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Originally posted by Samination:
Elliott: If you ask me, M-Project is playing safe for the UK residents rather than being himself, so you wont see me bemoaning your criticms about him. I just hope he's experimenting with new sound (relative to himself) than actually trying to become "british" with his sound.

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Originally posted by Sulphurik:
Intrigued with the tracklist. Recognise a few tracks which are good to see on album. Good to see Scott Brown mix with quite a few tracks from new talent in the scene.

Elliott - M Project This is how we do it remix is very good.

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Originally posted by CDJay:
F&D wanted it for cd1 but it's a headline track. I love the euro 90s noises in it, very early Dune.

Frankly I look forward to reclaiming the last 25 years of genre without being sneered at.

This is phase two, it only amps from here. Fresh thinking, respect for roots, aspirations for our scene. Toot, toot!

The last 18 months nearly killed us, but I have never been more positive.

This is it.

CDJay

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Originally posted by CDJay:
I just happened to get the final version as Chwhynny decided to wind you up. Obviously it's not *all* like that. It is a small show of force. We are no longer afraid. The princesses can call us oldskool all they want. The genre is ours. Tolerate the short term and seek horizon. The reason *reason* loses is people with a clue giving up the investigation.

CDJay

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quote:

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Originally posted by Elliott:

quote:

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Originally posted by CDJay:
I just happened to get the final version as Chwhynny decided to wind you up. Obviously it's not *all* like that. It is a small show of force. We are no longer afraid. The princesses can call us oldskool all they want. The genre is ours. Tolerate the short term and seek horizon. The reason *reason* loses is people with a clue giving up the investigation.

CDJay

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Well, I can salute this. I want genuine diversity and a scene where people can make the kind of music they want without being punished commercially. The frustrating thing is that the '00s vibe is still commercially viable and there's an obvious market for it but we all know why it isn't being produced much.

I like the noises you're making about taking on the stranglehold that certain people have over the direction of the music. This is exactly the role that HU should and needs to play. Don't let them dictate the terms of the fight (unfortunately, it is a fight, as you know).

I have genuine hope that SB can shake up the scene if he decides not to compromise his artistic integrity. It's ironic, of course, because SB had a reputation for being a bit of a dinosaur and never evolving but now we need those same attributes to help the scene evolve.

Tell her I picked her track out on the last album as one of my highlights!

I also found this very relevant article earlier (complete coincidence) and noticed that you had responded to it: http://alive-at-night.com/hardcore-vibes-the-new-era-of-uk-hardcore/

That is exactly the kind of shit that gets people around here into attack mode. How can anyone claim that hardcore has enough diversity or that the sound isn't being manipulated by directives from the top? The music media - when they aren't ignoring us completely - has heralded a "new era" of hardcore that sounds, uh, suspiciously similar to a certain label -- or, more specifically, a certain polarising duo. Usually their proclamations come with a free derisory snort aimed at hardcore of the '90s and/or '00s. Apparently you can't have one without denigrating the other.

Given the author's apparent awareness of a concentration of power in the scene, you would think that a puff piece would mention some other names or labels like HU, if only to make it look like the scene actually has variety. That article couldn't have been written any better if it had come straight from TWR's PR department. Speaking of which, what's C.Kay up to these days anyway?

The deal seems to have been "if you all sack off that happy supersaw shit, pretend it never happened and produce mainstream EDM at 170bpm, we'll make a few of you moderately big names that occasionally get a decent slot at a hardstyle festival where a handful of sufficiently E'd up hipsters who've vaguely heard of you might stick around and listen to a couple of tracks -- the rest of you will get nothing and your scene will die in pursuit of an elusive new audience but don't worry because there's always a tiny chance that the few who make it might drop 30 seconds of one of your tunes in Las Vegas and we'll post a clip on YouTube". That's real exposure! To an American audience!

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quote:

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Originally posted by djDMS:
Out with the old....

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quote:

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Originally posted by Elliott:
Wow. How anti-climactic is that remix of This Is How We Do It?

I know M-Project is one of HH.com's protected producers (insert trademark symbol) so I'm going to get flak for this but it's a lazy remix. All I'm hearing is the original track with a modern kick/bass combo prefixed with a fairly nice new breakdown. The endless remixes of You're Shining and You're My Angel had more originality than this. On the plus side, even the lead sounds very similar to the original so at least it's not 2017-core bad. In fact, it's not bad at all. It's just needless. I'd prefer some new music that sounds like this rather than fan service remixes.

Outforce used to be good (I forgot his alias before that but he was producing some good stuff long before he was called Outforce). Andy Wilson's done a few sick bits over the years -- loved his Last Jungle remix. Actually, Ganar was quite good too several years ago, even if his tracks did all sound the same. It's cool to see Chexmixer get a collab with Stu Infinity. Chex is a good guy and Stu Infinity used to be one of the best fringe producers in the scene. But I'm using the past tense a lot; they've all moved on now. None of them are producing music that I want to hear anymore. Sadly, I predict the Scott Brown tracks are going to turn out to be quite modern in style to keep in tone with the rest of the mix. Overall, this is really quite an uninspiring tracklist.

I'm sticking with what I said before. In the Bonkers days, when Scott Brown chose to exclusively showcase his own music, it could be frustrating because there was so much good stuff out there to choose from (even though SB was making enough bangers to fill his disks, in his defence). These days, when most other hardcore is shite, an SB-only disk would be a blessing. And I have extreme reservations about him being brought in to do a disk with people like Outforce and Ganar featured prominently. It'd be like bringing Trixxy out of retirement to do a UK hardcore disk. I just hope this isn't the beginning of the end of SB.

Dowster & Vagabond sank without trace it seems. A real shame. They were quietly working away churning out good hardcore. I think they learnt firsthand how difficult it is to keep producing a style that the scene has moved away from. They got no play or support from the wider scene at all, which is exactly the stuff that forces everyone to produce homogenous, generic music and/or abandon their principles if they want to continue making hardcore as anything other than a hobby.

Conversely, with the Orbit1 return, I've learnt to expect nothing from returning producers. In fact, it was a pleasant surprise when Dowster & Vagabond started coming out with a very traditional brand of UK hardcore. Most returning producers just seem to come back and slot in with the zeitgeist. Like the other names in my post, Orbit1 was good at one point, under both aliases, but there's a recurring theme here. I reckon he's going to half-commit to a more modern style and end up satisfying no-one. We've seen that before.

Never thought I'd write such a doom-and-gloomy post on a Scott Brown compilation CD. It's a sign of the times, I suppose.

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