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Pearsall
Junior Member
United Kingdom
106 posts
Joined: Mar, 2009
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 Posted - 2013/05/28 : 05:18:59
Veteran music writer Simon Reynolds (who wrote the awesome book Energy Flash has just posted a great 1995 article on the happy hardcore scene that he wrote for iD Magazine. Well worth a read!
quote:
For it's 1995, and this is happy hardcore--a bunch of kids across the U.K. who are trying to re-ignite the rave fantasy of love, peace and unity. Some are very young, teenagers who missed 1991/92, who are only now going through the honeymoon period with Ecstasy and require the appropriate rush-activating soundtrack. Others are '92 veterans in their early twenties, who were alienated when 'ardkore turned first 'dark' and then jungalistic, who drifted off into progressive house or garage for a while, but are now getting back into it.
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Smoogie
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
6,504 posts
Joined: Mar, 2006
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Posted - 2013/05/28 : 22:49:29
From what I have heard from the tracks themselves and recorded live sets there was a very big change around 1993 moving from the 'hands in air' rave anthems of 91/92 towards a darker and more moody Jungle of deep baselines and heavy breakbeats. As this article suggests, the Happy Hardcore side was a rebellion against the Dark Jungle and keeping the lighter sounds such as vocals, pianos and organs. I notice though that by 1996 Happy Hardcore was far distant from 1992 with less breaks and more harder kicks (From Scotland & The Netherlands) and the scene merged with the Scottish and Dutch who seemed to have had little contact with the Jungle scene.
Its a good article as it was written then as it was! Well done for finding it!
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ultraskool
Advanced Member
Australia
669 posts
Joined: May, 2002
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Posted - 2013/05/29 : 00:33:08
Most Jungle/Breakbeat tracks tend to sound more dark and atmospheric but i really like the lighter, more Happy Jungle Sounds. To me it's a trademark of the early UK happy hardcore sounds. I think the Trance influence from mainland Europe in a way 'forced' the UK Happy sound to drop the breaks more and got more harder. Even in the Oldskool hardcore sound, you can always be sure theres a breakbeat feel to the rhythms. Especially Ragga Jungle - influenced Hardcore music
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"NO MATTER HOW, NO MATTER WHY... HARDCORE STATE OF MIND! "Respect To the Man in the Ice-Cream Van!"
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don_simon3000
Senior Member
Austria
342 posts
Joined: Jan, 2009
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Posted - 2013/05/30 : 07:35:43
quote:
only now going through the honeymoon period with Ecstasy and require the appropriate rush-activating soundtrack.
haha sounds like me 
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Brian K
Advanced Member
United States
8,663 posts
Joined: Sep, 2001
528 hardcore releases
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Posted - 2013/05/30 : 09:26:40
love playing stuff through the transitional phase of the genres splitting. funny listening to people say "I thought you were going to play happy hardcore, this sounds like jungle" =P most kids going to parties these days don't have a clue of hardcore pre '98
good read thanks for the post
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Edited by - Brian K on 2013/05/30 09:27:10 |
Pearsall
Junior Member
United Kingdom
106 posts
Joined: Mar, 2009
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Posted - 2013/05/31 : 13:23:32
no problem, Brian!
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