Who's Your Favourite 'Ardkore Hero?

I'm sorry, but I haven't the slightest idea what it is you're referring to. "'Ardkore"? Whatever it is I don't think I like it.

well there are lots of them, but here is the problem: I can't remember their actual names, they are truely lost in vague memories of brilliant nights of dancing. Still using some Jedi-trick I came up with N-Joi who in the summer of 1991 rocked the dancefloor with the utterly great 'Mindflux' (did they release an album?). And one Liaisons D who did 'Por La Patria'...I think the terms are storming. blinding. genius. instant nirvana. It goes something like this: quiet neo-Whattimeislove synth riff/someone shouts POR LA PATRIA!/Then mayhem follows.

Acen, + Rob Playford who seems to have been behind the mixing desk at many of my fave 'ardkore moments eg Blame + 2 Bad Mice.

ohmygod tim, this will take a long long time because there are bloody loads!

to start with: nino. ok, so he's responsible for all the baby d stuff, but his remix of the house crews euphoria takes an average track and turns it into one of oldskoolhardcore's pinnacles.

manix. dego mcfarlane and that other fella. never liked the 4hero stuff, but, as manix, turned out a lot of great 12s. all the samples seemed to be about 5th generation, everything low bass and high treble. fuck the mid range, drop the bass.

criminal minds. released the superb Baptized by Dub (is anyone ever going to tell me what reggae bassline this samples???). halfspeed breaks till suddenly speeds up and turns amphetareggae, then towards the end, breaks into terrorize style divarave. whatever happened to them anyway?

danny breaks. as sonz of a loop da loop era. peace&loveism, just that bit too early to have the full on breaks workout, but those enya strings are great. very clean, unlike much of the fuckedupdirtyness of later breakbeathardcore.

these are just a few initial ones. have to think about this, to come back with more and in more detail...

To answer my own question... I'd nominate Hyper-On Experience, who seemed to be fabulous at every stage of the hardcore game - check "Imajicka" for no-frills hands-in-the-air rush, "Disturbance" for quintessential darkcore menace (with amazing rhythmic programming to boot), "Lil' Ruffion" for gorgeous cut-up breakbeat mayhem, "Quiji Awakening" for proto-Photek neurotic mania, and "Half Stepper" for alien artcore landscapes.

But above all, for "Lords of the Null-Lines", which I reckon vies with 4 Hero's "Journey From The Light" and Metalheadz' "Terminator" as the ultimate darkcore tune. "There's a void where there should be ecstacy" - too right. Strangely, Hyper-On Experience's two members eventually split up and became E-Z Rollers and Flytronix, both going from being in the most out-there fucked-up 'ardkore/jungle group to being in two of the most conservative jazzy drum & bass groups.

Word on Manix, Danny Breaks and Hyper-On Experience. But are you sure the latter didn't release an album? And word on Krome & Time esp. for 'The License' wot a tune!! :)

Also Renegade for the massive 'Terorist'. Okay and I always forget this one: Dead Dred, was there ever a bigger tune than 'Dread Bass'?

[okay so I pulled out my Renegade Selector 2.2 mix-cd out to refresh my memory ;)]

also add gavin cheung (sp?) aka Nookie. Give A Little Love is sublime. one piano riff, one breakbeat and a cool noise.

i also think Mickey Finn (aka Urban Shakedown) deserves a mention for taking the funky drummer break, speeding up ce ce rogers old nycgarage hit 'someday', and laying it over the top. add in what i believe reynolds terms the 'oscillator riff' (also heard on djs unite's 'djs unite') and voila, ardkore's biggest hit? (23 in charts, sep 92 i believe)

as for acen, he made some very good recs, but the way he over-egged the pudding by chucking in everything stops his records from having that 'easy' feel that marks out true class.

Acen absolutely deserves classic status on the strength of "Close Your Eyes" alone. Adding in "Trip II The Moon" merely cements the case.

Okay, so they only had one track which was true hardcore heaven, but "You Got Me Burnin'" by Cloud 9 is so fierce that I'd feel remiss if I didn't mention them.

What about Lennie De Ice's "We are IE"? Thats my favorite 'ardkore track. Did he have anything else worth checking out?

DJ Trax (or Tracks possibly) with "One Man One DJ". This had some fabulous backing to it, and featured some insane vocal snippets sped up. It sounded like someon saying: "Rickyrickygickygickygurnuhbeegajaggasteebo".

Also Edge's "Edge 1" for its deranged fairground melody.

And what I see as ultimate: G double E's "Fire When Ready" - featuring some sort of ragga sample that sounded to me like someone intoning: "Oonoogettheeprungyarpigneeyarmoonoogetteeprob". It also sampled Ice-T dclaring: "The record's revolving". I wish I could find that track... =:'-(>

Cloud 9 is one of Nookie's psuedonyms, so there's another feather for his bow. Oh, and Omar, if HRE had released an album together, believe me I would know about it (as it was their last few tracks for Moving Shadow, written concurrently with E-Z Rollers and Flytronix, were pretty much the same area as those subsequent groups, so I'd probably be disappointed if they had).

For the record, my favourite Krome & Time track is still the first one I heard: "The Slammer", during which every ten seconds I think "no, *this* is the chorus". And that makes me think of the Austin track on the same compilation ("The Joint LP"), "Unity In Dub", which had absolutely everything - intro mentasms, wriggling oscillator riffs, ravishing full-on dub segments and dancefloor-hysteria stop-start beats (helpfully announced by a guy shouting "STOP!" then "GO!"), plus one of my favourite little diva snippets ever - the diva sensuously murmuring "bitch all you like..." Does anyone know what happened to Austin (Reynolds)? I'm sure he would have ended up somewhere else in the scene.

Another nomination: Noise Factory, who not only had great drum programming but were certainly the bravest exponents of the trick of a pretty intro being swamped by psychotic pounding. See tracks like "My Mind" and "Set Me Free" - the latter's winsome piano tinkling intro was the first thing I thought of when I heard Second Protocol's "Basslick".

I loved a track on Krome & Time's "This Sound Is For The Underground"'s flip - I can't recall its name, but it sampled some Rebel MC drums and a guy saying: "She Keeps On Running". As well as KRS-ONE exclaiming: "Come down!"

that was manic stampede, and that, alongside the absolutely thunderous and even better Sound is for the Underground, is the reason why Krome & Time are so revered by me

Yeah, Krome & Time were the hot shit, as well.

Did Noise Factory do "Can You Feel The Rush", too? Because if they did, they get MAD RESPECT from me. Another one of my faves is Yolk. "Bish Bosh" + "Music For The People" = much love.

OMG noise factory's "breakage #5 (bedroom in hackney)" is like a non-stop party of everything that matters¹. thanx jess!

¹currently : "rock around the clock" intro + mad mutating breakbeats + chipmunk hip-hop vox + sinister darkcore fx + buried replicant transmissions + a cartoon steamtrain + ragga-diva + jugband bass + "firstcome firstserved basis!" + VOIBE + "fade away . . ." & it DOES!

um...Moby? ;-)

you all have no idea how happy I am you were discussing this shit two years ago and preempted most of my own choices. still need to hear that Noise Factory track, though. and for the record, Acen, the Funky 4 + 1 of 'ardkore

I'd say Keith Morriss....oh, whooops, wrong harcore.

Seeing an ancient Pinefox joke by Josh makes me so happy.

Forgive the potential stupidity of this question, but was Manix also known as MANIC of the track 'I'm comin' hardcore'?

er, if not, I'll vote for them - I have 2 other 12"s that I own but can't quite recall the names of - they were on Union City records IIRC

That G-Double E track is phenomenal!

Also, now you've jogged my memory:

3 Thieves & a Liar
A Homeboy A Hippie & A Funky Dread - Total Confusion
Early Suburban Base stuff like Phuture Assassins
Ruff Tuff Panic
New Class A

and a few other white label things I ordered blindly from NZ at the time & was well rewarded!

Boogie Times Tribe. . . "Dark Stranger" (and the fantastic Q-Bass remix). . . drooooooools. . . And that the flip is/was "Real Hardcore". So good.

wow, that's one of the best a-b side combos evah, innit?

let's hear it for Moonshine's "Speed Limit 140 BPM" series, especially vol. 1. so much good stuff on it, like Yolk, NRG, Urban Shakedown, etc. etc. etc.

old Suburban Base is indeed the shit. once again i'll trot out DJ SS and his remix of "want you now" by D'cruze. it's like the blueprint for dj assault's happy tracks.

someone tell me more about d'cruze, please.

Jay D'Cruze started off great and eventually made treacly jazzcore, if memory serves. Just like everyone else, sadly, who didn't veer straight into UK garage.

EXTREMELY DUMB QUESTION: is the d'cruze comp. from 1996 worth picking up used for 6.99?

yes

d'cruze was also 1/2 of boogie times tribe

of "dark stranger" fame

GIRL I'M STARTING TO LOSE IT

(gabbo call me at the office when you can, thanks)

(check yr email beforehand)

(i'm out the door like five minutes ago (arm being tugged on right now)...how long are you gonna be there?)

(haha this is the most useful ilm has been in months)

(not long, we can do it tomorrow)

"criminal minds. released the superb Baptized by Dub (is anyone ever going to tell me what reggae bassline this samples???). halfspeed breaks till suddenly speeds up and turns amphetareggae, then towards the end, breaks into terrorize style divarave. whatever happened to them anyway?" - Sorry, don't know how to do the italic quotes.

One of my schoolfriends used to work with them at Newport Pagnell motorway services back in 1990 or so, and through him I got a copy of their first EP from when they were a Public Enemy-influenced UK rap band. There was a great song called F**k Ya System that sampled the Darth Vader March from Empire Strikes Back. I foolishly sold it a long time ago, and I can't tell you what became of them, but that EP was pretty good.

nobody mentioned DJ Hype...("The Chopper" had one of the most delicious piano breaks)...or Doc Scott...(Drumz!)...so here they are...mentioned...by me...