Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - Creepin On Ah Come Up

Ruthless Records: 1994

Just when I thought I was out of the 'C's, I get pulled back in. I'd actually hoped to cover this in proper order but circumstances dictated otherwise. While doing the two Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Collections, I realized an oversight on my part: a lack of owning their classic debut EP Creepin' On Ah Come Up, primarily due to never seeing much point in getting it when a pair of its songs already appeared on The Collection, Vol. 1. It became one of many, many releases filed under my “Get If Have Ample Disposable Income” list. Fast forward, and I have ample disposable income. May as well get on filling in some blanks, right? Shame Vancouver now sucks for music shopping, so yay Amazon, but boo waiting on delivery.

Even in my 'meh, rap, whatever' years, I was familiar with Creepin'. This and Bone Thugs' proper debut full-length E. 1999 Eternal were quite popular in the town I spent most of my teenage/young adult life, regularly selling out at the electronics store I worked at. I think this one sold better, on account it was the cheaper of the two so even the poorest of teens could buy it. I know I heard it at some point, but it never sunk in for me then, probably because Creepin' sounded too typical of West Coast thug rap for my untrained ears to appreciate. Man, was I ever ignorant to hip-hop then.

The two classics from this are Thuggish Ruggish Bone and Foe Tha Love Of $, which I already talked about. Rounding things out are two (yes, two!) intros, the proper first that Eazy-E and Yella produced, and the second Mr. Ouija, where the group makes their presence felt. Given the group’s known melodic harmonies, the occult themes surrounding these two are surprising. In fact, this whole EP lacks the gentle tones of later work, instead keeping things raw and aggressive while maintaining their cohesion as a tight ensemble (guess they’d yet to be swept away in calming weed bliss).

The other three cuts are No Surrender, Down Foe My Thang, and the titular Creepin’. No Surrender probably could have been included on all those ‘best of’ releases, but since it’s similar to Thuggish Ruggish Bone, I can see why it wasn’t; still, kick-ass talkbox action to be had there. Grittier Down Foe My Thang and the titular Creepin’ are strong tracks too, but strictly album orientated material. For a mini-album as strong as this one though, that’s hardly a bad thing.

If you’re ready to take the Bone Thugs plunge beyond their Collections, this likely isn’t the best place to start; rather, try the platinum edition of E. 1999 Eternal which includes Creepin’ as a bonus disc. As for myself, I wanted to get this separate because it makes my CD collection look bigger. AND YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT A GUY WITH A BIG CD COLLECTION, AMIRITE!?

(he ain’t shit compared to the guy with the big vinyl collection.)

Various - Dark Hearts 1: A Harthouse Compilation (2012 Update)

Harthouse America: 1995

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review)

So this was going to happen eventually too. I've already written a review for Dark Hearts, and it's already on this blog. What now? Well, if you're interested in the musical content, follow the link above to brave my early crummy writing. For this post, I'm going one-hundred percent anecdotal on your asses, so feel free to skip if tales of CD purchases bore.

In 1997, I was in full-blown trancecracker mode, having finally cast off all lingering eurodance interest but dismissive of anything outside the realm of energetic, acid space music. Unfortunately, my regular resource for it, the label Hypnotic Records, was no longer satisfying my need; hard German trance was fine for a while, but quite tired in ninty-seven. Seeing as how the internets proved useful in recommending material for my other ongoing passion of ambient dub, I fired up the ol' Webcrawler in search of lists of trance music.

This probably seems impossible to fathom for trancecrackers following the '99/2000 era, but finding info on trance wasn't so easy at that time. There was nothing like Discogs, no online radio stations or MP3 sharing, and wide publicity for the genre was still in its infancy, Oakenfold's ridiculously popular Tranceport more than a year away. I'd seen a few other compilations around like the Psychotrance series from Moonshine and the old Studio !K7 X-Mix videos, but wanted to dig a bit deeper. What would reveal itself to me on those old websites?

Eventually, I stumbled upon a site that not only listed a good hundred releases, but had even sorted them by genre. At the time, I was only aware of three types of trance: regular trance (re: underground/German), psychedelic goa trance (they were interchangeable far as I was concerned), and club trance. What the devil were all these other sub-genres? Progressive trance? Dark trance? Man, too much to remember, much less afford to buy. Moving on.

A couple months later, while browsing through one of my favorite music shops in Vancouver, I noticed a CD that I remembered from the 'dark trance' list, Dark Hearts. And hey, I recognized a couple names from other compilations I’d bought: Sven Väth and Alter Ego. Sure, I’ll give it a shot.

And lo, I threw that disc on back home, heard the opening haunting intro to Metal Master’s Spectrum, and instantly knew I’d made a purchase that would get heavy rotation from me for many years to come.

Dark Hearts pretty much closed the door on one aspect of German trance for me, and opened a whole new one, introducing me to such artists as Oliver Lieb, Pete Namlook, and Ralf Hildenbeutel. Anytime I noticed the Harthouse logo, I’d snatch that CD up. To say it was influential in developing my taste in trance music would be a vast understatement, easily ranking top five of such compilations were I to ever make such a list. And yet, that’s not quite the end of this tale...

Various - Dance To The Underground

Muzik Magazine: 2003

Right, disco punk. I fell head over heels for the stuff when it first (re)emerged in the early 00s, largely thanks to this free CD from Muzik Magazine. Well, that and the rag’s glowing exposé on the ascendant scene that James Murphy and his DFA label helped popularize. Though electroclash still had some momentum, the writing was on the wall the genre wasn’t going to last much longer. So, here comes disco punk to pick up the pieces!

Where it excelled - and for me appealed - was refining the DIY attitude clashcorewhatever did into something musically intuitive. It still sounded raw and intentionally under produced, but rather than borrow from electro synth pop, it borrowed from disco-funk and new wave rock. It made perfect sense to be heard in dingy basement clubs that held no more than a hundred, served cheap hi-balls and forced you to share but one single-stall bathroom with the opposite sex. It’s about as punk as club culture ever allowed itself to be, and for someone having just moved back to the big city, I was sold on the romanticism this New York City bred scene projected.

A CD like this didn’t hurt either. Mixed by DFA, it’s not a brilliant set, but it is an excellent primer into the world of disco punk as it existed in 2003. All the heavy hitters are accounted for: Metro Area, The Juan MacLean, Playgroup, The Rapture, Le Tigre, and both James Murphy projects DFA and LCD Soundsystem. Oh, and Fischerspooner’s Emerge is here as well, but in DFA’d remixed form, turned into quite a minimalist bit of dance music compared to the raucous original. About the only thing missing from this list is a band with exclamation marks.

Given the amount of DFA remixes and label mates, Dance To The Underground probably seems more like a promotional disc than a proper showcase of disco punk. To be fair, DFA pretty much was disco punk in that year, and their influence led to the rise of the scene proper as it migrated out from New York City. It’d be like complaining about a free CD of late 80s acid house that prominently featured artists from Trax Records.

Dance To The Underground has gone on to be one of my favorite pre-party sets. The only thing keeping me from recommending it is the fact it’s not a commercially available disc. It’s not a difficult collection of tracks to gather up anyway, many available through various channels or ‘best of disco punk’ compilations. Aside from the DFA remixes, there’s nothing monumentally unique about this a decade on. Even the mixing’s only adequate because, well, it’s just a free magazine CD. It might be worth dropping a couple dollars if you find it super-cheap in a used shop though, if you don’t mind paying for something that was initially given away to sell magazines.

That doesn’t seem very punk, does it?

Dillinja - Cybotron

FFRR: 2001

When darkside jungle emerged, Dillinja was a king among the other players. His army of bassbin demolishing tracks fuelled by sci-fi funk made sure few could stand against. Thus, like all breakout acts of those mid-90s heroes, he left his fans waiting anxiously for a proper full-length debut to complement his EP legacy, already rich with classics like The Angels Fell, Threshold, and Silver Blade.

Figures he wouldn’t release one until the new millennium, well after darkside was practically deceased from the drum n’ bass consciousness. Does this mean he tried jumping on trendier bandwagons that were occurring in the year of two-thousand and one? Nah, mate, he kept it old-school, producing an album that would have been deemed a classic by many had he released it five years prior. Instead, all that tardiness and refusal to change with the jungle scene left Cybotron overlooked by all but the faithful. I mean, have you heard what Hospital Records are releasing? Or that John B guy? That’s the future, right? Ah, man, fuck that future, Karl Francis is staying true to his sound, and that’s punishing, grimey bass anthems.

I don’t know if Cybotron really was slept on back then, but I sure didn’t know he had an album out, and I kept as close of tabs on all those classic darkside artists as I could while stuck in the hinterlands of Canada. I can’t recall much press, talk of acts like High Contrast and Bad Company getting most of the d’n’b publicity. For all intents, this album passed by and was forgotten, lacking any sort of classic like his previous productions or follow-up hits like Grimey and Twist ‘Em Out. Correct me if I’m wrong, jungle mahsive, but that’s just how I recall it in my corner of the world.

So is this a poor album? Not at all, as it delivers exactly what darkside fans want. Of course, that would come off dated in 2001, but over a decade later, the sound has become favorably vintage, context be damned. If you fancy the aforementioned sci-fi funk and bass that comes pre-distorted, this is the album for you. Mind, it does get a bit tedious towards the end, a few tracks coming off like B-Sides. Guess Dillinja couldn’t quite kick that EP habit even in long-player form.

And don’t worry, fans of variety, it’s not all darkside all the time. Mixing things up are a few soulful numbers with guest female vocalists. Also of interesting note is the track Human B Bop, using what sounds like a beatboxer to create a pure street-funk workout.

If you’re new to this whole jungle thing, I wouldn’t call Cybotron an essential listen, as there’s far better collections of darkside out there (including Dillinja’s retrospective My Sound (1993-2004), of which no Cybotron tracks made it on, incidentally). If you’ve already dipped your toes, however, and need more of that darkside fix, then definitely scope this album out.

Djen Ajakan Shean - Crows Heading For Point Blank

Amplexus: 1995

Music storage comes in many formats, but few as curious as the mini-CD, or CD3. The idea behind them was sound, offering a compact format for singles much in the same manner as 7” vinyl did for the record industry. It never caught on though. Major labels made use of the traditional CD size for EPs, filling half its potential space with music instead. However, blank CD3s were still widely available in bulk at computer shacks, so they turned into a means for independent labels to hand-make small quantity releases of material.

The history lesson done, let’s look at this album from Djen Ajakan Shean, which was released on, you guessed it, a limited run CD3.

The first track on here is the titular Crows Heading For Point Blank. Anyone familiar with Eno’s brand of ambient music will feel right at home as Shean weaves droning pads of calming textures and various timbres throughout. About a third of the way through, slow tribal rhythms are introduced, providing a welcome change in tempo, if not in tone. A few atmospheric flourishes come and go, including what sounds like chatter at a subway train station. Overall, it’s a very pleasant piece of ambient music that never needlessly noodles about. Good enough for background music, yet just enough content to keep you engaged should you pay attention for the duration.

And that’s all. Yep, it’s a twenty-one minute long track, which is the maximum length these mini-CDs can hold. So… um, that’s that?

Naw, that’s only half my word count. There’s gotta be more. Djen Ajakan Shean? Eh, not much info there, as both Discogs and Last.fm bios are relatively blank, not to mention a very sparse discography. The label Amplexus? It had a few prominent names of similar ambient ilk release mini-albums - Steve Roach, Michael Stearns, Vidna Obmana, Tuu, and Robert Rich to name a few - but due to only releasing limited-run CD3s, the label was a very marginal player in the 90s ambient scene. Cool name though.

I’m sorry. There’s just nothing else here. Maybe I can talk about current events for a bit. Hm, hockey’s still not back yet. The LA Lakers finally won a game, so that’s good, even though I’m only begrudgingly cheering for them now that Steve Nash is on the team. There was that big kerfuffle at Anjunabeats over renaming their radio show to Group Therapy, for some reason. A country to the south of me had an election, which was apparently a big deal there. Prince Edward Island has a new Premier, but nobody cares. Saturn continues to be fucking awesome! I heard Karl Rove had a Scanners moment recently. Suzuki’s gone bankrupt, which is a shame since he’s such a decent human being that- oh, wait, the moter company Suzuki, not David Suzuki.

You know what? I suck at current events. Let’s hope there’re no more one-song mini-CDs for a long, long time.

Roc Raida - Crossfaderz: A Turntablist's Throwdown!!

Moonshine Music: 2000

Now this is an odd one. Moonshine Music flirted with many genres during its run, but never hip-hop. The closest might have been trip-hop or acid jazz, but nothing like this. It’s understandable though, as the label primarily focused on releasing compilations and DJ mixes, signing very few artists for album output. The world of rap music tended to go the other way, with a plethora of albums but few compilations and even less DJ mixes. I suppose it’s due to the fact hip-hop DJs are of a totally different stock than house or techno DJs. Their craftsmanship lay in turntablism and scratching, cutting up tracks to create whole new compositions on the fly as an MC spit rhymes overtop. Certainly an incredible skill to pull off, but not a commercially successful one as MCs became the stars of the show, stealing all the DJs’ thunder.

I suspect the hip-hop scene came to realize this oversight at the turn the century. Turntablists started getting their dues again and more media exposure came to DMC champions. All well and good for the scratchers, but what about those other DJs of the rap world, the pirate radio players? The mixtapers? That… took a while longer to catch on.

Moonshine, however, appeared willing to gamble on getting a head start, offering up this here CD featuring the late DMC World Champion Roc Raida (that’s Grandmaster, foo’). For sure, there’s plenty of scratchin’, rewinds, and assorted turntable trickery on display, but this is also a mixtape. Or rather, a radio set.

The concept behind Crossfaderz is Mr. Raida as a guest DJ on an underground station called WHAT! 187FM (they don’t give a fuck, what!). I have no idea if this was an actual radio station in New York, but given how many hilarious interludes and skits are scattered throughout the disc, I suspect not. Oh, and I’m serious in that these skits are funny - they’re all piss-takes on various hip-hop sub-cultures. My favorite’s the commercial for Slash Ya Face Records, featuring “smash reggae hits” like Sleepy Eepy’s Bitch Take Me Home Or Die When Ya Get Home (it’s a foc seen).

As for the music itself, there’s definitely some fine hip-hop on display (god, I sound white…), mostly all underground stuff, though a few big names crop up. Pre-coffee shop Common’s here with his Ice Cube diss track Bitch In Yoo; The Heist is an excellent crime story from Big L; Missin’ Linx’s Missing In Action will get your attention, as it did Dr. Dre’s when he used a very similar backing track for The Next Episode. Don’t expect mixing like most EDM sets though. Everything’s a sharp scratch cut into the next record.

One thing I’ve always wondered about Crossfaderz is whether it was intended to be a running series for Moonshine. Despite a quality collection of underground hip-hop, it was so far outside the label’s traditional audience, I could see it doing poorly. Too bad for those who slept on it.

FPU - Crockett's Theme / Ocean Drive

Turbo: 2002

Pads have long been one of my favorite components of electronic music, but I’d be hard pressed to provide a Top 10 example, as they’re so ubiquitous in the genre, dating back even to its earliest forms. On a personal point though, Peter Benisch’s use of them in Crockett’s Theme easily makes the list. Their beauty lies in their simplicity, prominent and enveloping, yet always lingering in the background as the best pad work does. Of course, it helps that the original composition was written by Jan Hammer, easily one of the best synth composers of the 80s; however, Hammer kept his pad work subtle, instead focusing on the rousing, building theme for the Don Johnson character. Though that theme is present in Benisch’s cover, it’s his pads that steal the show. And the remixers knew it.

Possibly even more successful was Tiga’s reworking of the tune into Ocean Drive. This came out when the Turbo honcho was discovering he actually had a decent singing voice and, following up on the sensation that was his cover of Sunglasses At Night produced yet another 80s homage. Obviously it’d be something relating to Miami Vice but who’d have thought he’d play to the show’s slash-fic audience. He’s never explicit about it, as there’s an artful homo-erotic tone to this version, made even more apparent by the video that borrows its aesthetic from a similarly homo-erotic art house film titled Querelle, also from the 80s.

Adding a hand to Ocean Drive was Mateo Murphy, a techno producer of some success in the early 2000s. He’s given solo remix duties on Crockett’s Theme, working an energetic layered groove before bringing his take on the pads for the finish. Rounding out the remix package is Jori Hulkkonen under his Zyntherius guise, treating the tune to an 80s house rub that’s fun for what it is, but ain’t a touch on the other versions here.

Man, all this, and I still haven’t gotten to Benisch’s FPU alias. The project gave him an avenue to explore spacey electro and synth-pop, the first single of which was this one. In an effort to promote the forthcoming album Traxxdata, this CD contained a couple extra tracks from it, Time Safari and Eastside Protection. As I’ve gushed before, Benisch is an excellent producer, and even though these electro cuts are of a significantly lighter tone than anything on Soundtrack Saga, his craftsmanship is still strong, injecting playful sci-fi sounds and digitized vocals throughout. Interestingly, he uses a similar pad texture in Eastside Protection to Crockett’s Theme, yet they don’t stand out as much as there’s much more at work in that track.

Or maybe it goes to show just how excellent they’re used in Crockett’s Theme. I can’t get enough of them. Excuse me a moment while I throw that song on again, and drift down Ocean Drive on a linen cloud of pad bliss.

Various - Creamfields: Mixed By Paul Oakenfold

Thrive Records: 2004

For the inaugural Grammy Award For Best Dance/Electronica Album in 2005, Paul Oakenfold’s DJ mix Creamfields was among the nominations. As it stands, it’s the only DJ mix to ever be nominated in the category, which makes sense since a DJ mix isn’t an album of original material and probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Why was it, then? As anyone will tell you, it's because the Grammy Nomination Committee’s filled with morons. They probably didn’t even realize ol’ Paul had only half-a-dozen tracks to his name on the double-CD, but he did have that pop charter Starry Eyed Surprise a couple years prior, so throw him on the ballot for the name recognition. See, club culture, we’re hip to your music. We know you like that Pauly Oaksenfield guy.

Still, wouldn’t it have been funny if he had won that year? Could you imagine the huge can of worms opened? All DJ mixes would have to be considered then. In a sense, that could work, as plenty of DJ mixes have just as much artistic merit as producer albums. Oh, who are we kidding? A Grammy for DJ Mixes would turn into a worse debate gong-show than even the DJ Mag poll.

Back to Creamfields, I recall this was hailed as a proper return to trance-form for Oakenfold, with many of his fans believing he’d given up his pop pursuits by getting back to his roots (re: the music his fans first loved him for - I highly doubt they’d want him to go all the way back to his Happy Monday roots). Of course, that didn’t happen, as his follow-up artist album A Lively Mind (also a Grammy nominee because it’s Oaken F’n Fold!) jumped on every EDM bandwagon he could find in Hollywood. Not that it should have surprised his fans since Creamfields is something of a bandwagon jump itself.

McProg - the lightweight, poppy variation of progressive house - was gaining traction in 2004; right alongside it was Markus Schulz’ ascendency, who offered a form of progressive trance that emphasized low, rumbly basslines contrasted with twinkling melodies. Oakenfold noticed, and CD 1 of Creamfields prominently features this sound, including cuts from Schulz and others of similar stock (Andy Moor, Probspot, Young Parisians, and Interstate being the biggest names). It’s a fine enough mix, though nothing you couldn’t find on a typical Coldharbour collection.

CD 2’s an odd one to conclude on, mixing a few genres up into baffling set. Opening with proggy breaks is fine, and it’s not long before we’re in trance territory, some tunes apparently winks to the sort of goa Oakenfold used to play out. Unfortunately, every so often, it’s broken up by pop remixes, throwing whatever marginal flow was built off the rails. Guess he couldn’t fit them on CD 1, so here they are instead. Gotta show off that new U2 remix, after all. Maybe he’ll get a Grammy nomination for it!

Various - Cream CD2: Mixed By Max Graham

Yul Records: 2000

Fellow Canadian Max Graham's been DJing for over two decades now, building a tidy career out of it. Yet, all anyone remembers him for is his productions, specifically two of them. The first, his breakout single Airtight, came out when progressive trance was enjoying a creative and commercial high, and getting the tune playlisted by Oakenfold's popular Another World and Tiësto's even more popular In Search Of Sunrise 2 guaranteed its classic status among year-2000 trance lovers. His other was a dance remix of Yes' classic Owner Of A Lonely Heart, where he took the brilliant idea of adding a house beat to the rock staple and... um, that's all. Why was that so popular again?

Anyhow, he’s released several DJ mixes over the years, including a running series called Cycles on Armada that I only learned about just now because, well, Armada. This particular CD was his first commercial mix, released just in time to capitalize on the good will he was garnering thanks to Airtight. It didn’t catch on, so he tried again with the fourth installment of the Transport series, which undoubtedly has caused you to ask, “They did four of those things?” Seven, actually, but yeah, it didn’t catch on either, at least in any significant way.

Wait, that probably wasn’t the reason this mix didn’t catch on. I mean, just look at the label here, Yul Records. Has anyone outside of Montreal heard of them? No, not the Rational Youth label. That was a different Yul Records. This one apparently co-opted the name since the original Yul had been derelict since the mid-80s. They released a few other DJ mixes and singles in the early 2000s, but didn’t last long, and doubtlessly never made an impact outside Canada.

So yeah, not the greatest start for Max Graham to make his mark, but we all start somewhere, and Yul Records seemed to have its heart in the right place, starting up a DJ mix series that paid tribute to the Cream festival. That was the intent, right?

The mix itself? Pretty darn good, I’d say. It’s progressive trance from the year 2000 after all, and there were some dynamite cuts to be found. Of course Airtight’s here, but you got contributions from Bedrock, BT, James Holden, Breeder, Way Out West, DJ Remy, and a few others rounding things out. The only real problem here is these are well-known anthems now, so Cream CD2 falls into that “same tracks you already got in a different order” category of DJ mixes. For as solid a track list this is, ol’ Max doesn’t do much to stand out from the pack, save a couple nu-breaks cuts to start (and I never liked that Timo Maas remix of Doom’s Night anyway).

Not much else to say here. Hearing these tunes again was nice, and worth the price I paid at the used-shop, but, like so many trance mixes from that time, hardly essential listening.

Quadrophonia - Cozmic Jam

RCA: 1991

For a decade, I was obsessed with Quadrophonia (the song that is). It was a track that forever eluded me, my only copy being a backing soundtrack to an NBA Jam Session video I had on VHS. It contained everything that drew me into 'techno' during my honeymoon year: big punchy riff, chunky beat, robot voices, and Michael Jordan! Well, maybe not that last one, but stuff like this was definitely being played out at basketball games.

The 'stuff' in question is proper old school rave music, and Quadrophonia (the duo that is) is considered pioneers of the sound. Far as anyone can tell, their big single Quadrophonia was the first to use orchestral hits as a hook. Listening to it now, it sounds incredibly simple and dated, but in 1990 it was exciting stuff. Throw in raps and proto-hardcore rhythms, and you've got a track that would spawn countless imitators and knockoffs, some of which would go on to be much better produced and memorable than what we have here. But hey, Quadrophonia opened the door, so props for that.

And when you get a hit single, it’s a good idea to follow that up with an album. Trouble is, no one had done a rave album before, so there was no template to follow. And listening to Cozmic Jam, Quadrophonia had no idea what to do either.

Strike that. They had an idea, and it was a good one, the original Quadrophonia. So hey, if people liked that, why not do it again? And again? And again? Nearly every track sounds like I’m listening to the same song over and over, only with something other than orchestral hits as the main hook. Not to say these are complete rehashes - there are differences between tracks like Hardhead, Man With The Masterplan, and The Wave Of The Future - but it’s mostly window-dressing to the fact there’s not much musical variation from tune to tune.

I suspect Quadrophonia realized this, as they litter Cozmic Jam with sonic doodles in an attempt to break up the monotony; it doesn’t work. A little better is Find The Time, which gives Marvin D a chance to rap about relationships instead of how their sound is the wave of the future, but were two versions really necessary on this album? Why of course it was, when there are already half a dozen variations of Quadrophonia.

The closer, Theme Of Quadraphonia hints at what could have been if the duo had tried a little harder. Granted, it’s a style-bite of 808 State’s Pacifc, but dammit, it’s something different, and Cozmic Jam needed that. Maybe the album would have stood the test of time better as a result. As it stands, it's permanently stuck in the first rays of rave dawn it was created in, rendering it suitable only for the curious or fans of that era.