| OLDSKOOL HISTORY Evolution of the Groove 1988-92 |
| © Rob Learner - 1998 |
KEY
|
So how did it all begin? Well, both the acid house explosion during the so-called "Summer of Love" and the rise to power of Detroit techno were weaning many club-goers off the weakness of commercial pap crap and onto a harder form of music. Although hardcore was not to be of the same style as that of the late-80's, the latter's less-compromising feel appealed to many and crossed in later years to a crowd more appreciative of fast BPMs and a pounding kickdrum. Thanks to records by such luminaries as Mr Fingers, Model 500 and others, the harder sound was able to be nurtured under the watchful guise of the underground, whilst on a more poppy, but nevertheless not-strictly-mainstream tip, acts such as Tyree, Kraze, Royal House, CeCe Rogers and others showed the potential crossover appeal dance music held. |
| 1989 saw the breakthrough of the underground into the public consciousness in the UK with the conquest of the dancefloor by many new and exciting musical trends. As house and garage became established as serious artforms, clubland even saw a brief ska (or skacid!) revival as the dance scene strove to create more exiting concepts of music. As one of the defining factors of the underground/overground bridge was continuing to show, the Deep Heat series of compilations in the UK bore testimony to the general need for the poor chart records of the past to be replaced with something new. Just as acts like Rob Base & DJ E-Zee Rock, Humanoid (later Future Sound of London), Frankie Knuckles and Rhythim is Rhythim began to create fresh beats and bobs that redrew the rap, house and techno boundaries, anything seemed possible. |
| Perhaps most important to the nascent rave era was the growth of the Balaeric beat, famously nurtured on a small Mediterranean isle known as Ibiza. It was there that now well-known DJs as Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling plied their trade, and it inspired the anthemic "Pacific" by 808 State that was to become a rave staple for many years. As 1989 drew to a close, there was also the added element of the European techno movement beginning to make inroads into the UK market. The simultaneous - but brief - importance of italo house via such perpetrators as Black Box and Starlight surely had a sonic effect on latter-day rave acts of the '90s such as Mig29, with a real turn of speed and high-pitched vocals to match. |
| Just 12 months earlier the pop industry has been rocked to its musical foundations by the effect of MARRS' sample-friendly "Pump Up the Volume", perhaps the final nail in the coffin of disco, synthpop and mainstream pop chart domination. By the turn of the decade it was time for dance's amazing evolution to take a new twist. |
| The intrusion of the rave scene into the charts was to simultaneously cultivate indie dance in the UK arena, as both the guitar and synthesiser struggled to combat the slew of pop garbage still being churned out on a weekly basis. 'Rave' held the key to having a good time - a no-holds-barred approach with the emphasis squarely placed on having fun. Already the Beloved had transcended boundaries in 1989 with the epic "Sun Rising"; now bands such as the Happy Mondays, Renegade Soundwave, Stone Roses, Primal Scream and, above all, the Shamen added a dance slant to their otherwise guitar-driven oeuvres, so as the KLF simultaneously promoted and took the piss out of the scene, the symbolic raver-type with baggy trousers and floppy hat provided an iconic driving force, the remnant of 88's smiley culture. |
| With the majors giving way to smaller independents and imprints as the true leaders of the pack, early rave tunes were able to utilise such musical liberty and creativity nurtured during the preceding years to full effect. Thus, for instance, 1990 saw the entrance of first the bleep and its subsequent clonk cousin into the national record box, as the culmination of a slew of quality tracks from the Sheffield-based Warp stable began to take a grip on the nation's buying trends. Releases such as Sweet Exorcist's "Test One," Nightmare On Wax's awesome "Aftermath", the eponymous bass-driven "LFO" and alien-friendly "Tricky Disco" 45s surely lead the way for the quality output of the following years. As Together subsequently defined the unity of the scene once and for all with the mighty "Hardcore Uproar," DJ Hype (AKA the Scientist & Kicksquad) spun some of the best tunes ever on the Kickin label, and several underground anthems hung around long enough to be major successes in the national chart in '91, like Xpansion's "Elevation" and True Faith's "Take Me Away." Chart success still remained hard to come by, however; though the notion of remaining 'underground' was still all-pervading, it was annoying to see records such as Bombalurina (bet you didn't think you'd see that name here!) and other pop trash taking the wind out of rave's sails. |
| It may thus have been a subconscious decision by the rave scene to provide a more mainstream element to the music that garnered success. Further European musical influx came in the shape of Quadrophonia and T99, hard vocal house/rave tracks that complemented many styles and many DJ sets. Their success caused former underground vocal staples such as N-Joi's "Anthem" and Bizarre Inc's "Playing With Knives" to explode into the charts, whilst further inroads into the UK top 40 were effected with huge club tunes such as Brothers in Rhythm's "Such a Good Feeling" and the wicked "Rhythm is a Mystery" by K-Klass. By now, there was very little to define a 'rave' record other than an uplifting vibe, fastish beat and a wicked tune to boot; so, the harsh eurodrone of Digital Orgasm would sit comfortably in the same category as the cartoon cheese of Kicks Like a Mule with few batting an eyelid. Yet by the turn of 1992 further developments were clearly visible in the style of tunes being spun by DJs nation-wide. |
| Records such as "It's Just a Feeling" by Terrorize were not radically different from earlier releases bar the increase in tempo that often accompanied them. Indeed, many of the hard dance tunes that are now known as 'classics' could have come from either '91 or '92. Yet, whilst anyone who's anyone will know the mad acid drones of the epic "Energy Flash" by Beltram, or the early hyper-fast affairs like Human Resource's so-called 'hoover' record "Dominator", by the summer of 1992 a definite style division had emerged in the scene. It is here we can see a split between 'rave' and 'hardcore'. As European acts such as Praga Khan, Holy Noise and GTO continued with the 4-4 beat system, the breakbeat began to take over in the UK, and just as Motown had been highly influential in the growth of US soul, so various labels became intrinsically linked to the rising profile of the hardcore scene. Again, the independent label was ubiquitous, dominating the dance charts far and away above many major labels. It is only fair that some of these starlets be given the credit they deserve. |
| The hugely influential R+S was a label which for its first dozen releases can be said to have put out a true classic every time. 12"s such as "Vamp" by Outlander (recently remixed for '97/8) and "Beatstime" by Sonic Solution (AKA CJ Bolland) were rightly regarded then and now as works of genius, so that whilst the production may not have been there on some of them, the energy certainly was. By 1993 the 'stallion' symbol was as if a 'kitemark' for quality European dance music. |
| Other labels also played a part in the growth of hardcore in the early '90s. Production House had an awesome roster at this time with acts such as Baby D, the House Crew and Nino, but above all Acen, whose "Trip II the Moon" was a genre-defining record in its use of mighty breakbeats, inspired piano/vox and an extremely fast BPM; a precursor to the happy hardcore sound of today. |
| Suburban Base, forever to be known as the label that brought you "Sesame's Treet" (unfairly maligned in my view) was hugely influential in its ability to evolve as did the scene. As well as Smart E's it launched the career of Danny Breaks (now better known as Droppin' Science) under the guise of Son'z of a Loop Da Loop Era, and also DJ Hype, now 'pervading his wares' as part of the successful d'n'b outfit Ganja Cru. There was also an early excursion for Goldie, as under the name of Ruffige Kru he recorded "Krisp Biscuit". Evolution from the breakbeat to the roller came naturally both through the evolution of the aforementioned artists as well as the setting-up of subsidiary labels Breakdown Records and Boogie Times Records. |
| Another player in the field was Rising High. Co-owned by the great man Casper Pound, there were some real beauties on this label in the early 90s. RHC's "Fever Called Love", Project One's "Roughneck" and the Hypnotist's "House Is Mine" are the ones a lot of people know, but tucked away were some real undiscovered gems like Earth Leakage Trip's "Ice Cream Van From Hell" and Audio Assault's "Planet 303 EP" (a personal favourite). The sound here was more acid-based than breakbeat or piano-driven, which showed the diversity of hardcore at that moment in time. |
| Saving the best ''til last, we have the mighty XL Recordings, with its roots stretching back to 1986. The Prodigy were, and still are obviously, the big money-earners for this label. Their reputation goes before them, so I will not dwell on them any longer. However, more than any other label, XL managed to sign classic after classic in the early 90's, the only label of its kind to truly mix business with pleasure. Hopefully as you read this you'll be reminded of "Sweet Harmony" by Liquid, "Hurt You So" by Jonny L (originally on YoYo and superbly sampled by the Fabulous Baker Boys in '97), "On a Ragga Tip" by SL2 etc..... The list is endless; the ones just cited were the big tunes, but more underground classics like Dance Conspiracy's "Dub War", Nu-Matic's "Spring in My Step" and the chart-busting "Anasthasia" by T99 should not be forgotten. The label prospered from chart success when most labels struggled at this time and XL is still seen today as one of the forces in non-major label dance music, albeit in a slightly altered vein. With house-orientated artists such as Slacker, Vincent de Moor and Subliminal Cuts to rap like House of Pain on the Ore offshoot, XL are still a force to be reckoned with. Respect is due, as they say. |
| Of course, the above were not the only labels of significance during the early '90s. Other groundbreaking releases on Formation, Kickin, Moving Shadow, Labello Blanco, Rabbit City etc were of equal stature. But to list them all would take forever. So we continue... |
| Not all was rosy in the hardcore garden of delights. The scene was much ridiculed for its continuation of the image of the E'd up '88 raver, with acts like Altern-8 in particular utilising this image to promote and take the piss simultaneously. Vicks Vapour-Rub anyone? The portrayal of hardcore as the music for a mashed-up nation was fostered during the "toytown" phase of '92. Initiated, many hold, with the safety advert-sampling "Charly" by the Prodigy in '91, and its infamous "Charly says" tagline, it spawned a host of imitators who failed to see that sampling a kids' TV show was not necessarily the key to great music. Liam Howlett later distanced himself from the 'movement', in the process fuelling the Mixmag feud that lead to him burning a copy of said magazine at the end of the "Fire" video. This didn't stop "Sesame's Treet" or "Trip to Trumpton" doin' the biz in the charts, though. Indeed, the creators of "Rhubarb & Custard", Shaft, openly admitted the tune to be a cash-in on the 'scene' that was emerging. If there was any reason why the breakbeat tried to get away from the cheesy sample, why jungle and ultimately drum 'n' bass were born, this was as good as any. |
| The move from rave to the more break-orientated jungle sounds of the suburbs and the simultaneous growth of happy hardcore & gabba in Britain and on the Continent respectively was a result of the scene deciding that it had had enough of the pressures of popular appeal. "I've decided to take my work back underground, to stop it falling into the wrong hands", to quote a famous source. |
| The oppressive role of both the government and press in closing down raves like Castlemorton and the seizure of soundsystems belonging to collectives such as DIY and Spiral Tribe culminated eventually in perhaps the worst bill ever passed under the Tory reign. The Criminal Justice Bill was the final straw for many. As 1994 saw the near-total withdrawal of the 'raver' from the public scene, he/she was barred from having a good time due to the absurdity of, amongst others, Clause 24 - no repetitive beats. |
| Yet the scene had already changed irreversibly since since '92. Eminent hardcore stars like Seduction and Lime had shunned the spotlight of fame to go back to their roots in clubs and parties that were allowed, giving rise to the growth of happy hardcore. Meanwhile the opposite route was taken by those such as Micky Finn (he of "Some Justice" and later Urban Takeover fame) who jumped on the jungle bandwagon to pursue the breakbeat frenzy of the mid-'90s. No longer was hardcore to be as great a force in the top 40 as house and/or techno. If oldskool-style music was to be heard out in the clubs around Britain now, it was segregated off from the new styles coming through, a legion of DJs spending their lives tilling the soil of the musical past to sort out the mushrooms from the toadstools. All-out hardcore events like Universe became Tribal Gathering with the involvement of more styles of music therein. Even Fantazia, based in my own town of Cheltenham, suffered. Thank heavens that those like Top Buzz still remain at the forefront of the scene to promote the past, for by the end of 1993, much of the energy of before had evaporated, and with it much of the vibe that had united all ravers. |
| So what of the future? Well, whilst it is now unlikely that hardcore may once more break into the bigtime, happy hardcore stars like Force & Styles and Triple J continue to release anthem after anthem, the rise of the 'nu-skool' breakbeat - thanks to ex-Rhythm Section member Rennie Pilgrem - gathers pace, and 'back in the day' oldskool DJs like Slipmatt and Sy keep the faith, so we can only hope that it is only a matter of time before the wished-for reappearance of hardcore in more successful climes. |
| Of course, the rise of jungle / drum'n'bass is well documented with notable stars amongst its ranks - LTJ Bukem, Roni Size and Blame to name but three. With musical roots in the early nineties, the genre must be complimented on its overground success in recent years, as well as the individuals involved. |
Remember
this: it is only by looking to the past that will can transform the world to come. |
