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

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)

We're back, and we're slamming!

 

After a small hiatus following some technical issues, we're back with plenty more mixtapes and memories!  What better way to start off than with Jumpin Jack's slamming Mix CD "New NRG".  I'm not 100% sure whether this CD is from '96 or '97, but I'm putting it at '97 'cause that's when I bought it and hammered it.

This was the sound of some of the predominant clubs of the day - Friday nights at Sublime on Pitt Street (no Rewind Bunnies in those days!), early Plastic at the Palladium and Transmission.  The set is heavy on anthems like X-Cabs "Neuro" and the fantastic Jon the Dentist remix of "Stuck on a Space Trip".  Excellent!

Download Jumpin Jack - New NRG

Back soon!

After a few months technology-enforced hiatus the Archive will be back on deck soon.  Watch out!

More Pleasuredome goodness...

I was a huge fan of Pleasuredome '94 and have been eager for quite some time to track down as many sets from the night as possible.  Thanks to Rob RadioDog for posting a link to DJ Angus' set from the night in the comments on my previous Pleasuredome post, which I've not heard before.  It's a great set which contains many of the great anthems of the day and skits effortlessly between happy hardcore, more Italian stuff and even a little house.  Pretty darn good!  Also below is the DJ Vic set from the night which, while a little harder, is just as good.

I have the full Pleasuredome video floating about my house somewhere.  I'll have to work out a way of posting it to the archive as well.  It would be great to get a full archive of available sets from the night.

Do you have any of the other Pleasuredome tapes?  Hit us up in the comments or on Facebook!

On the Archive's Facebook page, there's a bit of chatter on the wall from others who have tapes squirreled away, just waiting to be ripped and uploaded.  From my standpoint I'm particularly interested in "official" tapes that were put up for sale (you know, with covers 'n' shit) and live sets from legendary parties.  Hit us up in the comments or on Facebook and let us know what you've got!

At the moment I'm trying to upload tapes I haven't caught online elsewhere, so if you're looking for something in particular that isn't on here, there are hundreds of tapes in the forums on Inthemix or the Oldskool page on Facebook.

Click here to download DJ Angus live at Pleasuredome '94 Side A

Click here to download DJ Angus live at Pleasuredome '94 Side B

Click here to download DJ Vic live at Pleasuredome '94 Side A

Click here to download DJ Vic live at Pleasuredome '94 Side B

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

Or click here to read our post featuring Slipmatt's set from the party

Definition of a hardcore tape

This is the last proper hardcore tape I bought before moving on from the world of insane gabber kicks.  And as far as a hardcore tape goes, it's pretty darn good.  Side A is my pick.  To me it's the classic Geoff Da Chef sound - hard ass beats at around 180-190 bpms that make you wanna move.  Classic samples abound, referencing oldskool hip-hop, acid house, Dutch gabber, English jungle, movies, reggae, rare groove and more.  Side A is yet another chapter in the sound Geoff brought in "The Second Serve" and "Just Desserts".  It may be hard, but ultimately it's party music.

Things take a harder twist on Side B, where the beats slip over the 200 bpm mark and well into nosebleed territory, including some, erm, classics like "Shaftman", "Necronomicon" and the one that goes "Sex, sex, sex is the law, law, law when a guy gets a girl on the floor, floor, floor".  Without the benefit of nostalgia it's all too easy to pass the whole side off as aggressive noise.  It's a challenging listen without question, but the reward comes in realising 200 bpm hardcore is less about "aggression" and more about "release".  It's the style that takes the antiestablishmentarianism of rave to its logical (and final) conclusion.  The ultimate "fuck you" to society.

Download Geoff Da Chef "666 - Definition of a Hardcore Tape" Side A
Download Geoff Da Chef "666 - Definition of a Hardcore Tape" Side B

Happy Hi NRG at it's BEST!

"Happy Hi NRG at it's BEST!"  Yup, that's what the tape cover says.  Nothing like a rave-related tape cover, flyer or 3D World article for a bevy of wayward apostrophes, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.  To be fair it never was about the spelling...

I never made it to Free Love '95.  It was somewhere like Blackmarket off memory.  Being (and very much looking) underage at the time, I was just a little too paranoid I wouldn't be let in to a 'real' nightclub.  Given 15-year old Anna Wood disastrously made it into Apache at The Phoenician a few months later I probably would have been fine, but how was I to know?

The Free Love parties just grew from there.  I missed Free Love '96 as well, due to being struck by a nasty flu post-FOD4, which had occurred a week earlier.   I did make it to Free Love '97 but by then I'd lost most of my raving mojo and don't remember being particularly impressed.  That party was one of those massive Minto raves and, being free, was packed to the rafters and seemed to attract all sorts of bogans, bombers and general weirdos.  I imagine Free Love '95 would have been the goods though - smallish, inner city and a little more underground than the juggernaut sequels that followed.

Download Free Love '95 Side A (Budds'n'Stoo)
Download Free Love '95 Side B (Dynamix)

Ethereal beats: DJ Popeye part II

Hot on the heels of JMA Volume I comes the shit-hot JMA Volume II: "This is Jungle".  No explanation required.  Just download, headphones, volume and kick back.  Ethereal bliss awaits...  This~this is jungle!

Download DJ Popeye "This is Jungle" Side A
Download DJ Popeye "This is Jungle" Side B

Broken links?

Using file-sharing services like Zshare and Mediafire means that links to the tapes themselves will invariably expire.  If you do come across a dud link, please leave a comment either on Facebook or in the comments section and I'll do my best to re-up....eventually.

If you happen to see comments about dead links for a tape you've already downloaded, please be my guest and re-upload for maximum PLUR.

DJ Popeye - lone junglist

In 1995 no-one did jungle, except Popeye.  I discovered Popeye in '94 though his fan-fucking-tastic "Junglistic Rowdiness" tape which, despite its name, featured happy breakbeat on Side A and darkside breakbeat on side B.

My introduction to jungle came later, at the 'Technocolour' party in '95 which featured its very own jungle/drum & bass room.  To be honest, I wasn't really impressed by it all.  At the time it felt like the music just lacked something.  I put it down to my unsophisticated young mind just not understanding anything unless it was big, dumb and in your face.  Nevertheless, I picked up Popeye's "Jungle Massive Australia" tape some months later.  I must have realised there was more to jungle than met the eye. Incidentally, this is about the same time everyone else realised there was more to jungle.

I don't know if it was just the lack of MC's but there was always something spit-polished about the Jungle Massive Australia take on drum & bass.  Compared to the madness of the UK tapes - usually live recordings - that filtered through every now and again,  Australianised tapes took on a far more restrained, clinical quality, despite the tapes featuring all the same tracks.  The few JMA parties I attended were somewhat similar - a tad more chilled than many of the other scenes in Sydney at the time.

This tape is excellent but yes, very clean, very clinical.  At the same time it treads a really nice line, achieving an atmospheric feel without diverting too far from the dancefloor.


Download DJ Popeye "Jungle Massive Australia" Side A
Download DJ Popeye "Jungle Massive Australia" Side B

Getting down to Biz-ness

When things were getting fluffy - and in Sydney in the 90's things invariably were - you could always count on Biz-E to deliver something serious.  Biz was the true champion of proper, booty-shakin' techno right into the early years of the 21st century and although he doesn't seem to DJ as much anymore he's still kicking about, and producing some pretty cool techno.  He's just Biz now, though.  The 'E' has gone the way of, well, E's in general.

This tape comes from around '95 and the music has aged well.  With the passage of time music styles change, reference points change and in that context this tape brilliantly captures what was 'NOW' at the time it was recorded.  I remember thinking at the time this tape was quite minimal, but compared to today's minimal it most definitely isn't.  This tape is lush and beautiful in places, utterly slamming in others.  It's straight up and twisted. Sometimes it's frenetic, other times it's quite restrained.  Much like I remember Biz-E the many times I heard him play - unpredictable yet tight.

Download Biz-E's "Fresh Outta The Lab" Side A
Download Biz-E's "Fresh Outta The Lab" Side B

Pleasuredome '94 - Best party ever?

Everyone has a party they look back on as a favourite.  For me, it's Pleasuredome '94.  It was absolutely massive but retained just the right illegal, warehousey feel.  It was the third party I went to and I'll never forget first walking in and wondering why so few people were dancing.  It was a mad surprise realising the small group I could see was just the very back of the dancefloor, and there were about 4,000 more happy ravers going nuts just around the corner.  And with sparklers, everyone seemed to have sparklers.

What an awesome night followed - the huge chillout full of old, street-side lounges; a pumping, intense hardcore room up the back, and particularly memorable sets from Pee Wee, Jade and a little, unknown group named Infusion.

The UK's DJ Slipmatt headlined the night and first introduced me to the UK breakbeat style, a style it baffles me never really took off in Sydney.  His set covered all the big, breaky numbers of the day - all four SMDs, "In Effect", "In Complete Darkness", "Ool Lortnoc" and many more.

Adelaide's Maestro D is on MC duties and, despite my general distaste for MC'ing, I really enjoy it.  His style really carries forth the idea that you were in that moment, in the midst of something epic, a true Australian raver aesthete.

There were more Pleasuredome tapes in existence.  I had the Pee Wee set on loan at one point and would love to track it down - or any other sets from the night for that matter.  Can anyone help?

Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side A
Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side B
Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side C
Click here to download Slipmatt live at Pleasuredome '94 Side D

Who the f*** is DJ Apex?

I have no idea who DJ Apex is but this might just be my favourite hard trance tape ever.  I lost my copy back in '96 and have been trying to find it ever since.  Happily, through this little blog it has once again come my way! 

The tape was originally picked up in '94 and as far as I can remember had a prism with light passing through it on the cover.  I also seem to remember being told Apex was DJ Fenix using a different moniker for his trance sets.  Can anyone confirm or deny?

The tape flies along around 170bpm and, unusually, gives barely a nod to the predominant happy-hardcore sound of the day.  There's the odd scattering of anthems like "Enter the Arena" and "Wizards of the Sonic", but for the most part this tape is all about the underground, with a hard trance sound that's somewhat bigger and dumber than the more popular Hi-Shock tapes of the day.  I say that in a good way as this set really is a lot of fun!

Click here to download DJ Apex - Spectrum Side A
Click here to download DJ Apex - Spectrum Side B

DJ Jade - Liquid Everything

So I'm going to do some tape ripping of my own this weekend, but in the meantime I've discovered the one and only DJ Jade has posted her entire back catalogue for download on Facebook.  "Liquid Anthems" is my pick of the bunch, distilling the best of the other tapes into one sweet 90-minute mix.

I purchased three copies of this tape back in the day.  The first I lost along with a prized Walkman.  The second was part of a long-running argument with my girlfriend at the time, to whom I was adamant I'd loaned the tape while she was adamant I hadn't.  Needless to say, it turned up at her house some months later.  Total win for her 'cause she got to keep the tape since I'd already bought another.  Smart girl.

Click here to check out Jade's back catalogue on Facebook.
(You don't need to be registered with Facebook to view this page, but seriously, is anyone not on Facebook these days?)