The Fairy Tale...

I love older releases from Biosphere but haven't really kept up with his more recent music, doesn't help that you never see his music in Dublin stores!

This is an excellent track from the album Microgravity



MP3: Biosphere - The Fairy Tale

Ursa Major 7...

Erik Van Den Broek



This track is taken from the excellent X-Mix 3 which I originally bought the CD mix version back around its release in '94. This is one of my all time favourite mixes and I had to get my hands on the individual tracks as per the vinyl release. I eventually got a copy about 3 years ago and I have posted below one track for now...enjoy!



MP3: Eric Van Den Broek - Ursa Major 7

Teqtonik...

Beaumont Hannant



I don't know how I missed these CD's back then but I am very happy to have discovered them now, if only on MP3 till I buy them second hand...seeing as none are available anymore which is a serious shame because it is some of the best electronic music I have ever heard, and I really mean than! The only track I had heard before from these guys was Utuba which was featured on the excellent Artificial Intelligence II on Warp Records - it is beyond me why I didn't track down more from them when I bought this compilation back then. Anyways, such is life.

The song posted below is featured on the excellent Texturology

I will post more tracks another day but this is nice taster of the excellent music of Beaumont Hannant.

MP3: Beaumont Hannant - Texturology

Been a while...

I haven't posted for the last while as I have been a tad busy with work and life in general. Posting an entry in a blog can be time consuming and down the list of lifes priorities! I have however been getting my hands on a lot of good music and will pop some up soon.

Do Da Doo...

Robotman

Another excellent remix by Richie Hawtin and big with the likes of Billy Nasty and Justin Robertson back in the day.



MP3: Robotman - Do Da Doo (Plastikman Acid House Mix)

20 Minutes of Acid...

System 7 - Alpha Wave (Plastikman Acid House Mix)



An excellent tune remixed by one of the best, Richie Hawtin.

Discogs Info

Listen from start to finish!

MP3: System 7 - Alpha Wave (Plastikman Acid House Mix)

Intensities...

Slam



Along with most dance fans I have always loved Positive Education...its a natural floor filler and has been played by all sorts of DJ's over the years, regardless of genre preference or the type of crowd they are appealling to. The other mixes that were on the double 12" remix ep were also excellent but that bit darker than the original. As a bonus on the CD Maxi release, the amazing "Intensities (In-Ten-Cities)" was included and this had originally been the flip side to the first Soma release of Positive Education in 1993. I suppose Positive Education had more of a mass appeal feeling to it and for that reason is always considered a dance classic but Intensities is the real gem for me...

Download below the various mixes of Positive Education and the absolutely amazing Intensities.

Slam Folder

Star Dancer...

The Martian.

An absolute must for any electronic dance fans collection and still sounds as fresh today as it did back in 1993. Such an uplifting track that sits in any techno set, current or old skool. The flip side is also an excellent tune, much deeper and darker...don't have it ripped at the moment though, will pop it up another day.



MP3: The Martian - Star Dancer

Come Into My Life...

The Breathless Mix. I picked this track up on a React compilation a few years ago and have never managed to get the mix I really want which is the SMILE mix as featured here. They are basically the same tune but with vocals running through the SMILE mix.



There is a copy for sale on discogs for €60 and I have to say I am very tempted...in fact, except for that my credit card won't allow, I would buy it right now!!! Maybe thats a good thing as it is the reason why my credit card is over the limit. Anyway, the Breathless mix for now is featured below.

MP3: Abfahrt - Come Into My Life (Breathless Mix)

Indulge...

One of my many favourite tunes...a real classic early techno track. Also featured on the excellent mix of classics by Jeff Mills in the Choice series

MP3: Neal Howard - Indulge

Crispy Bacon, fried by Jeff...

This is the 'Solid Sleep Mix' by Jeff Mills of the classic Laurent Garnier tune, 'Crispy Bacon'. A pretty rare tune in that there were only 2000 copies pressed of the remix 12" on F Communications



While on the subject of Laurent Garnier, I would highly recommend buying this excellent mix consisting of 3 CD's covering a wide selection of the best electronic music from over the years...it genuinely is one of the best mixes money can buy. Oh and if you can pick up the extra two CD's, it really does complete an amazing set of 5 flawless CD's from one of the true masters. The full tracklist is here on discogs

MP3: Laurent Garnier - Crispy Bacon (Jeff Mills Remix)

Some Other People...

Orbitality



I bought this album back in around '94 or so in Tower Records, Dublin. I remember at the time asking could they recommend some electronic music and the guy suggested both this and also Vapourspace. I bought both and they are in with my many top albums of all time. Vapourspace being the more well known of the two but Orbitality is a gem of an album which I highly recommend...quite dark and best listened to from start to finish...was quite an experience in the good ol days with a spliff or trip:)



Some Other People - Orbitality

Beam Me Up...

Pegasus Mix...as requested.



Great tune as featured on this excellent 12"

MP3: Speedy J - Beam Me Up! (Pegasus Mix)

The Flow...

Model 500 AKA Juan Atkins.



2 excellent remixes of a legends original tune. Wouldn't know where to start really if I was to write a bit about Juan Atkins! As always, I'll copy below the excellent profile details taken from discogs...

Real Name: Juan Atkins
Profile: Date Of Birth: 12.9.62. Education: Belleville High School, Washentaw Community College, Recording Institute Of Detroit.
leg·end (ljnd):
1a. An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one believed to be historical.
1b. A body or collection of such stories.
2. One that inspires legends or achieves legendary fame.
Juan Atkins truly is a legend in his own time. Appearing behind aliases such as Cybotron, Model 500 and Infiniti, he has released many classics of sublime Detroit techno, including the 1982 electro track "Clear". Recorded by Atkins and Rick Davis as Cybotron, this track is often considered the first proto-techno track. Experimenting with fusing the extra-terrestrial funk of Parliament Funkadelic with the futuristic rhythms and hard math of Kraftwerk and the progressive dance theorems proposed by Giorgio Moroder, the Model 500 12"s laid the blueprint for Detroit Techno. Along with the tracks made by two schoolmates from the grade below, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, Detroit Techno quickly made its way across the Atlantic and immediately sparked the emerging rave culture and soon after the entire global dance community. Moving through the later 80's as Model 500, Atkins continued as one of the most prolific and sought after producers of electronic music throughout the 90's, culminating in the use of an Atkins' original as the musical bed for the 2000 launch of the Ford Focus 'Detroit Techno' automobile. Juan joins Moby on the Area One tour, and then takes the road on a stateside Om Record's tour this summer.
Packing clubs from Detroit to NY to Venezuela, Juan has mastered the art of soaking up new rhythmic elements from contemporary dance music while keeping his unerring, instantly recognizable sense of melody intact. Much discussed and anthologized not only for his 20 years of production credit but also for his ability to rock a dance floor, Juan Atkins' music and DJing is deified in Europe and embraced all over the world. Juan has also been prolifically releasing albums, remixes and collaborations on Belgium's R&S Records, Germany's Tresor, and others. His six full-length releases are available only as imports.

MP3: Model 500 - The Flow (Frank De Wulf Mix)

MP3: Model 500 - The Flow (Jedi Knights Remix)

Next is the E...

Moby



Discogs info...

Real Name: Richard Melville Hall
Profile: Born : September 11, 1965 // New York, NY, United States
One of electronic music's most visible and talked-about figures by far, Moby's career comprises many years of work and many many musical twists and turns. His career stretches all the way back to early rave and acid-house releases in the late 80's and early 90's as U.H.F. and Voodoo Child, through to his much loved/hated r&b/blues/pop/techno sample cut-ups of today.His most notable tracks from his early days include "Next Is The E", "Everytime You Touch Me" and "Into The Blue", and the classic "Go", as well as his early albums "Ambient" and "Early Underground". A brief outing into more rock-oriented territory came with 1996's "Animal Rights", followed by "I Like To Score" in 1997, highlighting his past movie score contributions (most notably a remix of the "James Bond Theme").In 1999 and 2000, Moby found unprecedented pop success with the album "Play" and the slew of singles and radio tracks that came from it ("Honey", "Run On", "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?", "Natural Blues", "Porcelain", "Southside", and more). Among other things, his appearance as a DJ in the foyer of the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards (wearing a gold suit and playing two golden copies of "Play") led many people to decry him as a sellout. Nonetheless, his follow-up album "18" tinkered very little with the "Play" sound and still received a mostly positive reception in 2002.Besides the many faces of his music, Moby also gathers controversy for his outspoken religious, dietary and animal rights views, as well as persistent rumors that his live shows are mostly pre-recorded. Every Moby release from the mid-90's onward has borne the text "Animals are not ours to eat, wear or experiment on. Thanks to Christ."

I have huge respect for Moby and have loved his music since way back. 'Next is the E' was a big tune in Dublin back then and I'm sure in other countries too.

Lots of Moby available to buy here

MP3: Moby - Next Is The E (Club Mix)

Bug Powder Dust...

La Funk Mob Remix



Excellent tune from 1994 featuring Justin Warfield with Bomb The Bass

Buy music by Bomb The Bass Here

MP3: Bomb The Bass - Bug Powder Dust (La Funk Mob Remix)

Outrage...

Great track from about '92 on Junior Boys Own.

MP3: Outrage - That Piano Track

Deep Piece...

Another of my favourite tunes from back in the day. This is from the Limbo label which pumped out some excellent tunes over the years.

MP3: Deep Piece - Torwart

Moments Of Inertia...

An excellent release from Circle City on the fantastic Warp label. This was a huge tune in Dublin back in the mid '90's and brings back some great memories for me.

MP3: Circle City - Moments of Inertia

Fela Kuti

I can't believe I have only discovered the music by Fela Kuti in the last few weeks, absolutley spectacular stuff...a nice blend of jazz, funk, soul and traditional African music.

The following details are copied from his profile on discogs. I would highly recommend buying any of his albums




Real Name: Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome Kuti
Profile: Born October 15, 1938 in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Died August 2, 1997 of AIDS and heart failure in Lagos, Nigeria.

Staring his career some time around 1960, he was known as Fela Ransome Kuti until about 1976. He was a human rights revolutionary that started his own political party Movement of The People. He had his own compound where he and his uncountable number of wives lived. They were constantly terrorized by the Nigerian government. His influence on funk and African music is unsurpassed with approximately 77 records.

Two tracks posted below, one called "Lady" from 1975 and the second is an excellent tribute track from Masters at Work called "Expensive"



Enjoy...

MP3: Fela Kuti - Lady

MP3: MAW - Expensive (Tribute to Fela Kuti)

Tricky Disco

A must-have early tune from the excellent Warp label. Featured also on Warp 10+2 Classics 1989-1992 Compilation. A well worth addition to your cd collection...

MP3: Tricky Disco - Tricky Disco

White Love

It was only a matter of time really before I posted this track given that it is in with my many favourites of all dance music and took a long time to track down on vinyl...not because its rare (this mix though is rare - Scott Hardkiss Mix), but that I had it on a mix tape and didn't know the name until about 2 years ago. It really is such an important tune to me and brings back so many memories of my early honeymoon with E and everything that went with it -the honeymoon went on to marraige and a bad divorce but still holds amazing memories that I would never change. Listening now nearly brings a tear to my eye...a spectacular build which was rarely heard in clubs due to the slow tempo which changes in a dramatic way just after 8 minutes when it kicks in. AMAZING!!! In fairness, as you would expect from Slam.

The original mix is featured on the excellent Morning Dove White...produced by Andy Weatheral in 1993.

MP3: One Dove - White Love (Slam Mix)

Semi-Detached

The following few paragraphs are taken from the excellent booklet supplied with the Trance Europe Express Compilation. Its a good read and even more interesting in the fact that it was written in the early stage of Orbitals excellent career. Orbital were a major part of my introduction to this music and I still class their 2nd album (Brown) as one of the best ever.

Written By: Andrew Smith for "Trance Europe Express CD Compilation Booklet" 1993.

"It was in April 1990 that Orbital's majestic "Chime" crashed into the Gallup chart at number 17.They were the first act of thier kind to do it, the first forced into fighting what was to do with an instrumental record fashioned out of bleeps and orchestral sweeps and performed by a pair of skinheads standing behind a mixing desk, absorbed in the act of creation. In a sense, you could see their point.

For the rest of us, it was a good time. Dance records were starting to make a mass impact on the mainstream. Invention was in the air. For the Hartnoll brothers, on the other hand, it was confusion. Though the establishment classed them as another pesky dance act, DJs wouldn't play their tunes and, in the main, still won't - the music is too complex and multi-layered for all but the most adventurous jocks.



Neither did London Records yet understand what they had a hold of: something far more substantial than had seemed possible as the ink was drying on the newly-exchanged contracts. A series of running battles took place everytime another disc was due for release, with the corporation insisting on changes to make it more commercial and the boys steadfastly refusing. Now, they're left to their own. It's taken three years, two albums and seven glorious EPs for the world to catch up with Orbital. Few would deny, that it's been worth the wait.
What the Hartnolls have been doing over these years is quietly spearheading a movement away from the the utilitarian musical philosophies that had come to dominate on the club fringe: the idea that to fill a dancefloor for a few hours was enough-As Orbital, they wanted to make music you could listen to anywhere; they wanted to play live like a band, to improvise and challenge. That word improvise is the key. To this day, Orbital still decline to describe themselves as a "dance" act.

"I don't differentiate between electronic music and any other kind" says Paul who, at the age of 25, is the younger of the pair by four years. "I just see this music as a soundtrack to the computer age. Because we're living through a revolution. One day a kid at school is going to press a button on his or her wristwatch and access a history textbook. They're going to turn to a chapter on the Industrial Revolution, and read about the changes that are happening now. We're just learning how to use the tools that are becoming available to us, just as musicians once had to come to grips with the invention of the piano. I think people get too obsessed with the tools of the trade, rather than the energy that's gone into it and the power of the end result."

In other words, Orbital have helped to reclaim electronic music as an art form, one with a history stretching back more than 20 years. Take 'Chime' and the recent single, 'Lush', for instance, with their spiralling, chattering main theme and chaotic cross-rhythms - they have more in common with the work of avant garde orchestral composers such as Michael Nyman or Philip Glass. This is allied to a purity of sound most often associated with early electronic pioneers Kraftwerk (who, tellingly, first came together at a Stockhausen convention in '69). The stuttering electro beats of 'Oolaa', 'Remind' or 'Halcyon', on the other hand, bring to ming the vintage moves of Africa 'Planet Rock' Bambaata or Cabaret Voltaire circa 'Sensoria'.

The Lush upper textures are pure 'Dare'-era Human League, fucked-up and fried. Listen to early experimentalists such as the German group Can or the following decade's Mantronix and Sugar Hill Gang (as heard on the ground-breaking hip hop of Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five's 'The Message' or Melle Mel's majestic 'Step Off'): fragments of all these echo through Orbital's two eponymously titled albums, but given a pleasingly direct, post-acid, '90s spin. You can dance to it if you want - you don't have to.

Are Orbital conscious of coming back from a particular tradition? "We are from a tradition of bedroom twiddlers," laughs Paul, not untruthfully, and with a twinkle in his eye.



The brothers' attitude to their art has everything to do with personal history. As a teenager growing up in the sleepy Kent hamlet of Sevenoaks, Phil, like so many suburb-dwellers of his generation, was fired by punk. To this day he sports an impressive collection of rings in his ears and a large and nasty scar on the underside of his left arm, the result of a failed and bloody attempt to tattoo an Anti-Nazi league logo on himself. He was 14 at the time.

"My mum came home and saw it and immediately dragged me down to the doctor," he explains. "He took one look and decided to try an experimental method of removing it. Basically, he took hold of the skin and cut it off with a knife, a great chunk of it, then cauterised the wound. I don't know what he was thinking of..."

Later, Phil trained as a builder, working on sites in his home town. ("They all thought I was gay, just 'cos I looked different and did different things to them. I hate that kind of small-mindedness.") This experience also convinced the elder Hartnoll that day-jobs were best avoided.

Stints followed with an unlikley array of bands (did someone mention New Romantic?), though the process of collaborating with groups of musicians proved equally frustrating. His main outside interests these days are his two young sons, Louis and Milo, and his cuddly green new VW camper van.

Paul, according to his brother, was more of a "second generation punk, into Crass and all that stuff". After school, he studied art at Hastings College, before leaving to concentrate on music. He's the dreamer, the gadabout music junkie who's to be spotted at clubs and gigs about town with awesome regularity. He was recently identified in the salubrious surroundings of The Marquee, taking in, of all things, Verve. The first records he remembers being into was 'Sugar Sugar' by The Archies. Paul also goes in for a spot of DJing these days, though he denies this has affected his own approach to music in any way. "It's just a sneaky way of getting to play our stuff before it gets released" he says.

Orbital's eclectic and often startling use of sampled material comes as no surprise when you know all this. On 'Omen' for instance, they took from ABC's 'How to be a Millionaire'. 'Choice' found them mugging anarcho-punk band Crucifix. 'Naked And The Dead' featured Scott Walker, while the luscious 'Halcyon' was fashioned from a looped segment of Opus III's 'Fine Day'

Artists namechecked in interview include Michael Nyman and Steve Reich, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine - all people, the discerning reader will note, with a highly developed sense of drama. Rated contemporaries are Underworld, CJ Bolland, Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia and The Aphex Twin. Well rounded chaps, Orbital.

'Semi-Detached, which you're no doubt listening to now, began life as a projected remix of 'Lush'. But as they worked on it the boys reached a point where they realised that it had virtually nothing to do with the original. So they decided to make it into something different. This, chuckles Paul, is not the first time such a thing has happened. The track is something of a departure for Orbital, being more linear and trancey than anything they've released. This is, they say, an approach they're likely to be pursuing in greater depth in the future. Remember, you heard it here first. The title, according to Paul, was chosen for two reasons, one formal, one existential. "First, it was recorded in two halves and we didn't know precisely what it was going to sound like until we'd finished it - it was recorded more or less live, as a performance. Also, there was a lot of stuff going on with tours (most notably the MIDI Circus jaunts) and the LP ('Orbital 2'). At the time, it was a great release to pull ourselves away from that and make some music, to be semi-detached. When we were doing the track, we just got totally lost in it. It was exactly what we needed at the time, really enjoyable."
So, is this all part of the gameplan?
"Naw, we don't have one of them," grins Paul. "If you try to plan music things, they never go right and then you feel like you've failed. If you don't plan, surprising things happen."



Indeed they do, in Orbital's world, all the time."

That took a while to type...3 cans of Heineken later and a sore back, here is the tune from Orbital called Semi-Detached. More from Orbital another day.

MP3: Orbital - Semi-Detached

3 from Speedy J...

I'm a big fan of Speedy J and bought a lot of tunes on the Plus 8 label in the early to mid 90's. I downloaded a couple of tracks last night on the excellent www.thewhitenoiserevisited.co.uk and mentioned in a comment that "The Hot Mix" of Pepper (Warp) was my prefered mix...so here it is, along with "Rise" & "Evolution" (Plus 8). A few more to come that I have to rip from vinyl.

Discogs Info

MP3: Speedy J - Pepper (The Hot Mix)

MP3: Speedy J - Evolution

MP3: Speedy J - Rise

In honour of my blog title...

Scubadevils - Celestial Symphony



It is only right that my first post on my first blog should be in honour of a fantastic track by David Holmes under the alias of Scubadevils, especially given that I have named my blogger after this tune! I first heard this on an excellent compilation from 1993 called "Trance Europe Express". I was a young raver at the time and in the process of falling in love with the scene and all music styles that went with it...the purchase of this compilation and also Volume 2 further enforced my relatively new found passion for the various styles of electronic music featured on these CD's. My introduction to the electronic dance scene had been the likes of Aphex Twin, Orbital, N-Joi to name a few...I will waffle more about this topic another day :)

As already mentioned above, the track posted was featured on the excellent Trance Europe Express Volume 1 -

Discogs Details

The tune...

MP3: Scubadevils - Celestial Symphony