Slammin Vinyl & Tazzmania @ Hastings Pier, Hastings 27/10/1995

 

Easygroove

We're now into a new era for both Slammin Vinyl and Tazzmania. Both had now held their final events at the Rhythm Station in Aldershot. Hastings Pier was the new home of Tazzmania with the first event held with Slammin Vinyl.

The line up consists of a solitary drum & bass DJ with Grooverider and the rest of the line up being hardcore. The tape pack doesn't contain the Grooverider set though.

The tapes aren't entirely free from drum & bass though with the Easygroove set being a mixture of hardcore and drum & bass and this is why I've posted his set.

Quite a few new for 1995 drum & bass tunes appear on his set which are:

DJ Rap - Fuze 1+2

J'ia Francis - How Many Ways

DJ Sparks - Your Mind

A Touch Of Jazz - Between The Lines

B-Jam - Scandalous

DJ Phantasy - Just Waiting

Hardcore wise these are the new for 1995 records:

Druid & Heatwave - Music for the 90's

Druid & Heatwave - Round and Round

Phoenix - Who's In Control

DJ Psycangle - Smile, Fuck Up

DJ Supreme vs. Billy Bunter & D-Zyne - Outside World

Elation - The Anthem

DJ Ratty - Unknown Title

Dy-Sector - Free Your Mind

E-Logic - The Sorcerer

Marc Smith - Feeling

Diss Reaction - DJ Lan

DJ Creator & Shardy.L - Heaven Sent

Billy Bunter & D-Zyne - Rock To The Beat

DJ Sub-State - Boom!

DJ Psycangle - Parallel Worlds

Eye On Life - Got 2 Feel Good

Sensi-Tize - I Do

Party Animals - Have You Ever Been Mellow 

A couple of significant ones here. "Have You Ever Been Mellow" by the Party Animals would be a Dutch number one the following year.

Another significant one is "Smile, Fuck Up" by DJ Psycangle. It's an alias of Luna C, a man who keeps breakbeat hardcore going to this very day. This tune though was very much the Dutch sound. Given the success hardcore was having in Holland at the time I guess it made sense to make a record like this.

There are 3 tunes that make 4 appearance each across the tapes. There's "Toytown" by Hixxy & Sharkey, no surprise there. Also appearing 4 time is "Ride Like The Wind" by Billy Bunter & D-Zyne which was one of the big records of the time. Finally there's "Rock This Place" by DJ Chewy who may have passed away by this point, it was 1995 when it happened.

One of the surprises on the tapes was the appearance of MC Massive. He was resident MC at Helter Skelter and this is the first time I've known him to appear at any rave apart from Helter Skelter.

It's the final event of the year for both Slammin Vinyl and Tazzmania. From this point onwards Tazzmania would carry on at this venue with the odd rave elsewhere before calling it a day in 1998. Slammin Vinyl would find a new home in Bagleys the following year where they held most of their events for the rest of the 90s.

Tazzmania @ The Rhythm Station Aldershot 13/01/1995

 

DJ SY

This week takes us to the little town of Aldershot. Unlike Willenhall last week I've at least heard of Aldershot. The venue is The Rhythm Station which has had several promoters hold events there with this week being Tazzmania.

Tazzmania as an event started on new years eve 1993 in Southampton and had another event there in July before moving to The Rhythm Station in September 1994. This was the 4th Tazzmania event to be held at this venue.

If ever there was proof that the scene had now split into happy hardcore and jungle then this event is it. The main room line up consists entirely of happy hardcore DJs. The prior event did have Hype play at it but it was a back to back set with DJ SY according to the flyer so he could well have been playing happy hardcore that night, though no tapes exist from that event so it's hard to say if he did or not.

Speaking of DJ SY, he was playing at this night which means that all 3 raves so far have featured him. I thought it would be interesting to see how his sets compare. 10 of the 15 tracks on his Dreamscape 15 vs 16 set were also played by him at both Pandemonium last week and Tazzmania this week. 

Elsewhere we have Seduction, Slipmatt, Dougal and Vinylgroover who all played at Dreamscape 15 vs 16 plus Mr Hyde. 

After looking at the tracklists for each mix and searching the internet for release dates and tracklistings for tapes from earlier events, these are the tunes of the night which appear to be new for 1995:

The Scotchman - Happy Vibes

Scott Brown meets Paul Elstak - Feel The Music

Dougal & Mickey Skeadale - Innervation

Scott Brown meets Paul Elstak - Cheese 'n Beats

J.D.S. & DJ Fury - What Do U Want

DJ Pooch - Warrior Beat

DJ Pooch - Feeling This Way

DJ Isaac - Classical Tune

The first 4 tunes on that list all appear on the Mr Hyde set. Scotchman is an alias of Scott Brown and appears on a Dutch label, as does his tunes with Paul Elstak. DJ Isaac is Dutch, so we're seeing the Scottish/Dutch sound incorporated in sets which influenced the kick drum sound that happy hardcore would become.

I do like both the DJ Pooch records, "Feeling This Way" has appeared on several sets but I don't recall hearing "Warrior Beat" before which is the flip side. Both are breakbeat tunes so the switch to the kick drum hasn't fully taken effect yet. They both appear on the Seduction set and were released on his Impact Records label.

"What Do U Want" by J.D.S. & DJ Fury appears in the Seduction and DJ SY sets. The only other tune from the Seduction set to appear in another set is "Nicey" by Eruption which also appears in the Vinylgroover set.

In terms of the Scottish/Dutch records, none appear on the Seduction and DJ SY sets, a few Scottish ones appear on Dougal's set, a few of both appear on Slipmatt and Vinylgroover's sets and Mr Hyde's set had lots of Dutch/Scottish tunes on it.

The big tune of the night is "On Top" by A Sense Of Summer which appears on 4 of the sets, with just Seduction and Mr Hyde not playing it.

There was also a live PA by Sy and Unknown which wasn't included in the tape pack but it was recorded and is available on Mixcloud.

There would be a further 10 Tazzmania events at The Rhythm Station in 1995 with the final one coming at the end of September before they moved to Hastings Pier. Not sure whether another Tazzmania event will feature this year at this stage but it won't be the last we'll see of this venue.