Before we had YouTube and Discogs, it was the fashion in this writer’s day (read that in your head in the voice of Abe Simpson) to trade well worn cassettes of DJ mixes from live Raves and Pirate Radio. I don’t even know how this got into my hands but it is a permanent memory of something I was too young and too rurally located to experience first hand.
No exact date, no tracklist (but you will likely find one online), the only information to go on is it’s DJ Hype with his signature scratching and this aired on Phantasy FM (presumably in a London tower block).
Please forgive the rather poor sound quality in the YouTube video below. There is a certain aesthetic to that muddy cassette sound which in a way, adds to the snapshot of a moment in time somewhere between 1991 and 1992, the birth of a musical genre that terrified the older generation to the point that former Dr Who, Tom Baker made a sensational documentary about it. Some called it ‘Rave music’, others called it ‘Hardcore’ and others referred to it as ‘Jungle Tekno’- whatever you call it, this mix captures the sound in it’s formative period.
The mix starts off with relatively familiar material in The Prodigy’s ‘Everybody In The Place’ before launching into some serious deep cuts (the kind you pay big money for on Discogs) from Noise Factory, Code 071, Hardcore Rhythm Team along with some bits you can find in the download stores like Acen ‘Close Your Eyes’, 2 Bad Mice ‘Waremouse’ and Liquid Crystal ‘The Power Within’
Some keen spotters will notice a couple of Nebula II tunes that have just been repressed on vinyl by Kniteforce.
The tunes follow a natural order without any of the technology we have now to identify keys and cues and Hypes mixing and scratching over the tunes is pure art. If you can put up with the muddy sound quality, you’re in for a treat.