25 Years Since....March 2000

The 21st Century was in full swing and I was still optimistic about the future. Here's the tunes I was enjoying:

Artful Dodger ft Romina Johnson - Movin Too Fast

I remember this record confusing a few people. Artful Dodger had become a household name thanks to debut hit "Re-Rewind" but I heard more than 1 person saying what's happened to the bloke who says "Re-Rewind".

That bloke was of course Craig David, featured vocalist on that record and not the Artful Dodger. This was the follow up record and still really the calm before the storm in terms of UK garage exploded into the charts. 

Honeyz - Won't Take It Lying Down

This was the 5th Top 40 hit for the Honeyz and 5th one to make the Top 10. No R&B act had managed to reach the Top 10 with their first 5 singles before. Unfortunately they wouldn't reach the Top 10 again, they next 2 singles would flop and they were dropped from their label before the still unreleased 2nd album.

It's different to their previous 4 hits, more upbeat and different lyrical content. It grew on me though and I have to say I do like the video.

Moby - Natural Blues

Moby enjoyed great success in the early 90s most notably with debut hit "Go". Once he started to experiment in the late 90s his career took a downturn but by the time this record came out he was bigger than ever before.

He'd established himself as more of an ambient artist with records like this as opposed to the rave sounds he was previously known for. I listened to this a lot in my car at the time because his "Play" album was just about the only new album I had on cassette. I eventually bought it on CD once I had a CD player in my car.

Chili Hi Fly - Is This Love

Another record that I'm pretty sure I first heard in the summer of 1999. Turns out this record was originally released in 1998. It was the only Top 40 hit for Chili Hi Fly who were a duo from Australia.

I guess in Australia the was technically the end of the summer of 1999 for them, well the summer that began in 1999 anyway. I don't know how they refer to these things. I'm sure this won't be the last 20th century record to feature here.

N 'N' G ft Kallaghan - Right Before My Eyes

Back in the day pretty much all the records DJ Vibes made was with someone called Wishdokta. This wasn't a DJ you'd see on any rave line ups and I knew nothing about him aside from being someone who made records with Vibes.

Later on I discovered Wishdokta was Grant Nelson who became one of the pioneers of UK garage and is the "G" in N 'N' G with "N" being fellow garage pioneer Norris "Da Boss" Windross. Much like Grant Nelson I was finding myself more drawn towards garage than happy hardcore by this point.