like him very well and the last time I saw him (at Cubik94) he made a really good live. This time it was a little bit too housey. Nice stuff, but not in the right moment I think. The prohet played a totally shit set, with a few mainstream shits. Anyway, I don't like him, but I expected some gabber. No gabber :-) The next one played the hardest set of the night! His name is loftgroover. Really hard stuff, a little bit of gabber too, but nothing too similar as all these 'thunderdome' shits :-) After him, the scratchmaster himself: dj Hype! In fact, he started his mix with a long scratch :-) I love breakbeat, and I liked his set, even if a few tunes where a little bit like old classics :-) I danced like a mad and a lot of people moved out of the dancefloor when he has started. Only some real breakbeat fans were really enjoying his set :-) When he finished, we left the party and weren't to the afterhours with Marco Zaffarano, due to the driver B-) Another great week-end was finished :-( In conclusion, the decoration was a little bit less good,the music was really much more commercial, the people was less friendly and crazy but there was more people than the previous edition. E-nergetic, please throw away all these fuckin_commercial_ mayday_dj's and let the energy93 music and vibe let turn again!! Now, I'm waiting The Tribal Gathering94 party and energy95 party... Psyched - Geneva, Switzerland / end August 94 ps: Thanks to Terrorist and hello to Stevan, Patrick, the Geneva Posse, Eye of the Shadow and Boomer! OCEAN OF DREAMS =============== Name; Ocean Of Dreams Where; Stockholm/Sweden (4000 sqm Warehouse) When; 30th September 1994 Organizer: Spectrum (DJ Bennie, DJ Term, Daniel Schmidt) Price: 130 Skr (about $17) 150 Skr at the door First some info about the sound- and lightequipment: * Electrovoice MT-4 40000 Watt * Multicolored Laser * High End Emulators * RoboZaps * Eagles * Strobes * UV Cannons and smoke of course! The DJs were Tim Taylor an acidproducer from London, Mono Junk, Wave Slave (Cari Lekebusch), DJ Bennie and DJ Term. The last three are from Sweden. They all played acid. Even if DJ Bennie is told to be one of Stockholms best hardtrance DJs, I couldn't hear any music that I would have called hardtrance. But i like acid so I didn't cry... :) It's just one thing that I don't like with this hard acid that is mostly played at raves in Stockholm, and that is all theese noises! It is just noises and it has no melody at all! Why do they play that shit?! I just love 303-loops with the "boingy" style that is so typical for the 303 machine. Why do this crap when you can make POWERFUL songs with a 303 ?! Arrival ------- There were direct busses going to the rave from central Stockholm every half hour from the beginning to 04:00, but we was forced to take a normal bus and the tube to go home after the rave. As it is used to be... :( When we arrived to the rave, we had to wait for a long while outside. They didn't have any special queue for they who already hade tickets and I thought that was very irritating. But when we finally got inside, we went happy again. hehe The Performance During The Night -------------------------------- There was nearly only acid played during the rave. Some Acidtrance, but the 303 was the most used machine.... :) At one o'clock there was a MAGNIFICENT laserperformance controlled by Daniel Schmidt. A great multicolored laser with all colors of the rainbow, was freaking around in the warehouse. Sinewaves, laserrays like rain over the crowd and some just outfreaked, supercool effects which can't be explained. They spouted smoke as hell out of the smoke- machine which made the performance even better when you were able to see the laserrays in the air! This performance was SUPERB! There were no really good music played until two o'clock. And it was quite slow (I like high BPM acidtrance....170 BPM is fine! :) ) until then. About 145 BPM I would gess. But at 2:23 (beep!) they started to play really good and fast acid! (Yeah! :) ) At 2:37 they started to play around a lot with the multi- colored laser. Fast "lasershots" all over the place! :) The rest of the time there were good and bad music off an on, but there were some goodies. As a whole the music was quite OK, but to few really pounding hardtrancetracks with good melodies... A friend of mine also played live on this rave. The group is called Slaughterhouse (Direct Drive Records). Their act wasn't announced on the flyer but they were only supposed to play one hour. I didn't saw their performance but Peter (my friend in the group) told me that it wasn't too good... :) They played the last half hour on the rave (07.30-08.00) and they were of course really tired. Due to the police they had to close at eight a clock in the morning and Slaughterhouse had to shortenen their performance with half an hour...they just forwarded their DAT-tape and pressed play...and it started in the middle of a track! :) But they just took it easy and kept going on like nothing had happened... hehe I didn't really understand why they had a DAT-player, when they had brought a set with synthequipment etc...but I suppose that they had some stuff played by the DAT and some stuff played by their computer... After all You can't bring ALL your stuff when you are going to perform. They play acidtrance of very good quality! I went home at half past five because then I was sleeping at the wall with the loudspeakers and got awakened by a friend who couldn't sleep at the speakerwall due to the guy next to him who bumped my friend's head with his hands all the time when he was jamming to the music... :) The strobes had been quite slow during the night but now they were flashing like hell! Cool! I could have been there some hours more...I was alert after my little nap!, but my friend wanted to go so we went home. It was F*CKING cold and it was raining when I got out from the warehouse...:( The Recordstore --------------- A record store (Spiral Tracks) was placed in a separate little (20 sqm) room on top of the toilets. They sold records, T-shirts and ravemagazines. They played really good music in this room but there were so much people, that it was hard to get a look on the records. After I had bought some magazines, I couldn't stand it and went out to the dancefloor again... :) The Smartbar ------------ I didn't examined the smartbar so I can't tell you so much about it. It had all kinds of smartdrinks, candy and lemonade. Due to I was quite hungry, I just noticed that they hadn't any sandwiches, and I had to buy two chocolate bars to appease my hunger. :) The organizers had written 22:00 - 10:00 on the flyer but I was told by Peter that they didn't have any license more than to six o'clock! But at eight o'clock the police had get tired of the rave and told them that they had to quit or they would be prosecuted...! This was a rather big rave for Sweden. About 1500-1800 people were there i think. I know that that is few people if you compare it with the rest of Europe, but for Sweden it's quite alot of people. :) As a whole it was quite a good rave. Big locale and great sound. But I would like more melodic hardtrance and faster tempo at the start with fast flashing strobes...then you can get in trance, and THAT'S COOL! :) GRADE: 7/10 Marcus Svenningsson alias YiPMAN - Stockholm, Sweden THE TRIBAL GATHERING 94 ======================= Name; Universe Tribal Gathering '94 Where; Muenchen / Germany When; 1st October 94 Location; Old airport Riem Organizers; Universe & Frankfurt Beat Prod. -* Line Up *- < Hall 1 - Starship Universe > 18:00 - 19:00 : Warm Up (New Talent) D 19:00 - 20:15 : Tom Novy (Munchen) D 20:15 - 21:30 : Dj T (Frankfurt) D 21:30 - 22:45 : Dave Clark (London) GB 22:45 - 23:15 : The Jeyenne (Koln) D - LIVE 23:15 - 00:45 : Carl Cox (London) GB 00:45 - 00:50 : Take Off Sequence! 00:50 - 01:20 : Cosmic Baby (Berlin) D - LIVE 01:20 - 02:45 : Mario De Bellis (Frankurt) D 02:45 - 03:15 : The Prodigy (London) GB - LIVE 03:15 - 04:45 : Laurent Garnier (Paris) F 04:45 - 06:00 : Dave Angel (London) GB 06:00 - 07:15 : Marco Zaffarano (Stuttgart) D < Hall 2 - Planet Of Cyberpunk > 18:00 - 19:00 : Warm Up (New Talent) D 19:00 - 20:00 : Felix (Munchen) D 20:15 - 21:30 : Hero Uda (Tokyo) J 21:30 - 22:45 : Miss Djax (Eindhoven) NL 22:45 - 00:00 : Tanith (Berlin) D 00:00 - 00:30 : C.J. Bolland (Antwerpen) B - LIVE 00:30 - 01:45 : Lenny Dee (New York) USA 01:45 - 02:15 : Paragnon (Frankfurt) D - LIVE 02:15 - 03:30 : Cirillo (Rimini) I 03:30 - 04:45 : T-Bass (Zurich) CH 04:45 - 06:00 : Jeff Mills (Detroit) USA 06:00 - 07:15 : Jens Lissat (Dusseldorf) D < Hall 3 - Tribal Temple Room > 18:00 - 19:00 : NM Space (Heidelberg) D 19:00 - 20:00 : Mr. Oz (London) GB 20:00 - 21:15 : Claude (Le Petit Prince) D 21:15 - 22:15 : Massiv (Munchen) D 22:15 - 22:30 : Darren Emerson (London) GB 23:30 - 00:30 : Underwold (London) GB - LIVE 00:30 - 02:30 : Dag (Frankfurt) D 02:30 - 03:00 : Spicelab (Frankfurt) D - LIVE 03:00 - 04:30 : Gayle San (London) GB 04:30 - 06:00 : Ritchie Hawtin (Detroit) USA 06:00 - 07:15 : Nicky Sprenger (Frankfurt) D 18:00 - 19:30 : Warm Up (New Talent) D 19:30 - 20:30 : Jody (London) GB 20:30 - 22:00 : Bismark (Bristol) GB 22:00 - 23:15 : Tin Tin (London) GB 23:15 - 00:45 : Paul Van Dyk (Berlin) D 00:45 - 01:15 : Exit-EEE (Dusseldorf) D - LIVE 01:15 - 02:45 : Fabio Paras (London) GB 02:45 - 04:15 : Sasha (Manchester) GB 04:15 - 05:45 : Kid Paul (Berlin) D 05:45 - 07:15 : Joe Jam (Frankfurt) D 18:00 - 19:30 : Warm Up (New Talent) D 19:30 - 21:30 : Dr.Atmo (Frankfurt) D 21:30 - 22:30 : Ad Visser (Netherlands) - LIVE 22:30 - 00:30 : Katrien Klausing (R&S - Gent) B 00:30 - 03:00 : Mixmaster Morris (London) GB 03:30 - 05:00 : Robert Leiner (The Source - Brussels) B 05:00 - 07:15 : Dr.Alex Peterson (London) GB 18:00 - 19:30 : Simon Shurey (London) GB 19:30 - 21:00 : Marc (Le Petit Prince) D 21:00 - 22:30 : Jim Knoch (Manheim) D 22:30 - 23:30 : Komakino (Frankfurt) D 23:30 - 01:00 : Good Groove (Frakfurt) D - Eye Q 01:00 - 02:00 : Earth Nation (Frankfurt) D - Eye Q - LIVE 02:00 - 03:30 : Mach One (London) GB 03:30 - 04:30 : Resistance D. (Frankfurt) D - LIVE 04:30 - 05:30 : Crazy Erg (Manheim) D 05:30 - 06:30 : Tranceformers (Manheim) D - LIVE 06:30 - 07:15 : Crazy Erg (Manheim) 00:00 - 01:30 : Special Guest 01:30 - 03:30 : Special Guest 03:30 - 05:15 : Special Guest 05:15 - 07:15 : Special Guest Now some of the things that I've heard and seen. * Dj T (Frankfurt) D (Starship Universe Room / 20:15 - 21:30) First time I've heard this Dj. Seems like the German ravers really like this Dj. He played some weird music, difficult to give it a name. Not a bad set. * Dave Clark (London) GB (Starship Universe Room / 21:30 - 22:45) The first big name behind the turntabels, and a good act to. Played the usuall stuff, techno. * Tanith (Berlin) D (Planet Of Cyberpunk Room / 22:45 - 00:00) YES, He made again a pretty awesome set! His set was in 'The Planet Of Cyberpunk Hall'. Lots of people were there during his set and the atmosphere in the hall was also superb, lots of smoke, a robot who was raving(?) between the people shooting with a lazergun and of course the style, brilliant hardtrance!! One of the best things I've heard that night. * Underworld (London) GB - LIVE * (Tribal Temple Room / 23:30 - 00:30) Nice act! Playing their biggest hits, tought I missed 'Rez' and 'Dark And Long' maybe it was because I missed the beginning (Tanith was still busy playing :-). * Take Off Sequence * (Startship Universe Room / 00:45 - 00:50) This was not a dj or an act, just a little show, to 'start' the rave. They played some samples from 'StarTrek' toghether with a little lightshow. Nice one, first time I saw them using their lasers, and togheter with The Comsic Baby Live act, the last time. What was wrong with the lasers,problems? (Can't image a mega-rave without lasers :) * Cosmic Baby (Berlin) D - LIVE * (Starship Universe Room / 00:50 - 01:20) Haven't seen the whole act coz I didn't like it that much, I've seen the beginning which was pretty nice (the combination from the music and the lights) but after a while it was kinda boring so I left. * Spicelab (Frankfurt) D - LIVE * (Tribal Temple Room / 02:30 - 03:00) I always wanted to see O.Lieb once life, this was my change. It was pretty nice, but I expected better, the act was only 30 minutes long and that's a bit short for O.Lieb, fans will also know that he loves to make long music-pieces, so 30 minutes is a bit short for him. Maybe it would be better if it was a live act from 'Oliver Lieb' and not from 'Spicelab' that way he could play what he wanted, and not only songs that came out under the formation 'Spicelab' but also songs from L.S.G., Paragliders, The Ambush... * Resistance D (Frankfurt) D - LIVE * (Mother Earth Room / 03:30 - 04:30) Nice act! But I dind't see the whole act :( I saw only half of it, but what I've seen and heard was really nice! It was one of the longest to from the party, 1 houre. * Laurent Garnier (Paris) F * (Starship Universe / 03:15 - 04:45) What can I say about this? :-) good! * Dave Angel (London) GB * (Starship Universe / 04:45 - 06:00) Heard this dude before, but it was a rather long time ago and i didn't remember it very well. Psyched call this dude a God, so I checked him out. Psyched: well you're right, he's cewl. Very nice techno sounds, all mixed very well togheter, tought I heard better in my life :) * Prodigy (London) GB - Live * (Starship Universe / 02:45 - 03:15) It was not my intention to go to this act, but when I arrived and Laurent Garnier normally should be playing these guys where still busy with their live act. Seems that it was THE act of the gathering. (didn't expect it, coz Prodigy is kinda commercial and not everyone like breakbeats). I heard some of their biggest hits and the crowd went totally crazy on their breakbeat sounds. After that normally Laurent Garnier should be playing, didn't know if he played right after them coz The Prodigy made a mess since their live act runned way out of time. * Jens Lissat (DusserlDorf) D (Planet Of Cyberpunk / 06:00 - 07:15) Also the first time I've heard this dude, he was the last one who played that evening (morning) in 'The Planet Of Cyberpunk Hall'. The Music was nice but he had LOTS of troubles with his tourntabels, the needles were damaged, so it was difficult for him to mix his records good, maybe the needles were damaged because Jeff Mills and Lenny Dee played before him on the same tables :) * Marco Zaffarano (StuttGart) D (Startship Universe / 06:00 - 07:15) I'm not sure if it was Marco Zaffarno, coz normally he played between 06.00 - 07:15am and he was the last dj. I was there around 07:45 so I guess it was him. Haven't heard much from him because my bus left at 8am :( But what i've heard sounded good. Many people were on the stage at the moment. The end was near :( * Dag (Frankfurt) D (Tribal Temple Room / 00:30 - 02:30) Haven't heard his whole set, I was just a bit to early to hear the live-act from Spicelab. What I've heard sounded good, tough I think it was rather commercial things like 'Quench - Dreams' and so on. 1. Starship Universe Room Lights: Normal spots, not even multi-color ones. Strobos Laser (Sometimes, but only 1 color laser (green)) Sound: Not that good, to loud. The soundsystem couldn't handle such loud stuff. Decoration: Very nice! Projections on the main stage Starktrek things, (Mr.Spock and so on), The Universe rocket... Nice things on the ceiling, (dunno what it was, but it was nice) airplanes to on the ceiling. This was also the only hall who had a host, Mc.Ribbs. 2. Planet Of Cyberpunk Room Lights: Spots, multi-color ones. Strobos Sound: Sounded good to me. Decoration: Nice, tought I haven't seen much from it since there was alot of smoke in there. A robot was there to, giving his show, it was really nice. He had a lasergun in his hand (red laser). To put it in other words, he really fitted in that room :) 3. Planet Erotica Lights: Normal spots. Strobos Sound: Good Decoration: Haven't seen much decoration there, only a few things. Haven't spend much time there, coz i didn't liked the music that much. 4. Tribal Temple Room Lights: Normal Spots, also a baloon where they projected things on. Sound: Good Decoration: Really nice! one of the best decorated halls. One of the smallest halls. Max Cap. 2000 people I think. Small note, it was VERY hot inthere :( 5. Chill Out Room Lights: Multi-Color spots Sound: Good, but not loud enough, the room was just above the 'Mother Earth Room' and you could still here the music from there, or maybe the sound in the 'Mother Earth' room was to loud :) Decoration: Nice, BIG fluo mushrooms on the ceiling. 6. Mother Earth Room Lights: Normal spots Sound: Good Decoration: None, atleast I haven't seen any. In the middle of the room their was a stair leading to the 'Chill Out Room'. 7. Ultraschall - Hall 7 Where the hell was that room?! Looked for it but haven't found it :( (The building was REALLY big :) Something about the place itself now. The whole place was really nice decorated, 'Startship Universe' had some airplanes on the ceilings, stark-trek projections... 'Planet Of Cyberpunk' had a really cyberpunk atmoshere and the robot was also very cewl, 'tribal temple' kinda jungle-decorated and so on... The only halls that were not decorated (at least i haven't seen any decorations) was the 'Planet Erotica' & 'Mother Earth room'. The lights were nothing special, just the usual spots, smoke canons, strobos... even no lasers! Except during the 'Take Off Sequence' and 'Cosmic Baby' live. 'The Starship Universe' was probably the most important room, very good dj's there, Dave Angel, Laurent Garnier, Dave Clark, Carl Cox... and it was the biggest room to, I think the room could handle around the 5.000 people. The other rooms where smaller. All togheter it was a VERY nice rave, one of the best I've been to. Pitty that it was so far for me, (850km) so when I arrived (around 8.30pm) I had already a bustrip from 12 houres behind me but it was worth it! There where other places to then those 7 halls, a market place were you could buy the usual rave stuff (Bad Mad cloths and so on) and a place outside were you could eat, drink and sit down. I even heard (but I haven't been there) that there was somekind of a little park to outside, with a little lake. The price of the drinks and food were not to high. The place outside was nice idea, because in some halls like the Tribal Temple Room it was REALLY hot and crowdy. The security was also good and I was very quick in. (1 minute :) Not like MAYDAY raves were you have to wait more then a houre to get in. In the building there was other stuff to like a little luna-park, Virtual Reality stuff... I don't know how many people were presented on the party coz they were so many halls but I think it must be around the 25.000. Many people were in one of those 7 halls but also lots of people were outside or just 'in the building'. All togheter it was a VERY nice rave. One of the best I've ever been to. I'm waiting for the Tribal Gathering '95! The UnderTaker, Gent - Belgium / Oct. 94 Hello, here's Psyched writing :-) After this good report I would like to add a few things that haven't been written by The Undertaker :-) First of all, I should say I was very impressed by the large entrance (hey, it's an old airport :-) and there were many points to get in, so, NO queue! (great! :) Then, when I entered the place (it was 11pm) from the Cyberpunk hall, the place was incredibly packed! We were completely lost and we've spend 30minutes to find the entrance for the next hall, the Merchandising hall... From there you could join all the starhip and the planet Erotica halls. Near the starship, there was a Big hall were one could drink (several bars) and play with a Virtual Reality game (!). Now, 2 words about music: everywhere the music was great! For example, i thought that the Planet Erotica would be only fucking lame garage :-) but till 3am it was slow acid and some great stuff. This hall wasn't decorated. There was only a big cage in the middle. The lights were good: a flow of smooths red lights! Heheh, it was erotic ;-) In the Starship, I could add that Zaffarano played a brilliant set! (I can rememeber a monotonous track he played during 15 minutes, but it was so hypnotic!). Other things I can add about music is that Gayle San was the revelation of the night!! She's from London and she plays often in the Club Uk-Final Frontier (Universe). She played some fucking good acid techno in the Tribal Temple. While she was playing, some mad dancers came on the stage with some awesome wearing and they bought a fucking great happy vibe! In the ambient room, Katrien klausing played the ambient I love particulary: acid ambient :-) ehhee... some slow 303 patterns without rhythm. That rulez! I have to find tapes from her! In the mother Earth room, I only saw the lives from Earth nation and Tranceformers. Earth Nation is kinda special: a fusion between rock/blues and techno. But I love their live! Tranceformers played some great acid stuff among with some more trancey stuff. OK, I have finished with the music :-) I just would like to say why the rave was even better than what I tought it would be: - A room (Mother Earth) has been added. It wasn't mentioned on the flyer! - You could get in the Ultrashall club too (in the location too, but it wasn't written on the flyer) - The virtual Reality game attraction wasn't previewed on the flyer. - The place was really unique and the total surface of it is certainly amazing. - The music was great everywhere and all the time you had something really great to listen to (this is quite exceptional at mega raves, no?!) As far as I heard, 25000 people attended the rave... You can find some pics a friend of mine has taken on hyperreal.com (probably on /incoming/universe, but perhaps they have moved them directory). The filenames are ttg94_*.jpg Psyched - Geneva, Switzerland ps: hello to Syncros, Eye of the shadow... RENEGADES ========= Name; Renegades Where; Toronto, Canada When; 8th October '94 i suppose the toughest thing is to try to get all these thoughts down in a coherent, ordered fashion...a difficult thing considering that toronto is (ahem) 12-13 hours away from my humble home in richmond, virginia. i am a bit tired. anyway, some background info for ya'll: renegades is (was) the latest party thrown by toronto's pleasureforce crew, with a dj lineup that was sure to make any breakbeat/jungle lover wet his/her pants: dj rap, jumping jack frost, ltj bukem, dj hype, trace, and more...you ask why i traveled all the way to canada? well, your answer is right there. this was my first time ever in canada, so it was pretty interesting to see how it compared to the states...nothing too drastic, but interesting nonetheless. this isnt a geography lesson, so i'll get to the party details: renegades was held in a huge empty lumber/hardware store, with two large rooms (jungle and house, sorta) seperated by a smaller area with vendors and such. and all this space wasnt wasted, either - with an estimated 5,000 kids there it was *very* crowded. and the sound? the systems were *huge*, definately earplugs- required in the jungle room. whats amazing is that, as loud as this system was (and it was perhaps the loudest ive ever heard), it still wasn't distorting. amazing. and the bass... well, to be honest the bass was brutal - the frequencies simply battered you :) the lights were nice, as well.... nothing too innovative but very well-placed and used. oh yeah, the music: well, don't expect me to give a report on the house/trance/ect area 'cause i really had no interest in hanging out there. what i did hear seemed very recogni- zible from the baltimore/dc scene, except with an mc. note to producers: mc's and house/trance do not mix. as for the jungle room, i'm gonna jump around a bit...bear with me. -when i arrived, the local dj's and mc's were doing their thing on the stage..nice, real nice. One of them (sniper, i believe) had some absolutely *amazing* records... unfortunately, his set was kinda stop/start (something i noticed a *lot* during the night). this is what i mean: he would put on a nice record, mix into something else, the mc would go "rewind", and the dj would stop the record and start the whole mix over from the beginning. i have a major problem with this. yeah, i know the record's nice and all that, but i have no desire to hear the same thing twice in a row...i want some sort of flow, and this set did not flow at *all*...none of the mixes went more than three records before the dj stopped and started a new mix...very annoying. THE DJ IS NOT A JUKEBOX. grrr. -for some reason, ltj bukem wasnt able to make it, and i heard unconfirmed reports that hype wasnt there either... i say unconfirmed because there was a guy there with striped pants and a shirt that said "hype" really big on the front.. unfortunatly, we had left to trek back to the states before i could find out. all the other dj's were there, though. -with my VIP pass (do not ask how i got it ;) ), i was able to go "backstage" and chat with/give tapes to most of the uk dj's. i'll say this, for a person who has people coming up to her saying "i love you" constantly (i counted 3 in about 30 minutes), dj rap was really cool and down-to-earth... i even found out what gear she uses in her tracks (akai s3000, atari 1040 w/ cubase, if anyone's interested). oh yeah, i gave her a tape, too ;) (hey, it worked for deee- lite...) actually, all the uk dj's and such that i talked to were really nice and attitude-free. -so finally, after a gabber set that seemed to last about a day-and-a-half, darren jay took the stage and things got *serious*. the hard beats came on.. and on....and on...and just didn't stop. i know that i'm asking for trouble by saying this, but i was hoping for something a little *more* from this lineup, something amazing and incredible that would leave me gasping for air. well, i *was* gasping for air due to the frenzied beats and high temperatures on the dance floor, but i have to stop short of "amazing" and "incredible". why? well, its a matter of different styles, really. or lack thereof: the selections for the night didn't really seem to stray from the format regardless of which dj was spinning...it was all hard from start to finish. nothing happy, very little trancy/uplifting stuff either (my own particular fave). now don't get me wrong, i liked what was played, but after a while i wAs hoping for a change of style ...which didn't happen. i was hoping that the music would take me to a different level (something which i get from a lot of the better mixtapes, so i was hoping for it here), but it didn't. by the time trace came on i was so tired (2 1/2 hours sleep the preceeding night) that i just wanted a rest. rap's set (which i thought was the best of the night by far...very smooth and a tad more musical than the others) had ended, and i thought that it was a fitting punctuation to my night. the main problem with renegades is the distance, i suppose.. after 12 hours of travelling, its a bit harder to be ener- getic on the dancefloor. but, as of now, canada is the only place to go to hear to hear top jungle dj's...i suppose chicago is getting some big names, but thats nearly as far distance-wise (maybe even farther). as far as east coast promoters getting involved in something like this, i might as well check on hell freezing over. if you ever do get the chance to check out a toronto party, by all means do it...if this was any indication, they know how to throw a party. :) jason/method one - Richmond, USA TECHNO 94 ========= Name; Techno 94 When; Monday 31st Oct. 1994 Where; Panishof - Borgloon / Belgium Organisers; B&B Productions and Ravers United - Hall 1 / Techno - Hardcore - Underground - Trancecore Dj's: * Mike Dred (R&S Records - Diatomic - London) * Xentrix (Energy House) * Bountyhunter (Bonzai Records) * The Fly (MAYDAY 6) * Tanith (MAYDAY - Berlin) * Tofke (MAYDAY 7) * Miss Djax (MAYDAY - Djax Upbeats - The Netherlands) * Yves Deruyter (The House Of House Cherry Moon - Energy '94) * Zzino (Reload Records) * Franky Jones (MAYDAY 6,7 - Love Nation '94) * G-Force (B&B) Live Act's: * Acid Junkies (Djax Upbeats - MAYDAY 6) * Acid Kirk (BWP Experiments - Reload Records) * Jones & Stephenson (Bonzai Records - MAYDAY 6) Presentation by V.J. Simone Angel (MTV) - Hall 2 / Trance - Mellow Dj's: * Nick (Nota Bene) * Marko (La Rocca - At The Villa) * Tofke (MAYDAY 7, Carat) * Frank (Globe) * Kevin (Balmoral) After Party At 'The Carat' Starts at 07.00 Am. Soundsystem : 40.000 Watt Lights : 100.000 Watt - Aircraft - Roboscans - Smokeprocessors PAR 64 Robocolors - Strobo's - Multicolor Lasers - PAR 56 Flower Lights - Microstars - Videoscreen with Rave Items. Many people tought that this was gonna be 'the' Belgian event of '94, they tought right... Since the organisation was in hands of 'B&B Productions & Ravers United' (B&B is just the short form for 'Bart & Ben', 2 guys from Belgium who gave lots of parties in 'Rave Zone Montini' a rather famous techno club in Sint Truiden, they also do flyers (if you can call their work flyers!) and Ravers United, just another rave organisation with members like Franky Jones)) I was a little bit afraid coz i tought it was gonna be a pure Belgian rave with lots of Bonzai stuff but it wasn't. They did a really great job there, except for these points * The organisation in the building sucked MAJOR! I had to wait more then an houre to get in and more then a 30 mins to get out! * There where 2 halls, but the connection between those 2 halls was a disaster, when you where in hall 1 and you wanted to go to hall 2 you had to go trough the main entrance (where 100's of people where waiting to get in) believe it or not but i took more then 20 minutes to get from hall 1 to 2, so when you wanted to take a look at hall 2, you were gone for about 40 mins. * The location was not really 'the perfect rave location'. When you wanted to take some fresh air outside you had to wait again more then 30 minutes to get in. The whole rave was waiting waiting waiting.... That's the reason why i missed some of the highlights of the evening like Tanith :-( (he was the reason why I was at techno '94 :) and Acid Kirk Live. * The temperature, WAY to hot, lots of people fainted that evening! Some positive points maybe now :) * It was really a great rave (except for that waiting and waiting and....) * Probably one of the biggest of Belgium, i don't know the right number of people who attended at 'Techno 94' but it must be someting between the 6.000 and 10.000. The whole place was really a MESS to get in and out. They weren't prepared for 6.000 a 10.000 people. Some comments on the Dj's and live act's * Miss Djax She wasn't on the line-up, I still don't know why she played maybe because the Acid Junkies did a live act but she did a great set, wicked 303 sounds mixed very well togheter. One of the best sets that I've heard that evening. * Yves Deruyter The creator of 'The house of house' and his new one 'Let there be house'. I expected a different set from him, usually in his local club (The House Of House - Cherry Moon) he plays mostly good hardtrance but now he played a bit commercial (at least for me :) songs like 'The House of House', 'Let there be house' 'Calling Earth'... To put it in other words, his own records and lots of Bonzai Records and Dance Opera stuff. * Bountyhunter He was one of the first ones that evening, if you are one of the first ones it's difficult to get the people on the dancefloor without playing some mega-hits but he did it well, after some songs the dancefloor was already in full motion and he could start playing some kewl underground stuff. * Mike Dred I'm not sure if it was him but i'm quite certain. He did a great set, mostly 303 sounds togheter with some of his own records mixed VERY well. * Acid Junkies (Live) Nice one, some things went wrong in the beginning (problems with the speakers) their music was really loud in the beginning. In fact the music at the podium was really to loud, i'm kinda deaf and I mean not deaf for 1 day. * Zzino The surprise of the evening for me, great set and excellent mixing! He even did the mixing technique that i've heard once on MAYDAY when Westbam was spinning, (i think it was westbam) mixing 2 records when scratching a third one. Watch out for this dude! * V.J. Simone I think I don't have to introduce this lady, know from The Party Zone on MTV. You maybe are gonna say, 'Whoa Simone at a rave, how commercial'. But I've seen the dudes from MTV on lots of raves. Simone at "Energy'94" and "The Love Parade 94", Carolin at "The Tribal Gathering '94", Steve Blame at "The Love Parade 94" Daviane at "Camel Airave" and now Simone again at "Techno '94" so what the hell, she did only the presentation. I think it's a nice idea to invite a host for a megarave like that you always know who's playing and who comes next and it's good for the ambiance. Conclusion A very nice rave but the location and the organisation inside sucked. If they are gonna do this every year (Techno '94, '95, '96...) it could be the mega-rave from Belgium. The UnderTaker - Gent, Belgium / 13th Nov. 94 THE DANUBE RAVE =============== Name; The Danube Rave Where; Linz, Austria When; 12th November 1994 Hi Dancers, my first mail to this list I think. I'm an expat in Vienna, been here 5 years and just thought I'd tell you about the most recent excellent raves over here: last Saturday nite in Linz for the 3rd (or maybe 4th) Danube Rave. We arrived about midnight after a 2hr train journey and thank god we'd bought our tickets before cos it was sold out. Sad for the poor sods who'd travelled all the way from Munich but good for the atmosphere inside. And it was a bit fuckin freezin to be hangin around outside. Well the location is like a labyrinth with one main hall and lots of smaller rooms. The only DJs whose names I remember were Dave Clark and Felix Da Housecat in the main hall and Speedio in the chill out room. The rest of the DJs I seemed to have danced thru without noticing that they'd changed - not that I was out of it or anything...! The atmosphere was amazing - almost everybody UP in some way or other and no piss-heads ruining the vibe. The music was really good - mostly newish stuff but some classics, mostly techno but bits of house in the main hall. I can't really put the event into words (can u ever)just WOW. Maybe the best ever rave? The only pain was the crush to get to the bogs, but there was lots of running water when you did make it there :=) . I left at 8am when somebody from San Fransico got on the decks (too slow) but the rave went on 'till noon with 2 after-hours in Linz but quite a few went back to Vienna to continue dancing at the Chatanooga. WOW. andE - Vienna, Austria / 15th Nov. 94 THE SCENE ######### SUMMER OF LOVE 94 ================= This summer has been quite c00l down here in Finland, there has been raves allmost every weekend at a club called ZOO.These events have got common name: Planet of Love and were organised by Elliot Ness a guy who bring techno to Finland. The sound systems were quite infisicant and lights, there were 10 roboscans and couple of power-strobos in the ZOO club , whats capacity is only 300 ppl, and some cool lightning like lasers and videoscreens on the hall of old-students-house. The line-up was great troughout the summer, many inter- national quests like: Laurent garnier, Derrick May, Jones & stephesson, Jeff Mills, The Orbital, Mijk van Dijk and Marcoz lopez (whose were playing at the Love Train, a rave train trough finland, where I sadly enough havent got change to go). Then I have to say that here things are little different than else where I know. Since there are most of raves that have international guest are legal and are held in techno or other clubs, you sometimes cant tell if its a rave or just a club night, difference is like a small here :-) Then because the Law says that clubs must shutdown at 04:00 we have those (mostly) illegal after parties. At summer we have just cool place called MAA (the earth) at the very centre of Helsinki(usually afterparty places have to be a way away(not a long anyway:) like place called the BAT, where radio city operates too, and one old factory where there have been events too). It was small basement, where a group of 'insiders' went after the legal raves to have fun till the midday. Some local DJs spinned cool hard groovys there allways and some guest even dropped in to have fun and play. It was quite a place of freedom, until one night when the police busted the place, witch is not common in finland .. this is kind of good palce to hold partys becouse police wont really do anything to em even if they somehow finds em, unless someone has complained to em something or so. Then one best thing at summer was those after parties at a small beach. Even that the the scene has been quite 'soft' thru the summer, there were one really HC party, at local rock&roll club called Tavastia, there werent many special guests, but the sound and light systems were totally dazing and hypnotic. The event were organized by local records store called MeZcaline. There was ruffnect playing too.. All i can remember abt this event is that it was cool and and my ears were ringing two days after :-) (I have to say that many 'real' raves before and after the summer have been hard ones as they should bee and have always been :-) ) after all.. I think that the scene in finland is small but STRONG and great.. thought it never could be anything like somewhere in center europe..but then this is Finland. :-) -in-Z-ka- - Helsinki, Finland / Oct. 94 WAREHOUSE IN COLOGNE HAS BEEN CLOSED! ===================================== Last friday the 29.7.94 the police busted the Warehouse/Cologne. With about 300 policemen (150 of them went inside) the caught 4 people with illegal drugs and powders that are not identified yet. All of them are out of prison again, because they were between 18 and 23 years old and it was their first time dealing with the police. But the owner and manager of Warehouse Jena remains in prison. The Cologne police was observing the Warehouse the last three months and it will never be opened again. Too bad, I really liked the Warehouse. Everytime I visted my family in Bonn I went to the Warehouse too, a lot of the Warehouse DJs and the Manager were supporting the Housenation from the begining of Acid in Germany. For the Popcomm '94 there were 5 special evenings planned with lots of guest DJs in the Warehouse. Because the Ballhaus/Bonn is closed at the moment too, there are no places left in the area Cologne/Bonn where you are able to listen to really good DJs and innovative music. (There are still a lot of techno and house clubs left, but these are only cheap clones to make money, "low spirit"). If this is the beginning of a new politic of Cologne, than it might be a begining for a new underground. Because one thing is clear: They can put us in prison, they can forbid our party, they can take our drugs away, but the music is in our mind and our mind is free, and we will never stop dancing, because the beat goes on and on and on and on .... rave on Christof - Tuebingen, Germany THE ANTI-CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL DEMONSTRATION REPORT #1 ====================================================== When; 9th October 1994 Where; London Just got back, well at about 7pm, from the Criminal Justice Bill march/demo in London. Wild wouldn't even start to describe it. I have NEVER in all my years of football + raving seen so many police in one place. Every side street in Oxford Street,Park lane, marble Arch area had a mini-bus full of riot police. Now normally these mini-buses, well the real police ones at least, do not have the wire grids down over the windscreens. All of these did. I watched at 5.00 as over 10 bus loads of Riot Police got out in Oxford Street and walked down towards Hyde Park. These guys were pumped and ready for action. They joined several hundered already assembled along Park Lane, facing Hyde Park. Why is it that the police can let a demo like this take place, can control it during the day, but come night-time, cannot work out how to end the demo ??? There was nearly trouble whilst I was there. A sound system on the back of a lorry was allowed up Park lane and around Hyde Park Corner. Both the van and the people following it were behind barriers. Suddenly the police decided that it was time to clear the road and so in went the riot police into Park Lane and the road around Marble Arch. They were followed by the mounted police. Some of the more extreme groups at the march (Class War, Anti-Nazi League etc) saw this as provocation and decided to turn on the police. These people were behind the afore- mentioned sound system. The started throwing sticks, stones, cans etc. and the normal foot police backed off, behind the mounted police. To their credit, the mounted police just stood there. They let the anarchists have their bit of fun, but didn't provoke the situation. As the sound system moved off again, the crowd followed. Deciding to leave at about 5.45 I found that the police had formed a line across the bottom of Oxford Street, and weren't letting anyone through. Their attitude was very negative against EVERYONE, including the poor tourists who wanted to know how to get back up Oxford Street. When I got home and watched the 7pm news on Sky, I saw that it had gone off in a big way. Having that many police in riot gear, and so many people, it is not surprising what happened. The main demo was peaceful, and the police seemed in good humour. It was only when they noticed that they were going to have trouble dispersing such a large crowd, and so sent in the heavy mob, that the trouble began. Some of the fault must also lie with the organisers for not making provisions for the end of the demo, and also for the element of society who go to this type of rallye just to cause trouble. Remember the last one, when some people tried to pull down the security fences around Downing Street. The Criminal Justice Bill is wrong, but there is a right way and a wrong way to oppose it. Causing a mini-riot in the heart of the West End is not the right way. Ian - London, England THE ANTI-CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL DEMONSTRATION REPORT #2 ====================================================== I suppose this is going to illustrate the typical problem of differing perspectives and differing opinions but I can't agree with Techno that the trouble at the anti-CJB demo yesterday was only exacerbated by the "more extreme groups at the march". This "usual anarchist element" (Met Police words) have been present at virtually every march I've ever attended, going back to 1980 and including demonstrations by the National Union Of Teachers for an 8% pay claim. If the police can't handle these two dozen or so regular loons then they're doing something wrong. There IS a time and place for Class War but this isn't it - it just provides ammo for the CJB supporters. I hate violence but I must admit I get a sick sense of satisfaction when things go horribly wrong for our Bimbling Boys In Blue. Yesterday was a showcase of British Police incompetence and by chance I witnessed three excellent examples. The lorry mentioned by Techno was the Megatripolis/Zion Train float, followed by a Transit van in camouflage paint, both playing (IMHO mediocre) rave/techno. These two were at the very end of the march, for some reason their progress had been deliberately delayed by a line of police walking in front of them. At Marble Arch/Hyde Park Corner, these two vehicles stopped, I couldn't see why but they APPEARED to be held up by police lines. About 100 of us were dancing about, and at this point the whole situation COULD have been defused in a low-key manner by letting the vans go into the park and about half-a-dozen constables politely asking us to move along please. However, out of nowhere riot police appeared about 5 deep at either end of the road with a single line facing us from the "hotel side" of Park Lane. The atmosphere became very heavy. Meanwhile people were pouring into the road from Hyde Park, attracted by the sound system and the confrontation. I expected a police charge, but it didn't come. The vans moved off TOWARDS Hyde Park, leaving about 100 of us sur- rounded by this huge army of bemused police. After about 20 minutes we got bored (new police tactic - bore us off the streets) and followed the vans. They were about 200 yards further up the road, very slowly moving towards the park. This time there were no riot police here, they were still back down the road surrounding the remaining few people (by now virtually the only people left were journalists and tired tourists sitting on the grass). But there were about 10 mounted police and they appeared to be preparing to advance into the crowd around the vans. Several protestors moved among the horses, feeding them handfuls of grass (of the lawn variety), patting them and chatting to the police riders who seemed quite happy and (dare I say it) friendly. The vans moved off again, and protestors closed the road in front of the horses with crowd barriers. This was turning into Carry On Copper - where's Sid James and Babs? The mounted police backed off and let the vans continue with a reduced police presence, and that was the last I saw of them. The best was yet to come. We retired to MacDonalds (OK OK I know I know but those chocolate mikshakes - mmmmmmmm) and about 5pm decided to walk to Victoria and get the bus home. As we left MacDonalds about ten Met vans pulled up and 50 or so riot police got out. After much jostling and shouting amongst themselves they decided to form two lines 10 feet apart on our bit of pavement and block Oxford street both ways. Leaving myself, my girlfriend and about two others in the 10 foot gap (I felt well protected surrounded by those hunky men and women). This caused great inconvenience - to shoppers. Added to which ONE of the lines was being strict and the other wasn't. This was hilarious. While one line was refusing to let shoppers towards Marble Arch and telling them that Oxford Street was being blocked, the other line kept letting people AWAY from Marble Arch through the backs of the strict line who were shuffling aside and apologising in that English way. All the while, people kept asking riot police the usual tourist questions - if they knew where there was a Midland cashpoint, how to get to Buckingham Palace, what the time was etc etc and the police were going along with it! The two police lines started to communicate - "What are you doing?" "Stopping people coming through here and you're supposed to be doing the same" " Are you sure?" "YES!!" "Oh! OK then". At this point it was noticed that there were 4 people "in the gap" (owing to our screams of laughter, wiping tears from our faces, clutching our sides etc) and we were asked to move on. We carried on toward Victoria. Half way down Park Lane we saw the mounted police charge demonstrators in the park but didn't see the buildup to this so can't comment on what started things. All I know is that the police seemed to be charging into an absolute SEA of people to very little ef- fect. This happened several times - the police regrouped, charged, the crowd scattered, got angry and wound up, and chased the horses as the police regrouped. It looked like a game to me, a pointless but very dangerous game - if ONE mounted police officer had been dragged off/thrown off, the mood of the crowd was such that we would now be hearing about fatalities, not injuries. Eventually the mounted police retreated and the crowd chased after them - straight onto the coaches waiting to take them home, exactly as MP Jeremy Corbyn said on the news. That was all we saw, don't know what happened later on. I personally think a lot of the trouble was not orchestrated but inflamed and utilised by the police to engender support for the CJB. Someone wanted this to happen. There were about the same number of people on the previous march, low-key police presence and no trouble. Oh dear, no head- lines, no Drugged-Up Ravers Invade London Violence! So this time there had to be a show - and there was. A sick sense of satisafaction, but also sadness. The CJB won't just affect me, it will affect my parents who love walking and picnics, my sister-in-law when she walks her dogs in the Gloucestershire farmlands, respectable middle- class protests against village school closures, people with a little tape player playing repetitive beats at a summer barbecue. And if there's one group of people who are going to hate this Bill, for whom life is going to one long round of confrontation and petty charges, it's the police. They should be allowed their own anti-CJB demo - I bet there would be even more marchers than we can put on the streets. JP - Swindon, England ANOTHER SMALL BELGIUM SCENE-REPORT ================================== The scene is really improving now, finally there are some independent semi-underground raves coming up beside the ordinary commercial club circuit. But let me explain the general situation : the house-scene in Belgium is mainly dominated by clubs. Personally this is a very bad thing, not because of the clubs but because of their owners, mainly elderly people who only converted their club to a house-club because 'house is fashionable and a good thing to earn lots of money' Even this should be perfectly allright (we live in a world of free trade after all), but the thing I don't like is that those owners don't know a sh*t about raving, don't have any taste for good things and after all are very conservative. If they got something, they are very anxious to try new things. Instead of that they squeeze what they got like a lemon, till they got all the money out of it. Don't get me wrong, there *are* clubs with a progressive policy but they are exeptions. In this commercial circuit there are never or seldom raves outside those clubs, if you have to beleive their flyers, there are 5 raves each week- end, instead these are just ordinary club evenings with a guest DJ from another club which is after all not that exciting :-\ You can identify 2 different kinds of those commercial clubs : (1) hardcore/trance clubs which are influenced a lot by Bonzai (2) progressive/garage clubs which are much better but I don't like them either because of the snobbish audience and the mainly boring music (garage is ok for 30 minutes but after that it becomes boooooring) Main problem in these clubs are well known, high prices for drinks (I hate to pay 3$ for a softdrink or beer), snobbish people and environment (little blinking lights and mirrors everywhere) I visited several German clubs which are really different: OK, prices are just as high but people are very open-minded and you don't find yourself in a 'starship-enterprise- environment'. The Omen is a parking garage and the Warehouse in Cologne is a concrete bunker :-) Besides that they have new DJ's every week, there's never anything like routine... Once again there are some exceptions from time to time, a team whose parties are called 'Rave Explosion' get from time to time some foreign DJ's to Belgium to play on their club- parties or once a year in a big hall (last year they got Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills, etc) For me the only alternative are the smaller underground raves organised by a bunch of independent organizers who teamed together to a group called 'Chain Reaction'. Each month they do a big rave in Brussels with some of the best local DJ's like DEG and D-Jack. Besides that they do some smaller parties but there aren't promoted very well, so you may find yourself together with 10 other ravers on a party :-) For the music itself,Belgium is quite known for R&S, Bonzai, Dance Opera, Frank De Wulf, etc... Once again you have crap and quality. Bonzai for example is regarded in Germany as a famous under- ground label but in fact it's quite fake... In Belgium, you can't get out without seeing a 16 year lad on his moped wearing a Bonzai-Tshirt, besides that they have a very dominant role on those so called club-raves proclaiming that they are 'underground' while they produce very commercial tracks (they even got one of their tracks in the hitparade between Jam&Spoon and 2U). The climate has become so bad that real underground people use 'subground' instead of 'underground'. Nowadays the quality-standard for underground raves is that the less Bonzai-Tshirts, the better a rave is :-) About Dance Opera, I can be brief: just another attempt from a semi-major to get some money from the so-called under- ground. On the other side we got R&S which can be ranked amongst other worldfamous labels who mantain a very high quality like Plus8, DJAX, Warp or Guerilla. R&S also has its own ambient label 'Apollo' putting out a lot of good artists like Biosphere and Robert Leiner and licensing guys like Mixmaster Morris. The funny thing about R&S is that 90% of their artists are foreigners, so don't beleive stories about Belgium-the-techno-country (besides Front 242 and the com- mercial geniusses behind 2Unlimited, there's little to see :-) One of the few Belgian artists on R&S is CJ Bolland and even his parents were born in England... If you don't believe me, grab a Bonzai-compilation and an R&S compilation (for instance their latest In Order To Dance 5). If you listen to the Bonzai CD you hear a lot of boum boum with some crazy sounds on top of it done by 5 dif- ferent artists at most and that's it ! Compared to IOTD5 from R&S (full of high quality artists like Mu-Ziq, Mike Dred, CJ Bolland and Biosphere) Bonzai is utterly commercial crap. Dominique Poncin - Brussel, Belgium THE FREE PARTY 94 REPORT ======================== Hi Ravers, I thought I'd just let you all know how Free Party 94 was here in Vienna. It was held on Saturday (8.10.94) in protest at the local council and police trying to shut down every rave that they heard of. They also shut down at least 3 clubs within a month although they weren't exactly my taste - at the best yuppie-ravers. But that wasn't the point - they were in general getting more and more aggressive to us ravers although we're guilty of nothing except maybe being a little too loud and maybe taking a few toxic substances. ;-) But nothing to harm anyone else really. Well it was planned to start at 14:30 on the Ring in front of the opera and there were supposed to be lorries from as many youth cultures as possible as basically everyone was a lot pissed off with the authorities trying to ruin our fun just as the night life here had (at last) matured. MTV apparently had a report saying they didn't expect that it would be a success with such little time to organise (about a month I guess which isn't that much considering its the first one of its kind in Vienna and the bureaucracy here is murder). Well at 14:30 there were about 300 people so it looked as though it was going to be a flop and and MTV were going to be right. The security/organisers looked like outnumbering the ravers. Well a few minutes later the streets were full, don't ask me how, it just happened. And the first lorry appeared: Farm Rave (techno) with (I think) DJ Rokis playing :-) All hell was let loose and soon the street was moving as one with ravers quickly taking up any spare places on the lor- ries to dance. The next lorry was my favourite - Emotion & Silver Raves joined together - with a mate of mine, Reiner, DJing - dunno his DJ name. He was excellent anyway. The sound quality amazed me. The next was XXX. Fucking excel- lently loud & hard gabber & hardcore. For the next hour I didn't notice any other lorries as I was too busy running back & forth between these lorries saying Hi to the Family I knew and dancing (partly to keep warm and partly because all three of the lorries were playing great tracks). In about 3/4 hour we'd made it to the Mariahilfestrasse. Here I took my first look from the top of one of the tree supports at how big the parade had become: I looked down towards the opera (about 600m) the road was *totally* packed with lorries surrounded by masses of moving bodies. Looked amazing. At about 3:30pm the first lorries reached Heldenplatz and stopped and people picked the lorry of their choice and danced for another 3 hours. The police stood & watched - at the most hastling those who wanted to drink some alcohol, which was banned - obviously to promote the use of drugs - sensible police planning again ;-) After managing to actually sweat in the freezing wind I decided to take a look at the rest of the parade. The first thing that I noticed was that there was a friendly atmos- phere at all of the lorries (even the HipHop one where a lot of the people in the scene here are reknown for being elitist, aggressive and basically assholes). At this time some people had obviously given up because of the cold as there were a few gaps between the lorries. By the time I'd got to the opera I'd past the following lorries (apart from the first 3 where I'd been dancing):Blackmarket (soul/funk), 33/45 (techno), Fut & Oarsch Club (techno - Pomelo in fantastic fancy dress), and then one with a live metal-ish band, one with a live jazz group, an indie/goth lorry (danced a bit to Sit Down remembering the first raves) 2 HipHop ones, Arena (hardcore, on a bicycle!) and probably some that I've forgotten. So, although the majority were techno most other cultures were at least represented. And this made the atmosphere somehow magical and definitely not the same as LoveParade or Energy94 - to see Gothics, Metalers, soulboys, homeboys and ravers all dancing on the same stretch of tarmac. At 6.30pm the music started stopping as I think the police were getting bored with no arrests and absolutely no trouble. I think that anybody who was on anything had organised it before as I saw no drugs being sold, which probably mightily pissed off the police. The lorries started moving off to lots of cheers and whistles - everybody had had a great time. Then everybody suddenly realised that in the fun they'd lost the people they'd come with and so it was at least another hour before the streets were cleared. Also everybody seemed to have made the same plan: "if we get seperated then we'll meet at the entrance to Heldenplatz" as this area was packed at 7pm with everybody looking a bit lost in the dark! Afterwards were raves at Flex (quite new location by the canal that the police are also trying to shut down), Kunstwerk and the one we went to a bit out of Vienna: Xtasy. Xtasy was Xcellent: In a large factory with the loudest sound system I've ever heard - you couldn't stand next to it no matter what you'd taken! The DJs I remember were Miss DJAX, Patrick Pulsinger, Thomas Heckmann and the live act were Acid Junkies. All were pretty good. It had exactly the right amount of people, cost ATS200.-, but sadly had no cloakroom and the toilets weren't big enough! It finished at 7.00am with an afterhour in Chatanooga, but I had to be at a wedding at 10:00 so it was home for a shower and change for me! I expect it was really good as 999% were live, and the DJ line up was brilliant. Anyway to summarise about 15000 people turned up to the parade, despite fucking ice cold weather so the first (and maybe last) Free Party was definitely a success. MTV was WRONG! A big WELL DONE to all involved. andE - Vienna, Austria JUNGLE SCENE IN NORWAY ====================== Hi to all, Its not easy to live in jungle fandom here in Oslo. Hadn't I had my input through this list I'd sure as nutt lost it. Thought I'd let ya know whats up with the scene here in Norway. Basically there is Oslo, capital, where raves are good and authorities dont bother too much (compared to England and US.) Jungle things are supposed to happen here too but only recently have more people started to catch on. As you know, the whole business of the scene sort of hangs together, with promoters shops djs submedia recordbuyers partygoers. Already like 2 years ago jungl tunes were on the radio, parties, and shops, a little. It should have been nuff to get the `snowball' rolling.. but that hasnt happened `till now. 2 weeks ago, Simon Dee (UK) spinned a wicked jungle set for ca 100 dancing people in the `small room' at a 800 people rave with Illumination in the main room. The same thing is happening this weekend. It seems jungle's not ready to go big at parties..YET.. However.. in the quite-big city Trondheim, the jungle scene has existed small & underground for a long time..again due to `pioneering' by devoted people. Now there's like a reggae /jungle vibe pub/club, full 7 days a week. The owner imports jungle plates for 400 pounds a month (reputedly..) and people are getting into it. Things havent really come loose yet here in oslo record shop-wise. I have a hard time aquiring decent records. There are some cdees, and the occasional vinyl jungle collection. The `good' 12"s are like torn away... (hehe) (if anyone got a good `fresh jungle vinyl' offer for me then mail me..:) Myself I'm getting into the dj biz at the moment. I've been helping arranging parties with some other folks.. (ever heard about Zone Productions?) and I was asked if I could spin some. :-) lucky.. now all I need is the SL1200s. Peace to all junglist massive! Havard Alshus a.k.a dj Harold Lloyd - Oslo, Norway Oct. 94 MANCHESTER'S SCENE ================== Supposedly the home of house music in the North of England, if you ask people about Manchester, they are likely to come up with one or more of the following: the Hacienda, New Order, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, 808 State, etc. The whole 'Madchester' scene really took off in 1989 (as I moved up, by coincidence). But that was five years ago - has time stood still, or is there more than just the hype? At the moment, you can't seem to move in Manchester without coming across another new night starting up. This seems like a tradition, since the city has a massive student population, which enjoys clubbing as much as the locals do. However, the recent mass of 'student nights' seem to rely on cheap beer, unknown DJs, and promoters who know nothing about dance music. However, the venues stay the same, even if promoters come and go. Perhaps the most famous is the Hacienda, which became arguably the focal point of northern clubbing in the late 80s when Mike Pickering and Graeme Park were residents at 'Nude' on Fridays. Graeme Park now takes control of the Saturdays along with Tom Wainwright (with the eclectic John McCready downstairs in the Gay Traitor Bar), while Mike Pickering plays just about everywhere BUT manchester when he's not being a pop star with M-People. Fridays is now called 'Shine', and has guests most weeks (eg Todd Terry, Farley Jackmaster Funk, etc). Every last Wednesday of the month is 'Flesh', the north's biggest gay night, which goes on 'til 4am (as do Fridays and Saturdays most nights). However, the Hac has had its share of problems, being closed down by the police and closing itself on more than one occasion, as the result of gang and gun violence (which happily, is the exception rather than the rule these days). It also has a cafe which serves meals during club nights, at reasonable prices - the food's quite good too! 'Flesh' is only one of the many nights which serve the gay community. In fact, Manchester has its own Gay Village in the heart of the city, with clubs and bars that are part of the clubbing scene. Perhaps the best known is the Paradise Factory, which was formerly the headquarters of the now- defunct Factory records (which had New Order, Joy Division and Durutti Column on its roster). With a dancefloor, balcony level and the infamous loft, this venue has seen some of the best nights in Manchester since opening, including LuvDup's 'Jolly Roger' in 1993. At Equinox on Bloom Street, Manumission rose from nowhere to DJ Magazine's number One club in the UK at the start of this year, before heading to Ibiza this summer (with a secret new years eve bash planned back in Mcr). For a drink and a chill-out rendezvous, Manto bar is open all day and from 03:00-07:00 on Saturday night/ Sunday mornings. Other clubs worth checking out if you're up here include Home and Sankeys Soap. Home is on Ducie St, about 100m from Piccadilly station, and hosts LuvDup, Foundation, Seconds Out (next one's seeing the return of Sasha to Mcr - with a 4hr set rumoured!!), and Discovery. Most of these are house and derivatives, but the odd jungle night takes place, as well as hip-hop and all things phat via the Fat City crew. If the last is more your thing, then check out Hoochie Coohchie's nights, currently at Sankeys Soap on Fridays, which are now done in association with JockeySlut magazine. This venue is a converted mill just outside the city centre, with a rather cool open-air forecourt and a long main covered area with stage at one end - this club has some good bands coming up,including A Certain Ratio and Boots Collins. It also has a cafe serving world food, but I don't know what it's like. Perhaps one of the most under-rated places is the Boardwalk, again just out of the city centre (but only 250m from the Hacienda), but well worth finding. Dave Haslam hosts "Yellow" on Fridays (funk, disco, soul, etc) and "Freedom" on Saturdays - recent guests include Jon Marsh (the Beloved - the only time he's DJ'd in Manchester), Slo-Moshun, Pete Heller (Boys Own), etc. It's only 5/6ukp on Saturdays, making this the best value in Mcr on a Saturday night! There are also plenty of places to buy the records you hear in the above clubs: the most famous is probably Eastern Bloc on Oldham Street - across the road is Vinyl Exchange, which stocks the best range of second-hand music in Manchester, wirth some bargains as well as some very rare collectors material. Also check out Manchester Underground on Fennel St and Fac City records in Afflecks Palace, Oldham St. (I think Spin Inn has re-opened just off Market St, but I'm not sure - they were very good for hardcore/jungle). Also good for all non-commercial stuff is Piccadilly Records on Brown St, as well as all the major record superstores on Market St. Radio stations: Piccadilly Key 103 is the biggest, but plays commercial shit - avoid (even Stu Allen's 'rave' show is crap). Kiss 102 came on air in October, and is still finding its feet, but has some very good shows in the evenings. There are also some very good pirate stations, eg Soul Nation 104.6, but these come and go - just keep checking the radio FM dial! I've lived here for over five years, and, as you can probably guess, I love this city. If you're not a UK resident and make a trip to the UK, you should make the visit if you enjoy clubbing and dance music in general. It's about 2 1/4 hours by train from London, easy to get to from most of the UK, and well worth the visit. Andy S - Manchester, England / 25th Nov. 94 THE CLUB REPORTS ################ THE CHERRY MOON, IN BELGIUM =========================== * THE HOUSE OF HOUSE - CHERRY MOON * (Gentsesteeweg 144 - Lokeren - Belgium) I think everybody will know this club by now since the home dj 'Yves Deruyter' scored a major hit with 'The House Of House - Cherry Moon Tracks Volume I' (Out on Bonzai Records) and now with his new one 'Let There Be House'. The club is already quite old. I used to go their almost every week ages ago. Before Bonzai Records even existed, the beginning of house/acid music, the end of New-Beat. In that time the home dj was 'The Fly' (Wellknow from Bonzai Records and lots of mega-raves like MAYDAY 6, Mystery Land...). The reason why I was going there every week was because one of my favourite places 'The Boccaccio Life' was closed. The Boccaccio was a really famous place in that time, the place where New Beat was born and since the Cherry Moon was not far from the Boccaccio I started going there. But from the first time I was in the Cherry Moon I knew that this place would be 'the' place to be in a few months, and I was right. After some weeks more and more people came to there, people who I've seen every week in the Boccaccio and so on. After 1, 2 months Bonzai was born and since the boss of Bonzai 'The Fly' was dj in the Cherry Moon it was the place to be, kinda like the Warehouse in Germany. Every week more and more people came to there, even from abroad Belgium, France, The Netherlands... But like every good club who atract lots of people from everywhere and stays open till 10.00 or later, it has to close his doors. The people knew that they would close it in a few weeks and the last weeks before the closing were really insane, to many people. There were lots of times that you have to wait more then 30mins to get in and once in it was almost impossible to stay there for more then 2 houres without fresh air. It has been closed for 6 months. Since the home Dj 'The Fly' had no local club anymore he started playing in 'The Extreme' a new club in Belgium who has been the new party place for 6 months. After the Cherry Moon was back open (first day had more then 5.000 ravers!) they started with some really great parties, with dj's and live act's like Dave Angel, Robert Armani, Leo Annibaldi, Jeff Mills, Laurent Garnier, Daz Saund, Marusha, Dick, Hardfloor, PCP, Union Jack, Oliver Bondzio, Roland Casper, Franky Jones and the list continues. It was even better then before, more proffesional if you ask me, not the normal club nights anymore with every week the same dj's, but more variation like it use to be. The Fly stayed playing in The Extreme and they had a new local Dj, Yves Deruyter. Sound System: Good, maybe a little bit to loud, but i think it's everywhere a bit to loud :) Light System: Also very good - Multi Color Lasers - Strobos (sometimes even blue ones) - Multi Color Spots - Normal Spots - Smoke Cannons - Flashing Black Lights - And some other stuff The Place: The Cherry Moon can handle around the 2.000 ppl. It's pretty big and it has only 1 floor where they play Hardcore/Hardtrance, I really miss a Trance floor here. The entrance is 200Bf, that's around 6 Dollars. It's open on Fridays and Saturdays (sometimes on sunday to) from 22.00Pm and they must close their doors at 05.00Am. Resident Dj's: Yves De Ruyter (The House Of House) Stefaan (Kaos) Franky (Cherry Moon) The UnderTaker - Gent, Belgium / 12th Nov. 94 THE EXTREME, IN BELGIUM ======================= * EXTREME * (Brusselbaan 411, Affligem - Belgium) This is a rather new club, people discovered this club when they closed The Cherry Moon and the home Dj 'The Fly' started playing here. This is a place where they give lots of pure Belgian raves with Belgian Dj's (The Fly, Franky Jones, Phi-Phi, The Bountyhunter, Tofke...) mostly these parties are on a friday. I used to go their rather much when the Cherry Moon was closed, it's not bad, but i like to hear some other dj's to. They give lots of parties there with always the same dj's ofcourse some other ones to like (Miss Djax, Eliot Ness, Mate Galic, Ritchie Hawtin, Paul Cooper, Mike Dearborn...) but mostly Belgian dj's. Sound System: Really good! One of the best I've heard. Light System: Also very good - Multi Color Lasers - Multi Color Spots - Strobos - Smoke Canons - Flashing Black Lights The Place: The place is really big, it looks very big from outside but they didn't used their space good i think. The place counts 3 floors, when you come in you have the first floor, where you have the pay-deck, cloak-room and a stair that leads to the 2nd floor. On the 2nd floor is the dancefloor and the bar and on the third floor is again a bar and lot of seats, it's the same music on the 2nd and the 3rd floor, on the 3rd floor their is just a big open place in the middle. The place can handle around the 2500 - 3000 ppl and the entrance is around the 6 $. Resident Dj's: Friday: The Fly (Extreme, MAYDAY6) + Guests Open from 22.00 till... Saturday: The Fly (Extreme, MAYDAY 6) Tom (Extreme) Open from 22.00 till... Mondays: Phi-Phi (Extreme) Open from 23.00 till... The Undertaker - Gent, Belgium / 13th Nov. 94 REPORTERS OPINIONS AND STORIES ############################## A TRANSLATION OF A ROTTERDAM HARDCORE TUNE ========================================== Hi there ! In last issue of PLANET-E, I saw an article written by DJ ANABIOSIS/USA. He wrote something about the record "MIETJE" (not mEItje) and said he didn't knew what it ment. Let's clear it up for all you house-freaks that don't speak Dutch. Indeed, like ANABIOSIS expected, the song can be offending to some people. The word 'MIETJE' is something like the English word 'FAGGET'. Well I won't say more... I've tried to translate the text of the song which can be found on 2 versions (the Radio Version isn't that offending). Oh, before you continue reading, I'd like to quote another part of the cover: ! WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MENTAL OR PHYSICAL DAMAGE THAT MIGHT BE CAUSED BY LISTENING TO THIS RECORD !'.. Just to make shure... tried to keep it riming but that wasn't possible at all times.. well let's reveal the mystic text of the song "MIETJE" HARDCORE HORSE-DICK, I'M GONNA CALL YOU FARMERS-PRICK, DUCK SICK, YES YOU SUCK IN HOLLAND WE JUST SAY 'KLOOTZAK' <- something like ASSHOLE ONE TWO GET OFF MY TIP NOODLE STUPID CROSS-EYED CHICKEN I WON'T SALUTE YA, EVEN GREET YA I'M GONNA CALL YOU A FUCKING MIETJE I AM SICK AND I'LL GET SICKER I AM GONNA CALL YOU A FUCKING 'FLIKKER' <- FAGGET but then more offending DOG-HEAD, SUCK THEM DICKS FOR NOTHING, YES, 'VOOR NIX' <- for nothing in Dutch, coz it rimes YOU'RE A FOOL, YOU'RE A FOOL SO SHUT UP, 'HOU JE SMOEL' <- shut your face I WON'T SALUTE YA, EVEN GREET YA I'M GONNA CALL YOU A FUCKING MIETJE Right... let's finish with some background information, the song is created by PERNET & ERIK DE KONING... That last guy also was the sencond hand of the formations: "GOLDEN DELICIOUS" (Mellow: You Belong To Me), "OBSCURE FM" (Hardcore: Michael Jackson Is In Heaven Now), "KING DALE" (Hardcore: UTTER UTTER). I also heard on a radio show which he co-produced on a local station in Rotterdam, that he was doing a huge MIX on CD with the PERNET guy so that one should be out right now I guess... tILL nEXT tIME ! [<=tEAK/sKIDrOW^hOTC=>] - The Netherlands August 94 ------ ps: I found it was fun to have a translation of a gabber tune, coz a lot of them has quite the same kind of language :-) psyched SOME NEWS FROM THE NETHERLANDS ============================== DJ MARK VAN DALE [2nd part of: KING DALE, OBSCURE FM] [GOLDEN DELICIOUS] Has just opened a RECORD SHOP named "TURBULENTIE MUZIEK" named after the house-program he presented together with ERIK DE KONING. It's located in GOUDA/HOLLAND and I hope it will be very succesfull ! The radio show is now beying hosted by ERIK CROSS (Mellow DJ) and another person which I don't know. For people in Holland: ---------------------- If you live near ROTTERDAM, try to find STADSRADIO ROTTERDAM (Cityradio Rotterdam) on the 94.6 FM frequency and if you found it you can listen to the house-show TURBULENTIE on Friday night between 20:00 and 01:00 hrs. If you can receive RADIO 538 (I don't know if people OUTSIDE of Holland can receive it yet.. they had some plans to do this) you should listen to it every FIRST Saturday of the Month because there will be One-Hour live Mellow mixes between 22:00 and 07:00 the other morning ! (only interrupted by commercial breaks). GREETINGS fELLOW-hOUSE aDDICTS ! [<=tEAK/sKIDrOW^hOTC=>] - The Netherlands August 94 RECORD REVIEWS ############## BREAKBEAT ========= EP Title; - Artist; Concrete Junglist Label; Lloydie Crucial Concrete Junglist (Lloydie Crucial) - no label, so I don't know the title, but its in the same vein as the others, swingbeat jungle or whatever you care to call it - the 2 tracks vary only in their basslines (one mellow, one ruff), an average track, nothing outstanding - good use of vocals, but intensely annoying dms & boneman X 'lighter' samples... check it first... Rick - Leeds, England / 22nd Oct. 94 EP Title; Apollo 9 Artist; Jo Label; Awesome records Jo 'Apollo 9 / Murder' (awesome promo) - ah yes, one of the cuts of the week, apollo 9 is similar to r-type(bad computer samples...hehe), but after the big (and sometimes messy) intro it drops into serious fast n dark drum&bass, absolute stormer - plus the flipside is excellent as well,what sounds like a cut up anthill mob sample starts the track before a huuuuge bass guitar bassline drops, absolute belter of a 12 - just buy it.... rick - Leeds, England / 11th Oct 94 EP Title; Armed & Dangerous (Goldie Mixes) Artist; Cutty Ranks Label; RCA This weeks bargain find, 99p from the local clueless shop. Didn't think it was out yet, but is hardly worth the hype it has been given...2 mixes from Goldie, using what sounds like very slightly timestretched vocals (or pitched down), nice breaks (not rough enough) and occaisional nice guitar and 70's type orchestral sounds...its just a 'nice' 12 inch...best mix of the 2 is the beef bass mix (2nd of the 2) with a heavy use of that 70's break..nothing special at all, just another average ragga remix...and more home-listening than the others...but then again, it was definately a bargain at 99p... Rick - Leeds, England / 22nd Oct. 94 EP Title; Ganjaman / Studio One Lik Artists; Krome & Time Label; Terrin Vinyl ref 3 Not too different to 'The Licence', and equally deserving of the rewinds - same style of tune, mellow drums-good vocal sample-hard as hell drum&bass+ruffneck basslines etc. If you are a fan of 'The Licence' you will most definately like this...the flipside is similar, with a roots reggae intro (anyone remember the Dream Warriors' 'Ludi'??? well its the same sample...) dropping into heavily chopped drums interspersed with bad boy vocals. Both contain the now standard time-stretch and flange effects on both drums and samples. Top notch tunes, not played out as much as 'Licence', and the sample is better...thumbs up... Rick - Leeds, England / 29th Nov. 94 EP Title; Can't hold back/Moving on strong Artist; Asend Label; 2nd Movement First release on the 2nd Movement label - hopefully all of them will be up to this high standard, 'can't hold back' is in the same style as 'what kind of world' - strings, drums, strings, drums...but not saying that it isn't a fucking top-notch tune, using vocals from that tune that goes 'when you hold me do you dream does it seem etc' (from lots of old skool happy stuff), the flipside is the bollocks, mad mad bass and timestretched 'send for da new gun' vocals - absolutely tearing... Rick - Leeds, England / 24th Nov. 94 EP Title; Cheeba 94 Artist; Project One Label; Rising High Promo As the intro says 'this is dedicated to the niggaz that was down from day one', the originators (along with the Shut Up & Dance Crew) of the jungle sound, and yes it *was* called jungle back then, are back with an absolutely tearin remix, 3 mixes included (no info on whether its just a Rising High re-release, or whether Mark Williams has done it himself...), anyway - all the mixes contain the necessary elements of a good choon...ruff&ready ragga talk (very throaty, could be Apache ??!?!), lots of time-stretching, ass moving basslines, something for all the crew - even the original 'I like to smoke marijuana' samples from the original mix. nuff respect due - search it out, going out to the originals. Rick - Leeds, England / 27th Nov. 94 EP Title; Coffee Artist; DJ Trace Label; Lucky Spin This is a good tune. Sampled 'coffee' vocals and a big phat drum selection, great big bassline and huge stepping breaks - gradually builds into an uplifting string breakdown - just buy this tune, 2 mixes to choose from... massive respect to Trace for this one... Rick - Leeds, England / 24th Nov. 94 EP Title; Control Artist; Intelligent Minds Label; Intelligent minds A: Control B: Voyage Forever Real even though the so-called "intelligent" style of jungle/ drum&bass/hardcore/whatever is my personal favorite, i still have a complaint with some of the records out there. why do some artists assume that an "intelligent" track is some kind of excuse for weak beats? this is my problem with this record - the synths and atmospheres are excellent, but the beats blend into that atmosphere a bit *too* well for my liking. Score: 7/10 jason/method one - Richmond, USA / 27th Nov. 94 EP Title; Control EP Artist; Mental Power Label; Formation ref 12047 a side: dream sequence b side: 1) unknown intelligence 2) cool n' sexy for this, ill start with side B first (you'll see why in a minute). "unknown intelligence" is a very nice track, with lots and lots of ultra-trancy synths and a decent beat. "cool n' sexy" is quite a bit harder, with very mashed up beats and a lot of attitude, but is still useable if you're into that sort of thing. so far so good, right? well, flip the rec over to "dream sequence". this song is so amazingly bad i can't really describe it here. lets just say it uses the absolute corniest, cheesiest synth on earth...ugh, yuk. (gee,i wonder why they didnt play this side over the phone?) all in all, the two tracks are good, so i guess this could be a worthwhile investment... score: 6.5/10 (side b) 1/10 (side A) jason/method one - Richmond, USA / 5th Oct. 94 EP Title; Cus Cus Artist; Simon Templa Label; - One side is crappy jungle shit, while the other is ragga tinged drum&bass, bit fast, but worth it for the lovely 'Barbarella' style 70's drop in the middle...if it used this sample throughout I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it - but as it isn't I would listen to it first... Rick - Leeds, England / 22nd Oct. 94 EP Title; Dezire Artist; Notorious Label; Production House ref 70 Notorious 'Dezire / Raw Material' (PH Division #70) - top top 12, absolutely the bollocks...produced by DJ Devine (of scratching fame) and Essence, two corkers...the A side is a slow ragga jungle number, in the same vein as 'sweet vibrations' (ie a slow tune), good stuff...but the flipside cuts it for me...very fast, very ruff...bits of vocals, mad b-lines and best of all a big nutty scratch break...its a headstrong tune, nothing groundbreaking...but definately worthy of a purchase.... Rick - Leeds, England / 12th Nov. 94 Compilation Title; DJ's Unite Vol 1 Album Promo Artists; various Label; Basement records Another bargain find, a 12 with the exclusive tracks from a forthcomin cash-in album (hehe), a 2 tracker with an A-Zone remix of a DJ APhrodite tune (can't remember the name), but it uses a happy style of breaks, phat basslines and a lovely set of bleeps that come in now and again...an absolute corker. The flipside is a remix of Phantasy & Smooth's 'Dream On' which isn't that different from the original - but is a well produced ruff drum&bass sound... Rick - Leeds, England / 22nd Oct. 94 EP Title; Dream Sequence (B2B Remix) Artist; Mental Power Label; Formation 5 Excellent remix, nice open string/vocal breaks blend into too fast (as always...B2B trademark) drum & bass, very well produced, a top-notch drum&bass tune if there ever was one.. the flipside uses Robbie Dee (DJ Taktix...) so its pretty annoying, but the bassline is a waist winder....highly recommended... Rick - Leeds, England / 26th Oct. 94 EP Title; Dred Bass Artist; Dead Dred Label; Moving Shadow Dead Dred 'Dred Bass' (Moving Shadow) - played out played out boooooring, its just a case of owning this tune now - could never get away with playing it in a set and staying fresh...confined to the classics box...nice remix by Andy C and Ant Miles, different bassline, and nice filter/time- squash (hehe) sound on the opening vocals... Rick - Leeds, England / 26th Oct. 94 EP Title; Dred Bass (remixes) Artist; Dred Dead Label; Moving Shadow X. dred bass (b2b remix) Y. dred bass (manic one remix) the first time i heard the b2b remix of this, i was standing in front of a speaker stack in toronto (for "renegades", in october). i was kinda zoning out when this huge, crushing, mutated bassline *thing* comes roaring out of the speakers. "what the hell is that???" i thought to myself, and promptly filed the sound in the back of my head, not knowing who it was untill it came through the headphones at music now (expensive washington dc record shop). i know that this has been derided by a lot of the UK'ers on the list for being an obvious attempt for commercial success. being from the US, i don't get any of that. what i do get is a huge bassline roaming through, to be perfectly honest, a pretty mediocre song. and the manic one remix, which lacks the bassline, is mediocre period. i had doubts about getting this, but i knew that after hearing it in the store that the bassline would ricochet around my head until i bought it anyway....good decision. score: 6/10 jason/method one - Richmond, USA / 5th Nov. 94 +++++++++ Dead Dred 'Dred Bass Remixes' (Those Dubplate pirates, Movin Shadow) - oh great. Back2Basics Remix - Jason Ball gives this a proper remix, in other words its not the same as the original (see flipside)...starts with the vocal loop, and the original bassline, before cutting into a very strange bassline remix...its a weird one...very similar in structure, but that bassline makes it worth buying... Rob Playford Mix - remix?? yeah right...sounds to me like the original track with less drums....am I going mad... where's Mickey Finn's remix....another 10". I hope so. (sic) (Average) Rick - Leeds, England / 1st Nov. 94 EP Title; Energy Artists: The 2 G's Label; Juice Box ref 24 Bit of a lucky find this one, was in the bargain basement bin, and MixMag happened to review it, so I thought I'd check it out - apparently its A Guy Called Gerald & Goldie, so you know what it'll sound like already, good female vocals (treated in various ways throughout the track), big strings and an old-skool type breakbeat, its a very smooth tune, and should go down well with anyone who's a fan of reinforced stuff. The flipside (Isobar Remix), uses a very jazzy riff, which I thought would initially be annoying, but its a very good remix - like it a lot... definately worth buying... Rick - Leeds, England / 19th Nov. 94 EP Title; Exer-Size EP Artist; Roni Size Label; V Records ref 7 Including two long-awaited tunes 'timestretch' and 'phyzical'...'timestretch' has female 'give it up' vocals, helicopter style drum loops and a very nice bleepy bassline, just rolls on amidst string breaks and cold fresh air 'ooohs'. Nice tune but not quite up to 'phyzical' - the jazzy drums build and the bass gets heavier until it drops into a distinctive bassline stepper...most of you will recognise this - as its been dubbed since about June... definate anthem... Rick - Leeds, England / 27th Nov.94 LP Title; Face Of The Future Artists; various Label; Breakdown Face Of The Future LP (Breakdown) - been waiting for this for a long time, 8 new remixes/tracks and 4 deletions (hehe..johnny 92 of all tunes...memories) mostly my pascal or sponge (or both), but there are collaborations with Alex Reece and Goldie (trendy name-dropping..hehe)...all of it is total top-notch drum & bass...from the outright nutty 'Raw Basics' (major headfuck) to the absolutely awesome 'Sax Fiend' (worth buying the album for - honest!!!), something for all the cru...compilation of the year.... Rick - Leeds, England / 26th Oct. 94 EP Title; Feel The Magic Artist; Sophisticated Bad Boys Label; Suburban Base Whoah, hectic tune... bad ass b-line, heavy assault of fast & ruff drums, the odd vocal snatch and string break, but otherwise this is pure nutcase drum&bass, great for dancing, but its hardly ground-breaking - the flip has a mix of this in a mellower vein using Dillinja's 'Deep Love / Sovereign Melodies' guitars to full effect..also included is another mad fast tune, just drums, b-line & vocal samples - shelf life of about 2 weeks...check it out before you buy... Rick - Leeds, England / 24th Nov. 94 EP Title; Firing Line / ??? Artist; Droppin Science Label; Droppin Science ref 3 Great 12, 60's style organ intro (lazy summer style...nice one!), the same drums as on 'riots' - continual 'get ready on the right, steady on the left' samples, the guitars from Primary Source's 'Smile', lots of Star Trek noises and one hell of a tumbling bassline...adding up to an essential tune... The flipside is of just as high a quality, big bouncey bassline, male crooning vocals, similar 60's style organs and lots and lots of effects on the drums. In my top ten of the year by a long way....thoroughly recommended... Rick - Leeds, England / 29th Nov. 94 EP Title; Form & Function vol one Artist; Studio Pressure Label; Photek This has taken me *ages* to get hold of, and I don't doubt that most of you have got it already...one side is slow, mellow-ish drum&bass, while the other is heavy heavy, no prizes for guessing the most appealling track - but both are very well produced, and a breath of fresh air for the drum&bass scene...search it out (but don't take as long as I did...) Rick - Leeds, England / 22nd Oct. 94 EP Title; Greetings Artist; 1/2 Pint Label; Jetstar distributed white label Hmmm, not sure if I like this one, definately got to be in the mood for it. Sweet reggae/ragga vocals over an average sounding breaks track (mid-tempo), bogling bass and very wet sounding strings...its a very positive sounding track (all Jah and that...) - depends on your mood, one minute its a dirge, next your winding your body...guess its the vocal style... (Average) Rick - Leeds, England / 1st Nov. 94 EP Title; Guilloteine Artist; SMF Label; Rugged Vinyl SMF 'guilloteine (Ray Keith Mix) / How many ways' (Rugged Vinyl Promo) - good dark drum & bass - definately worth picking up this 12 - slowish rolling breaks and rumbling basslines. Guilloteine has some very nice chopped up effects in the mix, the usual 'machine gun' drums etc, 'How Many Ways' is a bit stop-start, but the nice 'let me count the ways' timestretched vocals lift it above the other drum&bass cuts...check it rick - Leeds, England / 11th Oct. 94 EP Title; Gwarn / Snaggal Artist; 3 Disciples Label; Flex ref 4 Everyone must know 'Gwarn' by now?? its the one with echoed 'gwarn....gwarn' 'all dread' samples - can't miss it... excellent mix of jungle basslines and hard drum&bass - seems as if the bassline gets harder through the song...good tune...the flipside is highly mixable - 'all girls brok out' MCed intro, daft giggling, a *very* strange drop out (has to be heard - its fucking great), the usual bad boy dread talk, and swingbeat girls...tuff tune.nice one. recommended... Rick - Leeds, England / 27th Nov. 94 EP Title; Hectic remixes Arists; Ramos, Supreme & Sunset Regime with Dj Slipmatt Label; hectic ref 006 a side: 1)sunshine (the pa kua mix) 2) journey (fusion mix) b side: 1) crowd control (dj slipmatt remix) 2) gotta believe (heaven mix) uhm, well, this isnt gonna get quite the blubbering review i gave omni trio...remember what i said above about ordering on the phone? well, anyway, this starts off with "sunshine (pa kua mix)", which is perfect if you like dusty old circa 91 synths and pianos set to a 4/4 techno beat :P the next track, "journey", is much more in touch, with uplifting pianos and an actual, you know, breakbeat. unfortunatly, the production is *horrible* and the beats are very low and muffled...not something i could tell on the phone. "crowd control" starts off very basic, adds a cheezy synth, and goes nowhere from there. "gotta believe" is the best track on this, a nice blend of good vocals and nice hands-in-the- air pianos....very happy and anthem-y. if you like that sort of thing, this rec might be worth it just for this song. score: 4/10 jason/method one - Richmond, USA / 5th Oct. 94 Ep Title; Hello Lover Remixes Artists; Hype/Andy C/Dj Trace Label; IQ ref 3R Three pretty good mixes, but after listening to all three in a row they will all sound pretty similar ;^) Hype's Mix - the obvious favourite, gentle breaks with female moans/hello lover samples lead into an extremely hectic, ruff n tuff basslined drum&bass anthem. love it. check that big phat bassline - up to Hype's high standard... Andy Cs Mix - amazing chopped up drum intro builds up to the Andy C sound, big cymbol crashes and hard hard drum&bass - a short floating string break is soon destroyed by the heavy drums...good stuff DJ Trace's Mix - after the drum innovation of the last two, Trace's choice of drums leaves little to be desired - as the mix title suggests it rolls along nicely - luckily there is a really good scratchy sound towards the end, giving it a touch of redemption... Rick - Leeds, England / 27th Nov. 94 EP Title; Inner City Life Artist; Metalhead Label; ffrr/london A: Inner City Life B: Jah This one has been so ultra-hyped that it's kind of hard to seperate the actual song from all of the speculation...but is it the masterpiece that people have made it out to be? well, not really. don't get me wrong, "inner city life" is smooth and beautiful, the closest thing to a "real song" in my record crate. maybe that's the problem. for all of it's orchastration and scope, "inner city life" is regulated to armchair-only listening status...it's not very danceable and would be really hard to fit into a set, but then again it sure is pretty :P Score: 8/10 jason/method one - Richmond, USA / 27th Nov. 94 +++++++++ Not a patch on Roni Size's remix, but a well produced classy tune, and judging by the flyposting, release delays and general hype Charlamagne'll be doing her 'I've got the key' on TOTP...great...but in my eyes it does live up to the hype easily...floaty stuff indeed...the flipside is, unfortunately, a bit crap...and I was lead to believe that the flip to this was going to be the epic 'Timeless'... apparently there are 4 Hero & Tek 9 mixes to follow... Rick - Leeds, England / 24th Nov. 94 EP Title; It's Not Over/Better Day Artists; Seduction & Dougal Label; Impact ref IMP028 It's Not Over : Starts off with the usual main synth riff and female vocal of "You belong to me, I believe in what God intended, it's not over". Some piano, 4/4 drums and string sounds. Nothing special really. Better Day : Again 4/4 drum (but then Happy Hardcore would not be the same without it) and main synth start us off with little bits of that SMD #1/#4 drum pattern (but then Happy Hardcore would not be the same without it). Then the piano happens and does that bring back memories, it's the main part of Starlights Numero Uno (Italian dance number from `89, oh no come to think of it, there is another "classic" rave tune I missed off my history list ;-) Matt E - London, England / 18th Oct. 94 EP Title; Jazz Note Artist; DJ Krust Label; V Records Long time coming, and definately worth the wait - nice pulsey riff, over a deep skanking bassline and scatty jazz-style drums, very deep and certainly worth the readies...unfortunately the flipside is quite a nutty fast drum&bass number - the jazz influence is there, but it is much too fast for this style of tune...otherwise this is an absolutely slamming 12... Rick - Leeds, England / 24th Nov. 94 EP Title; Knight Raver/Show Me Artists; Ramos, Supreme & The Sunset Regime Label; RSR Recordings ref RSR 002 I decided not to get involved in the Happy Vrs Jungle be