1990's rave music

[Richie Freebird]

I don

[Merzbow]

I know basically fuck all about this stuff apart from the tapes my mother played when i was a kid but i've recently been getting into the Acid House era of Psychic TV, apparently many credit them with coining the term.

 

Psychic TV - Wicked being one of my favs.

[PunkStep]

I could literally talk about this topic for hours. I'll start with the first time I got into Drum & Bass (or Jungle, as it was then known). The tape in the bottom right-hand pic of Richie's first pic- Helter Skelter mixed by Grooverider- I nicked that from my older sister and played it over and over. I distinctly remember Q Bass' 'Champion Sound' and playing it at school, knowing that I was the dogs bollocks for playing it.

 

I hold a grudge against my parents for having me too late, thus making me miss the early days of house in the late 80s and the days of the warehouse/massive field raves around 91. And not to mention the more commercial days of Ibiza and the superclubs in the mid-late 90s. Very bitter about it to this day.

[patiirc]

I remember a few of me mates 'claiming' they went to a few of the gigs and the shout outs on the tapes being about them, didnt believe it for a second mind. It's been a very long time since I heard anything from the likes of Helter Skelter.

 

In Gloucester, tapes were mainly confined to a shop called 'The Rave Cave', which also sold Trash Jeans and loads of Naf-Naf/N.A.S.A clothing as well

[Glenryck Pilchards]

I live not far from the Colosseum nightclub in the village of Norton between Stockton and Middlesbrough. The place was infamous in the rave scene in the late 80s and early 90s, mainly due to the fact that the club was a front for the owner to sell MDMA, cocaine and a host of other narcotics. How he got away with it for so long is he did not have a booze licence and only sold water at the bars which stopped the policefrom raiding the club.

 

I remember someone at junior school used to bring in the Colosseum mixtape which featured Children of the Night, Space Invaders, and Freedom. I am not the biggest fan of this genre but if I ever hear a couple of the classics it brings back good memories

[Wideload]

Yes, yes, fucking yes. Up here it was all about Rez , The Fubar, The Source at the Barrowlands for the unders. The Rythmic State, QFX, Ultimate Buzz, Bass X, Bass Generator, Ultrasonic, Technotrance, MC XXX, Trevor Reilly, 23rd Precinct records, Tom Wilson, Billy Reid, Joe Deacon.

 

My walls were covered, floor to ceiling in the flyers, again a bit like Richie for the artwork. My prized possession was a Rez poster made up like a Jelly Babies packet. Didn't really realise the connotations at the time given I was about 12.

 

Later on I got into the happier stuff from down south and the harder stuff from Holland and the U.S. I remember buying an 8 tape pack of Origin cassettes from DJ FX's shop in Largs in about '96 - Slipmatt, Dougal, Brisk, Pitse (R.I.P) Seduction, Sy, Vibes......

 

Edit: I totally forgot about N.A.S.A; Nice And Safe Attitude wasn't it? Schott and Nicholson jackets too

[Kiffy]

Friend of mine used to be the official house dealer at Bagleys. Management gave him the e's coke and speed and security used to let him knock out in there. The funniest bit was half the stuff he sold was the stuff bouncers confiscated from other dealers/punters on the way in. Funny times.

Anyway, old school rave, hated it. Tried e's, loved it. This was around mid 90's time and I got proper proper into it, starting with stuff like you posted, all the dreamscape/helter skelter/ stuff. Then progressed away from the hardcore/happy hardcore side and more into the jungle stuff, old roast, telapathy, jungle fever and one nation stuff.

Started regularly going raving, did warning in cambridge many times, one nation at the sanctuary (an absoloute mecca for ravers in the 90's/early 00's, top top vibes up there) jungle fevers, loads of other one nations. Drum and bass is fine and splendid these days, but I do miss the old school jungle.

MC's, loved stevie hyper d (was really sad to hear he'd died years ago) skibadee, det, five-0, moose gq, ragga twins etc etc.

And this right here

, started it, first e, first time i'd heard this tune. Hooked from then on.

[Kiffy]

And ya wanna talk sheer dedication to the cause? www.koollondon.com set up as a pirate radio station in 1991. This saturday they're running a 20 years bday party in london. They've kept that going, moving the rigs and the studios every time they got busted, for 20 fucking years. Still illegal, still underground. True legends in the game.

[Loki]

For me it all started here:

 

 

Fantazia in Bournemouth in 92, as a young teenager I snuck into this with some mates and it kickstarted the scene down there, with everyone flying off to set up bedroom studios and start producing.

 

 

I recently came across an mp3 of 9 hours of this gig, it's mental.

 

A few years later I met a guy who'd come down from the London rave scene, he had been at loads of the Helter Skelter type events with Bukem, and had dubbed a lot of those gigs onto a tape machine whilst they were there, so I got to hear a lot of super-rare shit. Sadly most of those tapes have died, but I do plan on capturing the ones that are in ok condition and mp3ing them.

[Kiffy]

I would have loved to try the early massive fantazia raves, was about 12/13 when they were going off so I was never gonna manage it. But that scene, before it split into jungle/happy hardcore - all just rave. Looks amazing, heard about it from many old ravers. But missed it.

[PSF]

Talizman - Only you

 

fooookin tune!

 

[Loki]

I would have loved to try the early massive fantazia raves, was about 12/13 when they were going off so I was never gonna manage it. But that scene, before it split into jungle/happy hardcore - all just rave. Looks amazing, heard about it from many old ravers. But missed it.

 

It's great, in the Fantasia 92 mix you can literally hear the pulling apart of the two genres. In the afternoon and evening it's all lighter, junglist stuff, and then as the evening wears on it gets more hardcore. But you get periods where you get one hardcore track, one jungle track, one hardcore track mixed together.

 

Looking back on it, the hardcore coming out around then was just fucking amazing. Dubstep has nothing on that noise.

[kendal mint cake]

What does hardcore have to do with dubstep?

[Adam Young]

Fucking waxxa topic this.

 

I loved rave music between 1990 and 1993. Never went to any of the gigs as, like many others, I was only 12-14 at the time. I did have some tapes although they were bought from places like HMV/Our Price etc, not from specialist music shops (I think Bass Generator was the big one in Newcastle) so it was more compilation based rather than live events like Fantazia or Rez. Stuff like Necromancer by Pennywise, Searching for my Rizzla by Ratpack, Evapor8 by Altern 8 and Extacy by Shades of Rhythm, to name but a few, were amongst my favourite tunes at the time.

 

Mid 1993, I got into Grunge and Metal. Once I started to listening to what I considered to be 'real instrument-based music' I developed a rather pretencious attitude towards rave and any sort of dance music. As far as I was concerned, if there wasn't someone playing a guitar (or some sort of instrument) then it wasn't real music so I don't have any nostalgia towards mid-90s rave (I hate happy hardcore anyways - still do). Eventually, I got rid of my wanky attitude and started to listen to and appreciate dance music again around 1998/99. Upon doing this I rediscovered my love of rave music.

 

The only rave event I've been to was at the afore-mentioned Colosseum. It wasn't very good at the time, although I wasn't off my face on anything and it was during my anti-rave period. Too much MCing and too 'cowie jaws' for my liking. I would probably find it hillariously funny now.

 

Speaking of MCs, do you think they add or detract from rave events?

[Chest Rockwell]

Happy Hardcore really is garbage isn't it?

 

MCs do nothing for me. If particularly obnoxious they detract, but otherwise they're easy enough to ignore.