THROWBACK THURSDAY: Hardcore – Hey R U Ready [1991]

With today marking techno legend Dave Clarke’s birthday, for this week’s Throwback Thursday we turn the clock back to 1991, and one of the Baron’s earliest releases, under the pseudonym Hardcore.

Hey R U Ready, released on the legendary R&S Records label, followed on from 1990’s I Like John, Clarke’s debut release, which combined samples from Public Image Limited, Nitzer Ebb and Jungle Brothers over a pulsing New Beat-style rhythm.

As Clarke told 909originals last year, after I Like John was signed to XL Recordings, “R&S Records started getting interested, and invited me over to work in their studios in Holland. That was probably the second or third time I had been abroad in my life. I remember thinking at the time that the food over there was unlike anything I’d ever tasted before – in retrospect, though, it was probably quite normal.”

Unlike I Like John, Hey R U Ready is a far more electro-influenced track, with pumping breakbeats, cut up vocal snippets, and a nod to both Funkadelic and the 1984 breakdance classic Fresh Mess (Jam…Your Radio) by Knights of the Turntables.

And as you can imagine from a version dubbed the Non-Minimalist Mix, it doesn’t hold back.

Signing to R&S would prove to be instrumental to the young techno producer’s career, giving rise to his Directional Force project, and subsequently the Magnetic North label, which would release tracks by Cristian Vogel, Woody McBride, DJ Hell and Roland Casper.

In terms of Clarke’s DJ career as well, the period was something of a turning point, as he got the chance to play at Amsterdam club Richters (which closed in 1996).

“I had quite a few records at that stage, and I brought them to Amsterdam and said to Richters that I felt they should get me as a DJ, and they gave me a chance,” he told us. “It was a really empty night, on a Thursday I think. It got me used to the whole ‘touring DJ’ thing as well; the day after I played in Richters, I was back in Brighton playing my residency.”

And the rest was history. Happy birthday Dave! 🙂