Crowd Pleasers - Volume One flac mp3 download

I love the B side on this the most! Mostly for the first breakdown, which is a weird, distinctive bell sound nicked from techno classic "In the Dark We Live" by Aphrohead - adds a slightly dark touch which not many other tunes in the same style have. The middle of the tune is more typical, using the "you had it..." vocal quite straightforwardly, with a few other ravey stabs - but then for the final breakdown, the first note is chopped into a different riff for a few bars, which rounds it off nicely. A side is good too of course, and did get more play, but the B side remains my favourite.

A side takes the Rob Acid sample and makes it into a happy stomper I've loved ever since I heard Carl Cox play it at Vibealite - Carl Cox Birthday back in '94. The flip takes the main piano/vocal from Bass Selective 'Blow Out' and drops it into a nice happy tune with a quality intro section.

Crowd Pleasers are a fairly mysterious set of releases. I'm almost certain that this one (and possibly others) were produced by DJ SS as an opportuity to experiment undercover during the early days of Happy Hardcore. Both sides are characterised by heavy breakbeats, definitely more reminscent of the Jungle sound than Happy Hardcore, but its the riffs that define the genre of this release. Both are heavily reliant on samples for a start. Not that that is a bad thing. They are certainly interesting and worthy reincarnations, although the Rob Acid sampled track is probably the more creative. In fact, said tune is a pretty trippy little number and would stand out in any DJ set. The Bass Selective sampled tune is a little obvious. Its a great tune and is well produced but it seems to differ little from the original, apart from being slightly faster and coupled with heavier breaks. A good release, and probably quite a rare one!