I guess this one might not really class as a tune of the day as you can’t buy it unfortunately, but this track is absolute pure quality.

Thankfully nothing to do with 2Unlimited (although maybe that’s where the vocal sample came from) this is a classic dark stepper from 1993.

It’s pretty sinister at times with a lazy mentasm breakdown but the lush strings and pads shine through in several places. Despite sadly never seeing a proper release (only surfaced on plate), scant information and rumour has it that it was supposed to come out on Reinforced Records.

I’ve only ever heard it twice – once on a Fabio Dance Planet mix and then on a Doc Scott tape. I suspect it’s probably a Goldie or Manix tune but there’s also some big similarities with the Energy track that Goldie and A Guy Called Gerald did as the 2 G’$ on Juicebox (especially the drums). Maybe a collaboration…

Who knows. Either way it’s a storming tune and epitomises that deadly R Sound from back then – tough, futuristic music.

The post Reinforced Dubplate – “What Do Those Faces Tell You” appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

For show #001 I went for a little 4Hero and Goldie tribute. Going through the years from 1992 and the anthemic work of Manix, early Rufige, 4Hero and collaboration project ‘Internal Affairs’.

Be sure to check out Drumtrip Radio every Wednesday 8 – 9pm GMT on Mixlr with guests on rotation. Be sure to follow us to get alerts and updates!

Up next on Wednesday 9th April we have Dave M aka Brian Badonde taking the controls.

Tracklist
01. Manix – I Can’t Stand It – Reinforced
02. Manix – Hardcore Junglism (Exclusive Mix) – Reinforced
03. Rufige Cru – Menace – Reinforced
04. Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era – Peace & Loveism (4Hero Remix)
05. 4Hero – Journey From The Light – Reinforced
06. 4Hero – Students Of The Future – Reinforced
07. 2 Bad Mice – Mass Confusion (Rufige Kru Remix) – Moving Shadow
08. Internal Affairs – In My Soul – Reinforced
09. Nookie – Give A Little Love (Manix Remix) – Reinforced
10. Manix – One More Time – Reinforced
11. Internal Affairs – Hands To Heaven – Reinforced
12. Metalheads ‎- You And Me – The Beauty – The Beast – Synthetic
13. Rufige Kru – Fury – Moving Shadow
14. J Majik – Sunray (Rufige Cru Remix) – Infrared
15. Scarface – I Seen A Man Die (4 Hero NW2 Gangsta Move) – Virgin
16. Goldie – Jah – FFRR
17. Layla – Gotta Find Love (The Goldie Blue Room Vocal Mix) – Inferno
18. Tom & Jerry – Till The Morning – Tom & Jerry
19. Tom & Jerry – Maxi (Mun) Style (Nasty Jungle Remix) – Tom & Jerry
20. Nuyorican Soul – I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun (4 Hero Remix)

The post Law – Drumtrip Radio #001 [02/04/14] appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

Volume 6 however goes back a bit further, this time the mix heads into darker, post-hardcore territory. Starting from 1993 we have early works from established producers such as Dillinja (under his Capone alias), Lemon D, Photek (as Origination and Code Of Practice), Fenturion (Adam F) and Dexxtrous (J Majik). Without meaning to, looking back at the tracklisting there is a lot of really well known producers here, under some very earlier pseudonymous. A personal favourite of mine is the Bay B Kane cut “Unfolding Perspective” which gets darker than night during the Diana Ross sampling breakdown.

Expect lots of resampled string sections and synths, muddy mixdowns, amens, sub bass and movie sample quotes.

Half of the selection would also be eligible for inclusion under our Bargain Jungle series, with several tracks like “Treat Me Right“, “Age Of Aquarius” and “Back To The Future Pt 2” all available for well under a fiver on Discogs.

Tracklist

01. Sleepwalker – Age Of Aquarius (No Surrender, No Retreat) (L.D. Remix) – Hardtimes Recordings
02. N.W.1. Treat Me Right – Camden Tunes
03. Code Of Practice – Can We Change The Future (Dubplate Mix) – Certificate 18
04. Capone – Side B-2 (Black Wax EP) – Target Recordings
05. Fenturion – Mothership – Force Ten Records
06. DJ Crystl – The Dark Crystl – Force Ten Records
07. After Dark – Reincarnation – Moving Shadow
08. Origination – Signal To Noise – Rudeboy Recordings
09. 4 Horsemen Of The Apocalypse – We Are The Future (Darren J Remix) – Tone Def
10. Dexxtrous – Aquarius – Infrared
11. Bay B Kane – Unfolding Perspective – Whitehouse Records
12. DJ SDR & Subsonic – Back To The Future Pt 2 – Shoebox Recordings
13. Atlas – Drifting Thru The Galaxy – Deejay
14. Dexxtrous & Sudden Def – My World – Infared
15. Internal Affairs – In My Soul – Reinforced

You can check out the rest of the deep jungle series to download at: https://soundcloud.com/drumtrip/sets/deep-jungle-series

The post Law – Deep Jungle Vol 6 appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

4 Hero – Cooking Up Yah Brain (Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era Remix) (Reinforced, 1992)

Back in ’92 London’s Kiss 100 was a very different station to the one it is today. Just two years removed from being granted a license after several years as a pirate, they actually still played underground dance music during the daytime. Having recently moved to the Home Counties from Norwich it was a revelation to my eleven year old ears and I regularly recorded Graham Gold’s Saturday afternoon chart show on my Hitachi ghetto blaster.

It is here that I first heard a track that paired hyperactive synths and a frantic breakbeat with a vocal that not too subtly hinted at the health consequences of ecstasy use: the Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era remix of 4 Hero’s ‘Cooking Up Yah Brain’.
As Peter Shapiro said regarding 4 Hero’s earlier ‘Mr Kirk’s Nightmare’: “the track seemed like it was inviting ravers to dance to their own destruction”. Oblivious to all of this at the time, I played it again and again until the tape broke and these being the days before the internet allowed you to listen to almost any track, I didn’t hear it again for several years.

Fast forward to 2000 and I’m in Leicester’s 5HQ, the now sadly closed record shop that was owned by DJ SS. Flicking through the second hand racks a gold cover with the words “4 Hero ‘Remixes’” caught my eye and I couldn’t believe it when I discovered it was the tune that I had been longing to get my hands on. Despite the rather tatty condition of the cover and the £15 price tag I didn’t hesitate to commit the necessary funds from my student loan to make it mine.

The man behind Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era was Daniel Whiddett, now better known as Danny Breaks, and he had broken on to the scene the previous year with the massive ‘Far Out’. His remix of ‘Cooking Up Yah Brain’ doesn’t deviate significantly from the original, keeping in place the ‘Take Me To The Mardi Gras’ based break that anchors the track and using the same pitched up vocal samples. However, he increases the energy levels right from the start with a typically scratch-heavy intro featuring a lively bassline before rejigging the main synth riff to make it a lot more memorable.
The central “Cooking Up Yah Brain” vocal is Kool Keith on ‘A Chorus Line’ by the Ultramagnetic MCs while “Let The Bass Go” and “Y’All Ready For This” (made famous by a certain Dutch twosome who will remain nameless) are both from tracks by The D.O.C. (‘Let The Bass Go’ and ‘It’s Funky Enough’ respectively).
The track’s less hyper mid-section is extended and given an increased house influence by a sample of the synth arpeggio from Jamie Principle’s ‘Your Love’, one of the first ever house records, which also returns to close the track out after one final burst of that addictive synth riff.
Without question the best version of this track and quite simply one of my all-time favourite tunes.

The post TOTD: 4 Hero – Cooking Up Yah Brain (Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era Remix) appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

This mix here features all the early work from 4Hero alias Tom & Jerry, the selection takes you right up to the end up 1993 before T&J’s real ragga jungle influences kicked in, with tracks like Air Freshner and Maximum Style obvious omissions.
So basically you get the best of that hardcore / jungle crossover sound on tracks like the huge ‘We Can Be Free‘.

-Download link- 

01 The One Reason [SHELL001]
02 Physics [SHELL002]
03 The Second Reason [SHELL001]
04 Baby Don’t Shout [SHELL002]
05 Papillon Love Song [SHELL003]
06 We can be Free [SHELL002]
07 A patch of Blue [SHELL003]
08 For the Gold Teeth (F.N.T) [SHELL002]
09 B.O.S. Realting [SHELL003]
10 Let your spirit Rise [SHELL004]
11 Cat got your Tongue [SHELL003]
12 Programme 205 [SHELL004]
13 Scooby’s Dreaming [SHELL005]
14 Strings & Me [SHELL004]
15 Nine Lives (mind out tube mice) [SHELL005]
16 All alone with Dog Face [SHELL006]
17 Yamming snacks like Shaggy [SHELL005]
18 Sun on my Head [SHELL006]
19 Mousetrap (dangerous) [SHELL004]

The post DJ Extreme – All Tom & Jerry Mix appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

My point is, our James knows a bit about Jungle so you best listen to this superb mix entitled The Darker Mix.
Cramming 31 tunes in 80 minutes it pretty much shows you the best that Darkcore had to offer.

01: t. power & the sandman – oedipus complex (bonus beats) [soapbar]
02: s.m.f. – aardvark [rugged vinyl]
03: hannibal lector – suicide [asylum]
04: doctor g – the beeline [g-spot]
05: bizzy b – brainstorm [brain]
06: kev bird & the wax doctor – airspace [basement]
07: reel II reel – private & confidential (B1) [reel 2 reel]
08: megadrive – mega 1 (B) [f project]
09: dj spice – brand new (stressed out mix) [soapbar]
10: nick power & dj ku – mus’ get dark [ruff tuff & wicked stuff]
11: structural damage – really livin [symphony sounds]
12: tom & jerry – we can be free [tom & jerry]
13: a guy called gerald – darker than I should be [juice box]
14: specky ranx & navigator – wild & free [x amount]
15: cool hand flex – your risk [de underground]
16: foul-play – feel the vibe [oblivion]
17: nebula II – peace maker [reinforced]
18: johnny jungle – I like to cry [face]
19: bad influence – such a feeling [bad influnce]
20: the good, 2 bad & hugly – know how to rock [ruff kut!]
21: the impact crew – feels good [u no dat]
22: sublove – drum + bass programme [earth]
23: metal heads – knowledge [synthetic hardcore phonography]
24: bay-b-kane – hello darkness [ruff guidance]
25: s.l.m. – the horror [tone def]
26: the good, 2 bad & hugly – got to release [ruff kut!]
27: dj clarkee – have a good time [red zone]
28: biology productions – stop cry [biology]
29: sound corp – security overload [tone def]
30: body snatch – esoterics (dark mix) [big city]
31: acen – obsessed [production house]

The post J-Rolla – The Darker Mix [1992] appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.