So here you have it: 26 MP3 files spanning a pick of the last few Hardcore Energy compilations (we’re up to 7 now – blimey), with their own special cover and a ringing endorsement from a man who just can’t let go of those mid-90s memories – me.

Hardcore Energy 2 – The Second Coming

Discogs Entry | Buy it at DJ Download

First up is a clutch of traditional old-skool sounding rollers from 1st Science, called the Planet Insanity EP:

Then there’s a Hardcore Lives! new style – some dark J-Tek jungle-esque moods from John Browne.  So, a new style of cover for this one:

As usual, they’re available to buy and download at Hardcore Lives! Records now.

I haven’t actually heard it yet for bandwidth reasons (mobile broadband soon to be ousted by much manlier ADSL), so you and I both will discover what it’s like when it appears shortly.  Here’s a sneak preview of what’s on it:

Hardcore Lives! – the hardcore breaks record label that I shuffle pixels for regularly – are going to be releasing their 11th digital release within a few hours or so.  Yup, it’s not even out yet – this makes this announcement  - deep breath - an exclusive!

DJ L.A.B. is a new addition to the HCL Digital stable, and only had the briefest of listens has affirmed that the usual HCL crisp breaks are in residence alongside the large basslines and an accomplished sense of production that sands off the rough edges of early old-skool.  Millenium-era trance fans will be pleased to know that a certain Sarah McLachlan vocal lays the foundations for Release The Silence, while Anti-Bass Neighbourhood‘s ragga stylings will please the jump-up teenager in you.

The HCLD011 release will be at Hardcore Lives! Records very soon…

Here’s the skinny, including fabulouso exploserous cover by yours truly, and an (almost) exclusive look at the tracklisting, too.  More info available at the Hardcore Lives Records website.

I always had a soft spot for Ben Venom’s The Dirty Mind way back on Hardcore Energy 2, and in some ways this EP – Sensation in particular – is similar.  Out are the big-room tunes of Weeky and 13Teen, and likewise absent are the mega-basslines of Autimate which I waffled about some time ago.  In their place is an evocative sense of atmosphere that places these tunes squarely in 1994, somewhere in a set by Ratty in a dusty tape pack in an attic miles and miles away.

When Sensation came on, the streets of Shepherd’s Bush melted away and for ten minutes I was at a friend’s garage, on the bus, or in my bedroom sorting through my brand new Dreamscape 6-packs. It’s a distinctive, progressive combination of bassline, subtle pads and chilled breaks that I hadn’t heard for a long, long time – the Hardcore Breaks scene tends to veer towards a general toughening up of the older style, which made this all the more a pleasant surprise.  If it was slightly more drum ‘n’ bass than breaks, it’d be in Kruder & Dorfmeister’s box, and nudging LTJ Bukem in the ribs.  Superb.

Breakdown! doesn’t, really.  Instead, it builds itself around an acoustic sample which if I’m honest can be a bit hard on the ears.  Far more dancefloor than Sensation‘s sofa, bass and synths return with a vengeance but never with the ferocity of T92′s previous singles.  It’s in all a more considered approach, somewhere between Chilly March and Richie K’s Sinister from the label’s previous EP.  Half the length of the flip-side, it’s a shorter excursion into a middle-ground we haven’t heard much of from this artist before.

Don’t just take this old raver’s word for it, though – try it yourself with the sampler below.

Hardcore Lives Digital 010 is available from Hardcore Lives Records.

Disclosure: I make sleeve artwork for Hardcore Lives Records.

More music fun soon!

Musings on the cover artwork, plus super bonus rejected version after the jump!

The brief for doing the cover for this release was basically “make it like a 1994 rave flyer” – easier said than done.

Firstly, I was about 12 at the time and my meagre collection of flyers harldy inspired great artistic vision.  However,further research vindicated my teenage promo-collecting skills, as I discovered that actually they were more or less all pretty shit.

Consequently – and secondly – this meant that I’d have to go for that same amateur “home-made” look.  I actually got a slight headache while applying too many Photoshop filters, over-stretching some Times New Roman and comping together a mass of unrelated imagery into some arbitrary high-tech faux sci-fi image.  Turned out pretty well in the end, but it went through the most iterations of any design I’ve done in a long while.  There was no particular direction – it was a case of spending a few hours shoving things around the page until they approached an uneasy equilibrium.

As a design process, it probably mirrored the rave culture aesthetic quite well.  The intentionally over-heavy weight of the text down the left-hand side still makes me wince slightly, mind you.

…and finally, here’s something I literally knocked up in about 5 minutes during the whole thing.  Although just an experiment with a “back of an envelope” idea,in a curious way I actually prefer the minimalism to the “final” product.

]]> http://shinypixel.co.uk/2009/06/06/hcld009-the-sinister-ep/feed/ 2 http://shinypixel.co.uk/2009/05/29/rejected-hardcore-energy-5/ http://shinypixel.co.uk/2009/05/29/rejected-hardcore-energy-5/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 23:01:49 +0000 Rik http://shinypixel.co.uk/?p=211 I did the cover for the forthcoming Hardcore Energy 5 tonight.  An enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours pretending that I’m a graphic designer by drinking  organic tea and filling my thoughts with negative space and golden ratios.  Then I open Photoshop and twiddle with the colours on the previous sleeve from the series.

I’ll be reviewing a promo copy in these hallowed pages when the time comes, but in the meantime here’s an exclusive look at what the cover won’t look like:

This one was nice, but it’s a bit more Ibiza than Hardcore Rave.  Although it’s not Ibiza at all, because that’s snow, not sand – but I digress…

]]> http://shinypixel.co.uk/2009/05/29/rejected-hardcore-energy-5/feed/ 1 http://shinypixel.co.uk/2009/05/03/hcld008-the-chilly-march-ep/ http://shinypixel.co.uk/2009/05/03/hcld008-the-chilly-march-ep/#comments Sun, 03 May 2009 13:54:40 +0000 Rik http://shinypixel.co.uk/?p=49 So, here’s the scoop on the latest EP to burst forth from the Hardcore Lives  stable.  I’m actually pretty excited, as this one features of my favourite artists from the whole Hardcore Energy series.

The guy in question is T92, who popped up last on Hardcore Energy 3 with the storming piano anthem Weeky. This EP veers off down a darker parth however, toward the harder end of breaks.  Autimate in particular rides almost entirely atop a rumbling, distorted bassline which I imagined as the offspring of injecting Red Bull into a dubstep record.  Mix in some gravelly, pleasingly-unintelligible samples and you’re good to go.  Definitely my pick of the two, and an excellent sense-sharpener on a cold wander around the city.

Chilly March treads slightly sunnier territories, layering breezy synths with crisp beats in a 7-minute adventure that can easily withstand multiple back-to-back listens.  Its demands are less immediate on your aural attention, and is correspondingly less exhausting.  The morning after Autimate‘s night before, if you will, evoking memories of the icy spring weather recently past.

And it’s pumping out of my stereo on a mild Sunday afternoon in the city.  For a couple of quid it could be pumping out of yours too.

Hardcore Lives Digital 008 is available from Hardcore Lives Records.

T92 can be found on PromoDJ.ru

Disclosure: I make sleeve artwork for Hardcore Lives Records.  I don’t have any influence over their A&R.

It’s Hardcore Breaks, which essentially boils down to ’93-’94 Old Skool (think 2 Bad Mice or Seduction) with up-to-date production values.  If knowing that doesn’t float your boat, it’s probably still worth a grab at a massive £0.00, isn’t it?