3MB Feat Eddie Fowlkes - Illuminism Range 1-5 (1992)

3MB Featuring Eddie Fowlkes - Illuminism Range 1-5 (1992)

3MB are Thomas Fehlmann (Palais Schaumburg) and Moritz Von Oswald (Basic Channel). This track is featuring Eddie Fowlkes the Detroit techno dude. There was like a 5 minute edit of this on a early 90s Tresor cd I had but this is the full 20 minutes of glorious Berlin-Detroit techno goodness.

The Chosen Few - The Joke Is On Us 1978

The Chosen Few - The Joke Is On Us EP (1978)

You gotta love a group that consisted of a teacher and three of his year 12 students from Mornington High (60 Km south of Melbourne cbd) who used to rehearse & drink beer on a farm in Moorooduc.

The Chosen Few played Aussie style brutal yob punk rock inspired by the likes of Radio Birdman but I guess they were a lot more neanderthal.

The Chosen Few used to support Nick Cave’s Boys Next Door at The Tiger Lounge in Swan Street Richmond. They also played The Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda & had a residency at The Champion Hotel in Fitzroy. However they were outsiders because they weren’t inner city trendies, didn’t conform to punk’s orthodoxy and actively hated everyone else on the scene.

They only released one EP while they were together. THE JOKE’S ON US! from 1978 was a six song 7” issued on A FEW PRODUCTION. The original pressing of the single is now going for 1500 Aussie dollars on discogs.

The Chosen Few have become a little bit legendary over the years since their breakup in 1979. Iain the singer walked in front of a train & died in 1995. Cal the drummer played with The Olympic Sideburns, Spencer P Jones, The Saints, The Clip Clop Club etc.

Bored featuring Bohdan X & Eddy Current Suppression Ring have both recorded a cover of The Chosen Few’s THERE’S A LOT OF IT GOING AROUND ensuring them immortality as a seminal influence amongst the underground Australian rock scene.

THE DARKSIDE OF RAVE IV

DARKSIDE GOLD: HITS & MEMORIES

MEGA CITY 2 -DARKER SIDE OF EVIL (1992)

Mega City 2 had at least three tunes I can think of with DARK in the title. This is probably the best. It's swathed in Hellraiser samples and horror soundtrack atmosphere amongst the frantic beats, urgent technoid elements and a peculiar sinister bass hook. 

RUFIGE KRU - DARKRIDER (1992)

Classic piano led 'ardcore with fabulous synth/string stabs then darkness descends with sinister movie dialogue, mentasms and unmistakably massive Reinforced rave riffage, all put through a dub echo chamber.

BAY B KANE - HELLO DARKNESS (1992)

Pitch-shifted Simon & Garfunkel sample begins this low key yet insidiously uncanny tune which is one of a kind in darkside jungle. Absolute!

TANGO & RATTY - TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE (1993)

One of the most iconic basslines in hardcore kicks this off at 0.12. Then Rakim gets the chipmunk treatment along with massive rave riffage, dubwize soundz and general frenzy.

DJ SOLO - DARKAGE (1993)

An Amen belter. Often in an Amen sampled jungle tune you'll get the Think break too. Chipmunks take over along with a trippy reggae trumpet sample making this a unique specimen of hardcore rave.

BOOGIE TIMES TRIBE - THE DARK STRANGER (ORIGIN UNKNOWN REMIX) (1993)

Each time I kept adding a choon here I thought "This is the best ever!" so that makes this an All Killer No Filler post and The Dark Stranger must be the best of the lot. More horror soundtrack vibes and deep voiced thespian dialogue snatches from Sir Anthony Hopkins & Gazza Oldman, we get a soul diva, Origin Unknown's mysteriously psychedelic touches, a weird step-y drumbeat for the hook and more. 

BLAME & JUSTICE: MOVING SHADOW 1994

BLAME & JUSTICE - NEMESIS (1994) 

Pinging pinball bass, scattershot 52 pick up snare spillage and an intense creepy time stretched vocal sample all add to the anarchic bliss of Nemesis. Peak disorientating jungle goodness. Mind-bending.

BLAME & JUSTICE - ESSENCE (THE JAZZ TESTAMENT) (1994)

Ambient-Jungle with some dissonant saxamophone. Apparently it was Goldie's favourite tune from 1994. 

BLAME & JUSTICE - ANTHEMIA (HEAVEN) (1994)

Lovely kaleidoscopic ambient-jungle weirdness. 

BLAME & JUSTICE - NOCTURNAL (1994)

Disembodied diva vocals set free into a floating hallucinatory dubby vortex with random drummage. Totally artcore!

BLAME & JUSTICE - NIGHTVISION (1994)

Splattering snares, a dubbed out diva, ambient lulls, bleeps in the echo chamber, melodic octopus drummage with menacing minimal bass. Night-visionary!

BLAME & JUSTICE - SECRET PARADISE (1994)

Bleeps amongst the choppage and dubbed out waves of sound. Loop-y psychedelic jungle.  

ICONS - EMOTIONS WITH INTELLECT

ICONS - ELECTRIC SOUL

First things first Emotions With Intellect is a fucking awful and totally unappealing title so it's no wonder that many jungalists avoided this record upon release back in the 90s. 

Icons are Anthony Bowes and Conrad Shafie aka Blame & Justice who had two big 12"s on Moving Shadow in 1994 (See future post and coincidentally Simon's post here). Anyway the Icons LP didn't come out until 96 despite apparently being recorded in 94/95 (?). It's not like there is an absurd wealth of information on jungle/dnb on the interweb, like there is with rock music, so I haven't been able to confirm as to why this album stayed on the shelf for a couple of years. Like many punters I missed this record at the time and really only became aware of it seven or eight years ago when it was included as FACT's 17th best album of the 90s, beating out Omni Trio, Goldie, 4Hero & Photek to come in as Jungle/dnb's runner up LP behind A Guy Called Gerald's Black Secret Technology which came in at number four. 

ICONS - SALSA FLAVOUR

This does what it says on the tin ie. it's dnb with a salsa flava. It rolls along nicely with its percussive bliss, jungle soundz and humid atmosphere. Choice.

*Fabio's review from Eternity Magazine June 1995.

ICONS - FUTURE ASPECTS

"It was about the ghost notes" 

Blame aka Conrad Shafie.

*Fabio's review from Eternity Magazine May 1995

ICONS - EMOTIONS WITH INTELLECT (1996)

As the kids say this was slept on.