Those wot were there, set the historical record straight

Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Yeah, although I've seen nostalgic old skool sets where every single tune is an anthem and the effect was (for me) overwhelmingly euphoric.

I'm a bit of a banger whore though.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
And also this isn't just about rave/hardcore, I'm sure that process of mythification has happened with grime by now too. (Same with rap music, same with ANY music...)
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
blissblogger said:
it's hard to say... memory being a form of filtering and selection and mythification in itself

one thing i've noticed though is that old skoolism necessarily distorts because an old skool dj set or mixtape can cream off the best tunes over a whole span of time, whereas in the clubs at the time deejays would typically play a lot of out-that-week tunes and a lot of these would be fairly run of the mill white labels.... i mean, the kind of obscure oddities or pretty-good things that we would now be buzzed to stumble on YouTube or in some stack of old second-hand vinyl .... but at the time these were were sub-anthemic stuff, DJ tools really - and the accumulation of that could be a bit.... level, i think is the word... it would do the job, sustain the basic vibe .... but not have the explosive effect of an anthem dropping

i can remember some mediocre nights ... where it didn't quite ignite cos the music was all of that type (or the pill was a dud)

but when all the elements converged, it was every bit as incandescently exciting as the myth says

in a way the anthems or amazing tunes, when they drop, have more effect against a more workaday backdrop

if you played 10 x 'Renegade Snares' or 'Terminator' in a row, it wouldn't work
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See I'm a bit the opposite. in collecting old tapes and sets if something like origin unknown valley of the shadows, open your mind and wots my code dubplate and terminator are in the same set I'm like nah, probably going to pass on that one. this is a house/techno approach, but, weirdly enough, I got into house and techno through hardcore, not the other way around.
 
HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

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IdleRich said:
Tell me about this, was that at the Zodiac or what? Would love to know about stuff happening in Oxford.
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I knew it as The Venue which was quite a way up Cowley Road, near the Tesco. You went in and up the stairs to the first floor. Main room and bar at the back. Shocking bogs. It's the O2 Academy now. There are occasional Prism/Spectrum revivals there, i went to one in 2011.

Prism was hardcore, techno and finished December 1992 iirc
Spectrum, the Friday house night, with which it had alternated, carried on for years after. I stopped going in 1993 though. Gat Decor kinda place. The crowd was great though, way more town & brookes than gown. Rugby techno was in the future.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I knew it as The Venue which was quite a way up Cowley Road, near the Tesco. You went in and up the stairs for the first floor. Main room and bar at the back. Shocking bogs. It's the Carling Academy now I think. There are occasional Prism/Spectrum revivals there, i went to one in 2011.

Prism was hardcore, techno and finished December 1992 iirc
Spectrum, the Friday night with which it had alternated, carried on for years after. I stopped going in 1993 though. Gat Decor kinda place. The crowd was great though, way more town & brookes than gown. Rugby techno was in the future.
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Yeah, must be the Zodiac - or it was called that in... I dunno, 95 or whatever, maybe been through a number of name changes over the years. What was Spectrum then? I like the way they had a kind of "Refracted light" theme going on with their night titles.

in a way the anthems or amazing tunes, when they drop, have more effect against a more workaday backdrop
if you played 10 x 'Renegade Snares' or 'Terminator' in a row, it wouldn't work
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That's the same in any genre though isn't it? Peaks and troughs heighten the experience. Knowing when to hold back and when to go is probably a big part of being a successful dj.
 
HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

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IdleRich said:
What was Spectrum then? I like the way they had a kind of "Refracted light" theme going on with their night titles.
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House, progressive house. I remember seeing Billy Nasty there, he was very good, but I was going through the motions otherwise and we started taking the Tube into London to nights like Knowledge, Lost and whatever was on at the Labyrinth. Mate of mine went to Roast & AWOL a bit, but he was a Londoner and knew the what, where & how.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Well I grew up nearby, went to university in 95 and then started going clubbing. Then when I came back in the holidays I was looking for somewhere to go and Oxford and Swindon were the nearest places... sadly.
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
HMGovt said:
House, progressive house. I remember seeing Billy Nasty there, he was very good, but I was going through the motions otherwise and we started taking the Tube into London to nights like Knowledge, Lost and whatever was on at the Labyrinth. Mate of mine went to Roast & AWOL a bit, but he was a Londoner and knew the what, where & how.
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knowledge sounds like it would have been absolutely blinding. progressive house i still have no idea how it got so big, i guess because it dispensed with the shuffly and overtly dubby aspects of chi/nyc house. absolutely tedious gash and now my mates are trying to revive it in their techno sets. that's when i realised that a healthy bit of anally retentive techno purism is a good idea, contrary to bliss. mind you, this purism should be calculated extremely stringently. too much and you get berghain. too little and you get breakbeat edits of armin van buuren.
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
tacky, cheap cheesy organ sounds. not lo fi, just shit.


i guess Britain needed their house in easily digestable form like most things.
 
sufi

sufi

lala
this was the maddest thing we ever heard back in C89-90
been a while since i heard it and i'd be interested in hearing what you all make of it
 
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B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
IdleRich said:
Well I grew up nearby, went to university in 95 and then started going clubbing. Then when I came back in the holidays I was looking for somewhere to go and Oxford and Swindon were the nearest places... sadly.
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Seems I arrived there as HM Govt left...I can report that from '95 Zodiac had quite a few jungle nights alongside the gigs, and was a decent venue... But yeah, the Oxford Tube remained the best nightlife option
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Seems I arrived there as HM Govt left...I can report that from '95 Zodiac had quite a few jungle nights alongside the gigs, and was a decent venue... But yeah, the Oxford Tube remained the best nightlife option
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Wait, were you in/at Oxford then too Baboon? How come I never knew that?
I liked Brunel Rooms in Swindon but all my friends were from school nearer to Oxford so none of them were ever up for going that way.
 
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