Mashit

With all the talk about nu-rave, next-rave, rave-revival, etc. over the past couple of years, we thought it’d be fitting to point the lens over to the original rave sound. Durring the late ’80s, urban sounds from U.S. cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit invaded the UK and quickly became more popular than they had been in their home towns. Rave parties filled up with thousands of dance-hungry youth listening to acid-house, techno, and hip-hop. Before long british producers began to meld those genres into the new sound known as hardcore, breakbeat-hardcore, or simply rave.

Dev/Null is a devoted collector of vinyl documenting the early ’90s UK-rave sounds that went on to become jungle/drum ‘n bass, and eventually morphed into speed-garrage, 2-step, grime, dubstep, etc. Last year he dropped an oldskool-rave set at a Beat Research party and this mix is the result.

Looking at the tracklist for the mix, one can see many of the artists and labels whent on to become well known jungle/drum ‘n bass producers in the mid to late ’90s. Also note that some of the ealy recordings on the XL label are here. XL Recordings has remained nimble in a changing music industry and has worked it’s way to the top. In recent years they’ve released hit albums by M.I.A., White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, Devendra Bernhardt, Thom Yorke, and rhumor has it that the new Radiohead album will be released through them too.

Enough talk! Here’s the mix:

Download: Dev/Null; Beat Research Mix

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Tracklist:

1. Babylon Timewarp; Durban Poison (Subliminal)
2. Criminal Minds vs. D.O.T.; Drums of Doom (Labello Blanco)
3. Q Bass; Deepa (Suburban Base)
4. Intense; The Tournament (Underground Level Records)
5. Mastersafe; Monster Sound (Formation)
6. Dance Conspiracy; Dub War (XL)
7. Austin; Unity In Dub (Stop-Go Mix) (Suburban Base Promo)
8. Addiction; Mind Penetration (Vicious Pumpin’ Plastic)
9. Prodigy; Out of Space (XL)
10. Noise Factory; Future II (The Remix) (3Rd Party)
11. Oz Beat; The Return of Oz Beat (F Project)
12. Bizzy B; Slowjam (Whitehouse)
13. Tim Taylor; Istanbul (Taktix Remix) (Fokus)
14. Nasty Habits; Dark Angel (Reinforced)
15. T Power & The Sandman; Born 2 Dark (Soapbar)
16. Hyper On Experience; Thundergrip (Moving Shadow)
17. From the Man Like Pennywise; Suspension of Disbelief (Symphony Sound)
18. DJ Trax; High Time (Moving Shadow)
19. Brothers Grimm; Sign of the Times (Production House)
20. Studio Pressure (Photek); Fusion (Photek)
21. On Remand; Controllin’ (Tango Remix) (Underworld Vinyl)
22. Peshay; World of Music (Infrared)
23. DJ Hype; Weird Energy (Hell’s Bells mix) (Suburban Base)
24. Aphrodite; Raw Motion (Aphrodite Recordings)
25. Naz AKA Naz; Organized Crime (The Killer Mix) (Deja Vu)

Update: Check out Dev/Null’s Virb profile for more early rave and hardcore mixes.