Hardcore Breaks

Hello,

I was kipping in bed earlier today (having stayed up until 4am watching shite TV) when I was awoken at about 8:30am by a knock on the door.  It was a postman.  He had a package for me.  And I love getting packages.

Anyway, he handed me a jiffy bag, and off he went.  It was worth getting up for, cos inside was a nice new shiny CD of Anarchic Streaks (www.anarchic-streak-recordings) second release.

Right, I believe the guys behind this new label are Dunstable based DJ’s Force and 666.  But dont get confused by DJ Force, theres no 4×4 kick-snare-kick-snare rubbish on here…..

Tracks are as follows:

1) Darkus - Is Loco
2) Dossa - Breakstation (Relicked)
3) Kubyk - Murder
4) Teknotik - Burnin’ (Infernos Aftershock Remix)

Lets get straight into it.  Darkus has been releasing tunage for time now, and has always been impressive.  This is no different.  Darkus sticks with the classic oldskool sounding stabs and beats, but adds that Darkus ‘touch’ to them.  Keeping it simple, but picking up the speed of this release (compared to other stuff I receive), he utilises the Cypress Hill ‘Dont you know I’m Loco’ sample very well.  Add in some gunshots and more classic stab sounds and patterns, this is a solid track that will please the oldskool heads amongst us.

Right, Dossa’s Breakstation has been doing the rounds for a while, so it deserves a ‘relick’ I trust you’ll agree.  This has a real 1992 feel to it, and kinda reminds me of early Manix stuff.  This tune is, in my opinion, the cream of the tunes out there pushing the ‘true’ oldskool sound.  Again, nothing fancy about this tune. And it has all the elements of a great classic oldskool tune.  If you didn’t know this was new, you’d think it was old.  If you get me.  The piano is classic, the ‘whoooaaawa’ vocal is classic, the sounds are classic. All in all, guess what, classic.

I always wanted to do a tune myself called ‘Murder’, but it looks like Kubyk beat me to it.  I have no idea who Kubyk is (anyone help?), but the guy can write music.  This one starts with a proper funky beat, and in kicks in the pitched down amens. (I fuckin love pitched down, shuffling amens).  This track obviously has reggae influences, and the crossover is done well utilising a very simple stab pattern using a classic hoover.  Layer the reggae vocal over the top and it steams along. Those amens just fuckin give the track that hard edge.  Anyway, enough about my Amen fixation, cos it rolls along nicely into a nice smiley piano line.  Unfortunately, the piano seems to get a little lost in the harshness of those amens and the bell sound seems to clash a little, but dont let that put you off, cos overall this is a blinder.  And after a few more plays, I can see me battering this track. 

Teknotik comes up next with a little tune caled ‘Burnin’.  Looks like this is an inferno remix (look at me, I can read a label!), so lets give it a spin.   Unfortunately, I’ve not heard the original of this, but this is a totally different vibe from the other tracks on this release.  Dont listen to this in headphones cos this has some mental panning effects.  Again, using the trusty amen, this tune starts all mellow, then turns into a headnodder.  The ‘got me burnin up’ sample, although very ‘popular’, is not overused here at all.  And actually adds to the track, whereas I normally hear ‘popular’ samples and they are used in the same way every time.  I think the reason is that this track uses a different vocal as the main vocal.  I like this track a lot.  It kinda reminds me of my 1993/4 raving days.  Kinda similar to old Pooch releases and a slightly darker Vibes and Wishdokta feel.

Again, I am astounded by the quality of all the releases I have received recently, and although I probably wouldnt play all tracks off this EP, I’d certainly play 2 or 3 of them.  And if this is the standard that the guys down in Dunstable are setting themselves, well, its gonna be tough to follow this.

Overall, a top release, with all tracks appealing to their individual markets.  This should do well.

There IS just something about pitched down amens though…….

Until next time,
The Mix Analyst

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.