Early Nineties Dance!

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Back when I were in college, my group of friends all had a soft spot for early ninties dance (ie, one bloke had nicked a tape off his brother and we listened to it whilst sat underneath the piano, ahem). But we were too JUNG! to go to RAVES! We didn't do pills, we didn't get "on one" or any of this tomfoolery, we just shouted to the rooftops our praise for EARLY NINETIES DANCE, by which we meant basically, Haddaway.

SO! Can you imagine my surprise when sat down the boozer when a group of friends a few years older than me start critically engaging with what is 'ardkore and what is hard house and what is trance? Good golly I thought, the music I laffed at actually meant something... to people who usually MAKE SENSE ie not horrible acne ridden happyhardcoreamy from college (who we had immense scorn for).

So, were you a raver? Was it all about the drugs? You didn't seriously like DJ Seduction? Did you take any of it seriously, ie those DUMB novels? Did you look like a cuwat? Also, should I buy the Ministry of Sound compilation which starts off with some choons I like, even if it's £16? For two CDs? I'll offer 20p for a Haddaway single...

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

A lot of what we thought was EARLY NINETIES DANCE turned out to be MID-NINETIES dance IE Alex Party. But oh well.

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

God the Young can be cruel. Stop laffing at us Sarah, one day you will be in your mid to late twenties and then you will know what it's like.

― Emma, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Did you wear WHITE GLOVES????

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I know I used to like the mid 90s stuff and I would have been 12 so it must have been popular. haddaway were mid 90s I'm sure. One of my friends has a dance 95 cd which he puts on every now and again, oh the irony. It is kind of funny though if you're drunk. The Zig and Zag song is really the best thing on it though.

I'm thinking of names of the bands now, but I don't know if they're too recent. Remember that Reel 2 Reel song? Snap. There was a song called Waterfall which still shows up on trance mixes I think. But surely the best cheesy dance song ever is N-Trance Set You Free. And the new version sucks. I remember some one where the lyrics were "I've got the key, I've got the secret", really really cheesey, what was that called? Er.....maybe "I've got the Key". This is descending into "oh how silly we were" nostalgia so I'll stop.

― Ronan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Urban Cookie Collective! The Key The Secret!!! Which is ALSO on the Ministry of Sound compilation. But I CAN'T buy a Ministry of Sound compilation, WHAT WOULD THE NEIGHBOURS SAY? (Thank god she's stopped playing VER FALL probably).

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes the N-Trance single = best song ever. I was so pleased they re-released it so I could get it free to review and have the original, although every single modern remix is crap. Even the 2-step one.

― Tim, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

2-step N-Trance? Dude. I must hear this. Even if it IS crap. It sounds the perfect mp3 song.

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Urban Cookie Collective.....hehe. I'd forgotten. There are more. I am thinking right now. Capella. The dreaded 2 Unlimited. The very early Prodigy stuff off Experience like Charlie says or Everybody is in the Place. Another amazing one was that one "I can't stop raving". Fatboy Slim played that at Creamfields this year.

Or that one to the tune of walking in Memphis "I'm Raving I'm Raving". although that was kind of shite it's still worth a mention.

― Ronan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Every single song so far mentioned is better than Ryan Adams and the Moldy Peaches. Where's my pension book?

― Tom, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Every single song mentioned ever is better than the Moldy Peaches. I strongly agree with you enough on that to ignore the Ryan Adams bit.

I really really really want to download "I can't stop raving" when I go home. It's got that bit with the girl singing "woooooo" for ages. Er....if you know it you know what I mean.

Haddaways baby dont hurt me is stuck in my head. What were their other songs? And were they as good as "Mr Vain". He's a mystical arrogant bastard and he knows what he wants, it's you. Cos he's Mr Vain. What the hell was going on with the lyrics to that song?

― Ronan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Actually though, on reflection, I am doing the whole "we were so silly" thing because I'm sure back then Mr Vain was the sort of song you heard and thought how cool is that guy.

― Ronan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My EARLY NINETIES DANCE STYLEEE remix of Downloading Porn with Davo will be AMAZING.

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sarah, my flatmate actually has said Ministry of sound compilatiom and it's not bad at all, especially Altern-8 (ah fair takes me back to Shelleys in Stoke!)

But, the best thing to get for proper early nineties dance is the Warp compilation that's got stuff from their first ten releases.

LFO!!!! TRICKY DISCO!!! NIGHTMARES ON WAX!!!!!!!

fantastic

― chris, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Now I look back in horror when I see documentaries on the New Beat trend, but back in the day we used to dance like mad in the Boccacio. Lasted a couple of months... then we woke up to reality and went back to work. :-)

― helen fordsdale, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ronan I was 20 when Mr Vain came out and can confirm that everyone then thought the lyrics were stupid, though clearly it's a terrific record. Culture Beat I believe.

― Tom, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

then we woke up to reality and went back to work

Alright, Helen, I'm not having a go here but that sounds like a blurb from those hideous novels that I can't stand. Did you really think that? How many drugs did you do? My reaction to yr sentence originally was to say "like woah, yeah maaaaan" but WAS it like that or are you just using the language that surrounds that scene?

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If Human Traffic contains the sort of language you mean Sarah then I see your point. I don't often cringe for people while watching films but a few moments in it were just "ugh". The National Anthem bit, oh dear oh dear. It made it easier to hate the guy cos it was John Simm aswell.

― Ronan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No Sarah, of course not. By the way I never took drugs. No, we realized that clubbing and work didn't go well together: our business went down down DOWN. Like I said: I tend to go overboard with the things I like. Finding a balance was too hard. Oh yeah: my English is muy crapola due to it being a second language. I tend to use lines from aeroport novels. :-)

― helen fordsdale, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(this thread is gareth's birthday present, isn't it)

― Ed, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, that's a glo-stick.

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

no Ed, i'm afraid all what is being talked about isn't of any interest to me. and those club films are all crap as well.

my thread would be focusing on Reinforced, Suburban Base, Jonny L, DJSS, Production House, Easygroove, Criminal Minds, Sonz of a Loop da Loop Era, Dance Conspiracy, Manix. come wid it!

― gareth, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I always wanted to be older.Then I would have gone. Sadly, being 11 doesn't really help. I feel I missed out on something. Rhythm is a Dancer is great song. The boy next door used to come over quite a lot to talk to my dad about how many pills he was taking(the boy, not my dad). I liked that episode of Inspector Morse where the people go to a rave. It seemed like the coolest thing. I suspect they ended up in the morgue, mind you.

― alix, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

e's up raves are without doubt the most fun i have ever had. i have not been to enough proper raves. it's not all about the drugs, but it's certainly not all about the music. don't think you can get away with doing one without the other!

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Gareth will you do me a MIX TAPE? Or is it all new fangled compact discs round yore way? Lixi, was that episode of Morse like the Quincy punXoR episode?

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

AND ALSO Gareth you should answer the original question I posed then! Would you have called yrself a raver? Did you distance yrself from the acieeeeeed crowd? Did THAT even exist or did they make it up in Great Pop Things?

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Having not seen the latter I couldn't say. I am supremely bored. Have to leave....I can never find the right Haddaway single to buy. I mean, I found 'life', but it's totally biryani.

― alix, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

yes i will do a mixtape (although i am a bit behind with doing tapes, i will do them all in a big mixtaping binge!)

other dream thread would be if anyone had answered my Alec R Constandinos thread on ILM. or the Bob James one, or the Just Blaze one!

― gareth, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

so what do all you hardKORE indie kids think when you pass the loons in the "magic glade" or whatver the feck it's called. i.e. the bit at Glastonbury for the dansin' nuttahs. Do you go "hmm, not really Nick Drakey enough for me. the vocal loop should sound more wet and weedy" or do you think "hmm, they look like they're enjoying themselves, while looking like twunts -- that's SO not me twice over"

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"This beat is, this beat is, this beat is technotronic".

Just got emailed that from my friend when I asked him if he could remember any RAVE! I remember the line but can't think who it was.

― Ronan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You even THINK of doing a mixtape before mine, Gareth, I'll fucking thump ya!

Mysterious, this sudden interest of the uber-twee Starry in early 90s rave, isn't it?

I was old enough to go to "raves" (or what passed for them in the Icen Forests of the Hudson Valley) in the early 90s. They were generally rubbish, a gang of club kids come up from the city to dance in a big warehouse to crap techno, banging on about Detroit soul they knew nothing about, to a gang of trendies who were only doing it cos they were the biggest Anglophilliacs the world had ever know.

Enough to drive us back to our barns and our singing saws to try and figure out what the next Mercury Rev album was going to sound like.

― kate, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

yes, i suppose i was a raver. i am slightly too young to realise what was going. i started going to raves in summer92, there weren't many warehouse raves left by that time, i think summer92 was the last of the 'summers of love' if you like. it was certainly one of the biggest in the news "rave menace" etc, castlemorton etc. so it was already becoming more of a club based scene (i went to Orbit in Morley and also Doncaster Warehouse). but by christmas 92 the scene was on its last legs (although i didn't really realise this at the time). rave was dead soon after that, and techno became the dominant sound (mainly German Harthouse type stuff)

reading yr Simon Reynolds you'll know that it split into darkness (soon to become jungle) and happyhardcore. neither were successful at all in the area i lived in, most clubs went techno. and so did i. i didn't distance myself from the aciieed massive. that was already well over by the time i started going out (i listened to LFO and stuff on peel) but i was only about 14 then. hardcore (as we called it) was the stuff the other people distanced themselves from (those into classy or progressive house). as for the pop type stuff mentioned in the thread above, nobody knew anything of it. we just never came across it (other than on tv). that stuff would be played in Ritzys type clubs (you'll notice that stuff is mainly European - hardcore was almost exclusively British)

― gareth, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Starry? Uber twee? You're barking up the wrong greek there, Kate! She's a rockist! I can't stop using exclamation marks! Someone in the computer labrador keeps farting! I have to leave!

― alix, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Cat-fite, cat-fite! Ooooh!

― kate, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ah yes memories!!! Greatest time of my life I suppose, or at least the greatest music I've ever heard with the most exciting feeling of belonging outside of a footie-pitch. Amsterdam of course has from day 1 had an insane supply of utterly great E and I had my share. Music by itself = great, E by itself = bit boring, the music + E = bliss. Ah used to be so fit, I could dance forever, now I am a tired 30-year old fart with a daughter. Although my musical diet has steadily progressed to consist of almost 95% dance related music. Those novels are crap aren't they? ;)

― Omar, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was a raver in the mid-nineties. It was brilliant.

― DV, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ho ho. Main QN: can I see pictures of you OFF YER NUTS.

Yes I think Kate should climb down the Greek and Lixi should shut her gob I am neither rockist or uber-twee but I'm certainly not TECHNOTRONIK and cranking up the old THUNDERDRIVE. SURELY my interest was explained in my original question numnum HADDAWAY. I would lurve a musical saw.

PS LIXI IF YOU ARE STILL HERE BUY A DAMN VIDEO RECORDER FIRST AND MAIL ME SO I CAN BUY VIDEOS. NOW. IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN UNDERWEAR.

― Sarah, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

deh, wah-deh, wah-dudley-dah-deh
mmm deh, wah-deh, wah-dudley-dah-deh

― Will, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Gareth, I answered the Just Blaze thread! For that I demand a mix tape.

I was six, eight, and ten during the three summers of love (not to mention in Australia) so No Fun 4 Me. In fact the first rave I went to was only two years ago, where I had a Moment Of Truth and have been one of those insufferable dance peeps that would have bored Kate ever since.

― Tim, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

pump up the jam, pump it, stump it, jam, trip on this.

Where are my Ride records? Quick, somebody help me...

― kate, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

call me mr raider. (WTF?)

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

james brown...

...IS DEAD.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-

james brown...

..IS DEAD.

― mc bad hair, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i am given to understanding that i can, for want of a better phrase, move any mountain, and that you may bang it to the beat of the drum. i thank you.

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Darling, come here, f@ck me up the .....

Ach, none of you were treated to my wonderful a capella rendition of the booming 303 that Ed was playing in his car last night. Very accurate if I may say so myself.

OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM- chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish OOOOM-chish

― kate, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That Inspector Morse episode was directed by Danny Boyle.

― Anna, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm surprised no one's mentioned that the singer for La Bouche ("Sweet Dreams", "Be My Lover") passed away a couple of weeks ago.

Boom tish boom tish boom tish boomboomboom tish.

― David Raposa, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

those "total dance" compilation commercials on late night uhf will never be the same...

― jess, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

not too relevant here (but less so than anywhere else), but does anyone else recall the Temple of Dreams by Messiah. an ace tune with a sample from the Running Man, but its main vocal loop was "Did I dream I dreamed about you". and though that's obviously the same as the lyric from that This Mortal Coil song, it equally obviously wasn't actually a sample from it.

Did they want to sample it and were blocked so got some bird to just sing that bit, or what? i.e. a coincidence, or something MORE sinister?

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Let Us Now Praise Anonymous Female Vocalists. Like that lass standing in for Martha Wash in those C&C Music Factory videos. Didn't she actually record her own music & stuff?

Not that this really has anything to do with this, but I managed to catch the beginning of _Cool As Ice_ a while back (yes, this be the Vanilla Ice film vehicle), and the intro credit sequence featured Ice vandalizing the mic while NAOMI CAMPBELL provided backup vocals. Ah, yes.

― David Raposa, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Alan: Oh! I remember that song, but I never knew what it was called.

― rosemary, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Messiah were rather fab, though they did a not too great cover of "i feel love" too -- certainly not as good as the best ever (as proved by science) cover of it by CURVE!

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That new Kosheen song is fantastic E music. It's got that little cheesey bit that rocks. And at the moment my personal favourite is Harlot by Felix Da Housecat. Best ever is Higher State of Consciousness though. I've worried about heart failure any time it's come on when I'm off my face.

― Ronan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Which Kosheen song is that Ronan? I'm interviewing them tomorrow and could use ammunition.

― Tim, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Kosheen Releases a new version of Catch - that moves them away from the drum n bass of slip & slide (suicide) to a sort of Hi energy dance ala Sunscreem. [Tim, Ask them if they were fans of Sunscreem in the early 90s.]

― DJ Martian, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was a bit pissed off by the Kosheen album actually. I loved "Hide U" last year and I thought "Slip & Slide (Suicide)" was fantastic - finally someone had perfected the art of combining the jerky robotic repetitive drum & bass style of recent years with a full-on song in a manner that actually worked. And then the album was all Dido meets... yes, indeed, Sunscreem! But more Dido than Sunscreem, sadly.

― Tim, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three months pass...

Confession Time.

I went to an Old Skool night last Friday, with all my friends.

Confession #2

I loved it. Oh yes the club had smileys everywhere and all these idiots had soothers in their mouths, but fuck it, it was brilliant. The music wasn't too cheesey but still cheesey enough.

AGE OF LOVE. Eh......yes they played Age of Love. Also that Bedrock song "For what you Dream of" (which I suspect may not be old skool). Chime by Orbital and loads more stuff I can't remember. It was fantastic. I hate the idea of old skool, and I hate contributing to it becoming the next big thing and going down the road of "chill out". (You know chill out has got too big, when articles saying chill out has got too big get too big). Anyway I hate all the above, but still it was such a fun night.

So yeah DV pull your smiley t shirts out again or something.

― Ronan, Monday, 4 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Come on guys!! Get with it - youre talking about early nineties dance and didnt mention Orbital or Age of Love until the end!??! 1988 - 1995(ish) where the BEST years of music. Ever. Period. Think Oribtal, think Bomb The Bass, think Rhythm King Records...REAL DANCE MUSIC - whether techno or house - REAL melody. Im not gonna sit here and wish music could go back - BUT! I always manage to throw in a classic or two in my DJ sets and always will!! I was 15 in 1988 and bore witness to the whole acid house (commercial) phenomonon - but speak to any of my hard house/nu NRG (read: CRAP) friends: Who the hell is KRUSH? D-Mob?? ...

― Greg, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

REAL melody

Yeah, those goddamn fake melodies these days, lemme tell ya. It always burns me when I see that they're not organically grown in the sun and protected by ladybugs from aphids!

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three months pass...

Yeah good one ed...youre so clever. Fuck you.

― encise, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Easy, tiger.

― Matt, Friday, 28 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Who the hell waits three months to come up with a reply like that?

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 28 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

― Dan Perry, Friday, 28 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

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