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

Why does your lifestyle give you such a big smile??????

Okay, okay, okay, okay, OKAY!

If there's one question I get asked more than any other, it's "when are you going to do the Spellbound tapes?"  And, I guess no true Sydney DJ Tape Archive would really be complete without them.

I've not bothered with them til now because I had thought they were all posted online elsewhere, but with the ageing of the tape lists on the Inthemix and Oldskool forums, the links are all more or less dead so I think it's time for a refresh!

I can't understate how big a part these tapes played in my raving life.  Dancing as the sun rose to Volume 6 on top of a mega dirt mound at Sydney Park with a posse of randoms after Space Cadet 33 1/3 got shut down; first hearing Volume 7 on the packed bus on the way to and from Sunrise (Freedom 3) - wherever on Earth that party was held.

Most poignantly, though, it was listening endlessly to my pick of the bunch, Spellbound 8, recorded at Prodigy 7.  To this day I kick myself for missing that party, and the opportunity to hear that set live.  It's probably the ultimate set of 1995 Happy Hardcore tracks and Maestro D's awesome MCing spawned so many oft-repeated lines, such as the one from which this post title derives.

The collection below was not ripped by the archive.  I'm merely reposting the hard work of others.  (But I was able to provide the cover art for some of them!)  There's more to come, but I'll have to rip those ones myself.  Look out!

Download Spellbound 5 Side A + B

Download Spellbound 6 Side A
Download Spellbound 6 Side B

Download Spellbound 7 Side A
Download Spellbound 7 Side B

Download Spellbound 8 Side A
Download Spellbound 8 Side B

Download Spellbound 9 Side A + B

(The above tapes were not ripped by the Sydney DJ Tape Archive)