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"

fOd4 - EPIC

Field of Dreams 4.  Quite possibly the peak of my raving career.  Having missed the legendary FoD3 a year-and-a-bit beforehand, my posse and I were determined not to miss this one.  And we were determined to make it a HUGE one.  Extra shifts were taken at work, nights out for months beforehand cancelled to save as much money as possible.  For a good eight weeks, the entire focus of life was preparing for this party.  (Sadly, not for my HSC just a few weeks later.)

This Paul Holden tape, released a few weeks before the party, played a massive part in the pre-fOd gee-up, along with a staggering number of trinkets: stickers, keyrings, massive and elaborate flyers and posters...  The ticket itself came in its own crisp white envelope filled with all sorts details about the fun you were going to have on the night, thick with the hippy-ish buzzwords of the day. ("Energy", "Experience", blah-di-blah.  They all started with the same letter.  Clever, huh?)

Paul Holden's mix indicates the direction of his (count'em) two mainroom sets that evening.  UK-style bouncy happy-hard is the order of the day here, peppered with a little breakbeat. (Breakbeat?  Just keep moving, junglists, this ain't your thing.)  This tape also holds the dubious honour of introducing me to Dune's "Can't Stop Raving"....although, facing facts, I really quite enjoyed it at the time.

Download Paul Holden's fOd4 gee-up Side A
Download Paul Holden's fOd4 gee-up Side B


The night itself was a total blur.  It was undoubtedly epic, but it just went by so fast, especially given the months of excitement leading up to it.  My memories just don't seem to do it justice.  The video above shows what was meant to be the peak of the night but the energy and scale of the evening is well and truly lost.  The full video is online here and goes a little further towards revisiting the vibe.

To say I clearly remember Dynamix's set would be something akin to an outright lie.  He played around 4 or 5am and my night was well and truly in the midst of 'blur' territory.  Nevertheless, I eagerly picked up the tape to "relive" the experience the moment it was released.  And it's a pretty darn fine example of hard-house-slash-hard-trance as it was at the time.  There's a whole bunch of killer tracks here like "Rock tha House", "Higher State of Consciousness" and X-Cabs' "Neuro".  It seems to sum up the kind of music that was playing around that point of the night and for the most part still has me happily bopping along today.

Download Dynamix's fOd4 set here

Got any more memories of the night you can use to help me fill in the blanks?  Are there any more Field of Dreams 4 sets in existence?  Leave a comment below....