I know I’m supposed to get with the programme and post lots of summery sunshiny kick-back and relax type of music. But being the rebel that I am, I’ve decided to refresh your memories and drop a couple of hard-ass joints on your ears. The early 90s in the UK saw a phenomenon that’s usually termed “Britcore”, even if I don’t really like the name. By this people mean the appearance of a rough and raw sound, a wall of noise consisting of sirens, gunshots and often just a huge racket to create the background to spout fast-paced lyrics of frustration, war and battle imagery, general pissed-off-ness and anything else that sounds hard and grimey (I’m generalizing a bit). Also, as a new thing, some of the cats started rapping in their own dialects instead of mimicking an American accent. It seemed like hip-hop was finally setting foot onto the islands but it would be a long time before big labels and the public would finally embrace hip-hop made in the UK the way they did with US productions. Some of the names I’m going to cover in my new mini-series is Hardnoise/Son of Noise, Gunshot, Hijack, Silver Bullet and Blade. Here’s an excellent outline of the era, for those who want to find out more.
This post will start out with one of my favourites, namely with Son of Noise, a group that probably best exemplifies the struggle for a record deal and attention that most groups in the UK went through at the time. They started out as Hardnoise, made up of DJ Son, DJ Nyce D, DJ AJ, DJ Mada, and on the mics there were TLP1 and Gemini. They released but a few singles on Simon Harris’ Music of Life label (I’ll post the few that I have as well as two compilations from that label) and then disbanded. DJ Son and his brother DJ Mada, newly joined by Curoc (aka Q-Roc, as he called himself when he was still with Gunshot) and Blade’s former DJ Renegade became Son of Noise and soon got the attention of the Kold Sweat label, which released their first album The Mighty Son of Noise. The album has evolved quite a bit from the rugged sound of Hardnoise to include some melodic bits, hooks and a really funky soundscape. A classic in UK hip-hop.
Son of Noise – The Mighty Son of Noise (1992)
Unfortunately, the crew were soon not comfortable on the label anymore and left. They then decided to release their second album on their own Little Raschool imprint in 1996, the album aptly titled Access Denied: Bullsh*t & Politics pt. 1. The album may not have the bangers they had on their first album, but it’s still worth giving a spin. Unfortunately, there has never been a pt. 2 to this one. The group practically doesn’t exist anymore, even though the people are still around. To find out more about them and listen to some of their classic material, hit them up on their pages and spaces (links below).
Son of Noise – Access Denied: Bullsh*t and Politics pt. 1 (1996)
DJ Mada.com
DJ Mada’s Space
Curoc’s Space
DJ Renegade’s Space
Next up: Gunshot
Peace, 9@home
7 August 2006 at 10:42 pm
Hardnoise were the dogs bollocks, true classic material there.
Then again Negative Forces is dope as well…
Mada is an under appreciated legend imo.
Honestly how many incredible scratch DJ’s did the UK have at the time? (Who were actually putting out records as well.)
Nice couple of posts…
If you need any help with finding ‘britcore’ stuff give me a shout, I’ve got a fair bit of it and most of it’s been mp3′d…
7 August 2006 at 11:07 pm
I’ve got a bit more coming up this week and if you find I’ve left out some important bits (like maybe some of Blade’s old singles, which I only have little of) I’d be happy to get some pointers…
Cheers.
8 August 2006 at 8:32 pm
Argh! You had to say the one I don’t have much of (other than ‘Lion Goes…’ onwards.)
Get in touch with Jehst, he’s got them and is the only person I can think of that has (other than Blade.) ;-)
If you want to go for
First Frontal Assault – ‘Hits From Small Arms Fire’, Killa Instinct, II Tone Committee, The 3 Knights 12″ would be a nice aside to the Hijack post – given the HQ links and ‘Burial’ basically being ‘The Contract’ minus K-Sly & a different beat, Silver Bullet, Overlord X, M.C. Mell’O', Katch 22 and Rebel MC’s ‘Black Meaning Good’.
Any of those you need uping I can manage, along with the humourous/annoying CD version of ‘Lion Goes From Strength to Strength’.
I’ve got a Rough Element 12″ produced by White Child Rix and the Barry Blue EP but I’ve not mp3′d them yet.
If you’ve got a decent copy of Kobalt 60’s ‘Kaos From Order’ then you’d be a legend in my eyes – my vinyl’s scratched and it’s years since I’ve heard that.
8 August 2006 at 10:52 pm
Whoah! Easy now… :)
Well, apart from the compilations I posted, which covered some of the miscellaneous stuff like Hits from Small Arms etc, I’ll have to get my shit sorted out first and see what I haven’t got when I’ve finished upping and posting all I’ve been meaning to so far.
There’s going to be the Silver Bullet album (there’s only one, isn’t there?) and I’ve got most stuff by Blade from Lion onwards (heh), but since you mention them, I do have some Overlord X (never really checked that out till now) and I think I’ve got a Katch 22 sitting somewhere. But as I said, I’ll know more once I’ve cleared out what I’ve got lined up so far.
I’ll be happy to tap into your collection after that.
And, I’m afraid I don’t even know that Kobalt bloke. Too bad. I would’ve liked to be a legend…
9 August 2006 at 5:15 pm
I think there’s only one Silver Bullet album, he did release a couple of 12″s as Silvah Bullet in the late 90’s with talk of an album but as far as I’m aware it didn’t get properly released, only promo (the 12’s aren’t great anyway so it was no great loss.)
I’ve got both Katch 22 albums, the classic ‘Tales from two cities’ and ‘Non-conformist rituals’ that I can rip.
The Overlord X albums are already available on the net for free download anyway… He’s another one who went down a dodgy path, some ‘boy band’ type thing called Benz that had very limited success (thank God.)
Kobalt 60 ‘Kaos From Order’ is dope as hell, another one released on Music Of Life. From looking round the net it’s appeared on one compliation. Fort Apache (the MC) is on the Son Of Noise album. He also appeared on the ‘Survival of the Hardest Working’ 12″ as well (according to Discogs anyway.)