I wasn't always the mild mannered man I am now, I spent a portion of my youth standing in fields and warehouses around the South West of England. A mile away from the shiny clubs and festivals of today these things were pretty ruff around the edges, and in Easygroove we had our own hero, "come to mash up the place" as they say....
Easygroove Live At Kitsch 1990 - Part 1 by muzza15
Showing posts with label rave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rave. Show all posts
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Monday, 29 March 2010
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Friday, 6 March 2009
Giant Paper Robot Fight
Lets face it...WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED ???????
Giant Paper Robot Fight - Shin Tanaka Contest from elemental on Vimeo.
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore
Have a look at this- I cant embed it but its a great little film.
"Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore uses found and original footage of discos and raves across Britain during the 70s, 80s and 90s. Details of clothing, technology, music and other cultural references surface briefly like uncanny folklore as the film explores a culture of collective leisure and consumption"
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
You know the score.....
After flicking through the superb cartoontastic Suburban Base cover art yesterday, I also came across a new (ish) post on music critic Simon Reynolds blissblog. Reynolds is participating in an event called The Hardcore Continuum, linking to a selection of his writings in uber music geek magazine Wire.
Reynolds is one of the only writers to discuss the idea of a UK hardcore heritage, most famously though his book Energy Flash, where he argues a case of UK rave and hardcore music as a genuine artistic subculture. In the process Reynolds intellectualises it with a critique that draws as much upon academic critical theory as rude boy ramblings.
The articles are great, and its bloody good to see a considered approach taken to music that doesn’t traditionally fit into the four white boys playing the blues school of rock journalism.
However there is a stage where it’s tempting to criticise Reynolds as slightly missing the point. Talking about The Aesthetic of Disappearance, in relation to a home grown youth culture does go someway to legitimising the backroom knob twiddling of the network of misspent youths who made it happen. However, the music has existed and evolved precisely because of its lack of media spotlight and legitimisation.
At what stage does a critic like Reynolds become the cultural big game hunter, on safari in the badlands of the jungle?
Reynolds is one of the only writers to discuss the idea of a UK hardcore heritage, most famously though his book Energy Flash, where he argues a case of UK rave and hardcore music as a genuine artistic subculture. In the process Reynolds intellectualises it with a critique that draws as much upon academic critical theory as rude boy ramblings.
The articles are great, and its bloody good to see a considered approach taken to music that doesn’t traditionally fit into the four white boys playing the blues school of rock journalism.
However there is a stage where it’s tempting to criticise Reynolds as slightly missing the point. Talking about The Aesthetic of Disappearance, in relation to a home grown youth culture does go someway to legitimising the backroom knob twiddling of the network of misspent youths who made it happen. However, the music has existed and evolved precisely because of its lack of media spotlight and legitimisation.
At what stage does a critic like Reynolds become the cultural big game hunter, on safari in the badlands of the jungle?
Monday, 2 February 2009
DAVE NODZ- SubBase
Check out the superb Woebot blog for an online exhibition of cover art from 90's hardcore/jungle pioneers Suburban Base. Apart from being visually stunning, the art captures a real moment in time, and sums up the tunes inside perfectly. Its blindingly obvious now to spot the hip hop and cartoon infulences in both Dave Nodz cover art and the rolling ragga and beats influenced scene. However at the time the whole thing was a big infulential Fuck Off to the tastemakers who ruled clubland with a Gaultier clad iron fist..
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Tomorrows World
Who's trying to tell me that the 70's had no style.......??
Clip from the futureproof Tomorrow's World.
Clip from the futureproof Tomorrow's World.
Friday, 9 January 2009
OBAMARAMA
Everybody else has something to say about the president of another country getting sworn in, why not here as well....?
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Rex the Dog. The Rex the Dog Show
Here we go pop pickers, another 3 Bar Fire review.....
Rex the Dog
Rex the Dog Show
Hundehaus Records
Electro Pop
Pop and rave, are two musical genres that have managed to be stretched so far from their roots by commercialisation that they now stand together as inbred parodies of their former glories. Pop music has moved a million miles from its classical sense of ‘popular’ acquiring a manufactured vacuous tarnish en route, whilst rave remains relevant only to pubescent youth in market towns.
Despite these obvious handicaps, Rex the Dog has managed to create a simmering mix of these maligned genres to create perhaps the best pop rave album of the decade.
Rex the Dog, is rumoured to be an alias for many things, some say an uber cool lowlands techno showman, others claim the dog is actually none other than ‘JX’ of less cool nineties chart bothering ‘Son of a Gun’ fame.
It’s a difficult (and unfashionable) feat in dance music to add fun and emotion to the beat, but thankfully the demise of dull, pitch perfect progressive beat mixing has seen a real return to partying and occasional sightings of the mysterious ‘acid house vibe’; alongside actual smiles on the dancefloor.
The Rex the Dog show takes no prisoners it its unrelenting techno ambitions, this is certainly not cartoon pop showmanship. Instead tracks such as ‘Bubbilicious’ hit exactly the right note as a bumping bass trades blows with a insistent synthetic melody that favours both feet and head. Club banger ‘Circulate’ uses similar tricks to create a genuine groover filled with warmth and passion, fired along by the power of analogue keyboards and clicking percussion.
Its not all banging beats however as the inclusion of a remix of the Knives ‘Heartbeats’ (think Sony Bravia), offers melancholic excursion into techno folk adding more melody for your money to the bouncing beats.
Despite his potentially dubious background Rex the Dog has unleashed a real treat here. Lovers of quirky electronic pop and sweaty basement clubbers alike can unite to fight the acid house wars together for the first time since the halcyon days of the KLF
Rex the Dog Show
Hundehaus Records
Electro Pop
Pop and rave, are two musical genres that have managed to be stretched so far from their roots by commercialisation that they now stand together as inbred parodies of their former glories. Pop music has moved a million miles from its classical sense of ‘popular’ acquiring a manufactured vacuous tarnish en route, whilst rave remains relevant only to pubescent youth in market towns.
Despite these obvious handicaps, Rex the Dog has managed to create a simmering mix of these maligned genres to create perhaps the best pop rave album of the decade.
Rex the Dog, is rumoured to be an alias for many things, some say an uber cool lowlands techno showman, others claim the dog is actually none other than ‘JX’ of less cool nineties chart bothering ‘Son of a Gun’ fame.
It’s a difficult (and unfashionable) feat in dance music to add fun and emotion to the beat, but thankfully the demise of dull, pitch perfect progressive beat mixing has seen a real return to partying and occasional sightings of the mysterious ‘acid house vibe’; alongside actual smiles on the dancefloor.
The Rex the Dog show takes no prisoners it its unrelenting techno ambitions, this is certainly not cartoon pop showmanship. Instead tracks such as ‘Bubbilicious’ hit exactly the right note as a bumping bass trades blows with a insistent synthetic melody that favours both feet and head. Club banger ‘Circulate’ uses similar tricks to create a genuine groover filled with warmth and passion, fired along by the power of analogue keyboards and clicking percussion.
Its not all banging beats however as the inclusion of a remix of the Knives ‘Heartbeats’ (think Sony Bravia), offers melancholic excursion into techno folk adding more melody for your money to the bouncing beats.
Despite his potentially dubious background Rex the Dog has unleashed a real treat here. Lovers of quirky electronic pop and sweaty basement clubbers alike can unite to fight the acid house wars together for the first time since the halcyon days of the KLF
Rex the Dog Mash Up Goldfrapp
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
X-Press 2 - Raise Your Hands: The Greatest Hits
Another commission for Three Bar Fire
The idea of a real dance music long player, rather than a concept album or an exploration of influences (some tiresome jazz noodling or ethno hip hop for example) has always been a bit of an anomaly. Surely the whole point of a sweaty rave anthem is in its impact on the dance floor, not at home on the family stereo? X-press 2 clearly think its time to unleash the greatest bits of their back catalogue on the world, and it’s the tracks that sound like accidents in music making rather than dance floor ‘bombs’ that really make the grade.
A classic collaboration, once known as a ‘collective’ between longstanding Balearic scenster DJ’s Rock, Diesel and outstanding black music nerd, Ashley Beedle, Xpress 2 first made a splash in the early nineties. Clubland then was in the midst of a post rave adolescence, and the vogue was for tribal New York inspired club tracks such as ‘London Xpress’, ‘Smoke Machine’ and ‘Muzik Xpress’… which are all included here. Much as these particular tunes are competent examples of big room tribal house groovers, they are not great. As Stevie said, “Just because a records got a groove, doesn’t mean it’s in the groove” and the test of time hasn’t treated the thumping beats and derivative drum rolls particularly favourably.
X-press 2 however resurfaced around about the turn of the millennium, and having dropped the badges of house credibility that plagued their earlier efforts (and possibly laid off the accompanying recreational accompaniments), they took a new direction recruiting a selection of guest vocalists and returning to their Balearic roots.It’s these tunes that really make the album, from the David Byrne collaboration ‘Lazy’, (prob the best slackers anthem since Happy Mondays sung about Lazyitis); through to ‘Kill 100’, (featuring Rob Harvey from The Music), a downbeat electronic-Goth monster referencing classic Underworld tech rock stomp.
The highlight of this whole record however is ‘Give It’ a classic atmospheric slow burning piano groove voiced by Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner; a real highlight that points to what could have been with the talent on offer here.‘Raise Your Hands’ is a good album. Though not a great one… and its certainly nowhere near the dance floor legacy it hopes to be. This Greatest Hits collection exists as less than a sum of its parts; ideal if you’re reliving your misspent youth, but otherwise its a disco strut that just falls a bit flat...
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Daedelus - Love To Make Music To
Reviewed this for Three Bar Fire again. Take a look and have a listen, its the business.
Daedelus- Love To Make Music To (Ninja Tune)
Daedelus aka Alfred Darlington has been dropping hip-hop flavoured electronic bombs seemingly from the dawn of time, boasting nine albums and a score of EPs to his name. Released on Ninja Tune, this latest offering is billed as a imaginary story which begins during the 1894 Chicago World’s Fair and concludes a hundred years later.
There’s a danger of classing every Ninja release as significant; more often than not however their intrepid brand of fearless experimentation throws up obscurity rather than a stone cold classic. ‘Love To Make Music To’ (clever eh?) is a real revelation though; a melting pot of soul, funk, break beat , electro and dirty rave music assembled with the skill of any classic hip hop cut ‘n’ paste merchant.
Darlington himself cuts an interesting character too, a mid American versed in the culture of underground hip hop production (who rocks Edwardian garms at every opportunity) who apparently encountered a ‘Road to Damascus’ type conversion to the burgeoning UK breakbeat rave sound of the early nineties, on a family trip to London. It takes a true outsider perspective to create a tribute album of sorts such as this. Unlike someone like Burial whose rave homage is bleak and liquid in keeping with his south London location Daedelus taps into the uplifting, euphoric side of the rave experience managing to keep it upbeat without sauntering into mainstream cheese.
Whilst there are rave elements to these songs, the sampled intro from Lennie De Ice’s proto jungle anthem ‘We Are I.E’, for instance, crops up deep in the mix at one point, proving that this is not a by the book rave pastiche. It’s a potent mix, referencing at times influences as diverse as The Avalanches, early Moving Shadow, the sonic terrorism of the Bomb Squad and the experimental electro found on Warp in the mid nineties.
The album opens on a Balearic summer soaked high point, with the sixties-fuelled ‘Fair Weather Friend’, released as an EP last year, with its driven beat and naive female vocal cutting a definitive opening. From here on in the album flits from the dark brooding techno of ‘Hrs:Mins:Secs’ to the smoother R&B influenced cut of ‘My Beau’ and back again. It’s a strange brew that Daedelus throws up here, and in hindsight its all the better for it, with the only down point being an wilful eclecticism that makes ‘Love To..’ a little too hard to pin down
Daedelus- Love To Make Music To (Ninja Tune)
Daedelus aka Alfred Darlington has been dropping hip-hop flavoured electronic bombs seemingly from the dawn of time, boasting nine albums and a score of EPs to his name. Released on Ninja Tune, this latest offering is billed as a imaginary story which begins during the 1894 Chicago World’s Fair and concludes a hundred years later.There’s a danger of classing every Ninja release as significant; more often than not however their intrepid brand of fearless experimentation throws up obscurity rather than a stone cold classic. ‘Love To Make Music To’ (clever eh?) is a real revelation though; a melting pot of soul, funk, break beat , electro and dirty rave music assembled with the skill of any classic hip hop cut ‘n’ paste merchant.
Darlington himself cuts an interesting character too, a mid American versed in the culture of underground hip hop production (who rocks Edwardian garms at every opportunity) who apparently encountered a ‘Road to Damascus’ type conversion to the burgeoning UK breakbeat rave sound of the early nineties, on a family trip to London. It takes a true outsider perspective to create a tribute album of sorts such as this. Unlike someone like Burial whose rave homage is bleak and liquid in keeping with his south London location Daedelus taps into the uplifting, euphoric side of the rave experience managing to keep it upbeat without sauntering into mainstream cheese.
Whilst there are rave elements to these songs, the sampled intro from Lennie De Ice’s proto jungle anthem ‘We Are I.E’, for instance, crops up deep in the mix at one point, proving that this is not a by the book rave pastiche. It’s a potent mix, referencing at times influences as diverse as The Avalanches, early Moving Shadow, the sonic terrorism of the Bomb Squad and the experimental electro found on Warp in the mid nineties.
The album opens on a Balearic summer soaked high point, with the sixties-fuelled ‘Fair Weather Friend’, released as an EP last year, with its driven beat and naive female vocal cutting a definitive opening. From here on in the album flits from the dark brooding techno of ‘Hrs:Mins:Secs’ to the smoother R&B influenced cut of ‘My Beau’ and back again. It’s a strange brew that Daedelus throws up here, and in hindsight its all the better for it, with the only down point being an wilful eclecticism that makes ‘Love To..’ a little too hard to pin down
Friday, 27 April 2007
The Klaxons and New Rave
Of course it was just a joke, but with the Klaxons actually releasing records that bother the charts and glowstick makers turning a profit for the first time this millennium, New Rave somehow stuck.
Neatly disowned by its instigators, (stand forward Shit Disco and the before mentioned Klaxons) new (or nu) rave has like every scene ‘discovered’ by the NME before it , filtered down from the slightly ironic London trendies to suburban kids looking for something to piss their parents off with. And for this reason and the factual evidence of teenagers sporting yellow plastic fila boots and smiley badges it’s worth at least a cursory glance.
Supposedly the newest incarnation of disco and punk, new rave has unlike its predecessors (punk funk, indie dance, big beat, electro-clash etc…) the acclaim of not actually having any connection whatsoever with its readily quotable title. The Klaxons derivative student rock, vaguely backed up by a mis-firing drum machine has little relation to any form of ‘repetitive beats’.
Their often quoted love of nineties dance music actually boils down to piss poor interpretations of Graces ‘Not over Yet’, not actually a rave tune, but a pop handbag crossover remixed by the nemesis of underground dance music Paul Oakenfold, and ‘The Bouncer’ by Kicks like a Mule, one of many novelty hardcore tracks that helped to kill the original scene.
The indifference to any original rave scene was highlighted by the NME who famously described original ravers as “twats in baggy trousers” All very clever but actually a round up of NME’s pop picks from the early nineties uncovers such gems as Carter USM and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, in light of this I wonder in which context the word twat was actually used.
Whilst there is no benefit to be had by reminiscing about 25,000 people watching the sun rise in a field etc. etc. but what is worth noting is that Acid house and its offspring rave is the only genuine post punk youth culture to actually make a difference. Its year zero made it alright for white people to dance, show some emotions and successfully for a few years at least managed to sidestep the last twenty years of guitar led hegemony, notably somewhere punk failed.
What new rave has done is simply added a fluorescent paint job to the tedium of four lads on stage being worshipped by many. Pop music in 2007 bears a distinct relationship to the sound of the mid eighties where blandness and a total lack of danger were celebrated above all else. New rave is actually only a sub genre of something that, if possible is even more dreary, i.e. the back end of what was once termed ‘indie’
If it’s possible in hindsight to learn from history, surely the acclaim given this substandard rock is the obvious signal of a last stand by the current cultural shift. Hopefully there is something genuinely new and exciting being brewed up in a teenager’s bedroom somewhere in suburbia. What ever is it cannot come too soon, and I hope to god its more interesting than a bass/drums/guitar band trying desperately to reference a deceased musical legacy in order to court controversy.
Neatly disowned by its instigators, (stand forward Shit Disco and the before mentioned Klaxons) new (or nu) rave has like every scene ‘discovered’ by the NME before it , filtered down from the slightly ironic London trendies to suburban kids looking for something to piss their parents off with. And for this reason and the factual evidence of teenagers sporting yellow plastic fila boots and smiley badges it’s worth at least a cursory glance.
Supposedly the newest incarnation of disco and punk, new rave has unlike its predecessors (punk funk, indie dance, big beat, electro-clash etc…) the acclaim of not actually having any connection whatsoever with its readily quotable title. The Klaxons derivative student rock, vaguely backed up by a mis-firing drum machine has little relation to any form of ‘repetitive beats’.
Their often quoted love of nineties dance music actually boils down to piss poor interpretations of Graces ‘Not over Yet’, not actually a rave tune, but a pop handbag crossover remixed by the nemesis of underground dance music Paul Oakenfold, and ‘The Bouncer’ by Kicks like a Mule, one of many novelty hardcore tracks that helped to kill the original scene.
The indifference to any original rave scene was highlighted by the NME who famously described original ravers as “twats in baggy trousers” All very clever but actually a round up of NME’s pop picks from the early nineties uncovers such gems as Carter USM and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, in light of this I wonder in which context the word twat was actually used.
Whilst there is no benefit to be had by reminiscing about 25,000 people watching the sun rise in a field etc. etc. but what is worth noting is that Acid house and its offspring rave is the only genuine post punk youth culture to actually make a difference. Its year zero made it alright for white people to dance, show some emotions and successfully for a few years at least managed to sidestep the last twenty years of guitar led hegemony, notably somewhere punk failed.
What new rave has done is simply added a fluorescent paint job to the tedium of four lads on stage being worshipped by many. Pop music in 2007 bears a distinct relationship to the sound of the mid eighties where blandness and a total lack of danger were celebrated above all else. New rave is actually only a sub genre of something that, if possible is even more dreary, i.e. the back end of what was once termed ‘indie’
If it’s possible in hindsight to learn from history, surely the acclaim given this substandard rock is the obvious signal of a last stand by the current cultural shift. Hopefully there is something genuinely new and exciting being brewed up in a teenager’s bedroom somewhere in suburbia. What ever is it cannot come too soon, and I hope to god its more interesting than a bass/drums/guitar band trying desperately to reference a deceased musical legacy in order to court controversy.
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