United Dance @ Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre, Stevenage 13/10/1995

 

Scott Brown

For the 4th time this year we're at United Dance at Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre. No album launch this time though, the next United Dance album wouldn't be out until 1996.

The set I've posted for this event is the one from Scott Brown. He was seemingly making the vast majority of hardcore tunes coming out of Scotland but rarely ventured south of the border back then. As far as I remember this the first event featured this year to feature him aside from Rezerection which was in Scotland and where there wasn't a Scott Brown tape.

The burning question is does he stick to the Scottish and Dutch records or is he playing English records too? Well on the tape at least it's 100% Scottish tunes. Further to that, there's only one tune in he set that he had no involvement in making.

On the other side of the Scott Brown tape is Clarkee who's set is predominantly Dutch. 

Elsewhere on the flyer but not on the tapes we have Jason Jay & Mikey B (formerly Top Buzz). Both had moved onto the garage scene by this point whilst Top Buzz quietly disappeared, but this was confirmation they were no more.

There are more hardcore sets than drum & bass sets, but we have an equal number of new for 1995 tunes for each genre, though the number for each was a bit thin on the ground.

These are the new for 1995 hardcore tunes:

Force & Styles - Dancing Through The Night

Edit V - 2 1/2 Hours

DJ Ham - It Would Be

Cytronix - On Your Knees

Terrible Twins - Just Like That

GSI - Let's Rock

The Beatsquad - Miles Of Smiles

Lockjaw - Not Tonight

With no new album to promote there was perhaps less incentive to play newer tunes at this event. The tune that appears most on the tapes is "Harmony" by Force & Styles which was played 3 times, helped by the fact Slipmatt played it twice.

These are the new for 1995 drum & bass tunes:

B-Jam - Show Me

Dead Dred - Come On Baby

Gang Related - Big Time

Mental Power - Red

Shogun - Wind Dancer

Firefox - Buck Rogers

Skool Of Hard Knocks - The Stush

Daz - Identity

For one we don't have "The Lighter" or "Hearing Is Believing" as the most played tune. That honour goes to "This Style" by Shy FX which appears in 3 of the 4 sets.

There would be a further 2 United Dance events in 1995, but neither will feature due to clashes with other events. More on that when the time comes.

Bonkers Part 18

 

The Best of Bonkers album didn't get a number therefore the 18th Bonkers album to be released was Bonkers 17. More accurately it was called "Bonkers 17 Rebooted" which could be to do with the fact it had been over a year since a Bonkers album with new material had been released.

By late 2007 when this album was released the new hardcore I was listening to was hardcore breaks i.e. new music being made early 90s style before the kick drum came in. One of the main DJs doing this was Luna C who had been asked to mix on this but would have had to change his style so he refused.

When it comes to 21st century Bonkers albums the highlight more often than not is the Next Generation tunes. Now for the first time we have Brisk & Ham who make the bulk of these Next Generation tunes doing a mix.

In theory this should be a welcome change, but I'm also aware that there came a point where Next Generation tunes started to become more like the other modern hardcore tunes. I also was told by someone who knew Brisk personally that he no longer liked the tunes he was making but had to make them in order to make a living. This became evident when he started a sauce business and stopped making hardcore.

I think we've reached the point here where Brisk no longer liked his tunes. It is an improvement on the likes of Raverbaby but nowhere near the standard of the tunes they were doing a few years prior. But maybe it was making tunes like these that enabled them to mix a Bonkers album.

Sharkey was joined this time by Kevin Energy, the owner of Nu Energy which accounts for a big chunk of the freeform records of the 21st century.

If freeform was the type of hardcore music you were supposed to take seriously then they're not doing a very good job of it on this mix. It includes a remix of "Techno Wonderland" which is one of the cheesiest hardcore records ever to be made.

Scott Brown is joined by Marc Smith who had previously mix a Bonkers with Sharkey. The result is less Scott Brown records than there would likely of been had he mixed on his own. Judging by the actual Scott Brown records on here though that can only be a good thing.

Scott Brown had been a breath of fresh air compared to Raverbaby and co but these records now wouldn't have sounded out of place on Raverbaby. A stand out example of this is the irritating vocals on "Hold You In My Arms".

In theory because of this line up this should have been the best Bonkers of the 21st century. The reality was that happy hardcore has always been seen as kids music. As I was a kid when I first got into it I can't really argue with that. By the time this Bonkers came out I was nearer to 30 than 20. Around the same period I was at a wedding reception where I saw a kid who was probably 12 listening to happy hardcore on their iPod. I was no longer the target audience.

It would be another 2 years until the next Bonkers was released. During that time the ownership of Bonkers changed to All Around the World records. This was the label responsible for much of the commercial dance music and the Clubland albums. More on that next week.

Bonkers Part 17

 

Having a best of compilation to me means one of two things. Either things are going so well that enough people are willing to buy an album they don't really need to complete the collection or there isn't enough decent new material to put on the compilation so you release a best of to keep the momentum going.

The title "Best of Bonkers" was a little misleading though as it would imply every tune that appears on it has appeared on previous Bonkers albums, but they haven't. I guess it's a bit like a bands greatest hits album which includes a couple of unreleased tracks to give the incentive to buy it to those who already own all the albums.

The majority of tracks on the Hixxy and Recon mix hadn't appeared on any previous Bonkers albums. Some of the tracks also date back to before Bonkers existed. All of the tracks on there are from the 20th century.

As a result this is actually a pretty good mix. What's perhaps a little surprising is that the second half of the mix is predominantly Dutch. We've had records from Holland appearing on many of the previous Bonkers album but perhaps not in that sort of quantity.

Joining Sharkey on his mix and making his Bonkers debut is Druid. He was one of the DJs who went down the trancecore/freeform route in the 90s. He also wrote "Bonkers Anthem" with Sharkey, which appears on this mix.

As this is a best of though it's not strictly a freeform set with the opening track being "Toytown". It's a bit of a surprise to see it in the Sharkey mix rather than the Hixxy one, but then it was written by Hixxy and Sharkey.

Without looking back through all the Bonkers track listings, it looks like the bulk of the other tunes previously appeared in Sharkey mixes.

Finally we have a Scott Brown mix which sees him on his own again. As a result we get a mix of mostly Scott Brown records, all of which appeared in previous Scott Brown mixes. 

What became apparent was that this Bonkers album was marking the end of an era because the next Bonkers to come out was called "Bonkers 17: Rebooted". A bit strange given it came out the same year, but I'll take a look into how exactly it was rebooted next week.

Bonkers Part 16

 

When Bonkers went from 3 CDs to 4 it was presumably because things were looking up. After all why would you pay that extra cost to sell at the same price if you don't expect to sell more copies.

Bonkers 16 did the opposite, it reverted back to 3 CDs. We still had Hixxy and Recon on CD 1. Sharkey was mixing CD 2 alongside CLSM and Kutski instead of Marc Smith. CD 3 was basically a merger of the previous albums CD 3 and CD 4 with Scott Brown mixing with Gammer, out went Neophyte and Dougal.

The Hixxy and Recon mix is once again very remix heavy, with 9 of the 15 tracks being remixes. It's also very Raverbaby heavy as expected. Basically it's cheesy vocal stuff that's not my cup of tea.

The significant thing about CD 2 is that CLSM was the composer of "John Peel Is Not Enough" in protest that there wasn't a hardcore show on Radio 1. Kutski then got a show on Radio 1 that played hardcore music.

Traditionally the Sharkey mix has been very much a freeform mix, but as time went on it started to get more similar to hardcore of the non-freeform variety. By the time of this mix it more or less sounds like a hardcore mix.

The inclusion of CLSM and Kutski may be a factor here. Having 3 DJs on a mix seems a bit excessive but there are 22 tracks in the mix. I find myself enjoying "Motion Maker" by Sharkey and AMS in the middle of the mix, but aside from that it doesn't really do anything for me.

I liked the Scott Brown and Neophyte mix on Bonkers 15 for being gabber throughout, but pairing Scott Brown with Gammer means we don't get a completely gabber mix this time. In fact it takes an hour for the gabber to come in. 

I would say this is the poorest Scott Brown mix on a Bonkers album so far. The best bits are the remixes, but even they just sound like inferior versions of the originals. Even the small gabber section at the end isn't great.

As previously stated I had long stopped listening to modern hardcore by the time this album came out in 2006. Therefore this is educating me as to what exactly hardcore in 2006 was like and on this evidence I wasn't missing out on much.

It was the only Bonkers of 2006, but the next Bonkers to come out in 2007 won't be an education because it was Best of Bonkers. 

Bonkers Part 15

 

By the time Bonkers 15 came out all the DJs who had mixed a Bonkers album to date were the wrong side of 30. This may have been a factor in altering the line up by making all 4 CDs back to back mixes.

Gammer was by factor the youngest big name DJ at this point having only turned 20 that year and he was paired with Dougal. Recon was aged 24 and the other big name DJ to break through in the 21st century and he was paired up with Hixxy. Marc Smith and Neophyte were older and had been around longer than any of the other DJs but they were paired up with Sharkey and Scott Brown respectively.

Although I was still in my 20s myself I was finding myself more drawn towards the more mature sounding house music. Buying this Bonkers album was never even a consideration.

The notable thing about the Hixxy and Recon mix is seeing 2 labels I'd not come across before, Definitive Dance and Electric Euphoria. Turns out they were labels started by UFO and MC Marley respectively so basically music that would have previously been on Raverbaby.

The main question is would this mix have been any different if it was Hixxy by himself and the answer is probably not. It's a mixture of cheesy vocal stuff, hardcore remixes of commercial dance tunes and awful MC tunes courtesy of Storm and Wizzkid who themselves seemed to be the stars of the raves rather than the DJs by this point.

Onto Sharkey and Marc Smith, once again I would say if Sharkey did this on his own it would probably be the same. One thing I recall from around this time is that freeform was popular enough for there to be a freeform event called Freeformation.

It sounds like this was a result of it sounding more and more like regular hardcore and probably only sounds a bit more serious because it follows a Hixxy set. Around mid-way through the set I hear a tune that grabs my attention and surprise surprise its a tune off Next Generation in "Working Up A Sweat" by Ham.

Things did change somewhat when Neophyte joined Scott Brown. Instead of the usual 2/3 hardcore 1/3 gabber it was 100% gabber. This was a positive move in my opinion as whilst hardcore went downhill in the 21st century, gabber didn't. This was mainly because it never really changed.

Finally there was Dougal with Gammer. This was unlikely to alter too much given that many of Dougal's 21st century tunes were done with Gammer. By this time though Gammer now had his own label called Muffin Records for the material he did by himself.

The mix sounds like a Cludland advert from the word go. Having Gammer on the mix does give it a slightly harder edge, but overall it really sums up what I don't like about more modern hardcore music.

This album meant there had now been more Bonkers albums in the 21st century than there had been in the 20th century. It didn't stop there either, but more on that next week.

Bonkers Part 14

 

I could tell you the first upfront hardcore event I went to, but I honestly can't remember what the last one was. What I do know is that the first one was Helter Skelter at The Sanctuary and the last one would have been some small local club hosting a hardcore event.

Basically when I started going to upfront hardcore events again, I liked it enough to go to an event that wasn't too much effort but I didn't like it enough to travel to Birmingham for HTID or Shepton Mallet for Slammin Vinyl. The Sanctuary wasn't too far away, but by the time this Bonkers came out it had been closed for almost a year.

The fact of the matter was that I never consciously decided to stop going to upfront hardcore events, I just realised one day that I'd stopped going to them. I would still go to old skool nights though which makes it a bit more difficult to remember, but by the time Bonkers 14 came out I'm pretty certain I'd been to my last upfront hardcore event.

I also considered buying Bonkers 14, but I looked at how many remixes were on the track listing and decided no. Around the same time the Clubland Xtreme Hardcore series had started. I thought maybe that would cater for the cheese to appeal to the kids and Bonkers could be for those of us who had been around a while. I never listened to one to find out, until now.

Hixxy was the biggest culprit in terms of remixes with 8 of the 16 tracks being remixes. This included yet another remix of "Set You Free" and "Pretty Green Eyes" which definitely put me off buying it.

The opening track marked a return to Bonkers for the first time in the 21st century to Ramos and Supreme. They were doing the trancecore/freeform thing in the late 90s before disappearing for a few years. This comeback was very much down the cheesy route though. The same could be said for the opening few tracks. The GEOS track is one with MC Marley demonstrating once again why MCs shouldn't appear on tunes.

We then get a load of remixes until a track with MC Storm also demonstrating why MCs shouldn't appear on tunes. The final two tracks weren't that cheesy, but I didn't think much to them either.

Onto the Sharkey mix, and it a funny way it starts off as a refreshing change to the cheese fest that was Hixxy's mix. But if the Bonkers albums only ever consisted of the Sharkey mixes I would never have bought them.

A reviewer on discogs sums up the Sharkey mix when they say: well it's not bad, but after listening to it a few times I don't remember any of it.

The CD that's most likely to dictate whether I missed out on not buying this though is the Scott Brown one. The opening track sounds like a Clubland advert and is followed by 2 remixes. The latter grabs my attention until I realise it's an inferior version of a track on an earlier Bonkers. The same can be said about track 6 "Rock You Softly 2005".

It then turns into a bit of a cheese fest on tracks 9 - 11 including a remix of the god awful "You're My Angel" by Styles & Breeze. It then redeems itself with track 12 with a remix of a tune I'd never heard before. Then it's into the gabber section, which is definitely the best bit of the whole compilation.

Finally there's the Dougal mix. Lots of Essential Platinum records on there as expected. There's also an AATW record which is a hardcore mix of the commercial dance version of "Shining Down" by Force & Styles by United in Dance who are Dougal, Gammer and Styles.

Also on the mix is the only Next Generation record of the album which isn't a remix which is "Getting High" by Brisk & Ham. Unfortunately it's a rip off of "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood and a bit rubbish.

Appearing on Bonkers albums for the first time in the 21st century is Seduction who had come out of retirement, started a label called Maximum Impact and an event called Uproar. Also making their 21st century debut is Vibes who never went away but has never been very prolific at making records.

The interesting one is track 4 by Transit who are Chris Brown & Brad Carter. In the 90s Chris Brown was best known as Eruption and Brad Carter engineered lots of hardcore tunes. Away from hardcore they formed Ruff Driverz and Transit is noted as being an alias of theirs. However I'm not sure whether this was them returning to hardcore or this is a remix of an old track or a non-hardcore track. I've never read anything to suggest they did return to the scene at all.

The fact we had all these DJs/producers of yesteryear returning to the scene and that AATW had their own hardcore compilations would suggest hardcore was doing alright at this point in time.

In a way though, that was part of the problem. Look at any style of music that's had a degree of commercial appeal and you'll find it's the cheese that sells. Therefore they way to capitalise on that success is to make cheese.

All that said, Bonkers 14 was not that well received. I've seen some internet discussion saying Bonkers 15 was a big improvement. I'll find out whether it was next.

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. 

Bonkers Part 12

 

I bought Bonkers 12 when it was the newest Bonkers album so there shouldn't be any going back and forth with dates this time.

At the time of release we had just had the Hixxy & Sharkey show on Radio 1 and Hixxy was about to launch the event Hardcore Till I Die. Hixxy had also done a mix for the John Peel show which John Peel said was the best thing on the show in a long time. All tunes in said mix appeared on this Bonkers album.

Furthermore for the first time we had a fourth CD on a Bonkers album which was mixed by Breeze & Styles who were about to hit the Top 40 for the first time with a commercial dance version of their record "You're Shining". The scene was in a healthy state it seemed.

At the same time we were starting to see some of the things that started to drive people away again. With 2 CDs mixed by Raverbaby artists it should in theory give room for smaller labels to get a look in. However 10 of the 14 tracks on the Hixxy mix were on Raverbaby. Just one of these tunes actually got a Raverbaby release, something that would become a familiar theme.

From my perspective though, the Hixxy mix was probably the worst Bonkers mix I'd heard from him so far. I've owned this for 17 years and listened to it earlier today and I'm still struggling to think of any stand out tracks on it.

The Sharkey mix has one stand out track on there with "Hugger Mugger" by VAGABOND which is on Next Generation records. The final track is yet another hardcore version of "Punk" by Ferry Corsten.

The Scott Brown mix as always is better but I would say not as good as his 9,10 or 11 mixes. Once again it's a Next Generation record that's the stand out tune in "Crazy Love" by Brisk & Ham. What was becoming more apparent is that Next Generation and to a lesser extent Evolution were the labels with the decent tunes. The tunes to my liking on the other labels seemed few and far between.

Unfortunately the Breeze & Styles mix was the worst of the lot. It was mostly their own tunes or their remixes of vocal trance records. Even their remix of "Before Tomorrow" by Eclipse just sounded in every way inferior to the original.

This was definitely the worst Bonkers to this point in my opinion. I did however own other hardcore compilations from around this time such as the Next Generation one which was excellent. Therefore I wasn't giving up on modern hardcore just yet. Later on that year Bonkers 13 came out and I bought it.

Bonkers Part 11

 

As I said in my previous Bonkers post, I don't remember if I bought Bonkers 10 or 11 first but I did buy them around the same time. Of the two, it was Bonkers 11 that got more listens.

With the first 3 Bonkers albums of the 21st century by this point I've not been overly keen on the Hixxy mixes, though they all get better towards the end of the mix. With Bonkers 11 though he finally has a mix that I can enjoy listening to from beginning to end.

I'm not going to pretend it's anything other than the cheese fest it is. The opening track "Heavens Above" is incredibly cheesy and at the start I'm thinking here we go again, but at the end I'm singing along. The best track though is the 2nd one "24-7" by Eclipse aka Ham. 

The next track is from Recon who was a member of Ultrabeat, one of the acts responsible for commercial dance versions of hardcore tunes. This is him doing a hardcore tune though. 

The inevitable blip in the set comes courtesy of Ultrabeat - Feelin Fine (Darren Styles Remix). Basically Styles makes a hardcore tune, Ultrabeat turn it into a commercial dance track then Styles remixes it back into a hardcore tune. I can understand why it got included though.

In the Sharkey mix a track of note is "John Peel Is Not Enough" by CLSM. The record is about how Radio 1 had plenty of dance music shows but the only DJ to play hardcore is John Peel and his show wasn't even a dance music show. This ultimately led to Hixxy doing a mix for the John Peel show followed by a one off hardcore show on Radio 1 presented by Hixxy and Sharkey.

The highlight of the Sharkey set though is "Sounds Legit" by Brisk & Ham. Aside from that it just sounds like a typical freeform set that doesn't really do it for me.

Onto Scott Brown who's set has now extended to 19 tracks with the first 13 being hardcore and the final 6 being gabber. The stand out track in the hardcore section is the last one "Fly With You" by Scott Brown. I remember thinking what a tune the first time I heard it.

Aside from this the stand out tunes in the hardcore section are the two Brisk & Ham ones, "Angel Eyes" and "Taste The Rainbow". On that basis I shouldn't be picking a DJ who has the best set, instead the glory should go to Ham for having stand out records in all 3 sets.

Whilst I don't remember when exactly I bought Bonkers 11 I do know that the newest Bonkers at the time was Bonkers 12. Again I don't remember if I bought Bonkers 11 or Bonkers 12 first, but more on Bonkers 12 next week.

Bonkers Part 10

 

Bonkers 10 had been out for around a year or so when I purchased it. The scene seemed to be in a healthy place and I had started going to upfront events again. That said, it seemed nowhere near as big as it's 90s heyday and if an event had an old skool room I'd probably spend more time in there.

The opening track on the Hixxy mix is a spoken word piece called "Thou Shalt Not Forget" which was basically a dig at those who had previously written hardcore off but have changed their tune now it's popular again. In some ways I was one of those people, though I did stick with it up to it starting to get popular again.

The first actual tune is a Hixxy remix of "Bullet In The Gun" by Planet Perfecto. Then comes "Punk" by UFO which I'm surprised wasn't labelled Ferry Corsten - Punk (UFO Remix) because that's basically what it is. Then it's "The Beat Kicks" by Breeze & Styles which sounds like it should be a hardcore version of a Ferry Corsten tune but it isn't. You can see what angle the Hixxy mix is taking though with these tunes.

A slight change in direction for the next track, it's UFO and MC Marley with another tune that makes me cringe, "Underground". It doesn't really sound too different to "Connection" from Bonkers 9, just different lyrics with a bit of autotune. Then it's the Hixxy, Styles and Breeze remix of "Pretty Green Eyes" by Ultrabeat which seems a bit strange given Styles was one of the original composers.

For the 3rd time in a row "You're Shining" by Breeze & Styles makes an appearance as part of a mash up with "Future Set" called "Future Shining". We also have a remix of "Tekno Harmony" which itself is a rip off of "Sweet Harmony" by Liquid. 

For the first time since Bonkers came back there is a tune in the Hixxy mix which isn't on one of the big 6 hardcore labels or one of the bigger non-hardcore labels which is "Ultimate High" by Stargazer. The fact it's the Breeze & Styles remix probably helped get it on there. But after what I find quite an uninspiring mix up to this point, it suddenly comes to life with this tune. 

The next track is "Starlight" by Dowster which is the best tune in the mix. The last 2 tracks are also a big improvement over the earlier tracks in the mix. For the 3rd time in a row the Hixxy mix gets better at the end, the challenge is getting that far.

The Sharkey mix is the opposite. It begins with 3 breakbeat tunes from Ham which are all decent. The trouble is once the kickdrum comes in on track 4 I'm just wanting more breakbeat tunes. It would have probably alienated the freeform fans though if Sharkey did an entire mix of breakbeat tunes.

Once again though the best mix is the Scott Brown one. Like with Bonkers 9, it's 15 tracks with the first 10 being hardcore and last 5 gabber. Track 1 is what I think of as being the warm up for track 2 which is "Commence" by Plus System aka Scott Brown which has one of those great riffs.

I'm also a big fan of track 3 "Sunrise" by Deejay Bee & Overflow ft Vision, one of just two non-Evolution tracks in the first 10 with both being on Essential Platinum. The fourth track "I'm In Heaven" by Scott Brown sounds like I've heard a similar tune without the vocals. It's cheesy but I find myself singing along to it so it must be doing something right.

The rest of the hardcore part has a lot of what I would call evil voice type samples which can be a bit "what the fuck?" but at the same time the great thing about hardcore is you're not supposed to take it seriously. 

Maybe this was done on purpose to warm us up for the gabber section. Again no stand out tracks as such but good to have a bit of gabber in the mix.

Along with other newer Bonkers albums at the time, I found myself listening to the Scott Brown mix more than the Hixxy & Sharkey ones. But in the case of Bonkers 10 I would say I prefer the end of Hixxys mix and the start of Sharkeys mix to the middle of Scott Browns mix. 

I honestly can't remember if I bought Bonkers 11 before or after Bonkers 10, I did buy them close together. More on Bonkers 11 next week. 

Bonkers Part 9

 

When Bonkers 9 was released at the end of 2002 I'd more or less given up on modern hardcore music. I'd conceded that the 90s was my era and in the 21st century it was all about rap and R&B for me.

In 2004 when I gave the music another go, this was the only Bonkers album of the 21st century that I didn't buy. The reason was simply because I'd not seen it for a cheap enough price and there was some overlap in tunes with this and the new Hardcore Heaven compilation which came out shortly after this which I owned. Thanks to YouTube though I've been able to listen to it.

First up as always was the Hixxy mix. What stands out on the track list is 4 remixes which are clearly on there with commercial appeal in mind. The opening track is a remix of "Set You Free" by N-Trance, a tune pretty much everyone knows.

Then there's remixes of "Heart Of Gold" by Kelly Llorenna and "Field Of Dreams" by Flip & Fill. The notable thing here is that it's not the Force & Styles versions being remixed, it's the commercial dance versions being converted back into hardcore.

Finally at the end of the mix is a remix of "Wonderful Days" by Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo which was a big hit in Holland in the 90s.

In terms of new original material it's very Raverbaby heavy with all bar 2 of the remaining tracks coming from the label. The first of these is "Connection" by UFO fr MC Marley. If ever you needed proof you shouldn't have an MC on a hardcore track then this is it. 

The only one of these I find half decent is "Fire In The Sky" by Dougal & Gammer but even that seems to be missing something. The "Wonderful Days" remix is the best track on the mix by far.

The Sharkey mix on the other hand is actually a big improvement over what we'd been used to. The music was starting to sound more interesting than the sped up trance sounding music we'd previously been introduced to as freeform. 

Despite this though, I reach the end of the mix wondering what I'd just listened to. It's good in small doses but if it's a whole mix I switch off somewhere along the way.

The final mix came from a Bonkers debutant, Scott Brown. He was arguably the biggest hardcore DJ from Scotland in the 90s and was also successful in Holland. Although his tunes were well known, he never played at the likes of Helter Skelter or Dreamscape. However, in the 21st century he was regularly playing at the likes of Slammin Vinyl.

There are 15 tracks in the mix, the first 10 are hardcore and the last 5 are gabber. To me this is by far the best mix. As expected a lot of it comes from Evolution records, but that's basically why I like it. There is some cheesy vocal crap like a remix of "You're Shining".

But on the whole, the hardcore section is more fun and less cheesy than the Hixxy mix and the gabber part shows that it's not changed much since the 90s which is no bad thing.

Whilst Bonkers 8 was more of a statement that hardcore was back, I'd say Bonkers 9 was forming it's identity for the 21st century. The Hixxy mix is the cheesy commercial sounding mix with mass appeal in mind, the Sharkey mix is freeform for those who want something more serious and the Scott Brown mix shows that its not all cheese and freeform and that gabber still exists.

Next up is Bonkers 10 which I actually own.