- An eye-opening compilation that highlights the happier side of the rave movement that coalesced into jungle and drum & bass.
- The music that came out of the UK's darkest basements and most hedonistic festivals in the early '90s has a pull over dance music culture like few other moments in time. The sugar-high pianos, rushing divas, spasming synths and careening drums still sound wild, almost dangerous today, and influence everything from the sound of nostalgic neo-jungle to the most cutting-edge club music. There's a cottage industry of mixes and retrospective specials focusing on this time when the UK music scene seemed to be on a collective ecstasy high, series and sets that chronicle the rise and eventual fall of an imaginary utopia as the love curdled into paranoia. But it's the delicate balance between these two things that often goes overlooked—for every "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare" there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon, something lost in overly simplistic historical narratives (or mixes that narrow things down to one mood). This new compilation from Blank Mind, curated by Sam Purcell and Tammo Hesselink, is an attempt to remedy this. Featuring eight supposedly "Blissed-Out" rare tracks fully licensed and mastered from the original DAT tapes, it's a big improvement over bad vinyl rips or cut-outs from mixes, even if it only feels like a tantalising glimpse of the scene in question.
The compilation was curated around DJ Mayhem's "Inesse," an eerie 1993 tune that embodies the light-and-dark theme. Built on big, sensual jabs of bass, the tuned drums make a melody in themselves, twirling through the cosmos past clouds of synths that feel celestial. It predicts the wave of atmospheric drum & bass that would sweep the scene just two years later, but in a way also surpasses it with a bit of rave-era grit still intact.
"Inesse," like a few other tracks on Lost Paradise, is caught between what's normally called breakbeat hardcore and the genres that it evolved into. Escape's self-titled track, for example, is basically drumfunk, balancing a physical thrust with a dreaminess borrowed from Detroit techno—it's one of the most elegant tracks in this milieu I've ever heard. Hedgehog Affair's "Parameters" is rooted in four-on-the-floor techno, foreshadowing the UK take on the genre that would develop in the '90s. Lemon D's remix of "Age Of Aquarius" by Sleepwalker, with its choral pads, limber flighty breaks and unusually uplifting disposition, is as exciting as any early Rufige Kru track. And with only one EP under the Sleepwalker name, it's an example of what this compilation does best at digging out.
There are surprises: Luxury's "Twirl" might be from 1991, but its hypnotic, slower pace feels of a whole different world, while Invisible Man's "Flute Tune" is jungle at its most astral. If there's one thing that unites these tracks, it's a thread of positivity and hope. Finding light in the corners and optimism in the gliding breaks, Lost Paradise presents a different, if incomplete, picture of breakbeat hardcore. It's short, and maybe a little haphazard, but also essential—if nothing else, start here and dive into the catalogues of artists like Hedgehog Affair and DJ Mayhem. It functions more as a way in than a complete story, which is about as much as you could ask from a compilation covering an era with hazy licensing and mythical long-lost records. There's a holy aura to these records that feels as powerful and unique as it did back then—no wonder the reissues are still coming three decades later.
Tracklist01. Sleepwalker - Age of Aquarius (L.D remix)
02. Hedgehog Affair - Parameters
03. DJ Mayhem - Inesse
04. Luxury - Twirl
05. The Invisible Man - The Flute Tune
06. Escape - Escape (The Optical Mix)
07. Skanna - This Way
08. Xray Xperiments - Techcore