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These are a set of DJ mixes encoded from old cassette tapes which I originally recorded between 1991 and 1993 and sold through record shops or mail order back in the day. It’s a document from those great years as it happened and a record of the journey I was going through exploring and discovering the new music of the day, alternating between my two big influences of the the time, breakbeat hardcore and techno.
It really is as it happened - tunes I was buying that week and unreleased promos I was being given. There’s even the odd tune I probably wouldn’t draw for now, plus amusingly at one point I play Renegade Soundwave - ‘Phantom’ on 45 (much to my retrospective shock!). But this was the era of Hardcore, it was fresh and different, there were no rules.
There’s no tracklistings. Some are obvious bangers and anthems of the time which you’ll know, some are not, and some are obscure releases which even I’m struggling to remember what they were. The mixes echo what I was playing on Pulse 90.6FM as well as at raves such as Helter Skelter, Labrynth, Slimetime, Knowledge, VFM and Eurobeat 2000.
Things kick off in the heyday of Dutch and Belgian Euro, inter-spliced with the UK Breakbeats of the time - think CJ Bolland, Altern-8, Tim Taylor. Then there’s a slew of 92 mixes that capture the fast pace changes in Hardcore’s golden year with too many names to mention, but as an example there’s labels like Moving Shadow, Reinforced, Rising High and producers like Nebula II, Guy Called Gerald, Doc Scott and so on. As the mixes move towards the end of 92, Techno starts creeping in, so there’s early Underground Resistance, Aphex Twin and lots of breakbeat stuff that was picking up on this sea change. With the 93 mixes, it’s the darker hardcore that was increasing in tempo (and post ‘Sesame Street’ pitched up vocals) acting as the pre-cursor of what would then become Jungle. The last mixes are predominantly Hard Techno and Gabba but tinged with Rave and Breakbeat, possibly not to everyone’s liking at this point but nonetheless a representation of another very vibrant strand of what was happening on the underground by late 93.
Quite impressed I had the foresight to record almost all of these onto metal cassette so given the technology, the recordings are not too bad. Unfortunately there’s a couple of moments of distortion on the early mixes, usually from two basslines in the mix but remember these were the days of mixers with no channel EQ or LED lights. And to be honest the mixes are by no means always perfect but nonetheless capture the moment. They’ve all been recorded as is, with no edits, all from take.
So over to you to push play and enter the rave….
Download all the studio mixes here:
www.djwarlock.com/Warlock_1991-1993_Studio_Mixes_Vol_1-8_MP3s.zip
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- Genre
- Hardcore
Contains tracks
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