We’ve been locked in a basement for the last few years, forced to churn out techno riffs in exchange for scraps of food. Here’s a mix from a few years ago – all dad bits. Gets better the more of it you can endure. Maybe. Or maybe not.
Yet another mix from Dr Dempsey. Certifiable vinyl only house and techno. A bit late for summer. In Glasgow it’s been winter since the middle of June.
Tracklist
Dj Swagger & DJ Aedidas – Drift [E-Beamz]
Reade Truth – Another Dilemma [Planet E]
M&Ms -They Came, They Party’d, They Left [Teknotika]
Recloose – Cardiology (Isolee Mix) [Playhouse]
Polarius – Fallin Snow [Creme]
Fingers Inc – I’m Strong (Instrumental Mix) [Clone Classic Cuts]
Randomer & Hodge – Simple As [Vityl Sound]
Modini – Fear [Dixon Avenue Basement Jamms]
Captain Comatose – Birthday Present [Playhouse]
Dj Swagger & DJ Aedidas – ствол [E-Beamz]
Frankie Bones – I Love It! [Pro-Jex]
Cari Lekebusch – Förstår Du Nu? [Hybrid]
Shan – Bassline Party [Running Back]
The Other People Place – Running From Love [Warp]
Soulphiction – Everytime [Perlon]
Infiniti – Game One [Metroplex]
The bass. The bleep. As British as fish and chips.
A strain of house that arose in the UK at the time of the acid house explosion, it didn’t rely on the 303, instead taking the massive sub bass of dub and combining it with robotic bleeps.
This list is in no way definitive – some of the tunes don’t even qualify. Rather it’s a personal playlist of UK house from that period that fits the vibe.
Interestingly it’s a sound that has resurfaced many times, and hasn’t really dated. It’s probably the best type of music from the early UK rave era…it feels less nostalgic and gimmicky than a lot of hardcore for instance.
1. Mental Cube – So This Is Love
Mental Cube was a version of Future Sound Of London – the more famous tune was the epic trance techno number ‘Q’ which goes for 50 quid on Discogs. This one is possibly even better though.
2. Sweet Exorcist – Testone
You can’t do bass and bleeps without mentioning Warp Records, can you? That would be ridiculous. Sweet Exorcist was a pair of Richards (see, avoided the obvious knob gag) – Richard H Kirk, from Sheffield electro-punks Cabaret Voltaire, and Richard Barratt aka DJ Parrott – recently hitting his stride again as Crooked Man. Close Encounters sample, those classic bleeps, and a video by Jarvis Cocker.
3. N- JOI – Techno Gangsters
Remember when The Prodigy were an N-JOI tribute act ? This almost veers into hardcore territory but it’s still minimal enough to qualify as a bass and bleep number. This EP came out just before hardcore had really established its formula – it was an interesting time cos a lot of the records were weird hybrids. And this tune kicks.
4. In Sync – Storm
Irdial Discs was a strange label – lots of releases that were a bit unhinged. Lovely warm bass and drums here, mastered to cheap tape – a sound that people emulate nowadays with plugins.
5. No Smoke – Oh Yes (Freedom)
Tony Thorpe, tropical house kinda thing…for hot summer nights. I know it’s January, but sling this on and turn up the heating. Probably doesn’t qualify as bass n bleep but my brain files it in the same bin. And it’s very good. So much good recent house music sounds very like this. (Example) This International Smoke Signal album is a cracker, lots of tracks on it that totally stand the test of time.
6. Nexus 21 – Self-Hypnosis
Mark Archer and Chris Peat had their chart-topping moments later with Altern 8 but it all began with Nexus 21.
7. Original Clique – 3 Phase 415V
Chill Records put out original bleep anthem ‘Unique 3 – The Theme’ in 1989, which may well be the tune that was guity of starting the whole thing. We haven’t included it here, just to be annoying. The other side of this is equally good but less bleepy.
8. Autonation – Sit On The Bass
Dad Hero Jerome Hill remixed this for the modern age in fine style recently on his own Don’t Label. Can’t decide whether his remix or this original version is best. Both are great.
9. Rhythmatic – Take Me Back (Bass Head Mix)
We are well into brown note territory when the subs arrive in this Network Records bad boy.
10. Nightmares On Wax – Aftermath (LFO Remix)
Of course we could have included LFO- LFO, but this remix allows us to get a 2-for-1 deal going and it’s just lovely. Ultra-spooky house for extreme smoke machine/strobe moments when you suddenly realise that it’s all getting a bit weird – always the best moments – and listen to those subs.
All vinyl mix of quality electro from the 90s/early 00s mostly.
Thanks to Drexciya, Kraftwerk, Eon, Abe Duque. The Octagon Man, Mescalinium United, Detroit Grand Pubahs, Two Lone Swordsmen, Underground Resistance, Carl Finlow, John Selway, DJ Dijital, Anthony Rother, Industrial Bass Machine ,TEST, Shandy, Robbie, Rubadub, Sacha, Clone, Andrea Parker – Iain Mackie and Niall Young for reminding us that vinyl is better than MP3s – and Bowers and Wilkins for their outstanding bass performance.
Nice bit of unsettling analogue disco-techno from Optimo Music. This tune makes us think of the famous JD Twitch rave story when he came down with a case of the fear and ran out from behind the decks of the Livingston Forum into the night, to be found later floating down a river in his puffa jacket.
We were having a look through old records the other day and came across this Neptune’s Lair album – in our minds it’s filed away as the ‘new’ Drexciya album. But this was released in 1999. When are we going to get into our thick heads that stuff from 1999 is not new? I guess it was a more overground Drexciya release than the earlier stuff, being on Tresor.
Anyway, it’s just been re-released too, coincidentally. We have an electro mix coming down the pipes very soon, watch this space.
Looks like we have a water theme going. Time for a slash.
Veteran Techno Dad Robbie ‘ Jobbie’ Dylan turned us on to this one. Shouty vox, crazy distorted bass shenanigans and funky drums. Late night wrongness.
4. Jerome Hill – Ghetto Rolf
Even more wrongness. Definitely one for the cack bin – we do love a bit of cack though, and here we have the Don’t Records boss cacking it up with the best of them by combining some seriously silly Rolf ‘paedo’ Harris samples with big Chi-town techno beats. Stay safe, kids.
The other tracks on the EP are not so silly…how could they be ? They are good though. Funky tough techno. Recommended.
You may not have noticed if you don’t pay attention, but top dad and Aphex Twin Richard D James has an album about to drop.
We’ve been watching with interest the slightly ludicrous publicity campaign, which has involved a blimp and information being released on the dark web.
And now he’s come out from behind his scary mask to do a phone interview for Rolling Stone. And it’s a really good interview. As always you wonder how many of his answers are just made up, but we surmise not that many.
It turns out he’s battling with the same shite as all of us – namely trying to find time to do techno stuff around screaming children and school runs. And why wouldn’t he be ?
Some more vinyl selections – well, we have them on vinyl. Obviously these are on Youtube. It’s the modern way.
Joe – Maximum Busy Muscle (Hessle Audio)
Right good wibbly sounds right here. He’s built his techno from little jazz samples but made something pretty heavy from it with some excellent parping. The other side is good too, bit more housey but still wonky enough to keep us doing our fat little dad shuffle.
Tessela – Nancy’s Pantry (R & S)
A lot of the resurrected R&S label stuff is a bit too nice – coffee table vibes. This one takes a wee while to warm up but has a decent bit of beef to it and a shiny modern take on the hoary old Amen break-inspired hardcore. Not sure who Nancy is but her pantry involves a strobe.
Mecalinum United vs Evil – A New Level (PCP)
We know you dads are desperate for the old skool stuff. Here we have top dad hero Marc Acardipane in 1993 doing his best Eon impression with some scary movie sampling doom electrorave. We have it on the mostly daft Frankfurt Trax Vol 4 compilation.
Quite a well shot video by the standards of the day. It’s well lit and oddly there isn’t much evidence of gurning or sweating from the dancers.
Loads of great dance moves from the mums and dads though. Sean looks reasonably sane – Tony Wilson explains all at the end when he say ‘just an ordinary Saturday afternoon in Manchester’. It must be a special gig filmed for the telly at a dad-friendly time of day. Hence the relative sanity on display.
All filler no killer - 100% dadcore. Honesty pays no bills.
Nothing is more embarrassing than a dad on crack
When techno went glam
techno dads 