In 1996, seven years on from Pacific State going massive, 808 State released their fifth album, Don Solaris. Featuring a giant cock (really) on the front, and released on ZTT, the album blended acid house, trip hop, electro and jungle, an indication of how far the band came since the heady rave days of Newbuild…
It’s been 29 years since producer Satoshi Tomiie recorded one of THE standout house anthems, alongside the late Frankie Knuckles: Tears. But I’ve always wondered how the Tokyo-born Tomiie ended up working with Knuckles in the first place, and indeed join the Def Mix stable alongside heavyweights such as David Morales and Hector Romero. As…
Carl Cox has worked with many great artists over the years, however in late 1998, he teamed up with arguably the greatest showman of all. As this article from MUZIK magazine in November 1998 explains, none other than James Brown (JAAMES BBROOWN!!) teamed up with Cox for a live broadcast on French TV, direct from…
Let’s settle the debate once and for all – is the correct term to use, when referring to, say, The Prodigy‘s first album, ‘old school‘, or is it ‘old skool’? For years, I have tended towards the former – as a journalist I just can’t deal with that ‘k’ in place of the ‘ch’. But the…
Having forged an early career as master remix duo The Dust Brothers, schoolmates Ed Simons and Tom Rowland unveiled a new identity in 1995: The Chemical Brothers. Today, more than two decades on, the pair are still considered amongst the premier dance acts and festival headliners on the international music circuit. But all good stories…
Behind every great man, the saying goes, is an even greater woman, and in the case of Carl Cox’s emergence from the illegal rave scene to become the global household name that he is today, that woman was his former partner Maxine Bradshaw… This interview from Clubland magazine in December 1990 [taken from the It’s…
For US-based DJs coming to Europe in the late 80s and early 90s, the rave scene must have been eye-opening – the ‘do it yourself’ ethic, coupled with a soupçon of absolute hedonism, was somewhat different to what was going on Stateside. For Frankie Bones, speaking here to Rave magazine in 1990, the difference was…
Tony Humphries has been one of the most committed house music pioneers for more than a generation, commencing his DJ career at Zanzibar in New York in the early 80s before becoming ‘remixer of choice’ for acts such as Soul II Soul and Chaka Khan. As this interview from I-D Magazine in 1992 points out…
Music and fashion have gone hand in hand for more than half a century, and this article from Smash Hits in early 1993 sought to shed some light on what the self-respecting raver should have in his or her wardrobe for the coming year. And who better to offer some sage advice than The Beloved’s…
“The official line is this. Yes, there are some drugs involved, but not as much as you’d like to think. Instead, why don’t you concentrate on the good things. The new music, the attitude, the fact that we now have a movement as big as punk on our hands. Even bigger really…” Thus commences this…
