Various - Psychotrance 2: Darren Emerson

Moonshine Music: 1994

Why have I put off returning to the Psychotrance series for so long? It certainly isn't because of dashed expectations. I've long known these early editions are almost entirely devoid of trance – I only listened to one to come to that conclusion. Could my techno sensibilities simply refuse the titles out of hand, a quirky artifact of '90s compilation marketing gimmicks? I don't see why not, but something else always twigged me. Lack of DJ familiarity, that's it. Or at least, somewhat. Like, I know who Mr. C is. I know who Slam is. I know who Darren Emerson is. Eric Powell though? Daz Saund? Utter blanks.

No, I must be honest with myself. The only reason I've skimped on early Psychotrance CDs is because I just haven't ever found them around on the cheap. Or rather, I haven't made the effort to find them on the cheap. I'm sure Lord Discogs' marketplace has plenty, but eh... Unless they happen to be in a seller's stash I'm already buying from, they just don't register high on my 'Want' list.

They should be though, if Darren Emerson's set is representative of just how bangin' these CDs can go. Yeah, there's precious little trance here. Even the most liberally minded genre enthusiasts couldn't argue that Josh Wink, The Advent, Dave Angel, or Acid Jesus (aka: early Alter Ego) were ever considered trance. This is a techno set through and through, with ample amounts of acid and Detroit futurism. I suppose the more shocking thing about Psychotrance 2 is that it comes from Darren Emerson, whom a great many only knew as part of Underworld at the time. He had a robust DJ career before that though, and carried on with gigs on the side while maintaining his role of Awesome Beatmaker with Karl and Rick. Psychotrance 2 was his first official mix CD, though I don't think much hullabaloo was made over it. Dude didn't even get his name on the front cover!

Anyhow, supposing someone picked this up because of that Underworld connection, I do wonder what their initial reactions would be. We're dropped in Detroit techno's domain quite early, by only second track Son Of Norma from Norma G (technically Dutch, but the Detroitism is undeniable). Following that is the brisk acid stomper Liquid Summer from Josh Wink, and the pace only quickens from there. Stefan Robbers' Validate (Funkybizmix) gets a little trancey (pst, it's that 'Norma G' fella' again), but then Nüw Idol's Zim brings us right back to some future-shock neo-urban broken-beat business (with a melodic assist from Acid Jesus' Move My Body). This, from the Underworld guy!

Did I mention this is also a live set? Okay, maybe that's not as impressive - a lot of mix CDs (without access to fancy studios) were recorded live back then. It just caught me off guard hearing a bunch of scratches in a supposed 'trance' set. Yeah, yeah, Psychotrance was never about trance. Damn Moonshine marketing.

Various - Classic Rave 2

Moonshine Music: 2000

It was the Year 2000, and the first nostalgic pangs of rave's early years was hitting everyone's memory membranes. Or Moonshine was just looking for another genre to corner in their relentless output of compilations and DJ mixes. Perhaps both, though probably more the latter.

For sure there would always be some reason for some label to trot out another round of licence-friendly 'classics', but there wasn't a super-high demand for it either. Rather, such discs were more for the impulse buyer, a dude or dudette glancing over a track list, recognizing a tune or three they didn't already have, and going from there. For the record, the tunes in my case were Orbital's Chime, Felix's Don't You Want Me, and The Good Men's Give It Up. No shame.

I can't deny my recollection of just how pervasive 'classic rave' CDs had become by the turn of the century is hazy – I'd imagine more so in the UK than anywhere in the Americas. And to be fair, Moonshine's Classic Rave series wasn't specifically meant to be just about old-school hardcore. Rather, a whole run of Classic [Genre] was planned, kicking off not just with a Classic Rave, but a Classic Acid too (oh look, three Hardfloor tracks you already got!). Unfortunately, the Electronic Music Classics run sputtered before it really got started, this Classic Rave 2 thrown out with little fanfare before the series folded. Going by the selection of tracks on here, it's easy to see why.

Like I said, I got this mainly for three out of the eleven tracks, which is a fair when paying used shop prices for a CD. Give It Up has always been a guilty pleasure, and Chime is Chime. D'at Felix track though, one of the earliest examples of Rollo's penchant for big synth chord anthems, and steering Hooj Choons down the prog-house road we all love and adore (well, some did). Others I'd heard about, but hadn't heard yet, so figured Classic Rave 2 a handy pick-me-up for a knowledge drop. Let's go over those tracks now!

2 Bad Mice's Bombscare: definitely an important record in establishing Moving Shadow's footprint in the proto-jungle scene, but I've heard better. Acen's Close Your Eyes: definitely on that 'Prodigy: Phase 1' tip, but I prefer Trip II The Moon. X-Press 2's London X-Press: wow, they were able to sustain a career into the new century with this run-of-the-mill slice of New York house? N-Joi's Anthem: alright piano house with some nice string-pads, but Papillon's better. Also, what are house tracks doing on a rave compilation?

As if that wasn't enough to convince Classic Rave 2 was a slapdash afterthought from Moonshine, the chemical breaks of Electronliners' Loose Caboose and big-beat of Basco's The Beat Is Over fills out the rest. Yes, two cuts that have almost nothing to do with 'classics' or 'rave', and weren't even half a decade old yet. What, couldn't get any Praga Khan up in this warehouse?

Various - Big Dirty Beats 2: Bigger Dirtier Beats

Moonshine Music: 1999

Here's an audacious proclamation: Big Dirty Beats 2 may very well be the last, great big beat compilation ever made. Yeah, the genre still had some life in it for a number of years after, and the big players in big beat kept releasing albums for decades longer. Heck, there may even be a few solid DJ mixes scattered about in the 21st Century from said big players showcasing some extra longevity in the old girl. Plus, how can I make such a claim without having heard every big beat compilation released after this one? Honestly, I don't even know of any such releases from after the year 2000, nor am I anxious to trawl the depth of Lord Discog's tomes in search of such items to prove my audacious proclamation.

Yet I confidently make it, for a few reasons. One, the genre itself truly was on the outs shortly after this CD came out. As mentioned, the Fatboys, Chemical Bros and Propellerheads of the world could still make hay from it, while the soundtrack business remained quite lucrative. That was about the extent of its market penetration though, the top spots already filled, and little to no room for newer cats to stake a claim. Besides, there was a new-fangled sub-genre of breaks gaining positive underground cred; a nu-er 'skool', if you will. Sorry, big beat, but may as well make a name in that scene instead when Junkie XL is getting all the plush scoring gigs.

In my books (and my blog), what makes a great compilaton truly great is not stuffing a pile of recognizable hits and names and calling it a day. It's unearthing overlooked gems that properly represent whatever your CD's theme is selling. Unfortunately for big beat, such occurrences had grown exceedingly rare by the turn of the century due to the above factors. Even this series from Moonshine never made it past its second volume, but if Big Dirty Beats 2 was to be its swan song, it was a heck of a way to go out.

Right off, you know you're in for something better than the norm, as the CD opens with not The Wiseguys' huge hit Ooh La La, but their lesser hit Start The Commotion. Okay, the tracks are practically the same, but it at least shows Moonshine thinking outside the box. At the other end of the CD is Lunatic Calm, LC001 (Neon Ray Mix), and if you're drawing a big ol' blank on that tune, that's just because you never looked further into Lunatic Calm's discography post-Metropol. The only other 'star acts' here is Omar Santana and Cirrus, with their future video-game staple Time's Running Out, but I'll allow it, as it's a dope tune. (also, Afrika Bambaataa, but his cut isn't much of anything)

The remaining seven tracks feature acts with barely any Discoggian presence, offering up a variety of breaks that are as big, dirty, and dope as anything the stars of the day made. *chef's kiss*

Various - Better Living Through Circuitry

Moonshine Music: 2000

I haven't seen this documentary, by the by. Just seemed like redundant information from my end. I'm sure there were little details included that I didn't know, but for the most part, I was quite up to speed with the ins and outs of American rave culture when Better Living Through Circuitry was released. I'd watched the movies Go and Groove, after all!

Jokes aside, this isn't meant to be a humble-brag or anything on my part. 'Rave' as a thing in the Americas was only a decade old (holy cow!), and for half that time, I'd been digging and prodding into as much as I could despite my geographical handicap. Regular pilgrimages to the Holy Land of Electronica CDs helped (re: music shops in Vancouver like A & B Sound, Virgin Megastore, Sam The Record Man, etc.), while media like spotlight showcases on MuchMusic and the magazine Mixer rounded things out. Plus a little thing called The Internet, that clued me in on a bunch of things too.

Still, the end of the '90s saw quite the surge in interest from newcomers, and a little DVD documentary bringing such folk up to speed wasn't such a daft idea. In fact, Better Living Through Circuitry was being promoted as the first ever documentary to summarize just what all this raving business was on about! Well, the first in America, maybe. Europe had been making such docs since the early '90s, but then club culture had reached popular saturation there well before it ever did in the Americas (sans some pockets among coastal cities).

Anyhow, a soundtrack was released in conjuction with it, because you can't talk about a culture based around rave music without some actual rave music playing. Some of the artists they interviewed get tunes in (Genesis P. Orridge's Psychic TV, Keoki, Roni Size), while the rest is about what you'd expect to hear on the West Coast of the US at the time. Lots of acid, breaks, d'n'b and... The Future Sound Of London's Expander? Not that I mind hearing it again, but seems a bit random a tune to have as representative of rave music in America.

Is it because the documentary was financed by Cleopatra Records, and insisted upon having some of their licensed music in? Yeah, that tracks. Also, how amazing is it that not only did Cleopatra release the DVD, but Moonshine Music released the CD? That's, like, the two biggest underground curators of '90s rave music in America combining forces! I don't know what a contemporary comparison would be.

All in all, Better Living Through Circuitry (the CD) is a nice little time capsule of a bygone era, when raving was still no bigger than a curious counter-culture movement (snippets of interviews from the doc help). Playing this won't help you 'understand' it any more than watching the documentary would, but hey, FSOL, Meat Beat, Roni Size, Keoki, The Crystal Method, Psychic TV, DJ Spooky, Überzone, and Electric Skychurch, all in one place, armirite?

Cirrus - Drop The Break

Moonshine Music: 1997

For as much as Moonshine Music pushed Cirrus as one of their premiere acts, I seldom gave them much attention. It never seemed prudent, see, so often appearing on compilations like Big Dirty Beats 2, Moonshine Overamerica 98, This Ain't Trip Hop?, plus assorted soundtracks (I've reviewed a few). The Los Angeles posse were well promoted by their label, making sure they could hang with all the big big-beat boys of the day (The Crystal Brothers, The Chemical Method, Junkie So Slim, Fatboy XXXL). As Cirrus never got name-dropped in discussion of “most essential breaks albums”, I just forgot about them, save the occasional spotting in a used shop. As in this case!

Actually, I'd already heard Drop The Break, one of my old Rupert peers having a copy for himself. I recall generally liking what I heard from it, surprised by the diversity on display for a supposed big-beat group. It honestly sounds like it was made a couple years prior, before big-beat was really a thing, much less a genre to board a bandwagon upon. Besides, Cirrus were still mixing things up with the acid breaks scene of California, their ravey roots far more prominent than any aspirations for rock-approved crossover success. Maybe they were hedging their bets a bit in dipping their fingers into any genre they could at the time, though once it became clear their biggest hits were big funky breaks, it's no surprise they committed to that road.

For now though, anything hot with the Moontribe crew was open game. You like house music? Then Cirrus has the hook-up with Superstar DJ and the slightly proggier Nassau. Or how about that good ol' tweakin' chemical breaks action, with the acid knobs twiddlin'? Then Leap Into The Light or the titular cut have you covered. Big obvious breaks anthems with all the James Brown samples you can handle more to your taste? Break In should sate your needs, especially the Transatlantic Move Mix (original's more proper big-beat bosh). Eh, you don't vibe with breaks at all, as it don't compare to the real business that is jungle? Well hey, guess what, Cirrus made a d'n'b cut too, the super peppy, piano jam October 27! Okay, this one might also be Venn Diagramming with happy hardcore.

If this all sounds too upbeat and hectic for you, then don't fret, as Cirrus show off their chill side throughout the album as well. Ghetto Of Life is breaks on the downbeat, Superstar is funky breaks on the downbeat, and Yallah Babibe is breaks on the su-u-u-per downbeat, suffocating in a thick smoke of hashish. Finally, there's Bionic Hippy, a tune that sounds like it should have been on an old-school progressive house collection rather than the closer of a supposed breaks record. No, wait, there's also a right funky slow-jammin' jam as a secret song as the proper closer. Man, Drop The Break is about as mid-'90s an 'electronica' LP as it gets with that.

Various - Frankie Bones: You Know My Name

Moonshine Music: 2000

Yeah, I know your name. He knows his name. Odds are super-high that even you, dear reader reading this, know his name. I mean, you better, considering I just did a review of another mix CD of his a month ago. Still, there are some who don't know his name, even with it right on the cover.

When this CD dropped, I was working at a music shop with free range to order whatever I felt we needed. Moonshine Music were easy items to get, which I'd let sit for a few weeks before nabbing them for myself. You Know My Name hung around for a while, few giving it much attention, but a pair of teen girls were browsing the store, noticed the CD with Frankie's smug Brooklyn mug looking back at them, to which they said, “Like, as if we'd know his name.” Kids those days, I swear.

You Know My Name was to be Frankie Bones' proper break-out into the lucrative field of DJ mix CDs. For sure he'd been releasing them for a half-decade by the year 2000, though most remained in underground obscurity. United DJs Of America was probably his biggest national exposure in the CD market, and even that set was in service of a running series, forced to rub shoulders with other DJ talents. He had a couple other runs on Brooklyn-based X-Sight Records (Factory 101, Computer Controlled), but Moonshine Music would give him his highest profile commercial set yet, with many more sure to follow as with such previous techno luminaries like Carl Cox, and, um, DJ John Kelley? DJ Brian? ...DJ Micro? Y'know, Moonshine was actually kinda' hurtin' for proper techno mixes over the years. They needed Bones' brand of bosh more than ever!

And he gives them exactly that. After a little skit of a girl arriving at an underground party (I love it when Bones opens his CDs like that), he drops a recognizable anthem in Mario Piu's Communication (sans cheese-ball phone samples), then it's off to the races. Strictly 4am bangin' faceless techno bollocks, served in Frankie's uncompromising Brooklyn style (I've written that phrase before, haven't I...).

In fact, it's almost too uncompromising, music that's all about the relentless assault, things like hooks or melody an afterthought. There's sections that'll get your attention, like the weird noises of Black Lung's Gizmo, abrasive voices in Terrence Fixmer's Electrostatic, red alert sirens of D-Factor's Barana, and whatever phrase is getting looped in any of Bones' own cuts. I can't say much of it sticks with me after though. Frankie's mixing is quick, letting tracks play out a few loops for a couple minutes before moving on. Get in, get out, Get The Fuck Up, as the Bones tune says. Good fun while in the dingy warehouse district in the wee hours of the night, but kinda' monotonous while sitting at home sipping tea.

After this, Bones retreated from the mix CD market. Guess the Moonshine experience soured him on that scene.

Various - United State Of Ambience III - The Colonial Collection

Moonshine Music: 1995

A few months and two-dozen releases later, Moonshine offered up a third edition to their United State Of Ambience series. This would be the last of them, and indeed the label’s final foray into the ambient genre period. Interestingly, Moonshine’s early fascination with acid jazz would also cease shortly after this, instead moving onto trip-hop in subsequent years for their obligatory downtempo contributions. They did try their hand at a Café Del Mar type compilation - Ibiza Afterhours - but didn’t do much with the concept beyond ape all the popular tracks. By and large, Moonshine’s flirtation with the chill side of electronic music all but ended by the year 1997, finding better success in promoting harder club tracks like big beat, jungle, psy trance, happy hardcore, and gabber. Whoa, wait, aren’t you supped to ‘slow down’ the older you get?

Volume three of United State Of Ambience comes with an… interesting sub-line: The Colonial Collection. Ah heh, doubt that would fly two decades on now. But yeah, I get what Moonshine was trying to do here, suggesting an ethnically influenced assortment of tunes, but without falling in with tired buzzwords like ‘ethno’ or ‘world beat’, terms discerning dowtempo heads considered past their sell-by date at this point. Thus music inspired from former colonial claims is the tag: love it or lump it to your heart’s content.

The opening track comes care of Skylab, in the form of the ultra-spliffed nu-jazz outing Next. Huh, not terribly ‘colonial’, that one. It’s a decent track, with an interesting sample near the end of rumbling thunder slowed waayy down. A friend once thought it was someone moving a heavy stone slab unearthing an ancient treasure. Heck, maybe that’s what the sample is, given this compilation’s theme. I’m sticking with thunder though.

A few returning names must be brought up now. Electric Skychurch naturally is here, closing this CD out with the minimalist, meditative ambience of Outside. Salt Tank is also here, with a moody, tribal little number with Big Dipper that sounds nothing like what you’d expect of Salt Tank. Foregoing side-projects, Rabbit In The Moon comes correct here and does their thing with Dubassex. And while not exactly well-known in this scene, UK ‘space techno’ legends LA Synthesis show up with Du Androidis Dream, a lush ambient techno piece that has nothing to do with ‘colonial chill-out’, but whatever, I like hearing it anyway.

An interesting note about United State Of Ambience III: Electronic Empire-Building is its licensing/label-raid of Australian print Psy-Harmonics. Artists like Zen Paradox (Steve Law), Aquila (the O.G. Aqulia, according to Lord Discogs), and Lumukanda bring more of that ethnic flavor, but with a trippy, Planet Dog bent. And finally, two unknowns add ill’ trip-hop (Granule’s Withered In My Knapsack) and dubby-hop (Grain’s The Suspenders Of Acrobats), unsubtle in hinting where Moonshine’s downtempo muse was wandering that year. Still, can’t help but feel this CD was what they wanted the first United State Of Ambience to be.

Various - United State Of Ambience II - Mid-Atlantic Sessions

Moonshine Music: 1994

Moonshine wasn’t foolin’ in hitting the streets hard with their relaunch. Following their first forays into the ambient compilation market, they pushed out another acid jazz collection (no, really, it was popular!), two more DJ mixes featuring famed jocks Paul Oakenfold and, um, Keoki, plus the start of their Psychotrance series. Oh, and inexplicably, a CD that included euro house from Glam, Bizarre Inc, Snap! and 2 Unlimited came out in this bundle. True, there was some Prodigy, Atlantic Ocean, and X-Press 2 on Handraizer, but man, does that disc look dodgy for a print quickly establishing itself as a purveyor of sounds from the underground.

Still, what point is there in releasing a compilation if you can’t capitalize it into a series? None, says they, and Moonshine put out another United State Of Ambience the same year. Huh, that was remarkably fast. Did they have another selection of tracks ready to go or something? Perhaps so, volume two coming with a thematic sub-title and everything. Right, the first one had a loose ‘tribal ambient’ idea running through, but the message was muddled with an unfortunate spotty track list. Seems whatever mistakes were had on the first one were promptly corrected though, Mid-Atlantic Sessions a far lovelier, consistent, wonderful, and ace compilation compared to its predecessor.

First improvement is some actual star power up in this (ambient) house. No offence to Young American Primitive and Dubtribe Soundsystem, but few were aware of these names way back in ’94, to say nothing of Rabbit In The Moon side-projects. On United State Of Ambience II, however, we get tracks from Orbital, One Dove (with an assist from Andrew Weatherall), and Salt Tank. Okay, Electric Skychurch too – he was about the closest thing to an early Moonshine star anyway, especially his breakout track Deus, included here as the opener. One Dove does an utterly epic world-beat dub thing with Transient Truth, Salt Tank offer up their chill version of Eugina in Sargasso Sea, while an edited cut of Orbital’s funky Attached tops out the heavy hitters. Yeah, not sure where Moonshine got the idea of Attached being part of the ambient-scape, but why waste a perfectly good tune if you’ve got the license for it?

And though the surrounding tracks are mostly rounded out by unknowns, they hold their own in complimenting the heavy (chill) hitters. Ambient dub gets its due with Aurora Borealis’ Aquacular Subsun and Synthetix’ The Tao Of Dub. The ‘angelic ambient acid’ side Deus did so well is also explored in Somnambulist’s Deeper Sleeper and Influx’ Dreamscape, and Grain returns for another minimalist tribal-dub track in Sixteen. Best of all, no sappy Pure Moods styled world-beat!

Moonshine knocked it out with United State Of Ambience II. At a time when ‘ambient house’ compilations were aplenty, the label found a fresh angle to approach it from (psychedelic sky-church music!), and executed it perfectly. If you see this in a used-shop, don’t hesitate in snatching it up.

Various - United State Of Ambience

Moonshine Music: 1994

Though the label that Steve Levy and Dave Audé built got its start in 1992, the Moonshine that came to dominate much of the American electronic music shops didn’t really take form until 1994. The scene’s growing momentum was inescapable, and the print was quick to capitalize on it, expanding the print’s potential while rebranding with a spiffy new logo that’d carry them into the future. They also abandoned most of the hardcore rave that marked their earliest output, taking on other genres that were defining a surging counter-culture. The first of these was an acid jazz collection (hey, it was popular in the early ‘90s!), followed by a progressive house rinse-out from Sasha and Seaman (dude!). Another edition to their already popular Speed Limit 140 BPM series followed that, with a compilation featuring the chill, trendy genre next: ambient.

Only trouble is I don’t think the boys at Moonshine quite knew much about ambient yet. The liner notes open with “Ambient music is the sound of unification, a gathering of tribes.” Que? What’s that got to do with ambient music? Had they not heard of anything from Eno, Orb, Aphex, or Roach? Meditation music, I can buy as having attributes of ambient, but most of the stuff gaining critical plaudits in art houses and chill-out rooms had little association with yoga meets and drum circles. Nay, what Moonshine’s actually peddling here is a world-beat collection, with some meditative, minimalist dubby stuff thrown in for flavor. Makes sense, what with groups like Enigma, Deep Forest, and so on about the closest thing most folks in America associated with electronic ‘chill-out’ music in those days. Throw a pile of public domain ethnic samples into a soup with tribal beats, and you too can have your very own ‘ambient’ compilation on the market!

I shouldn’t be too hard on Moonshine though, as they likely didn’t have much in the way of licensing options at this early stage of their lifespan. Some utter unknowns are floating in this tracklist, a couple of which only made appearances here. League Of Nations’ Impossible Religion sounds like it wandered off from a Pure Moods CD, and Goa: Season Of The Monsoon from Rhythm Method is only marginally better.

Of more interest are way early efforts from Hawke (Gavin Hardkiss) and Dubtribe Soundsystem, both doing ultra-moody, minimalist dub works, coming off like PWoG tracks. Side projects also get a look in, most prominent of them being the Rabbit In The Moon ambient venture LunaSol. Both Dawn’s somber piano-n-pad work and groovy world-beat action of Butterfly are wonderful tunes, almost worth the price of United State Of Ambience alone (especially since you can’t find them anywhere else). Young American Primitive doing his eclectic chill thing in Expansion, and Electric Skychurch doing their prog-house thing in Creation rounds out an… interesting compilation, to say the least. United State Of Ambience at least maintains its manifesto of ‘tribal ambient’ throughout – just a shame only half the tracks hold up though.

Various - Trance Psyberdelic

Moonshine Music: 1997

Early Moonshine wasn’t much known for their trance output. Even their Psychotrance series leaned closer to the domain of techno than anything Germany was pumping out with abandon. That didn’t prevent the label from an occasional dip into the scene though, for when you brand yourself as an outlet that offers any and all genres under the raving sun, you’d best deliver even the most obscure ‘hard-hop’ and ‘trypno’. Right, I’ve no idea whether Moonshine deliberately branded themselves as such, though given the diversity of their early releases, they may as well have. It’s all part and parcel of that carefree California scene, where anything goes so long as the vibes stay alive.

As the Moontribe parties of the ‘90s were undoubtedly filled with raving crusties, you bet they had their share of acid and psy trance indulgences. One of Moonshine’s earliest compilation mini-series, Concept In Dance, dealt with the genre, and they kept dabbling with a CD or two in the following years. By 1997, psy trance was having something of a commercial and critical surge (thanks, Juno Reactor!), such that you’d find all manner of fractal cover art and Goa imagery plastered about the ‘electronica’ section of your major music shop. Naturally Moonshine was there to cash in, with DJ Brian premiering his Hardesertrance series, while also providing a Stateside release of Made On Earth from seminal psy print Blue Room Released. Oh, and this CD I’m supposed to be reviewing right now, that one too.

Trance Psyberdelic stands as an oddity in the Moonshine archives, a collection of psy that goes as deep into the dark DMT hole as any compilation of the time. There is a DMT hole, right? I don’t know, I’ve never done the stuff. Heard it’s one ca-ray-zee trip tho’!

Anyway, the cover art has a charming-tacky mid-‘90s CGI thing that seems more like a Hypnotic release, but there’s nothing cheesy about Trance Psyberdelic, presenting us with the ‘serious’ side of the scene. The music within comes from the likes of Prana, Slinky Wizard, Tristan, and Syb Unity Nettwerk, featuring tons of sci-fi lasers, hard-to-the-floor heady beats, acid-drenched acid, and nary a melody that’ll stay in your noggin after the CD finishes. Except Koxbox’ Stratosfearless, holy cow, for ten minutes they do such amazing, diverse things with an incredibly simple hook! Pete Martin, who also compiled the CD, crops up twice, first as U.X. with one-time Juno Reactor and Killing Joke member Kris Kylven (he’s also that Syb guy). Martin’s other, more familiar project of Slide, also appears. Yes, as in ‘Cass & Slide’. What, you didn’t know one of prog’s biggest darlings started out in the psy camps? Don’t worry, easy mistake, that.

Eh? Oh yeah, I did say Trance Psyberdelic doesn’t stick in the brain much after. It’s a fussy sort of psy, sounding fine as it plays, but lacking the soaring thrills this genre often has. Except that Koxbox cut, that’s fun!

Cirrus - Stop & Panic

Moonshine Music: 1999

I feel Moonshine Music oversold us on Cirrus being The Next Big Thing. Not that I blame the label in marketing the Los Angeles breaks duo as their answer to The Chemical Brothers and The Crystal Method. Big beat was big business as the ‘90s drew to a close, but there was only so much big money a label could gather with compilations that (possibly) required big licensing fees. DJ Aaron Carter and Stephen J. Barry had a good look to them, in that so-‘90s L.A. way, and were more than capable of kicking out the jams in various genres, though acidy breaks was their main call of expertise. They could have simply carved out their niche and stayed on the low-key, but after Moonshine had so much success in their promotion of “Superstar DJ” Keoki, another kick at the Crossover Can couldn’t hurt. Or not, if it meant licensing out Cirrus tracks to all manner of receptive video games.

Anyhow, Stop & Panic was the second single from the group’s second album, Back On A Mission. There were no other singles from the LP following this, Cirrus quick to move on from big beat before the year 2000 reared its head. This cut is all big beat though, with guitar licks, fierce crashing percussion, tweaked as fuck acid, siren calls, time stretched vocals of the title, and a little record scratchin’ for good measure. In other words, a good thrashing time.

This being Moonshine, you can’t have a single without a DJ Dan remix, and Dan does the deed with his typical disco funk rub of house. Just in case you felt the original was too much big beat and not enough proper breaks, The Coffee Boys (re: just one guy named Paul Grogan) strips things down some, giving space for the acid to shine without a bunch of other sounds cluttering things up. I’ve talked about DJ Micro’s go on DJ Aaron Carter’s mix CD Lit Up, in that I just mentioned it there as a surprise ending to the hard acid techno set. Still, it was used well in that context, whereas on this single it’s possibly the driest of the remixes. There needs to be more than just siren-wailing bosh in my acid techno.

Finally, progressive trancer Deepsky rounds out the single with a decidedly old-school take on the genre. Seriously, that pitch-bending sawwave is straight out of the bible of Jam & Spoon tricks, even right down to the breakdown where you hear nothing else. I’d keep thinking I’m hearing Follow Me instead of a Stop & Panic remix were it not for the vocal being dropped in throughout. This couldn’t have been a coincidence. Deepsky had to have done it deliberately, just figured no one listening to a Cirrus single would ever know the truth. Well, fool’s on Mr. Blum, as I am one such person! Clearly though, this is among the utmost useless information I have in my possession.

Dieselboy - A Soldier's Story

Moonshine Music: 1999

Few DJs are as influential in America's jungle scene as Dieselboy. There were some respectable names, sure, but as most d'n'b trends were dictated by the hierarchy of the UK, any rinser in the lands of eagles were obligated to follow suit. For the most part, so did one Damien Higgins, but as tech-step of yore started its morph into darkstep of yaye, the Dieslely One somehow turned those aggressive sounds into his own, rising to the high ranks of all jungle jocks throughout the Western Hemisphere. Few could match his furious mixing skills and relentless track selection, often hoarding all the best, unreleased material from the genre's elite (Technical Itch, Decoder, Dom & Roland, etc.). Of course, it didn't hurt he was among the first to truly push darkstep as jungle's future, setting himself apart from his contemporary late adopters. Savvy move on his part, that particular style still finding plenty of fans fifteen years on.

Making his debut with America’s former preeminent electronic music label Moonshine Music is A Soldier’s Story ...kinda’. Though much of Dieselboy’s early career was marked by the mixtape circuit, he released a couple CDs as well, though most flew well under the radar. One was even released on Philly-based Sixeleven Records, a print almost entirely known for house music. Another came care of Sub Base Records, but as Moonshine handled their distribution, that could technically be considered Mr. Higgins’ first major exposure. But no, this one, right here, right then, was Dieselboy’s proper coming out party for the greater U.S. of A. (plus Canadaland), ready to stand toe-to-toe with other American favourites like AK1200 and DJ Dara. He, um, didn’t quite knock it out of the park.

Oh, A Soldier’s Story definitely is a manifesto on Dieselboy’s part, coming in early with the burgeoning neurofunk style before letting a few Tech’ Itch cuts drop serious damage on your ears. Jump up is dead. Jazzstep is dead. All the old jungle genres are dead; obey your darkstep overlords. Jonny L and Danny Breaks can join in the celebration feast though. Some of the scene’s newer blood also make appearances with DJ Friction, Markus Intalex (or ‘Mark Da Intallex’ as he’s credited here), and, um, Kosheen. Hey, it was Decoder’s pet, that group, and we at least get a proper fierce remix on Yes Man for that cut. It’s also about as ‘vocal’ as A Soldier’s Story gets – Dieselboy ain’t having none of that sing-along E-Z Rollers anthemy shite, mate.

So a solid set in the darkstep mold, but that’s pretty much all it is straight through, little variation or twists thrown our way. That’s fine if you just want a pummelling CD, but a strong, memorable mix knows when to drop tangents without losing flow. Some might suggest that’s just the way Dieselboy does things, but his follow-up mix for Moonshine, System_Upgrade, did provide those spicy variants, making for a much stronger CD in the process. Damn, wish I still had that one.

Various - Psychotrance 2002: DJ Brian

Moonshine Music: 2001

Hold a sec'…! Didn’t the Psychotrance series feature a different DJ with each iteration? What was D:Fuse doing getting two in a row then? Did Moonshine have plans for him turning it into his own annual thing? No, that couldn’t have been so – normally DJs had their own series on the label. Like that DJ Brian fella’, he had Hardesertrance to himself, so I’m sure if D:Fuse was to be the designated ‘progressive trance guy’ at Moonshine, they’d have done the same for him. Probably just a coincidence of circumstance then; either that, or even D:Fuse wasn’t pleased with Psychotrance 2000, and wanted a do-over for Psychotrance 2001. Isn’t suppositional speculation fun?

Speaking of that DJ Brian fella’, he got to do Psychotrance 2002, as bizarre a choice for the series as any of the non-trance DJs from the ‘90s were. Wasn’t he known to the Moonshine audience as the 'psy trance guy'? Ignore the fact his mixes for the label only had a tangential relationship with that scene - when folks play any sort of trance in the desert, they automatically assume psy. I mean, what other trance makes sense in hot climes or under starry, dry nights? If Psychotrance was to be relaunched as Moonshine's answer to Global Underground, Cream, and (*snicker*) Topaz’s Nokturnal Mix Sessions, going the psy route at a time when the genre was deep in remission wasn't going to do the series any favors. Especially if rinsed out by a jock who, let's be honest, never got much fame beyond the Moontribe posse (respect!).

That DJ Brian fella' though, he knew how to treat Pscyhotrance proper-like, by taking it back to its roots and offering up a set that is almost entirely techno. Yep, in a turn of events that shouldn't have surprised anyone who'd picked up Hardesertrance 3 (*cough*), Mr. Golub brings us a CD full of bangin', tribal business. Some tracks have elements of goa, such as squelchy acid in Spacefrog and Timelord’s rub of Resistance D.’s Feel High, or floaty ethnic chants in Ritual from Seed (that DJ Brian fella’) vs Teapot (a DJ Treavor fella’). Other tracks get deeper into tech-trance’s realm, at least the older school of the sound that Oliver Lieb was producing under multiple aliases (including Red Star as Ivan in this mix). And by the end of his set, ol’ Brian even goes proper-proper old school trance, even if the tracks are (were) current offerings. Always cool hearing Nuclear Ramjet’s Deep Blue again.

So Psychotrance 2002 has plenty of spacey trance vibes and pummeling techno action, and despite the tag for its entry at Lord Discogs, is definitely not a psy trance collection. Wouldn’t be the first time such an erroneous mistake’s been made there. You’d think a Contribtors’ list of eight people would have caught that. Hey, there’s my name there! I don’t recall doing anything for this CD. I wonder what I add- Oh. Oh dear…! *dies from embarrassment*

Various - Psychotrance 2001: D:Fuse

Moonshine Music: 2000

The Psychotrance series was Moonshine’s preeminent trance DJ mix series - except when it wasn’t, which was most of the time. Okay, back up… Psychotrance was Moonshine’s only trance DJ mix series – except when it wasn’t, which was for most of its ‘90s run. Let me try again… Psychotrance was Moonshine’s first trance DJ mix series, indeed one of the label’s earliest releases. Oddly, they had The Shamen MC, Mr. C, handle the decks for their first edition, soon followed up by Darren Emerson, Slam, Eric Powell and Daz Saund. Wait, who are the last two? Also, despite the name, the series had more emphasis on techno, acid, and even house. Five volumes is a tidy run for a DJ mix series, but it never took off in any significant way. After Daz Saund’s 1997 edition, it seemed destined for Moonshine back catalogue obscurity when the label started shifting focus to hip, fresh genres like breaks, d’n’b, and funky house.

But wait, cried the clubbing masses, we're nearing the turn of the century, and trance is now super popular! Maybe not quite as commercially viable in America as in Europe, but the likes of Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, Sasha, and Diggers are as close to house-hold names as any DJ could get in those years. Moonshine had to capitalize on the growing interest, and what better way to do so than by dusting off the derelict Psychotrance series? They even found an up-and-coming jock from the American South rinsing out progressive trance in a style similar to the big European names, one Dustin Fusilier, more commonly known as D:Fuse (aka: the cowboy hatted one). Slap the always cool “2000” tag on the title, and you've relaunched a sure-fire success! Shame Psychotrance 2000 kinda' sucked balls.

Actually, I can't recall if it was that bad, but I do recall my first impression of it being an overwhelming roll of the eyes for yet another anthem-bilge bandwagon hop. Looking at that track list now, I'm drawing mostly blanks on the tunes D:Fuse used, so maybe my memory's skewed for some stupid reason. Oh, right, I remember now, it's because I have the much superior follow-up, Psycotrance 2001, in my possession. This one had nearly everything I looked for in my trance at the time (and still do!): proggy, spacey, groovey, Oliver Lieby, Fade Recordsy. D:Fuse hit the perfect sweet spot between progressive trance of before, and dark prog of the near future. There’s a nice mix of classy familiar tunes (L.S.G.’s I’m Not Existing (O. Lieb Main Mix), Schiller’s Ruhe (Humate Mix), Steve Porter’s Mindless), overlooked gems (Memnon’s Search And Rescue, Carrisa Mondavi’s Solid Ground (Fade Vocal Mix)), and neglected rubs of well-rinsed tunes (Wookie Slut’s mix of Traveller & In Motion’s Believe).

I won’t deny seasoned prog disciples will find little unique about D:Fuse’s mix, but it’s a solid collection of tunes for a single disc set. Definitely worth a pick-up should you find it resting in the used shops.

Anabolic Frolic - Happy 2b Hardcore: Chapter 2

Moonshine Music: 1997

This past weekend, I went to a ‘throwback rave’ party, including an honest-to-God chill-out room. Man, you just don’t see those anymore, hearing classics from The Orb, FSOL, and Hinterland’s Who’s Who (ask Boards Of Canada about it). More disappointing was the main room, where it seemed tech-house dominated, a style of music we hear more than enough of these days. Maybe I kept missing it, but isn’t the point of an old-school party the chance to hear genres that are no longer fashionable? Chemical breaks, German trance, tech-step jungle, big beat, gabber, uk hard house (donk!), speed garage, happy hardcore… uh, hmm, okay, maybe some music is best left to the past. I doubt anyone’s clamoring for a return of ‘toytown’, ironically or not.

That said, happy hardcore’s fun in small doses, its infectious, hare-brained energy seductive, giving into your most infantile tendencies. Then the novelty wears off (usually after half-a-dozen tracks for yours truly), and all you’re left with is unrelenting hard beats and sugar-coated sentiments that could rot your teeth through your ears. There definitely was an audience for it though, and all the power to the people who could go whole nights enjoying it.

Moonshine Music, with their impeccable micro-scene outreach, commissioned near-yearly DJ mix CDs spotlighting happy hardcore, helmed by Canadian DJ Anabolic Frolic. It lasted up until Moonshine’s demise, one of the label’s few long-running series from (near) beginning to end. The genre may have had plenty of detractors, but someone out there liked it enough to keep pumping these CDs out. Yet even happy hardcore couldn’t resist changing trends, the genre taking on UK hard-trance tendencies (freeform, was it? I can’t keep up with all these micro-genres), moving on from its old-school hardcore roots.

Make no mistake, I’m hardly an expert on happy hardcore. In fact, Happy 2b Hardcore: Chapter 2 is officially the only CD of the stuff I now have (attained unwillingly at that). Despite this handicap, I do recognize a number of names on here: Vinylgroover, Justin Time, Hixxy, Trixxy, and DJ Fade (when you live near an unapologetic hardcore-lovin’ city like Seattle, one can’t help but see their names pop up). As for the music, its happy f’n hardcore, what do you expect? I cannot deny this music plastering a silly grin on my face as it plays through, an unapologetic insistence at breaking down even the most dour, glum, jaded sort with joy and delight. Any track with rolling pianos is ace in books, no matter the ridiculous surroundings, and is that a touch of the ragga jungle I hear in Blitz & Blaze’s Big Up The Bass? Not the good kind, mind, but it’s there.

If you’re new to electronic music and need a primer on what happy hardcore's all about, Happy 2b Hardcore is as fine a starting point as you’ll likely find. Might as well recommend Chapter 2 while I’m at it, since it’s the only volume I’m inclined to hear ever again.

DJ Aaron Carter - Lit Up

Moonshine Music: 1999

Not to be confused with teeny-pop heartthrob Aaron Carter, this is DJ Aaron Carter, of the Moonshine Music star act Cirrus. Yes, I know I'm only the hundredth person to have made that joke, but seeing as how neither Aaron Carter have been relevant in over a decade, the gag's undoubtedly sat fallow in all that time, waiting to sound fresh again for a whole new audience of doe-eyed party revellers! Well, if they gave a shit about either, that is.

And really, Aaron Carter, the DJ, wasn’t terribly relevant to begin with, at least outside his native Los Angeles. As a member of Cirrus, he helped create some buzz for the West Coast acid breaks scene, but as the group was forever tied to Moonshine, they promptly disappeared when the label folded. I wonder though, what they would sound like in this day in age, had they carried on ten years longer. I wonder... *cue Wayne’s World fade*

What? I got nothing.

Okay, that was pointless. If this DJ set’s anything to go by, however, Carter may have found a home with the London Acid Techno Crew, a track list heavy with their contributions. This whole set is a straight-up hard acid rinse-out, something of a surprise from a member of a big beat group. The cover says "hard trance", but we're dealing with a proper techno tear out of the TB-303.

In that regard, Lit Up, Aaron Carter’s first and only commercial mix CD, is hardly surprising in content, though perhaps a little in track arrangement. The first three tracks are the sort of tunes most DJs of the time saved for their bangin’ finale, including Jark Prongo’s Movin’ Thru Your System and X-Cab’s own acid remix of Neuro. Dear me, I cannae take the anthemage of Neuro so soon, and nor can this mix it seems, as Carter’s slowed the track down to accommodate the surrounding cuts. Eh, not the best way to open this mix.

Fortunately, once we’re done with that, we’re fed a bevy of choice acid techno, and nothing but. Carter comes off far more comfortable in these surroundings, his mixes much smoother and clever usage of tracks. Each cut builds on the acid lines, but never so much that the subsequent one is left faltering. By the time we’re in the presence of the pummelling Dog Inc. by Uneven Surface, you’re hooked in, the set’s rough start all but forgotten and wishing for more. Oh my God, I’m gonna acidgasm!

Cheekily, he speeds Liberator & Geezer’s 303 Power as a segue to the hard, bangin’ techno of DDR’s Tweaker (going by Trip Hazard here), and DJ Micro’s remix of Cirrus’ own Stop And Panic. Huh, there’s a surprise of a cut in this mix, much less from the vanilla trance-man DJ Micro.

All said, Lit Up is far from an essential CD to have, though if found at bargain bin prices, you can never go wrong with hard acid techno. Never!

DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem 2

Moonshine Music: 2000

John Kelley's second mix under the High Desert Soundsystem banner was a disappointment when I first threw it on, lacking so many of the big anthems that made the first one quite fun. So of course, over a decade on, I find myself enjoying this one more as a DJ set. I'm not sure what the former funky desert breaks man had in mind when he started doing these CDs, but for the second (and last) volume, he's gone full shuffly, driving techno, with touches of house, tech-trance and a dash of prog. Blend everything in an arid, outdoor tribal vibe, and you have High Desert Soundsystem 2. Ah, Consistency, how you always make mixes better.

So while this makes for a solid CD for the ears, I'm struggling to find much of substance for your eyes. Kelley opens his mix with Samuel L. Sessions, gives us two Timo Maas tracks after that (boy, remember how big his star was supposed to be at the turn of the century?), some fine bangin' material plays out for a while (oh, two Ben Sims!), with a sorta-peak hitting with Trancesetter's classic Roaches, and an easy fade-out with the Fade mix of Carissa Mondavi's Solid Ground. There, done.

Even at fourteen tracks, High Desert Soundsystem 2 isn't a very long set, not even an hour's length. Since most of these tracks don't offer much other than keeping the tribal-tech momentum moving, it's not an issue, as each cut serves its purpose for the brief duration it plays out. Also, Kelley's mixing is quite smooth, a marked improvement over the previous HDSs, but by staying in such a narrow frame of genre-type, something's lost in the unpredictability that came before.

At best, High Desert Double-Loo is a snapshot of whatever John Kelley happened to be playing out at the Moontribe parties at the time ...I assume, anyway. If I wandered over to a stage where he was playing this, you bet I’d be down for these sounds, and if you’re perfectly fine with a CD that captures an hour’s worth of what sounds like at least a three-hour session, by all means scope this disc out.

And there it is. Absolutely nothing else to say. What happen to John Kelley afterwards, you ask? (no, just pretend you did, alright? I’ve still another hundred words to fill here, damn it) He made a mix for the United DJs Of America series (second to last one, in fact), released an album of original breakbeat material in 2005 (well, more of a mid-‘90s throwback, if we’re honest), and not much else of note, according to Lord Discogs. He’s still active, mind you, DJing and lending an occasional production hand to Eastern Sun (who?) – and, of course, playing for Moontribe events whenever they go down. All things considered, it’s unfortunate seeing one of chemical breaks’ biggest supporters seemingly disappear underground with such little fanfare, but such it goes with that genre in the current millennium, it seems.

DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem

Moonshine Music: 1999

Back to Moontribe. Though the collective isn’t as prominent as it was back in the ‘90s, they recently celebrated a twentieth anniversary party. Right as the full moon passed us by, in fact. Holy cow, that was just a few days ago now! I swear I didn’t plan to get back to the desert party posse in such a timely fashion. Okay, they've had a couple ‘anniversary’ parties this year, but the Full Moon Gatherings were what made Moontribe so memorable, where many of their DJs became local legends for the hippie-leaning side of Californian rave culture.

Amongst the most prominent of these DJs was John Kelley. No, not the UK guy who played at superclubs - this is John Kelley, one of the earliest champions of the West Coast chemical breaks scene. His first pair of mixes for Moonshine, the FunkyDesertBreaks series, helped expose rising acidy goodness acts like Bassbin Twins and Friction & Spice to wider audiences, and also elevated Kelley’s status among the growing Moonshine roster of DJs.

Time forces changes within musical tastes, however, and ol’ John couldn’t keep peddling the same brand of breaks forever (especially since all those awesome chemical breaks had fallen by the wayside at the turn of the century – thanks, big beat and Florida). So when it came time for his fourth mix CD on Moonshine, there was nary a breakbeat to be found. Instead, we have… um, lots of other stuff?

High Desert Soundsystem (what’s with the lack of spaces for these Moontribe guys?) is very much a transitional set, in that you can hear Kelley working out kinks as he gets used to all the tribal, techno, and house he’s working into his programming. Almost as a crutch, there’s quite a few anthems in this tracklist, which I admit was darn cool to hear back when this was new. However, I’ve since heard tracks like Dave Randall’s Bombay, Jark Prongo’s Movin’ Through Your System, Jonesy’s Independence, and Krome’s The Real Jazz on several other CDs now, and ol’ John’s use of them fails to give them fresh context (except one instance). In a nutshell, this is the sort of set that sees lots of quick mixing in an effort to reach several peaks along the way, strong flow from beginning to end be damned. It’s not a terrible CD, but any tracklist that moves from Prongo’s stomper to the festive house vibes of Grant Phabao’s Tub to That bloody Zipper Track from DJ Dan (seriously, were all Moonshine DJs contractually obligated to use it?) can’t help but suffer.

I will give props to Kelley for his final run of tracks though. While using Independence as a climax is obvious, he follows it with some proper deep-tech vibes that eases the listener out with class. So good are the final two cuts, I almost entirely forget everything that preceded them. I’d love the set to continue from there, but then it wouldn’t be an ace finish, now would it.

DJ Brian - Hardesertrance3 - Son Of The Moon

Moonshine Music: 1999

And so he did. Erm, keep the hard-hitting tech-trance vibes going for the duration, I mean. DJ Brian, that is. For the follow-up, Hardesertrance3? Goodness, didn’t you read the previous review? What do you mean you’re in the future and stumbled upon this review by accident? Reading this blog in reverse chronological order, I can understand, as Blogger’s layout isn’t exactly conducive to continuity attempts. But from the literal future? That’s far out, man. Far out of space and time!

Okay, enough of that. Someone must have mentioned those plusses and minuses I brought up on Hardesertrance2, as DJ Brian’s jettisoned almost all progressive trance for this instalment. There’s Salt Tank’s Rezmorize near the end, getting you two progressive names for the price of one (if you don’t know why, please hand in your ‘progressive card’ to the lady at the exit), and that’s about it. For Hardesertrance3, Mr. Brian Golub starts out hard and trancey, and barely lets up.

As before, you get a goa-leaning opener, this time care of Human Movement’s Traveller’s Theme, and for a whopping ten minutes at that. Yeah, it’s one of those ‘journey’ tracks, but pretty cool nonetheless. Shortly after, it’s back to our good ol’ friend Oliver Lieb again, but this time under the one-off Snakeman guise, which he used to indulge himself with some proper tribal beats, and Medicine don’t disappoint, son.

And the hard techno keeps coming. Geezer’s Tickling The Trout is here, its raw, thumping acid goodness almost out of place for a set supposedly meant for the desert (harsh my vibe, yo). Even deeper into the tribal techno is Electronic Home Entertainment’s Traffic EP (yes, it’s called that), which mixes wonderfully into another vicious Lieb tech-trance beast, Quantensprung as S.O.L. – if you ever wanted more in The Black Album style, there’s your cut, my friends.

DJ Brian can’t help himself from pulling out an anthem though, but for once he’s ahead of the curve. Joshua Ryan’s bleepy, fist-pumper Pistolwhip was yet another inescapable trance hit, featured on tons of obvious track lists and compilations throughout 2000 and especially 2001 when the single was re-released on NuLife Recordings. This here Hardesertrance3 CD’s a ’99 offering though, the same year the original Pistolwhip came out on Fragrant Music. And according to Lord Discogs, this was the tune’s first major release. What I’m getting at in this long-about way is, even though Mr. Ryan’s hit was quickly played out by the end of 2001, I’m quite content hearing it on this CD due to these conditions. Okay, and the surrounding tracks are kick-ass as well.

So Hardesertrance3, an overall better set than the previous one, if you like your hard desert trance (techno) with a proper kick to it rather than all psychedelic and wibbly. Surely this is the direction of sound that will take this series to the next level, establishing it as a string of classic DJ mixes. Wait, this was the last one? Well, f-

DJ Brian - Hardesertrance2

Moonshine Music: 1998

I'll have more opportunity to talk about the Moontribe parties that Moonshine loved promoting in short order, so let's get right into this here DJ Brian figure. A founding member of the California-based desert rave promotion, he soon established himself as 'the late-night trance guy'. And since we're dealing with whole bunch of West-American hippies (probably), that means he played psy. Well, yes and no. It was undoubtedly a part of his tracklists for some of those dusty all-nighters under the desert stars, but the music he compiled for his series titled Hardesertrance started out with more commercial intent (probably).

Since we're skipping straight to Hardesertrance2, it's clear I don't have the first one. I did hear it back in the day though, and thought it good, in that acidy, outdoor, tribal trance sort of way. The formula was simple enough: start off bangin' with a touch of psy, then unleash a few recognizable anthems towards the end (Netherworld!). DJ Brian follows a similar style on this one, and for the first few tracks, it looks like we have another winner in Moonshine's catalogue.

Right, so having L.S.G.’s kick-ass Train Of Thought at the fourth position is such an easy way to tickle my earlobes, but the surrounding tracks are strong company. Opener Emotions from Sonic Fusion sets a suitable 3am desert vibe, and tracks from System 7 and Rotortype round out a solid first lap of this disc. Huh, funny seeing Rotortype’s Be Yourself here, in that it was quite an older track by ’98, having already appeared on a few other notable CDs (an early DJ-Kicks from C.J. Bolland, for instance). And this, unfortunately, sets a trend that hampers Hardestertrance2.

The next track is India from E-Razor (yet another collaborative project between Martin Eyerer and Oliver Lieb). Cool, but I’ve already heard this one on a Nick Warren Global Underground. A little further down, we find our good friend Air from Ferry Corsten’s Albion guise (holy cow, was this track ever canned). I’ll give DJ Brian some props for choosing the storming Palefield Mountain remix, but it’s still an obvious anthem. Oh, and Slacker’s here too, with the track Psychout, which one could have heard off that same Nick Warren Global Underground. Finally, throwing in Amoeba Assassin’s Rollercoaster as your closer, and you’d be forgiven for thinking we’ve somehow stumbled upon a ’98 progressive trance DJ mix instead of something advertised as more on a psychedelic tip.

Mind you, there’s no real fault on DJ Brian’s part in how this CD’s put together, and for all I know, it’s a faithful recreation of one of his Moontribe sets. As a commercial disc, however, the track selection’s over-familiar for those well-versed in what progressive trance had to offer in ’98. The opening of Hardesertrance2 does help it stand out, but DJ Brian would only emerge from the glut by keeping the hard-hitting tech-trance vibes going for the duration. Ain’t no one else playing that sound on Moonshine.