Bonkers Part 3

 

As mentioned in my previous posts, I didn't know about the first 2 Bonkers albums until they'd both been released. With the 3rd one though I knew about it in advance. I'm pretty sure Dream magazine had something to do with that. 

For the first time Bonkers would be 3 CDs with Hixxy and Sharkey being joined by Dougal. I was quite excited by this and intended on buying it the week it got released. For some reason though I didn't.

One possible reason is that the 2 worst tunes on the first album were "Toytown" and "Steam Train" and there were remixes of both tunes on here. 

I did end up acquiring the Dougal CD only from a second hand shop. What struck me about the Dougal mix was how similar it was to his set at "Helter Skelter - Strings Of Life". But then I guess the whole point is to play something that reflects what you're currently playing at the raves.

Whilst Dougal was a very welcome choice to join Hixxy and Sharkey, on reflection it was perhaps a bit of a strange choice because Dougal owned "Essential Platinum" records along with Hixxy so both DJs would have wanted to include a bunch of tunes from their own label which doesn't really add the extra variety it could have.

There were 17 tunes on the Dougal mix and 11 of them were from "Essential Platinum" and 8 of them were by Dougal including the Innovate ones. The only one he did by himself was "Tranquility" which is another tune I detest. The singing on it is so bad that it's unlistenable. The tunes outside of "Essential Platinum" on his mix are pretty good though, the two Triple J tunes probably being the best of these.

The Hixxy mix is even more "Essential Platinum" focused with 12 of the 16 tunes coming from the label. My main complaint about the Hixxy mix on Bonkers 2 was that I had every tune elsewhere. It wasn't the case this time. There were 2 "Essential Platinum" tunes from Daydream, an Australian DJ who I'd never heard of and had never heard his tunes outside of this mix. No bad thing though, they're not very good.

We also have a trio of Antisocial (Hixxy & Sunset Regime) records later on in the mix that I've never heard elsewhere and have also never been released. The last of these "Happy Days" is the best one and no it isn't a rip off of the TV show theme tune. 

Like with the Dougal mix, the tune selection outside of "Essential Platinum" is pretty good with "Fly Away" by Visa being the stand out tune.

Onto the Sharkey mix then. This has gone down in history as being a freeform masterpiece and the inspiration for many future freeform producers. As previously mentioned though, I'm not a fan of freeform and I can really take or leave this mix.

The opening track on the Sharkey mix is called "The Beginning of the End" which is quite symbolic for the period we were in. Although happy hardcore was loathed by many, it was still in it's peak in terms of popularity. The decline was just round the corner though.

This was pre-internet as we know it, but Dream magazine had its fair share of letters complaining about the scene and by early 98 Dream magazine was no more. By this point I was in my own hiatus in buying anything new but that was more to do with being tempted by the discounted older tape packs that Helter Skelter were selling.

By the summer of 1998 my buying new happy hardcore had resumed and Bonkers 4 came out, but more on that next week.