Music Reviews submitted by Chris Hutchinson Posted by LiamStyles on Sep 3, 2003 - 9:47:00 PM

Kevin Energy + Just Rich 'Wanna Be' - Bonkerz

Forget hardtance, forget trancecore, forget freeform....infact, forget genre names alltogether. What we have here is a track which manages to be so cool it doesnt NEED a genre - if the fonz was a piece of music..... he would be this track! Clocking in at just over 170bpm, 'wanna be' is quite possibly Kevin Energy's finest studio effort to date!
The track itself takes all the usual hardtrance and freeform elements, puts them together in a fairly usual manner, yet somehow manages to sound so removed from everything else that it stands out! The percussion is nothing spectacular, although the stomping bassline more then makes up for that, and at the pace it thunders along at, is enough to knock a few years off your life expectancy!! Clever scratching samples and screaming 303-acid lines propel this along at breakneck pace until the breakdown....then it gets really nice!!
Its not often that huge bassline-breaks style tracks are implemented into the harddance scene, and I can only thank god that there are people out there who think its a good idea - cos it bloody well is!! All this needs is a half-decent MC screaming over the top, and the 'woah' factor will be multiplied even further!! This quickly builds into a huge trance riff which then brings listeners, kicking and screaming, right back down to earth with a bump.
Kevin Energy & Just Rich 'Wanna Be', is one of the few tracks that MUST be in any hard-dance djs record box - it might be a tad too fast for most, but its certainly worth pitching the rest of any set up for it - dont let this pass you by!!


Pienaar & Bamford 'Stratosphere' - Dynamix

The first collaboration release for the talented Pierre Pienaar and Alf Bamford is finally ready for release...and what a release it is going to be!!
What we have here is a HUGE hardtrancer, brimming with all the bits we all like about hardtrance, and syphoning off all the crappy bits that we dont - to cut a long story short, this track is amazing! It all begins with the usual percussive intro, and drops into an early break after about a minute or so.... this is only the calm before the storm im afraid, as once it kicks back in, any pre-conceptions regarding yet another unoriginal hardtrancer are quickly disregarded as a huge bassline hits home propelling the track along. This is quickly joined by several sub-riffs ranging from a neat 303 to a lab4-style 'warble'. The breakdown grinds it all back to a halt as Samuel L Jackson rambles on about his product in a sample from '51st state' (no, not the sample thats been used approximately 16.4million times already since the film was released!!). Then, out of nowhere comes an enormous riff which is one of the many reasons why this is destined for greatness - put simply, it is amazing!!
After that, its pretty bog-standard with it all kicking back in, sub-riffs being brought in a dropped out all over the place etc. Even so, this is gonna be an unmissable release for hardtrance and hardhouse fans alike. Pienaar + Bamford are surely destined for great things is follow-up releases can be anywhere near the scale of their first!!


Karri K & DNG 'Be Quiet' - Finrg

Here, we have another genre-buster, hailing from Finland this time!! We all know techno and hardhouse are being placed together in tracks all over the place (usually failing quite miserably as they fail to be either techno, or hardhouse....let along both!!), so it may come as a suprise to see a pair of producers attempt to fuse hardtrance and techno together - sound strange?? It is... kind of!!!
The percussion and bassline is definatly techno inspired, with a pinch of hard-dance percussion thrown in for good measure, and fits together well - a good start there then!! As it ambles along, the percussion is brought in and out frequently, although there is no sign of any major 'riff' as yet so its looking good on the techno front so far!! Then, out of nowhere comes an atmospheric breakdown, slowly building into..... a nice hardtrance riff. If you have heard 'Superstring' by Cygnus X, you will no doubt see similarities between the 2 tracks during the breakdown as both the sound used, and the arrangement of the riff itself are fairly alike.
Then, just when you think its all gonna kick in and the hit/miss nature of techno-inspired hard dance is looking likely it doesnt do anything thats expected.... Instead, everything drops out and the track powers along as it was before the break even began. It probably doesnt do the track justice in writing and is no doubt something that must be heard to be believed, but it really does work nicely - no doubt confusing and delighting just as many clubbers at once!!
A huge first release from the Finish label, backed up by a storming Carbon Based track on the flip, makes this a worthy purchase for everyone!!


Noonoo 'Razors' - unsigned cdr

'Razors' is a track that was sent to me on cdr several weeks ago and is as-yet, unsigned. Hopefully this review can help change that!!
Now, where to begin.... do I mention that its a hoover fest? Do I mention that its harder then the SAS?? Do I even go so far as to mention that its so hard, even Paul Glazby would be likely wet himself in fear?? Well, regardless of what I say now, the first 2 points are true, and the 3rd point is probably true, because this tune really is HARD!
Kicking off with fx-laiden percussion, and stupidly powerful rolling-bassline and lots of other nice things which make up dance music, 'Razors' storms along taking no prisoners what-so-ever!! It quickly drops down a tone as a well-placed speach from the film Hellraiser takes centre stage with it culminating in Pinhead (if you havent seen the film, dont ask!) saying 'razors through flesh' - 5pts go to anyone who can work out where the title of the track originates from!!
After this, it all gets a little....um....nasty! Hoovers begin to filter through and slowly begin to grow in number until it all comes together, kicks back in, and annhilates anyone stupid enough to think they can handle it! This track really does sum up what the phrase 'end of night encore tune' is all about for hardhouse clubs!!
If anyone would like to hear the track in question, along with several other efforts from Noonoo, please visit http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/noonoo.htm - the mp3 quality isnt high enough to play out, but its worth a listen!!
And to any labels out there...what are you playing at?? This is the sort of track that the nrg/hardhouse DJs are screaming for!!! 'Amazing' sums it up nicely I think