It was back in January when we did Hysteria at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes, but given how many raves were happening in 1995 it's taken until October to return.
There were 2 tape packs from this event, a happy hardcore one and a drum & bass one and I owned both. The happy hardcore one in particular brings back lots of memories making it difficult to pick a single one to post. There were 6 tapes in the pack and each one has a story.
I've decided though to pick my old favourite, Jimmy J. He was the hardcore DJ keeping the breakbeat alive as we head towards the end of 1995. I have to give the MC on the tape a mention too. His name is MC QC and appeared to just play a handful of events in late 1995 before disappearing and there is nothing I can find about him on the internet. If you listen to him though you'll understand why the bookings may have dried up. He just spouted random nonsense out of time in a weird voice. That said I've listened to this tape so much that I find myself saying his MC lines when I listen to the tunes featured individually.
Someone else I've found nothing about on the internet is DJ Degree. Anyone I knew who'd heard the set thought it was good, but this is the one and only event I've seen evidence of him playing at and he wasn't even on the flyer.
The reverse side of the Jimmy J tape is 15 minutes of Dougal followed by 15 minutes of Hixxy. The final tune of the Dougal set was "Toy Town" and the point the tape joins the Hixxy set is when he's playing "Toy Town". I do remember "Toy Town" appearing a lot in this pack, but "On Top" by A Sense of Summer was played an equal number of time.
Looking at the tracklisting of the Hixxy set I see something interesting I've not thought of before. The final 2 tunes he plays are "Happy Vibes" by Scotchman and "Hardcore Vibes" by Dune.
Speaking of Vibes, he also features in this pack. Unfortunately I didn't keep onto that tape long. A friend at school wanted to borrow it so I lent it to him. Next thing he's dropped out of school and I've not seen him since. No internet or mobile phones to keep in touch at the time.
The Seduction tape has a tune at the end which appears to be from a different set and uses the same sample as "Above the Clouds" by Sunshine Productions and is really good, but it's still not been identified on the internet.
The first tape I listened to in the pack was the DJ SY one and I have to say despite MC QC again in all his glory, this is possibly the best DJ SY set I've ever heard.
These are the new for 1995 hardcore tunes:
Eruption - Let The Music
Eruption - Don't Stop
Frenzy - Lets Work
Stripey J & Eff - Get’cha Some More
Dymension - Move Into The Rhythm
Eye On Life - Going All The Way
2 Xperience feat Cru L T - Never Give Up
Happy Tunes - Rush Me Tonight
Rebel Alliance - Flying High
Cartoon Capers - Dreema
Mixmatt vs. Rebel Alliance - Do You Love Your Hardcore
DJ Rush Gee - Innovator
I'd say the most notable of these is "Let The Music" by Eruption. I know that Eruption was quite prolific with his tunes, but I didn't realise he had so many in 1995.
Drum & bass wise we have 8 tapes, a sign that Hysteria was more about the drum & bass. I particularly liked the Brockie set, just seemed to flow very well. The Roni Size set is decent too, interesting how he played in the 2nd room and was yet to reach the heights he would go on to reach.
Plenty of new for 1995 drum & bass tunes too:
L Double - Rock Dat Shit
Hot Steppers - Volume 2
Bad Influence Ft. DJ Rush Puppie - Time & Time
City Connection - Impact
Smokey Joe - Smokin Hornz
Roni Size - Box Of Tricks
Serious Intent - Easy Dred
Mask - One People
The Outlaw - O.G. Call
Roni Size - Caspar
L Double - Music For The 90's
Bizzy B & Agent K - Original Gangster
P-Funk – Return Of The Funksta
D-Power - Self Control
Tarzan - Hold Up
Joint Venture - Sunrise
X-Clusive - No War Business
John B - Green
Special K - Deep In Space
The Essence - Intelligence
Keen - Vol 1 A
Decoder - 8 Tap
Concept 2 - Soon Come
DJ Krust - Angles
Roni Size - Dayz
Potential Bad Boy - Bass Rumble
Lion Of Judah - Set It
DJ SS (Ft. Mental Power) - Highly Recommended
Renegade - Tear Out
Dr Wootang - Wootang Re Lick
Benny Blanco - Remember Me
The Dream Team - Just A Little Hip Hop
DJ Krust - Not Necessarily A Man
L Double & Liccle D - Dubplate Special
Eternal Bass - A Piece Of Drum n Bass
45 Roller - Shotz
Clayton - Pot Fiction
Blackstar feat Top Cat – Champion DJ
One again whilst "The Lighter" and "Hearing Is Believing" both appear, it's "This Style" by Shy FX that appears most on the tapes, appearing 7 time including a few seconds of the Hype set that can only be heard of the happy hardcore pack.
One of the MCs appearing at this night was MC Free & Easy. He's better known these days as Terry Turbo, the man who used to run One Nation. By this point One Nation had become a purely drum & bass event and even when happy hardcore DJs had previously featured you'd tend to get just 1 or 2 at a given night.
Terry Turbo would also take over Dreamscape later on and drop happy hardcore from its line ups. Despite this, as MC Free & Easy he was MCing to happy hardcore sets at this night.
It does however remind me that One Nation is yet to feature in these posts so I'll try to do something about that before the end of the year.
