25 Years Since....June 1996

It's that time again to turn the clock back 25 years:

Robert Miles - Children

If I'm honest I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this tune. In the beginning I loved it, but then I heard it so many times that summer that I started to resent it. When Robert Miles released further records I didn't really entertain them because I was so sick of this.

But lets talk about the time I was enjoying it. I'm a big fan of the piano sound in dance music and this is a very piano driven track. Robert Miles was Italian and the house music coming from Italy in the late 80s/early 90s. That sound had a lot of potential, but was often let down by screeching vocals ruining the tune.

This however is an instrumental so therefore doesn't have that problem. I eventually went on to buy Robert Miles "Dreamland" album too. 

M-Beat ft Jamiroquai - Do You Know Where You're Coming From

It had now been 2 years since the first jungle/drum & bass record reached the Top 40. I also recall on "The Dance Years", an ITV show about dance music with Dave Pearce from 2001, that 1994 was the year of jungle and 1995 was the year of drum & bass.

Despite that, this was only the 8th jungle/drum & bass record to make the Top 40. 3 of those hits came from M-Beat with this being his final Top 40 hit to date. 

Being a fan of the underground, the lack of drum & bass hits was a good thing in my book. I did question whether I should be liking a drum & bass tune that features a non-drum & bass act like Jamiroquai but I've always liked a bit of Jamiroquai and this is one of their best records in my opinion.  

Carl Cox - Sensual Sophis-Ti-Cat

I remember hearing this for the first time. I was with a mate who would describe himself as a pure raver and I turned the radio on and this was playing. He said "what the fuck is this?", I said "I don't know, but I quite like it". You could tell he disapproved.

The record ended and the DJ said "that was the new record from Carl Cox". Suddenly my mate said "great tune". I can't help but think if it wasn't by Carl Cox he wouldn't have said that. I guess that goes to show how much influence the name Carl Cox had back in the day.

Q-Tex - Let The Love

Speaking of influential names, here's one that influenced me. Q-Tex were a big Scottish name in the rave scene who had a big tune with "Power Of Love". Amongst its members was Scott Brown who still to this very day is a big name in the rave scene.

It did get watered down a bit for commercial release. As my rule for these posts is to only include Top 40 hits I feel I should post that version. I recommend listening to a harder version though. 

Dave Clarke - No One's Driving

There's no watering down of records here. If ever there was a reason the charts were better in the 90s than now is the fact it was possible for someone like Dave Clarke to have hits in the 90s. 

This wouldn't have got played on daytime radio, just John Peel and perhaps some specialist dance shows. I'm pretty sure it was the John Peel show when I first heard this.