Record of the Year Revisited: 1999

Original Record of the Year: Masters At Work - To Be In Love

Masters At Work go down as one of the all time greats in my opinion. When it comes to the soulful side of dance music I can't think of anyone who's better.

My own dance music journey began being more into the harder side but as time went on I found myself more drawn to the soulful side. I then saw this side as being more musical and for a record to be truly great this is where to look.

To me this record had everything a truly great record needed and the only way I could think to make it better was to tone down the vocals a little.

Surely no record can take it's crown?

New Record of the Year: Carl Cox - Phuture 2000

Actually there is a record that can. I don't think there's another DJ as highly regarded by all areas of the dance music world and it's easy to understand why. He's a legend of the rave world, a pioneer of techno and a top house DJ. Yet this record isn't really any of those.

There's 2 main reasons why this has now beaten the Masters At Work record. First of all as much as I still love "To Be In Love" I've become less tolerant of the vocals over the year. Secondly, this Carl Cox record has my favourite type of bear, the breakbeat.

UK Number 40s: Carl Cox - Phuture 2000 (1999)

 

Carl Cox was one of the big name DJs in the rave scene in the early 90s and he made his Top 40 debut in 1991 with "I Want You (Forever)". In 1995 he decided to leave the rave scene behind to do house and techno music. At the time it was a gamble but the gamble paid off and by 1999 he was one of the biggest DJs in the world.

This was taken from an album of the same name and was his final Top 40 hit to date. He would finish the year by seeing in the new millennium twice, first playing in Sydney and then crossing the international date line to play in Hawaii.

The reason this stalled at number 40 was perhaps because they were plenty of other ways to consume Carl Cox's music through DJ sets and compilations.  

Doncaster Warehouse 18/02/1995

 

Carl Cox

This week sees us at a venue that still exists today. The reason for picking this particular rave this week though is with the benefit of hindsight.

It's pretty well known amongst the dance music community that Carl Cox was one of the biggest rave DJs in the early 90s but then in the mid-90s he decided he'd had enough and left it behind to start doing house and techno instead. At the time it was a big gamble, but proved to be a good decision as he would become one of the biggest DJs worldwide.

What hasn't been made explicitly clear anywhere I've seen on the internet though is when exactly he made this transition. After doing my own research though it's become apparent that this night was the night.

Basically this is the latest date I've seen him on a rave flyer. Also in an interview I saw with Gary Jaques, the promoter of Vibealite he said that one cold night after playing Doncaster Warehouse Carl Cox decided that was it.

Despite this there is one seemingly new for 1995 tune in there in "Pitch-Hiker" by Pilldriver. There are also 2 tunes in the set which haven't been identified anywhere I've found on the internet.

Like his Kinetic set a couple of weeks prior, there is very little in the way of known English records. The solitary English tune he played at Kinetic "I'm Alright" by Bush Brothers appears in this set along with his remix of "Let Me See You Move" by Visa.

Speaking of Visa, the man behind that name Stu Allan is the other DJ appearing at this event who has his set recorded. His set features a new for 1995 tune under his Visa alias called "Revenge". 

The burning question though is what was the final tune Carl Cox played? Well assuming his set finished just after the recording did it's "Can You Feel It" by Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo.