You’ve heard how good Vol One is, get ready for 20 absolute BANGERS from the 2011-2015 phase of Warehouse Wax!
Track one is one of my favourite post 90’s Hardcore tunes. Traffik ‘Here Once Again’ is a rave tune without a piano in sight! Imagine DARK AF Hardcore Techno with a breakbeat and you’re halfway to imagining this track! If Lenny Dee made breakbeat hardcore (actually he did!) it might sound like this brilliantly brutal tune with chopped up rap FX!
Strange Rollers serve up some ‘Sweet Reggae Music’ keeping very much with the dub infused signature Warehouse Wax sound. 80s style skanking rudeboy riddims meet the Jungle style breakbeats of the 90s for some echoey fun.
US don dadas, Hoodz lay down heavy beats, rasping techstep riffs and landlord stabs on the muscly ‘Badbwoy’, be warned!!!
DnB/Jungle producer par excellence Madcap provides some ‘Eastern Promise’ in the form of hypnotic dub reggae chords and flutes ( that for some reason remind me of the battle scene at the end of Kill Bill pt 1), rumbling Reese bass and uplifting drops. This is a beast from the east that does not stop!
RadiokillaZ proceed to ‘Burn Babylon’ with the fire forged from their rapid assault basslines, sirens and layered amens over a bouncing think break.
Madcap gets in on the remix of Vinyl Junkie & Austin’s ‘Jah Love’ with a teasing intro that leads into weighty breaks and wobs that test any soundsytem rig to it’s limits!
Skanx go for an almost minute long dreamy, DJ friendly intro before dropping a megaton bomb of hoover hysterics. Listeners may find themselves compulsively one foot skanking so perhaps don’t play this in a Tesco shopping aisle or the security will chase you out!!!!
Strange Rollers give us ‘Music 4 The Soul’ and boy is it dark!!! The dots are joined between early Hardcore and Jungle over 5min 40sec of amen heavy tearout business!!!
Skuxx’s ‘Maybe Next Time’ makes the seamless switch from the Sci Fi like intro with R&B vocals into a smooth bass driven roller that builds with layered strings as it progresses.
Vinyl Junkie & Sanxion figuratively and literally ‘Tear Down The Place’ with a modern ode to the 89/90 Rave sound. 303s and Detroit style synths meet the chugging breaks of 1992 ‘ardcore head on!
Vinyl Junkie & Backdraft’s ‘Bun Down The Party’ gets the RadiokillaZ remix treatment by way of Bassline Garage style wobs and bumping breaks for the festival revellers!
Madcap sounds the ‘Last Call’ with a breaks n’ Reese masterclass that recalls the towering basslines of Ray Keth & Shy FX with a fresh twist on the golden era Jungle blueprint.
Vinyl Junkie & Dope’s ‘Forbidden Zone’ gets dragged into Snake Mountain by Pressa who takes the terror inducing original and strips it to the bare bone crunching amen breaks and horror-hoovers to increase the terror levels!
The European union of Gold Dubs & FLeCK go ‘Organic’ with the wobbiest of wobs and the trippiest dub reggae vibes the likes of which Mr Lee Perry himself would be proud.
Pressa’s remix of Vinyl Junkie & Dope ‘We Can Do It’ is a more ravey affair with filtered breaks and stabs with a midsection of vocal refrains and percs in Pressa’s signature style.
Now for something a little different: FLeCK’s absolutely stunning ‘Lakes On Saturn’will blow you away with an opening volley of sublime Jazzy strings and drumfunk style beats that increase with intensity before hitting you with that Bukem esque drop once again. If ever there was an undiscovered gem in the later decades of Hardcore/Jungle, this is it!
Sike ft. Rachel Wallace’s ‘Lost In A Daze’ is a tune ahead of it’s time with a rolling break, sax licks and floaty padds somewhere between post 93 Hardcore and Jungle. The incredible voice of Rachel Wallace only enhances the vibe even more.
The amenator, Abyss takes a switchblade to E-Lab Rat’s ‘Rat Safari’ and carves out a slice of amen thunder where it really is all about those drums and the art of the broken beat.
The Vinyl Junkie & Sanxion remix of Vinyl Junkie’s ‘We’re Not Dead’ is a seriously punchy affair. The breaks are extra weighty with a nice Hip Hop influence especially in the breakdown. A catchy sample punctuates throughout as the bassline proceeds to rip through everything that gets in its way!
And what a way to conclude! Vinyl Junkie & Backdraft Ft. Tracey Elizabeth’s ‘Virus’ is not only apt but it’s also a great combo of melody, infectious (yes I know!) vocals and shredding B-Lines. Someone should have told Trump you don’t need bleach, you need this, Orange man!!! On a serious note, this has all the nuances of a classic rave anthem with rampant mentasms and slamming beats!!! So here is vol two, you know what to do!
