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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 10, 2018 15:00:01 GMT
A thread for fans or those who appreciated this kind of music during the 90s and 00s, or still enjoys listening to it. I noticed there was a few similar threads but I thought starting up one for the very popular dance, trance, techno and several smaller genres such as happy hardcore, dream trance and others which enjoyed a very shortlived but still popular period of time and ones that still are around, maybe not as big as before but it is nice to see they are kept alive by younger artists and audiences alike.
As a teenager I was not really all that interested in music as I would be but I remember from around 12-16 years of age that this kind of music was very important to me and I have so many great memories from summer of 1997 to around winter/spring of 2001 and where dance music seemed to be at its most popular, or at least in my country. Later on i have re-visited a lot of the artists and songs I heard so many times over, and while not everyone have the same effect as they used to, the nostalgia part is often very well alive. The very popular and melodic late 90s trance genre seemed to take off as a very commercial and sellable "brand" around 1998-2001 and where it went as far as becoming one of the biggest genres for a short period of time, but when "everybody" wanted to take part and milk the cash cow dry, it became all too clear that it had to "die" out and the better acts or most talented people behind the scene seemed to either take a break or make more "underground" or not so commercial sounding material in which radio stations stopped playing their records and it divided their fan bases.
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to discuss and post dance music from that era and hopefully others will join in with their own favorites and maybe finding old favorites or even new ones.
First off, I start up with what I consider to be one of the big rave/happy hardcore anthems of the mid 90s, and have several versions (or more). Can't Stop Raving is a song written by the german dance act Dune and I remember being a bit disappointed when I got their debut album, as I was expecting the radio single version, and instead it was a very different album cut, but over time I have gotten to favorize a little bit the album version over the more catchy radio version, however they are both still great songs and among the best work Dune ever wrote and produced. They would go on an release several solid singles in the period of 1995-1997 but when lead singer Verena Von Strange left to pursuit a solo career the band began to use different vocalists every now and then, and also changed their sound from the earlier happy hardcore/rave stuff into more dance/pop music and it just did not sound "right" anymore. But I understand they had to progress but I lost interest in their new albums and singles and rarely listens anything other than the ones they did early on.
Can't Stop Raving - Album Version (1995) & Radio Single Version
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Post by cypher on Feb 10, 2018 17:14:20 GMT
I have happy memories from 1996-2001, too, going out raving, and having a blast.
For me though, I found that after coming out of the main room, looking like a drowned rat, and chilling out in the other rooms, the music that was being played there, rare groove, trip hop, and the more chilled music, grabbed my attention more, and my raving days gradually dissipated, as I wanted more rhythm than the ubiquitous 4/4 beat.
Anyway, having said that, I love plenty of dance music from that era, and I'll start off with a couple of classics, both from 1990, that share a common theme.
Would love to know if one influenced the other.
The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
Little Little - Just The Way Like This
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Post by cypher on Feb 14, 2018 13:34:20 GMT
Here's an oldskool classic...
2 Bad Mice - Bombscare
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 16, 2018 16:06:57 GMT
Thanks for posting these older tunes cypher. They are maybe a bit too "old" for my memory as I was just a little kid during those days but its nice to hear them and being remembered of that periods heavy influence on several of my later favorite artists/songs which probably "borrowed" a whole lot from them. I guess the earliest of the rave/techno/dance music scene in which I can remember was that of early The Prodigy which was a bit of hit or miss for me when I was young but still became a vital influence on my music taste at the time. It is not easy to remember my earliest memories but several compilation CDs of the mid 90s would play a big part in that and here are some that I still play from time to time and which have that "classic" mid 90s dance/rave feel both in sound and music videos. Marusha - Deep (1995)This I first heard on a ridiculous 2-disc CD compilation named Mr. Bean's Giga Hits (1995), or some german best of album containing all kind of different music styles and genres, and where it was disc 1 featuring the likes of Das Modul, Scooter, Dune, Marusha, RMB and Charly Lownoise and Mental Theo which caught most of my attention and I have forgot how many times I have listen to those songs but it made me a big fan of that kind of music. Deep by Marusha was "mindblowing" to hear for the first time, and I would later on be a little "disappointed" when looking up other songs of hers, they just did not have the same energy and sound, some was just not to my liking at all, however Deep still is one I treasure very much and brings all those great childhood memories back in full force and really one of the finest dance numbers or at least of those I have heard from the mid 90s. Scooter - Different Reality (1995)Another very important cut from that german compilation was of Scooter and their hit single Friends (radio edit), which later on made me go out and look up their 1995 debut album (a few years later on) named ...And the Beat goes On! (1995) which was quite the surprise as it seeemed to rely less on the vocal (or screaming) by H.P. Baxter and more on instrumental numbers and some I think are superior in every way compared to their more famous singles from that record. The opening cut called Different Reality still sounds so good and fresh and I think it is a shame wether or not they completely ripped off or "borrowed" the sound or music from another artist, it is sad they did not invest more time in doing instrumental songs like this as they still to this day sounds great. Also to be noted, this is a version without the annoying "audience" which seems to get an constant "orgasm" of joy everytime H.P. Baxter opens his mouth. Speaking of Friends earlier, my favorite version of this one (not sure how many there are) is the original album version without the voice of Baxter and a much more happy-hardcore heavy hitting sound to it. Dune - Are You Ready To Fly? (1995)Again, another german dance act but damn how I loved this song. It got me into the band or group in an instant and soon I was to meet up with Can't Stop Raving and it was a great time discovering this kind of upbeat music. It have the feel-good factor going strong and while I am not sure if it is really Verena who sings or some other artist, it is one of my favorite songs not matter genre.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 16, 2018 16:27:28 GMT
Zong!! - Tangoa (1994)
Another important CD compilation (back then they were huge selling album in my country, and every month there seemed to pop up a new series of releases) and due to the success of the Flintstones movie of 1994 (or was it 93?) a CD mix called Yabba-Dabba-Dace! volume 1, 2 and 3 and so on would go on for a while including a mix of popular dance hits and maybe some that would not enter the top 40 single list but would be played probably a lot more in nightclubs and so on. This number called Tangoa I really liked, it was strange but very catchy and I had no clue or idea of what this (russian?) lady said but it was great. Never knew there was made a video for it, so I decided to stick by that. Still catchy as hell and strange but in a good way. My only "complaint" is that the beautiful mid section do not last a bit longer.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 16, 2018 16:38:48 GMT
Baby D - Let Me Be Your Fantasy (1994)
Not sure which version is the one from 1992 or 94 but it included also on the scandinavian or norwegian Yabba-Dabba-Dance Vol. 3 CD that I got back in winter of 1995. This is one number which I guess is not that unfamiliar but it sure brings up lots great memories from that time for my part and still sounds just as good as when I first heard it.
N-Trance - Set You Free (1995)
Somehow, I thought these two songs (Set You Free also was included on the Yabba-Dabba-Dance cd) sounded well not exactly the same but shared some similarity between them. Great tune.
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Post by cypher on Feb 16, 2018 19:16:45 GMT
Yeah, I thought to start off with some of the classic oldies from the early 90s, and then jump around. After the oldskool days, and the scene split between happy hardcore and drum 'n' bass, I went the drum 'n' bass route, for a short while, and then quit. Looks like you were happy hardcore. The Prodigy Experience was a seminal album that influenced me, too. It's pretty impressive, considering Liam Howlett pretty much did the whole album, and managed to encapsulate the scene at the time. Here's another early classic from '91, with a more 'classic' sound, by a producer who eventually dragged me over to the drum 'n' bass side of things. LTJ Bukem - Logical Progression
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 17, 2018 10:16:28 GMT
I guess the happy hardcore genre, commercially speaking had its peak days during the mid 90s (1994-96) but I do remember picking up on it in the early 00s again, but this time it was not german or dutch artist who seemed to be dominating the genre but british ones. I do regret that I did not pick up some of the Happy 2b Hardcore volumes which came out around the late 90s and early 00s, but at the time I was pretty much only buying my music and movies in physical stores and did not begin to use online shops before a few years later on, and since very few music stores seemed to bring in any of the music I liked, I had to borrow from friends who enjoyed the same music, which meant I was in for a problem as I only knew of one other who liked this kind of music genre and he lived several hours away from me.
I had heard some of Scott Brown's tunes along with Hixxy (or Dj Hixxy?), as those often would remind me of the heavily, fast paced piano riffed melodies which I loved when it came to the mid 90s Happy Hardcore genre, dreamy, catchy as hell and still it sounded not that far off what was made at the time in dance/techno music, probably a bit mixed in with hard trance and so on. One tune, and what a tune it was to be, I first heard Elysium around 2001 or 2002, not really sure which version but it sounded so damn good and one of those rare moments where I could listen to it a 20 times a row without going tired of it. This was in a period when I had gotten a bit "tired" of the dance/trance genre and somehow this incredible piece of music by Brown made me fall in love with the genre once more.
Scott Brown - Elysium Plus (2002)
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 17, 2018 10:38:53 GMT
Another fantastic dance, or maybe more of a hard trance tune which I first heard on a trance compilation in winter of 2002, and while the CD I had purchased seemed to have the names of both the song/artist all wrong, I never got it out of my mind how stunning it sounded. Years later on I luckily tracked it down, this time the original name and artist and also an even longer original version. I loved the whole build up, then slowing things down with the beautiful and calm piano melody (again, I am very fond of the use of pianos in dance music) then up we go into a epic sounding take-off.
Condor - On My Own
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 17, 2018 10:56:41 GMT
The Prodigy Experience was a seminal album that influenced me, too. It's pretty impressive, considering Liam Howlett pretty much did the whole album, and managed to encapsulate the scene at the time. I think I first came around Music For An Jilted Generation (1994), much because the older brothers of a classmate of mine, used to crank it up almost on a daily basis and it became like a "soundtrack" to each time I visited and also the use of some of the numbers was played during our gym class in school, as the music was so energy filled that even our teacher seemed to love using it and us kids went completely "berserk" when numbers like Poison, Break & Enter and No Good (Start the Dance) were played. Experience I have not heard since, damn too long but I remember enjoying some of the songs very much, so maybe it is time for a well deserved re-visit.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 17, 2018 11:47:42 GMT
I was just going through some great memories of the days when I used to do a lot of impulse buys, only through looking at what I thought was the coolest CD covers that I could stumble upon in a music store and when one day visiting Sweden back in 2000 I came across one of the many Rave Mission compilations which I had seen a few times before, but never picked up on, well until now that is. I think the one I got was called Rave Mission: The Dream Edition Part: 2 (1998) and as I later on bought a few other Rave Mission titles, I noticed that they did not have the same "dreamy" sound of the Dream Edition, and I was somewhat a bit disappointed. Anyway, the one standout track from that record was to be Scoopex and In My Dream. I think because I got the CD version, somehow it was a slightly edited version which only went on for about 5 minutes, while this LP version seems to include a longer introduction which the CD version pretty much skips. Still a cracking piece of music and one that really bring with it a lot of nice nostalgic feelings.
Scoopex - In My Dream (1997)
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 25, 2018 12:48:31 GMT
Ayla - Liebe - Trance Mix (1998)
The producer/DJ known as Tandu aka Ayla became very popular for a period in my country, specially around 1998-2000 where he seemed to be one of the leading figures within the trance/dance genre and while I mostly knew his music through the shorter and more radio friendly single versions that was either played on radio or TV or which was included on several CD compilation, it was this stunning number called Liebe (1998) that really caught my attention.
I already knew of Ayla Part: II (1998) but with the release of Liebe my interest for the more melodic and dreamlike trance really hit off well. There was to be several other versions released around the same time, remixes by acts such as ATB (which I think is probably the most known) and also DJ Taucher and a few others, but I did not realize until many years later that the original was not by Ayla, but in fact another german artist who went under the name of Cosmic Baby and who had released Liebe already back in the early 90s.
Cosmic Baby - Liebe (1992)
I was pretty damn amazed at how stunning this much older version really sounded, and I soon began to check out a few more of the work by Cosmic Baby and grew quite fond of this early german melodic and sweet trance music, which was a bit more "minimalistic" than the more commercial trance music I had gotten used to in the late 90s and early 00s. Decided to pick up his album Stellar Supreme (1992) which is a must have for fans of electronic music and that stills sounds very fresh in many ways. A fantastic combination of rave/techno sounds along with all these beautiful and calm melodies, it really is a great record and one I am glad I finally got. Another piece of incredible early german trance was the stunningly peaceful cut that is Sea Of Tranquility (1992).
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Post by cypher on Feb 25, 2018 18:06:08 GMT
Terrorize - It's Just A Feeling
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Post by cypher on Mar 1, 2018 11:36:57 GMT
Awesome 3 - Don't Go
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Post by cypher on Mar 9, 2018 13:56:19 GMT
The Ganja Kru - True Playaz Anthem
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 10, 2018 12:08:34 GMT
I haven't been checking into this thread more of recently, sorry about that. Anyway, I really enjoyed some of your posts cypher, especially Awesome 3 - Don't Go which sounds fantastic for what I guess must be at least 25 (or more) years old track.
I know I already posted a few Dune songs above, this however is one I think stands among as some of their absolute best "hidden" gems, and which should have been considered to be released as a single back in 1996. Beautiful stuff and a great combination of both upbeat and calm music.
Dune - So Beautiful (1996)
Scooter - Tonight (1997) A somewhat similar in style or sound to So Beautiful by Dune, was this great little surprise from a rather forgettable Scooter album which was the Age of Love (1997) and the last one to feature original band member Ferris Bueller (Sören Bühler). Not sure anylonger if this is actually a Scooter song or just another rip-off but the vocal/lyrics are beautifully sung by Mary Kay who I think worked with the germans on several other albums.
Anyway, I really enjoy this kind of upbeat but relaxing music. Sadly Scooter would rarely reach these heights that often.
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Post by cypher on Mar 11, 2018 13:38:05 GMT
Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era - Far Out
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Post by cypher on Mar 24, 2018 15:18:04 GMT
Dance Conspiracy - Dub War (Chapter 1) (1992) Classic!
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Post by cypher on Mar 28, 2018 13:28:32 GMT
Dance Conspiracy - Dub War (Chapter 1) (1992) This reminded me of another sax led track, but from early 00s Ils - Saxtrax
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2018 21:52:52 GMT
That is almost all that I listened to in the late 90s to mid 2000s. Here are a few of my nostalgic favorites:
Deepsky - Stargazer
DJ Brisk and DJ Trixxy - Eye Opener
Ron Hagen & Pascal M. - On Stream
Ferry Corsten - Kathy's Song
Solar Stone - Seven Cities (V-One's Living Cities Remix)
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