Pandemonium & Kinetic @ Mr B's Willenhall 22/07/1995

Brisk

We've been to Pandemonium twice so far this year and to Kinetic once. This time we're going to a joint event between the two which is at the home of Pandemonium in Willenhall. 

There were 3 tapes from this event which were all hardcore. They were Stu Allan, Dougal and Brisk.

What was notable about both the Brisk and Stu Allan sets earlier on in the year was the number of Scott Brown records in them. Both have cut back this time though still do feature 3 Scott Brown records each.

Brisk still plays a set that's roughly half English records and half rest of the world that notably includes Scotland and Holland. Stu Allan did a predominantly Scottish and Dutch set last time but is more English this time. This was perhaps an indication that the English records were starting to sound more like the Scottish and Dutch ones.

I've posted the Brisk set because it's the first set of his I'm aware of where he plays "Jiiieehaaaa" by Diss Reaction which was a Dutch record that he became quite famous for playing.

Also new for 1995 in the Brisk set is "Faze 1" by Forbes & Cyclone. This had made it's rave debut earlier on in the year but it's the first time it's been played on the tapes at the raves which have featured so far.

The final new for 1995 tune in the Brisk set is "Starjump" by DJ Chewy. It's the flip side to the much better known "Rock This Place" which was yet to be played at any of the raves so far in 1995. This would be the only release from DJ Chewy who sadly died in a car crash shortly after the release. He came from Stoke-on-Trent, the home of Club Kinetic.

Just the one new for 1995 tune on the Stu Allan set which was a hardcore version of "Everybody" by Clock, the commercial eurodance duo that Stu Allan was part of. The chart version of this was the 3rd highest new entry of the week of the Blur vs Oasis chart battle.

The Dougal set is 100% English records. The only new for 1995 record in there was "Love of my Life" by Dougal himself, but it had already made it's rave debut earlier on in the year at a rave not featured.

Given the sheer quantity of new records we get at raves sometimes, it's quite nice to be able to say something about all of them for a change.

Club Kinetic @ The Leisure Bowl, Stoke-on-Trent 02/06/1995

I was unable to find a rave from this week in 1995 with tapes from it. There were however raves happening every week, one of which was Club Kinetic which is what I've picked this week.

We had the debut outing of "Toy Town" 3 weeks ago. Love it or hate it, this was a significant part of rave history. Like with most tunes making their rave debut though, it was yet to be released.

This is where this particular night at Club Kinetic comes in. On the flyer it says it's the launch night of Platinum Records. Given the timing and the fact Hixxy and Dougal were on the line up it's safe to assume the "Platinum Records" they refer to is Essential Platinum.

Hixxy was the creator of "Toy Town" and Dougal was the DJ who played it out for the first time. Together they launched Essential Platinum records and "Toy Town" was the first release.

In addition we have Force & Styles on the line up. Whilst they'd previously played together as part of Force & the Evolution this is the first time I've seen the name Force & Styles on the flyer. It was also the previous week we'd seen the first Force & Styles tune played out.

If ever there was a night the early 90s would transform into the late 90s then this night would be it. Both Hixxy and Force & Styles were amongst the biggest names in the late 90s and what we are seeing here are the roots of how they got there.

Club Kinetic @ The Leisure Bowl, Stoke-on-Trent 03/02/1995

 

Brisk

We're heading north west this week to Club Kinetic in Stoke-on-Trent. We also have notably more northern DJs with Stu Allan from Manchester, Demand from St Helens, Dream from Sheffield and whilst he moved to Brighton at a young age Carl Cox was born in Oldham. Resident DJ Brisk who's birthday it was came from Southampton though. Completing the line up was Slipmatt from Essex.

Although Stoke is in the north, it's still a long way from Scotland. The influence Scotland had on this particular night was evident though with more Scottish tunes appearing on the recordings than any other country.

As it's from Brisk's birthday I've posted the Brisk set. It's really a set of 2 halves, the first being mainly Scottish tunes which all involved Scott Brown and a couple of Dutch ones. The 2nd half is mainly English tunes but none of his own. The last 6 tunes of the set are exactly the same as the first 6 tunes of his Dreamscape 15 vs 16 mix.

It would be the last time Carl Cox would play Club Kinetic and one of the last times he would play a hardcore set. It's possibly the most international hardcore set I've ever heard, in addition to Scotland and Holland there's tunes from USA, Australia and Germany with just the final tune being English.

The Stu Allan and Demand sets are predominantly Scottish and Dutch with Scott Brown tunes heavily featured in both of them.

The Dream and Slipmatt sets are more English tunes but both still have some Scottish and Dutch tunes in them. The Slipmatt set starts heading in the Scottish/Dutch direction but is cut short because he was feeling unwell so we could have had more had he played a full set.

There are 2 tunes which appear the most frequently, appearing in 4 of the sets. There's "Technophobia" by Bass Reaction, a Scottish tune, and "Dark & Light" by DJ Demand.

These are the new for 1995 tunes that appear:

Lord Of Hardcore - Attack The Dancefloor

Ramos, Supreme & Sunset Regime - Life Force Generator

Rise and Shine - The Rusher

Q-Bass - Hardcore Friday

Q-Bass - Blow Your Mind

Bush Brothers - I'm Alright

GT Sampler - Cheese N' Onion

GSI - GSI 2 (A)

Happy Tunes - The Anthem

Happy Rollers - 95 Style

Although all the sets from the night were hardcore ones, Club Kinetic wasn't a strictly hardcore event. It would run every Friday until The Leisure Bowl closed down at the beginning of 1997.