One of my favourite tunes of last year was Doc Daneeka's massively upbeat slice of retro-rave, recently repressed on vinyl.
The vocal sample is from I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love by The Emotions, from 1976. Back in 1992 it was used by 2 Bad Mice, a duo from Hertfordshire 'fuelled by takeaway pizza and spliff'. Hold It Down is a great record, from a time when bedroom producers with some basic equipment, a stack of records and a few of ideas could move mountains. Incidentally, the vocal sample is also the line Bobby Gillespie was singing when Weatherall created Loaded (as posted by Drew at Across The Kitchen table earlier this month).
1991 was the time when the dance scene fractured, with the rise of 'ardkore. Hardcore/'ardkore developed between 1991 and 1993, new producers, djs and clubbers arriving and shifting things on, with breakbeats rather than metronomic drum machines, increasingly fast tempos, 'cheesey' synth sounds, sub-bass and sped up vocal samples. 'Ardkore also lurched away from the utopianism of early house/acid house towards a darker vibe- but Hold It Down, the title itself a phrase used by people in clubs rushing on E, isn't too dark, more massive fun. Hands in the air people.
There was a particular love in west central Scotland for the turbo charged Hardcore stuff in West Central Scotland, which I didn't share I loved some of it like Acen and the Suburban Base stuff but most of it was awful. We had loads of small labels up here churning the stuff out and buses left most towns every Saturday night to made nights in place like Prestwick Airport and loads of other venues in Ayrshire and West Lothian.
ReplyDeleteThat kind of explains why I was convinced for a good while that the "ah yeah" was actually a Smokey Robinson sample. Great track!
ReplyDeleteHanger 13 (?) in Ayr was particularly notorious if I remember rightly Drew.
ReplyDeleteYip, Hanger 13 was a favourite with Gadaff, Gav and Starkey
ReplyDeleteGabba.
ReplyDeleteSwiss Adam