Taboo - I Dream Of You Tonight (Bab Ba Ba Bab)

Dance Pool: 1995

On the surface, this seems like any other run of the mill eurodance minor hit churned out by Sony's Dance Pool offshoot. And honestly, that's mostly what it is. Despite getting a video roll-out, ample compilation duty, and even a little market penetration on my side of the globe, this was the only thing Taboo released. Or at least, the only thing this 'group' released. Dig deeper though, and there's some surprising music associated with the players involved, but let's hear what we got first.

It's mid-'90s eurodance alright. The chorus is instantly earwormy, has a little scat-singing thrown in, and the synths punchy and buzzy as all good euro is. Then the dancehall rapper comes in to tell you how we're gonna' have fun dancing and all that. He even gets a little meta about it: “Now that me voice gwon deep in'a yo brain; The lady will sing you the chorus again.” And she does too!

Him though, he sounds familiar. Since Taboo was just a one-off project, did he do anything else? *goes Discoggin'* Wait... Barrington Levy? The Barrington Levy? Under Mi Sensi Barrington Levy? Ragga jungle mainstay Barrington Levy? What's he doing here? I mean, sure, may as well make some quick scratch for the German disco clubs, but man, never would have expected that when I grabbed this on a whim. Didn't even appear in the video, letting whoever it is in the video lipsync. In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone in the video is lipsyncing, which wouldn't be unheard of in eurodance, even this late in its age.

If you think that's a crazy 'Six Degrees Of...” factoid, how about the fact producers such as The Timewriter and Oliver Lieb have tangential ties to Taboo as well? One Piero Brunetti, or DJ Piero, and the main man behind this project, had quite the varied career throughout the '90s, flitting about many genres with many partners. His own Another World, an incredibly cheese-ball slice of operatic Italo-dance with sex-jazz saxophone, got an entirely undeserved deep house jam from Timewriter. And, when Daft Punk was taking off, he teamed up with Luis Rodriguez for the one-off Funky Musique as Sunday Afternoon. Which had a release on Silvereye Production Frankfurt, and who else lived in Frankfurt as a remixer-for-hire? It sure wasn't Frank Stallone, I'll tell you that much.

Okay, one more. The remixes on this aren't much to get fussed about (an extended version, a 'pan-flutes' version, a happy 'hardcore' version), except the final one, subtitled X-Rated House-Dreams. While it features some stock Visnadi euro-house tropes like farty basslines and deep organ licks (think Robin S' Show Me Love), that shuffle rhythm is straight garage. In fact, with the included ragga rap and sirens, the whole remix is basically proto speed garage. Mr. Brunetti must have realized it too, as he'd go on to make a few proper speed garage tunes during that genre's heyday. Ahead of the curve, for once!

Various - Welcome To The Technodrome Vol. 4

ZYX Music: 1995

I can't be sure, because sifting through ZYX Music's immense discography is like staring at a European phone book, but I think Welcome To The Technodrome is the first compilation series the label attached the nascent 'techno' tag to its archives. Yes, even beating out their main series, Techno Trax, by a couple years. Considering only four volumes were released though, it pleads the question why this one never caught on like others. Ah, my lovelies, that's because this is a tie-in with a short-lived sub-label of ZYX, dubbed Techno Drome International.

Their brief history is a little more interesting, springing up to champion the hot sounds of 'industrial techno' coming out of Dorcheim, Germany. This included acts like Robotiko Rejekto, Recall IV, and Pluuto. It petered out by '92 though, only two Welcome To The Technodrome volumes making it to store shelves in that time. Yet for some reason, ZYX continued the series, capitalizing on any brand recognition to flood the market with CDs. By '93's Vol. 3, you had names like Ramirez, Bronski Beat, Microbots, and 2 Unlimited taking up disc space. Which finally brings us to Welcome To The Technodrome Vol. 4, the last of them, released in '95 when the brand's original 'industrial techno' ethos was a forgotten footnote.

*Phew* All that word count getting the history out of the way. Good thing this double-discer has little worth talking about otherwise. I picked this up at the same time as Techno Trax Vol. 12, both sitting together on a used-shop rack, and there's small surprise why, nearly identical in style and tone as they are. There's a few repeats – Liquid Bass' In Full Effect, Alien Factory's This Is Not A Daydream, Paranoia X' Party Program - but it sure feels like more. Way to milk those licenses, ZYX.

Mo-Do kicks the compilation off, if you needed a reminder of just how ubiquitous Eins, Zwei, Polizei was in mid-'90s Europa. Following that, you get some hard acid (Ben, Ben And No Ben's Rotes Harr), a German trance tune that sounds like it's aping the melody from some synth-pop ditty, muddy standard trance in Submerge's Oblivion, and some straight-bosh 'ardcore from DJ Metz's Hey, We Want Some. Elsewhere, things get silly with Josh's Der Säbeltanz, a tune that might find you hilariously balancing a bunch of plates on poles while riding a unicycle. When it isn't going full happy hardcore, CD2 offers more German trance of varying quality, a couple worth a listen, but most well left in the past.

Which makes me wonder: why do I judge these jams so critically now? Had I somehow stumbled upon Welcome To The Technodrome Vol. 4 when it was new, and my exposure to such music was so fresh and so clean, might I have better things to say of it today? I cannot deny Teenage Sykonee would have been all over this back when, but Lord help him if he didn't outgrow silly nonsense like Moneypenny's Que Sera, Sera too.

Various - Splash!

Raum Records: 1995

Gander at some names in the tracklist: Laurent Garnier, Biosphere, Pete Lazonby, Josh Wink, Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox, Blake Baxter. That’s seven bona-fide legends of techno and trance on a double-disc compilation, all for an easy-breezy five bones off my back. And hey, Sunbeam, Doug Laurent, Scooter, and Joe T. Vannelli also show up, so maybe there’s some fun Euro cheese floating about too. Can’t see how such tonal clash can make for a consistent playback, but perhaps this Splash! compilation has an amazing gameplan, with plenty of unknown producers rounding things out into a cohesive whole. Price is worth a purchase just to find out. Right, about the only thing that interested me was the Mark Bell Remix of Novelty Waves, but there’s gotta’ be a few more worth the piddly investment. Sure, a few…

But what is Splash! in the first place? This comes care of Raum Records, yet another German dance label that sprung up in the wake of the collapsed Berlin Wall. Their biggest claim to fame is the _00% Underground compilation series, while releasing singles from such luminaries like Estelle, Marc Noise, C.O. Injection, Robotnico, and Insane (4). Ah, hmm… so Raum Records didn’t amount to much at all. Far as I can tell, Splash! was released to kick the label off with hot acts and spiffy advertising – literally making a splash on the German techno ‘underground’. They had the right idea, just none of the important licensing to make it happen.

For all the class names I listed above, it seems Raum Records got the most forgettable material from them. Carl Cox’s rub of Garnier’s Astral Dreams is just bog-standard euro techno. van Dyk’s go at Voices In Harmony is a useless radio edit. I have no idea how German trancers Sunbeam got their hands on Lazonby’s Wave Speech, and Bell’s take on Biosphere was completely disappointing for yours truly. Baxter’s Reach Out is at least an agreeable go at deep Detroit house, and it’s interesting hearing Winks’ Meditation Will Manifest, essentially his stab at a Spastik type of techno builder. Did it really need to be over fourteen minutes though? Small wonder it seldom saw compilation duty (R & S Records being stingy with it may have contributed, begging the question how Raum Records secured the rights for this release).

The rest of Splash! pretty much contains the standard acid and German trance of the era, with few of the charms the successful labels offered. Scooter does a remix for Ultra-Sonic’s Check Your Head, and with so much rubbish surrounding him, Baxxter’s “posse” shouts are somehow enjoyable. Holofonic Dream from Deanna Troi (yes, really) uses pad synths that reminded me of Morpheus 7, which makes sense given it’s the same guy (Ufuk Yildirim), Jeyênne’s Japanese Train has a vocal sample that sounds like a pisstake on Dance 2 Trance, and Groovemaster K. tries his hand at Soliloquy House. Everything else? Forget it. Not even worth a two-spot. Find yourself a Ravermeister CD instead.

Various - Trance On Earth: European Electronic Dreams

Hypnotic: 1995

Cleopatra Records set itself as a purveyor of most things industrial and goth, raiding the lands of Europa in search of distribution deals for American shores. Among these labels was Zoth Ommog, one of the seminal prints of Germany’s EBM scene, which is all kinds of bizarre when you consider trance tastemaker Talla 2XLC founded the print as an early part of his larger Music Research empire. He kept the ravey stuff on different sub-labels though, which Cleopatra must have had equal access to thanks to the Zoth Ommog deal, hence their early stabs at the ‘trance compilation’ market. I assume it worked out reasonably well for them (Hell, I bought two!), enough to establish this spin-off print Hypnotic, where they could distribute all that ecstasy-driven club music without alienating their harder, morose followers of the cybernetic revolution. Or whatever it was the gothic EBM crowds identified themselves as in the early ‘90s.

I’m almost certain this is information I’ve discussed in previous reviews, but I bring it up again to put Trance On Earth: European Electronic Dreams into perspective, this little CD among the first in launching Hypnotic. Most of the earliest Hypnotic releases were album re-issues for the likes of Ynos (Komakino), Synaesthesia (Frontline Assembly/Delerium), and Norman (Terry Lee Brown, Jr.), but with so many acts on Suck Me Plasma only doing the EP deed, the label instead brought them over via a tsunami of trance and ambient compilations. If you think what I have in my collection is a bit much, check out the entire Hypnotic catalog from 1996 alone.

As one of the first Hypnotic trance compilations, Trance On Earth is also either one of the best, or one of the most redundant, depending on how many other Hypnotic CDs you have. The Suck Me Plasma pickings were plumb for these initial discs though, many big hits of German hard trance finding their way here. Sunbeam’s two breakout singles make the cut, and though I’ve got a whole LP of early Sunbeam, I’ve no problem hearing Outside World or High Adventure again. Komakino’s ultra-uplifting Feel The Melodee (Technoclub Mix) is also on here, as is another of those seminal ‘galloping choir pad’ trance anthems in Aqualite’s Outback. Really, Trance On Earth is primarily made up of such tunes, including D-Lay’s The Dreamer, plus one-offers Infusion Impulse’s Paralyser and Lesamis’ No More Worry, though only D-Lay’s tune holds its own against the aforementioned classics.

Filling out the hind-sighted ‘redundant’ portions of Trance On Earth are Semisphere’s acid-drenched Raveaktiv, Cenobyte’s sinister Destination, and D-Lay’s ultra PLUR-gooey Don’t Stop The Motion, all which appeared in some fashion on the latter 3CD Hypnotic release Musik Non Stop. The remaining stand-alone is closer Tuna from Norman, sounding more stripped back, minimalist, and groovy compared to all the hard trance on here. It’s almost as though Mr. Feller’s coming up with a fresh new genre, combining house and techno, a ‘garage-tek’ thing, if you will. Nah, that’ll never catch on.

Various - Techno Trax Vol. 12

ZYX Music: 1994

Techno Trax was one of ZYX Music's premier compilation series in the '90s. Okay, I don't know if that's true, but I can confirm it was one of their most prolific, especially in the first half of the decade. This Vol. 12 came out when the series was but a mere three years old, and while its output was significantly cut back following 1994, it persevered into the new millennium. Took a couple evolutions to get there though, becoming Techno Traxx (with two x’s!) as the year 2000 drew close, then morphing into Techno Traxx – Step Into The Future going forward, finally ending in 2002. Including a megamix spin-off series, and various ‘Best Of...” additions, not to mention a dedicated entry into ZYX’s massive The World Of... series, and I’d say you have a proper successful collection of compilations on your hands. Well, you’d have to ask old-school folks from mainland Europe if that’s the case. I have no idea if Techno Trax was indeed a smash, or it was just a means for ZYX to churn out quick, cheap CDs into the market.

I imagine it was reasonably popular though, the series often featuring ‘techno’ hits of the day while staying just a foot within the underground. It’s early entries mostly contained classic rave tracks from acts like Altern 8, The Overlords, The Prodigy, L.A. Style, and, um, 2 Unlimited. Soon Techno Trax was also licensing out records from Suck Me Plasma, getting in on that burgeoning German trance thing as hardcore rave turned into goofy, happy offshoots. Once trance became the genre du jour of Europe, the series almost exclusively focused on that instead, their only actual techno pretty much the hard acid stuff. Not that Techno Trax ever had much traditional techno to begin with. Hell, the only such case on this particular double-discer is Love Inc.’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T., an early Wolfgang Voigt cut. Speaking of another ‘humble beginnings’ name on here, Robert Babicz shows up as Acid Warrior, doing acid techno in Acid Bites. ACIIEEEDDD!

Anyhow, it’s at this crossroads between techno-rave and German trance that we find Vol. 12. Some of the Techno Trax old guard show up with tunes, like The Prodigy’s Voodoo People and Moby’s Feeling So Real, but neither would appear in the series again. Meanwhile, names like Komakino, Jam & Spoon, Alien Factory, Paranoia X, DJ Tom & Norman, Acrid Abeyance, Legend B, and Nostrum should spark the synapses of anyone familiar with hard trance of the time. Can’t say all the tracks here are mint examples of the German sound though, no matter how many punchy, minor key melodies tickle my ears.

In fact, this whole compilation is kinda’ rubbish, and it’s all the happy hardcore’s fault. Whether ultra-lame covers of pop hits or super sap bilge, I just can’t stand this stuff. Only two tracks transcend the nasty cheese into tasty-cheese: Mark ‘Oh’s Love Song, and the hilariously ridiculous Rotterduck from Assi, another Komakino alias. He-he, wheee, squeaky toy!

Various - Rave Power (Fake Flashback Review)

ZYX Music: 1997

(note: all that needed saying about Rave Power was easily wrapped up in a single review; however, three CDs is a lot of music to get through, creating something of a gap in posts here before the next one. Fortunately, I've modified my time portal, such that I can send this compilation back in the past to my teenage self. Let's see how he/I would have reacted to Rave Power had I/he bought it way back in those early raver days instead of fifteen years later. Temporal paradoxes, you ask? Um, don't worry, just pay attention to the cute chincilla over there while I explain it all away with the maths *ducks away*)

Teenage Sykonee: Oh man, you guys, you'll never believe what I scored on my trip to Vancouver. I mean, I knew I'd get something deece – there's always deece music at A&B Sound and Sam The Record Man – but I had no idea I could get trance CDs in three packs! I mean, I saw a few box sets at the new Virgin Megastore like This Is... Techno and This Is... Jungle and This Is... Acid Jazz - what even is acid jazz anyway? I think I kinda' know what it is, it's like trip-hop, right?

Those compilations probably aren't that good though. I mean, there's some cool tunes, but I've heard all the good tracks on them, and I'm all about discovering new music and new artists. Mostly trance though, especially if it's from Hypnotic Records ('electronic purity', w'ut!). So it's nice that Rave Power has one track that I can rest assured I'm hangin' with familiar sounds, Sunbeam's High Adventure. And I thought that B.B.E. looked familiar, but I couldn't remember who it was that made that cool trance song I heard on some recent euro-dance CD. There's a whole bunch of tracks on here like that too, tunes I know I've heard at some of the raves at the Elk's Hall or curling rink or a Terrace party. Hell, I'm sure a few in my Rupert Raver posse have them too on mixtapes somewhere, but whatever, we can still play them out, if we can borrow my Dad's gear again and rent out a hall somewhere. Or have a house party with a strobe light, that'd be awesome. Monolize and DJ Brainwave tag-team, ya'!

Man, I still can’t believe I found this in Vancouver of all places. The back cover says it was made in Germany – are all their compilations this sweet? Okay, it’s not all awesome, those Daft Punk covers totally geigh-kay, but three discs is better than anything I’ve ever seen around here. Only that Platipus double-discer could compare, and that doesn’t have as wicked-cool a cover as this one (aliens rule, you know it). Doubt I’ll ever find such a compilation again, so I’m gonna’ treasure this for years and years and years. Rave Power is the greatest collection of trance ever!

(four years later, he/I sold it for ramen noodles)

Various - Rave Power

ZYX Music: 1997

Signs Of Adulthood #1523: splurging on an old 3CD collection for exactly one track out of thirty-nine. It’s a frivolous use of one's money, not like when you're younger and are forced to carefully consider what you'll use up limited funds on (er, in the pre-MP3 era of long, long ago at least). What's that? “Responsibility?” Oh hohoho, that's a laugh – adults blow large sums of cash on the most pointless of things, just because they have the means to. Of course, matters aren't helped by seductive online outlets like Amazon and eBay, where rockin' deals for old, gimmicky things lure you in, tempting your youthful nostalgia centres like so much Beanie Baby fluff.

Fortunately, I didn't have to break the bank in acquiring the one tune off here that eluded me for years, Gary D.'s Timewarp, among the best hard German trance cuts ever released. It features all the vintage sounds that made the genre so much fun: multi-tap voice pads leads, minor-key piano hooks, driving acid basslines, and relentless rhythmic energy to spare. Even the compilers knew this was their money track, giving Gary D. top billing on the small list of artists advertised on the cover (seriously, that cover!). Bizarrely though, Timewarp is dumped all the way on CD3, sharing disc space with such forgotten names like Charlie Lownoise & Mental Theo, Dan Dizko, and Afrowax. Oh dear, this one of those ultra-dodgy compilations, isn't it. Yeah, sure is.

The origins of Rave Power are mostly lost at this late date. As this came from German mega-label ZYX Music, my best guess is the compilation was a stab at style-biting Sub Terranean’s highly successful Rave Mission series. It must have been a failure though, as no subsequent editions were made. Matters weren’t helped that, at three CDs in length, this is one erratic collection of tunes.

For sure most of the sounds representing German rave are here: hard acid, hard trance, happy hardcore, and some techno too. I honestly don’t know much about the candy-raver stuff, and it’s weird seeing such music sharing track lists with bona-fide classics of the era. Gander at these tracks: Commander Tom’s Are Am Eye, B.B.E.’s Seven Days & One Week, DJ Quicksilver’s Free, Chicane’s Sunstroke and that Three ‘N One Remix of Cafe Del Mar, appearing here just before it blew up huge in UK clubland. Their sequence throughout makes no sense though, often shoved between hardcore and forgettable house music, including two atrocious covers of Daft Punk’s biggest hits.

Rave Power likely had a very specific audience in mind, the sort of doe-eyed young raver taking their first steps into the wild underground. There was plenty to discover, and these 3CDs served as a handy introduction, even if there’s no structure to this mess. Clearly Rave Power now only holds interest for those with nostalgic ties to the era (or retro-fashionable candy kids). Makes me wonder how I’d have reacted if I’d discovered this new. I wonder... wonder... wonder...

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.

2 Unlimited - Jump For Joy (BioMetal, Part 3)

Popular Records: 1996

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)

“Dammit, Anita, what’s its weakness?”

“I… I…” The HALBRED’s scanner still drew blank, unable to identify the cloud of spores. “I don’t know,” she stammered, shaking her head. “Try the rockets.”

“I already have,” Ray shouted in her head. Why’d he have to keep shouting? Was he cracking under the pressure? What hope did they have if he couldn’t hold it together? “They pass through these blasted clouds. No effect at all.”

The HALBRED’s shields had held against the attack, but drained the ship’s auxiliary power fast. If she couldn’t find a way to defeat the spores, they’d overwhelm them, doing who knew what in the process. Maybe there wasn’t a way. Maybe the BioMetals had developed technology they weren’t prepared for. Maybe this was nothing but a fool’s mission, with no hope-

“The source!” she suddenly shouted. “Ray, punch it forward.”

“What? But-“

“Go! And get the main cannon ready.”

The HALBRED emerged from the hidden alcove, and instantly the spore cloud enveloped the ship, tiny balls of synthetic and organic matter attacking the shield spheres tightly orbiting them. Anita drew up another life-sign scan of the cavern ahead. Her first had yielded no BioMetals before, but then it wouldn’t if it was only scanning for familiar forms – frigates, humanoids, even insect types.

“Where am I going?” Ray asked.

“Forward. I’ll let you know when to fire.” With a sharp thrust, the HALBRED plowed into the cloud, carving a wake of yellow spores.

Anita recalibrated her scanner to pick up combinations signs of chitin and cellulose, and immediately her sensors flared red. No surprise the spores surrounding their ship would be filled with them, but she hoped her scanner could pin-point a concentrated area. Within moments, she spotted it, her eyes lighting up as an excited, “Yes!” escaped her mouth, nearly jumping for joy in the process.

“Here,” she said, punching coordinates into the HALBREDs computer. “Fire at this spot and don’t stop until the banks are dry!”

“But there’s nothing-“

“Do it! We’re almost out of shield power!”

A concentrated blast of white-hot energy erupted from the HALBRED’s main cannon. Though neither could see the target, Anita was certain it struck against a wall where three large polyps the size of their ship rested. An explosion rocked the cavern, the cloud of spores falling gently to the surface below soon after.

Anita couldn’t help but smile when she heard Ray’s bewildered request for an explanation. “All these spores were acting independent, yet together,” she explained. “Sort of like fungal communities. I figured they had to be controlled from a central source, but since we’ve never encountered BioMetals of such origin, the ship didn’t recognize them.”

“Huh. Well, let’s hope we don’t encounter any more of these things,” he gruffed.

Not even a ‘good job’, Anita sighed, but she wasn’t surprised either. If the BioMetals had evolved to adapt plant and fungal based organisms too, there was no telling what their deadly potential could be, especially ahead of them.


(If you're hopeless lost as to what's going on, click here.)