Bonkers Part 13

 

After the disappointment of Bonkers 12 there were 2 things that gave me a bit more confidence in Bonkers 13 before I'd even listened to it. First of all the Hixxy mix was an old skool mix where I knew almost all of the tracks. Secondly there was no Breeze & Styles this time, instead it was a return to Bonkers for the first time this century for Dougal.

The Hixxy mix was basically a journey through the years beginning in 1994. Overall it's an enjoyable set and in a way proof that the music was a lot better in the 90s. It was quite refreshing for example to hear "Hardcore Fever" by DJ Energy before he became Kevin Energy and became one of the key figures in freeform.

The end of the Hixxy mix brought the realisation that the years were now flying by with a couple of 21st century records which were still modern in my book. But I guess in 1994 a record from 1990 would have very much been old skool.

Onto the Sharkey mix, and one thing that seemed to be getting more apparent was that the difference between freeform and what was known as UK hardcore was becoming less obvious. 

As previously mentioned the Sharkey mixes have never had many listens from my so I'm basically educating myself by listening to it now. I ended up skipping track 4 though which is a hardcore mix of "Adagio For Strings" which I remember annoying me at the time.

It's generally not a bad mix without being spectacular but then a tune appears that does stand out as being good. I look at which one it is and surprise surprise it's a Next Generation record in "Jump 2 Da Groove" by Ham. 

The Scott Brown mix is your usual 2/3 hardcore followed by 1/3 gabber that consists most of his own records from Evolution. It's an improvement on his Bonkers 12 mix no doubt, but in some ways it's starting to get a bit predictable. 

Going back to the "Big 6" record labels that were around though, it made perfect sense for Scott Brown to basically represent Evolution. We have Hixxy on Raverbaby, Sharkey on Nu Energy and Dougal on Essential Platinum plus Next Generation had their own compilation out. There was still Quosh plus the smaller record labels but I'm honestly struggling to think of tunes from around the time on those labels I would have preferred.

Finally we have the Dougal mix which I can say straight away was a big improvement over the Breeze & Styles mix on Bonkers 12. As expected it's heavy on the Essential Platinum records, the most we'd had on a Bonkers album in the 21st century having been the dominant label on the compilations in the 90s. The fact that this was Dougals first 21st century Bonkers and Hixxy no longer being on the label would have had something to do with that.

What seems apparent about Essential Platinum of this era is it's definitely on the cheesier side of things but not to the extent of Raverbaby. With Hixxy on old skool duty though, it's up to Dougal to include a few Raverbaby records.

We've now reached the point where my knowledge of modern hardcore ends. This was the last upfront hardcore compilation I bought and the last time I went to an upfront hardcore rave was either in 2004 or early 2005.

However I feel that as we're covering the history of Bonkers I shouldn't stop just here. Therefore I've decided to listen to the newer Bonkers albums for the first time, beginning with Bonkers 14 next week.