Monday, 28 August 2017

Delusions Of Grandeur


Hardkiss were a San Franciscan trio who played a key role in the early 90s in establishing rave/dance music in the USA. At first they put on parties, promoting and djing, then moved into producing records and running a label. All three- Scott (God Within), Gavin (Hawke) and Robbie (Little Wing)- started making their own work which then got mixed together on their 1994 album Delusions Of Grandeur. This is a twenty minute segued sampler mixing ten of the tracks which make up Delusions... (which was remastered and  re-released in 2015).

1. God Within - ''Raincry (Spiritual Thirst)''
2. Hawke - ''3 Nudes Having Sax On Acid''
3. Drum Club - ''Drums Are Dangerous (Drugs Are Dangerous)''
4. God Within - ''The Phoenix (Rabbit In The Moon's Riverandrain Mix)''
5. Little Wing - ''Mercy Mercy''
6. God Within - ''Daylight (Dreamerdreamsalone)''
7. Hawke - ''Pacific Coastal Highway #1''
8. Rabbit In The Moon - ''Out Of Body Experience (Burning Spear)''
9. Unknown - ''Top Secret Song''
10. Little Wing - ''Thing (One)''




This being San Francisco things are pretty cosmic and hippy in places and by all accounts SF rave had a New Age 'spiritual vibe' (plus drugs) that marked it out as different. The trio saw Future Sound Of London's Papua New Guinea as the starting point for what they wanted to do and the album's tracks go from acid house to trance to breakbeat and techno. In places they veered close to the kind of mood music cds you can find in garden centres with samples of bird calls and monkeys but on the whole this is forward thinking, open minded stuff.

As a bonus here's their inspiration, FSOL's Papua New Guinea, a true moment of greatness. Counter intuitively, for something that works best as an extended track, this is a 7" version. Still epic and massive.

Papua New Guinea (7" Mix)


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