Monday, March 15, 2010

Week 42: The Year In Rave—1992 (Part 1)

Ok, so 1992 was pretty much the best year ever for music. The Rave scene was blowing up, and every week it seemed like dozens of amazing records were coming out—way more than little 10-year-old me could buy. This was the year that the UK really took the reins from Belgium & the States w/r/t dance music, and when the idea of "rave music" as a distinct thing from house/techno started to emerge.
Some of the bigger tunes were even getting aired on prime-time American MTV, and the TV coverage of "raving" hadn't yet turned into the hyper-negative anti-rave sensationalism that Hard Copy & other sources would make their bread and butter in the late '90s. There was really a sense that this whole rave thing was gonna take over the world and radically change "normal" society (which half-happened, but certainly not to the extent or in the ways that we'd imagined).

Anyway, the records that came out in 1992 are what got me into dance music, and made me become a musician. I love this stuff, and while a lot of it is VERY dated, I still stand by my statement that 1992 was the best year in the history of electronic dance music.

That being the case, I've decided to devote two mixtapes to it. This week, I'm exploring the more poppy/traditional side of the '92 rave scene: these guys were much more about hazy memories of the '88 acid house parties, super-saccharine feel-good synth lines, and staying true to the Belgian techno and Italian piano house sounds that helped establish the rave scene in the first place.

There was another, more hardcore side to the scene—by 1992 they were already absorbing a lot of reggae influence from England's Jamaican population, and evolving in a direction that would soon be known as jungle. I'll cover them in a couple of weeks.

  1. Utah Saints; Something Good (FFRR / UK)
  2. DJ Seduction; Hardcore Heaven (FFRR / UK)
  3. Fierce Ruling Diva; Keep Moving In Time (Vocal Mix) (Lower East Side Records / The Netherlands)
  4. Radioactive; The Eliminator (XYMO Records / Belgium)
  5. GTO; Love Is Everywhere (Reach For The Sky Mix) (NovaMute / UK)
  6. Meat Beat Manifesto; Mindstream (Orbital Remix) (Mute Records / UK)
  7. Love Inc.; Trance Atlantic XS (Rising High Records / UK)
  8. Bizarre Inc.; Plutonic (Vinyl Solution / UK)
  9. Messiah; Temple of Dreams (Kickin' Records / UK)
  10. Dream Frequency; Take Me (The Prodigy Remix) (CityBeat / UK) 
  11. Opus III; I Talk To The Wind (Transcendent Mix) (PWL International / UK)
  12. Mig-31; Mig-31 (Pirate Record / Italy) 
  13. Sonic Experience; Protein (Strictly Underground / UK)
  14. A Homeboy, A Hippie, & A Funki Dred; Start Da Panik (Rising High Records / UK)
  15. Project One feat. Nanisha; Roughneck (Remix) (Rising High Records / UK)
  16. Sub Love; One By One (Earth Recordings / UK)
  17. Channel X; Channel X (Beat Box International / Belgium)
  18. Messiah; 20,000 Hardcore Members (Program 2 Remix) (Kickin' Records / UK)
  19. The Prodigy; G-Force (XL Recordings / UK)
  20. Praga Khan feat. Jade 4U; Injected With A Poison (MNO Power Remix) (Beat Box International / Belgium)
  21. Wishdokta; Teknoskitzo (Kickin' Records / UK)
  22. Baby D; Let Me Be Your Fantasy (Production House / UK)
  23. Altern 8 feat. Evelyn "Champagne" King; Shame '92 (Network Records / UK)
  24. Liquid; Sweet Harmony (XL Recordings / UK)
  25. Run Tings; Fires Burning (Suburban Base / UK)
  26. Phuture Assassins; Future Sound (Suburban Base / UK)
  27. The Prodigy; Fire (Sunrise Version) (XL Recordings / UK) 
  28. Program 2 & Joey Beltram; Threshold (Vortex Records / USA)
  29. C of E; Church of Extacy (Crucify The Acid Remix) (Rising High Records / UK)
NEXT WEEK: Eurodisco.

9 comments:

  1. QUALITY. Playing your week 26: Classic Ragga Jungle mix now. I was a little too young to catch the 92 era stuff, but have since grown to love it. I did grow up with ragga jungle however and have always loved it. Not listened for a while and tonight really fancied it. You mix made my day!

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  2. Wow! What a mix! So great!

    It's funny, I was born in 1980 (about the same age as you,) and I went the complete opposite direction with my music influences, though I kept up with electronica along the way and still love it.

    Such an education... Thanks 'Bot! You rule!

    M

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  3. A mate pointed me to your blog - loved these mixes! I then realised I'd briefly met you at Bangface a few years ago - you were wearing a Crystal Waters t-shirt I think! Anyway, I was ten in 1992 as well, and the other year I finished a blog series about each song on a compilation called Rave '92, basically how the 10-year-old me reacted to all this stuff :)

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  4. I was born in 1969. While I don't know for certain that 1992 was the best year ever in the history of electronic dance music, since I am not the most renowned music critic, I will at least say that 1992 was a great year for this genre of music, and I was able to experience it all as a young twenty-something.

    I should know, since all throughout 1992, I attended many raves at weekends, and when I wasn't at a rave, I was often at a dance club most weeknights, and at most other times during the weekdays, I was at work in a dance record and clothing shop.

    Finding blogs like this one brings back some really great memories for me, and makes me now wish that I could do a bit of time travel, too.

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  5. Wow....

    I was 17 in 1992. This is what we listened to, danced to, and well....

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  6. Awesome.92 ,the best era for tunes

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  7. your mixing is so tight man - your a inspiration

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  8. Cool mixing,top old school tracks,92 best days of my life, will never forget the music,make my hairs stand on end.keep it alive!!

    http://rave92.blogspot.com/

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