When I first got into rave music in the mid-90s it was around the same time it split into Happy Hardcore and Drum & Bass, yet it was what I knew to be the "rave sound" that got me into the music rather than either of those genres.
As the years went on, both genres in my mind were moving further away from that "rave sound". Happy Hardcore became basically faster Clubland music and Drum & Bass seemed more of an Urban genre than Dance.
My preferred genre in the 90s was Happy Hardcore, but by the early-00s I was listening to more Urban music so started to prefer Drum & Bass out of the 2, but was more into Rap and R&B.
By 2004 I was getting more into Dance music again. My view was Happy Hardcore was good for the fast tempos with harmonies, and Drum & Bass was good for the drums and the bass.
Then I heard "Racing Green" by High Contrast. It was like the tune I had been waiting for since the 90s had finally arrived. Instead of choosing between the harmony or the beat, you could now have both.
High Contrast was a name who had started to appear at events like Accelerated Culture and Slammin Vinyl in the early-00s but that's all I really knew about him. Then one day I was browsing at the record shop and found this particular album which had "Racing Green" on it and I bought it.
It begins with "Lovesick" and from the off you can tell that the harmonies of "Racing Green" weren't a one off, more so when the breakdown begins and once the beat kicks in I knew this would be a gem of an album.
Then you have "Tutti Frutti" which sounds like it has some LTJ Bukem influences in there, then comes the title track which features Dynamite MC from Reprazent which is followed by "Brief Encounter", another excellent track. The tune that made me purchase this album is next, so far I like every track and mean really like.
According to the track list on the back of the CD, "Natural High" is next. However it's in fact "Angels And Fly" that follows which I find rather irritating if I'm honest, but I guess no album is perfect. "Natural High" does comes next and we're back to form again.
Next up is "The Persistence Of Memory" which is a bit more like your regular Drum & Bass tune, I don't know if it uses the same sample as "Valley of the Shadows" by Origin Unknown but it has the phrase "31 seconds" in it. Then it's "Twilights Last Gleaming", which if you've ever seen High Contrast play you'll know, it's the "have you heard" one.
There's a bit of Reggae influence next in "Only Two Can Play" which features Spoonface. The final official track is "Yesterday's Colours" which is probably more suitable for home listening than the dancefloor, although you still have the breakbeats it's more mellow sounding.
We end with a bonus track called "The Basement Track" which sounds a bit like a Drum & Bass version of "The Launch" by DJ Jean, though there's more to it than just sounding like a blatant rip off.
There often comes a time where fans of a genre will say it's not as good as it used to be. I first got into rave in 1994, this was 10 years later. In the case of Happy Hardcore, I liked some of the new material at the time but didn't think any of it was anywhere near as good as it was in the mid-90s. In the case of Drum & Bass though, I thought this album was better than any of the Drum & Bass I listened to in the 90s, that's how much I like this album.
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