Hardfloor

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let talk about Hardfloor. classic for the frankfurt acid maximalism, yes, but...

what about later on? all the TB Resucsitation era stuff is rocking, no doubt (esp Lost In The Little Silver Box and Into The Nature), but then, fish&chips seemed like a rehash (moment gone?), Funalogue? had that slow track that suggested someting different and did actually work, then i kind of lost touch.

theres an x-mix comp, which suggests they got classicism (all 88isms and 'twere better in th'old days' (um, like what, before you were round Bondzio/Zenker? and isn't Zenker responsible for some rather silly rave tracks - who is elvis?????)

then theres all this beavis at bat, da damnphreakanoize buisness. did they go breakbeat or something? why???

neglected classics? ironic that the uk trance trouser massive that turned onto asperience in 92 as a 'classy' euro escape from that uncouth ukhardcore stuff, would, in turn, dismiss them later.

― gareth, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually that X-Mix album is fabuloso - the best acid house compilation I've found, mixed or otherwise. And you can be sure it's the brutalist, machinic end of the scene that all the Shoom-devotees have probably forgotten was the order of the day back then. And although Hardfloor's own tracks were done so as to sound like they were actually from '88 (a strange move) it only demonstrates how close they'd always been to the style; contributions are basically more minimalist, cheap-sounding versions of what they'd always done.

― Tim, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Respect still kicks ass.

back in the days when the word "tracky" was not considered pajoritive. It is weird, I still think of them every so often, but I have never bothered to track any of thier old stuff down. So much of their music is tied to my memories of the mid-90's that I almost do not want to hear it. I think it is much better in my memory than it actually is in reality.

Still, they were classic, even if it was just for awhile back in the day. Still, I don't think they would hold up to my snobby desire for "musicality" in my dance these days. That is one aspect of electronic music that I seem to have lost a grasp of. The total "next five minutes" mentality that seemed to be so pervasive back in 94-95. I don't know if it is a generation gap, or what, but my tastes have become much more demanding over the years.

I guess the ILM dance people are going to be the only ones reading this thread anyway. Just out of curiousity, how old are you guys and how do you think your perspective on electronic music has changed over the years? Do you think it has changed, or do you think you have changed?

― Michael Taylor, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic, they perfected one template, wobbly acid-line, fat bass, breakdown, enter strings, here come the drums, whoom-whoom, Nirvana!

personal favourites: Circus Bells remix, 'Hardfloor is the Best' or whatever the name of that track with Phuture is and 'Acperience 5' even better than the original version.

Destroy: utterly bogus comments about "jungle is not music" around '95. Fuckwits.

Michael, short answer for today, alas. I'm 30, now into 10th year of dance-music. Change of perspective? Very difficult question/theme. Most important one I guess is that in 91 the music was almost a field of energy you could visit (in clubs), I remember that at the time it was almost impossible to imagine listing to the music at home. Obviously over the years it has become music, almost the only music I listen to. Sorry not a very inspiring reply but when I have some more time we'll get into details. It's a fascinating and important question.

― Omar, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wow, I kind of forgot about Hardfloor....

although they were one of the groups that really got me into the whole "techno/electro/dance" scene in the first place, along with Richie Hawtin. Once I started in on trance (a phase) and Kruder & Dorfmeister (still a staple) I ended up selling the discs and never really thought about Hardfloor again. Their tracks were solid for DJ work but probably seemed inaccessible to people conditioned to Daft Punk and the like.

― Ian M, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

to answer Michaels question. I was 16 when rave (in its breakbeat hardcore incarnation - the third wave?) hit britain in 1992. so i started off with Formation, Reinforced, Manix, Jonny L, Easygroove, Jumpin Jack Frost, Suburban Base etc, clubs like Doncaster Warehouse and Peckham Lazerdrome, very ravey, scuzzy, you know - - the hyperkinetic narcotic break blah stuff that simon reynolds talked so much about.

by 93/94 that scene was dying (jungle hadn't emerged from the rave shadow yet, so it had become a very moody scene, the whole 'darkness' fuckup without the euphoria scene). it was at this point that a lot of the clubs (esp Orbit in Morley) turned techno (in practice this meant a mix of german and dutch stuff that wasn't yet considered cheesy - vath, zaffarano, hardfloor and US stuff, jeff mills, damon wild, robert armani, so you'ld get, like, Red Planet played next to something on Eye-Q and, like, no big deal)

at this point, i began to demand 'musicality' from dance music, and i looked back disparagingly on the rave scene i had originated from. i even sold some of my rave records (something i regret to this day). of course, what happened is that the techno scene then also split in 2 (along a US/Euro axis - giving rise to the trance phenomenon). i now equate this short period of looking for musicality as a thinly disguised attempt to break away from something i perceived as adolescent, i wanted dance music to be considered serious and worthy of critical attention.

i don't demand 'musicality' from music anymore (i don't even really know what it is) and havent done since this episode. i came from a 'street' background, if you like, the music i loved (and still love) is a druggy proletarian music (and yes drugs were an enormous part of the scene), that never got props from critics or the establishment (and is only just beginning to get a very tiny amount of it even now).

at the time, all the things i liked in music were rubbished in the press and by 'serious' music fans (despite its enormous popularity in this country. and why is this fact airbrushed out of history? and why are huge anthems still out of print and impossible to get hold of, even on compilations??), so much so, that i even began to disparage it myself after the fact (how is that for nationwide peer pressure?).

when people talk of quality, or musicality, i remember those arguments being used, when i was 16, and how they didn't understand the music i loved, and how i thought they were wrong (and they were wrong, they're always wrong at the time, and revisionism saves their asses much after the fact, even if only through ironicisation "i always loved this really you know"), and why i never trust those phrases. ever.

― gareth, Monday, 12 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

the remix of sven vaths robot is great, wobbly bassline tune

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:39 (twenty-three years ago)

eight years pass...

-let me put kenny's cassette in right now
-oh my god
-...cos i need some music to, uh, to motivate me to stay here. do you know i have stayed a hour extra listening to this and working my ass off?
-whaaat?
-this is come bad shit, is it not? yes. yes.
-are you serious?
-yes
-do you know what i did, roberta?
-hey listen, al ester is a house dj. and he would like some vinyl so that he can play it in the clubs, baby.
-ok, see this is, um, i do like techno over here i'm really big over in europe
-honey, you gonna be big here baby
-yeah and you know, see what i did was, tuesday morning i did that song just to bring it down to you
-honey....
-i have a little studio at home and i did the song, and uh, well see what happened, see, i can, um, i just did it i just have it on DAT tape right now
-yes
-and what i can do is i can go down to, um, to... you ever hear of national sound?
-yes
-ok i can do down and uh have them make us
-hold on one second okay?..... hi
-yeah?
-kenny?
-yeah?
-this shit, um, excuse me
-no you just say whatever words come to your mind cos i...
-woooooooooh honey, hey, hey, al ester is the baddest house dj in detroit and he says you've got it goin' on baby. i'm tellin you this is some BAD SHIT
-okay, you can play it!

― jed_, Saturday, 15 January 2011 01:22 (fifteen years ago)

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