SUBURBAN BASE RECORDS 1991-1997 - Various

Various Artists:
Suburban Base Records 1991-1997:
New State Music:
CD/LP/DD:
Out Now:

★★★★★★★★★☆

Top one, nice one, mate, sorted etc etc. Yeah whatever the lazy press misquoted at the time, devoted '90s ravers ignored the mainstream and flocked to Moving Shadow, Reinforced and Suburban Base for their chemically-enhanced rush.

SubBase were masters of their art - baselines that could vibrate Heathrow, more bleeps than a BT trim-phone and drumbeats straight out of the 'How To .. ' series, the Essex label birthed in Romford (at the celebrated Boogie Times record-shop), grew up around the M25 and eventually went to the wall in 1997 after its final 12" in 1997 (D'Cruze's super-punchy Land Speeder - Subbase 076).

All your rollers are here - Kromozone's The Rush (001), M&M w/ Rachel Wallace's Feel This Way (004), Q Bass' Hardcore Will Never Die (005), Son'z Of A Loop De Loop Era's euphoric Far Out (006) and the titanic Krome and Time's This Sound Is For The Underground (011) are all present and correct. Even the silly hit Sesame's Treet doesn't sound so awful these days (sorry, never got on with the nursery-rhyme / kiddy-theme tunes back in the day, apart from that Rainbow one).

The three discs pretty much cover the label's best moments, with some of the later post-rave pre-dnb tracks coming good - check out the ferocious Flammable from Johnny Jungle or The Chopper by DJ Hype for something a little more fireproof than some of the jungle pretenders around at the time. It's also great to see Remarc's amazing production work on show once again - both In Da Hood and Single Finga Killa demonstrate this man's remarkable qualities as an engineer.

Released earlier this year, 1991-1997 is a must have, an absolute must-have. Hardcore will never, well you know.....die.