Armando - ‘Land Of Confusion’
Brilliant cover of the classic acid ‘Land Of Confusion’ on proper hardware: Roland TR-707 and a TB-303 Bass Line. I am the proud owner of one of these devices (I’ll give you a clue: it’s by far the cheaper one ;) ). The 707 is often overlooked, though I do think it seems to be getting a lot more of the respect it deserves in recent years.
I always feel guilty for not dusting off my 707 and plugging it in whenever I glance over at it (Though I do use the samplepack I made of my 707 pretty much in every track I make). The Rimshot, Cowbell and HH sounds on a 707 will cut through pretty much any level of bad EGing/mixing. The kick is very ‘weak’ but listening to this recording I realised that maybe the weakness of the kick was actually of benefit to the acid, as it meant there was pretty much no need to do much low cutting on the subbier parts of the 303 line.
Having said that, I can never quite bring myself to use a 707 kick as my main kick, it’s pretty much 909 all the way for me.
Armando - ‘Land Of Confusion’ (TB303 & TR707) The Acid House classic recreated authentically (and with love) using the original hardware.
Hardfloor - Acperience 1 (Secret Knowledge Remix)
While I’m normally pretty dubious about even the suggestion of remixing the slice of utter perfection which is Acperience 1, this remix by Kris Needs/Secret Knowledge is a brilliant and respectful tribute to the original.
I remember the first time I heard Acperience 1 and it just blew me away, during the post acid-house rave era, you’d often hear people prattering on about acid house but you’d never really hear it that often in clubs (well certainly not in Dublin anyway). When I heard the accelerated, heavier, more extreme cutoff rising style that Hardfloor were making, I was just literally fucking amazed. The harder 909 and distorted acid sound is something I’ve loved ever since that moment, D-Jax and Underground Resistance 12”s from that era also have a lot of this sound.
Hardfloor - Lost In The Silver Box
Kevin Saunderson - The Groove That Won’t Stop
808 State - Headhunters
Acen - Window In The Sky (Monolythikmaniak Mix)
‘Tear this motherfucker up!’
Fat B - Plastic Illusion
(Free New Beat Download)
The legend that is Fat Bastian has created a great new New Beat (!) track as a gift for Christmas - download link available here:
http://soundcloud.com/fatbastian/fat-b-plastic-illusion
Also, check out his Soundcloud page, as he pretty much constantly comes out with classics in my opinion…
http://soundcloud.com/fatbastian/fat-b-plastic-illusion
Hardfloor - Roarrh
When Hardfloor put distorted 909 kicks under their acid perfection, you get something bruisingly heavy.
Hardfloor - Funalogue
I’ve always loved the drum patterns in this track - the whole 12” is great too, including possibly (actually definitely) their heaviest track: ‘Roarrh’.
