Due to a flurry of activity on the Facebook page for this blog I've managed to come by a few things worth posting, so had grand plans to piece together my first in over a year this coming weekend.  Then DJ Ajax died.

I must confess to not having given Ajax much thought over the last decade.  Though elements of that Bang Gang sound appealed, the whole package didn't really do it for me. But in the late 90s and early noughties, DJ Ajax was a different beast.  I guess he was only a rising star in those days, and he would play almost anything anywhere.  His versatility was amazing.  One week it could a big room house set at a trendy bar-type party, the next it could be banging techno at Crunch or one of the other small-room techno parties that popped up in the Cross around then.  His several week stint filling in for an overseas Sugar Ray and Phil Smart at Tweekin', playing deep house, techno and nuskool breaks, holds a particularly special place in my heart.

This mix from 2000 bends the "93 to 99" rule of the Archive.  It was a cover CD from the short-lived Remix magazine and its sound might surprise those who know Ajax via his more recent sounds.  Starting off on a downbeat, funky vibe, it travails through to deep house showing hints of techno and electro while maintaining a chilled, understated feed.  A fittingly reflective tribute to one of Australia's greatest DJs.

Click here to download DJ Ajax's Remix Magazine cover CD.

Update: For those having trouble downloading Friday's Ajax mix CD from Mediafire, a kind soul has uploaded it to Soundcloud. Not sure why Mediafire is working for some and not others but I suspect it has to do with your internet service provider.

Pee Wee @ Prodigy 4!

I haven't come across this one before.  Massive thanks to Monty who posted this a couple of weeks ago on our Facebook page.  Of course, the files were hosted on Megaupload, so now that's gone I've moved them over to the Archive's Mediafire account.

I didn't go to Prodigy 4; it was a shade before my time. But for me this is just the sort of tape that was passed around and copied by friend after friend after friend. What can I say, though.  This would have been a cracking good set to see live.

Thanks for sharing, Monte!

Plug: Pee Wee is also performing an "early 90s rave" set at Green Beats, this Australia Day, alongside some cracking "current" DJs and live acts. No idea what "flavour" rave he'll play but I'm rather excited! Also of oldskool interest are Tactical Aspect, two junglists from a parallel universe where '93/'94 jungle never morphed into drum & bass.  Well worth checking!

Download Pee Wee live @ Prodigy 4 Side A
Download Pee Wee live @ Prodigy 4 Side B

SV3: Both sides

Okay, so I'm still without a tape deck and it's been ages since I've posted anything, but in the meantime some other clever person has ripped the full tape!  Download it below.

Thank you, anonymous commenter! :-)

Click here to download DJ Asterix SV3 Promo Tape Sides A & B

Half a tape!

For goodness sake!  Your humble blogger has had a rather bad run of luck with tape players.  Having just acquired another tape deck, I excitedly grabbed a tape and started ripping.  End of side A, turn it over, press play and....nothing! Another one bites the dust.  Anyhow, I have half a tape rip, so I'm posting half a tape rip.

SV3 was the party and everyone who went received a free DJ Asterix tape.  I don't think I know anyone who didn't have a copy.  You had a copy, I had a copy.  Even your grandmother probably had a copy.  Now here's half a copy. 

Click here do download DJ Asterix SV3 Promotion Tape Side A (Happy Hard)

Side B (High NRG) will follow....eventually.

The curse of missing tapes

Anyone got this tape set floating about?  I have the cover but the tapes are long lost.  Would love to rip and post....

Classic CDs from '94

Two classic CD's from 1994 here.  Well, sort of anyway.  If I recall correctly, Paul Holden's "Happy to be Hard" was originally released on tape in 1994.  The edition posted here is dated 1997, and trumpets its status as "the first ever CD released by Australia's #1 DJ Paul Holden, remastered and edited into a 'Gold' collectors edition".  Having never owned a copy of the tape edition I don't recall whether it differs greatly from the original, but I presume it's the same.  The mix itself is nicely summed up by the puffery on the rear of the CD case: "This mix captures the essence of Happy Hard Bouncy Beats that is Australia's party scene".  Although it's a pretty Sydney-centric view of Australia's party scene if you ask me.

"Jumpin' Jack in the Box" is my pick of the two.  I can't listen to it without thinking about the period around Christmas and New Years '94/'95.  To me, it's the real deal of the rave sound from that time.  The predominant happy hardcore sound of the day features front and centre, but the mix itself offers so much more - bouncy techno, Noom-style hard trance, UK breakbeat.  Despite the style jumps, the mix itself is (for the most part) quite tight and sounds fantastic today, probably because it doesn't rely on anthem after anthem after anthem to keep the energy levels going.

Download Jumpin' Jack - "Jack in the Box"
Download Paul Holden - "Happy to be Hard Gold"

Two sides of Nik Fish

So my tape player is most definitely on the blink, which makes ripping kind of difficult.  Luckily, I have a few goodies on CD and other media from which to post while I get on top of the situation.  If anyone happens to be handy with that sort of thing, please feel free to get in touch...

This 1997 "mixed cd in twp parts" (oh, how I love Rave spelling!) from Nik Fish is perhaps one of his lesser known mixes.  Divided into two tape-like 'sides' it gives us a trance mix and a hard house mix, providing a real window into what was happening at the moment where - save for some notable exceptions - the big parties completed their move out of the warehouses and into the clubs. 

Download Nik Fish - Underwater Mixes Part I
Download Nik Fish - Underwater Mixes Part II