The music featured on this site falls into several different categories, with this page I hope to provide the uninitiated with some information about different styles of dance music, from mellow to hard, fast to slow, happy to dark. Below is a run down of the different genres present on this site.

The predominant UK dance sound of the early ‘90s, back in ’91 & ’92 this was everywhere. Played on all the pirate radio stations and at all the major clubs/raves, quite a number of tracks crossed over into the top 40 charts, some authentic hardcore tunes, others cheesy rip-offs designed to cash in on the popularity of the scene at the time. When the rave scene first appeared in the late ‘80s the tracks being played were on a mellower, housier tip than what was to emerge circa 1990. After the acid house explosion of ’87 - ’88 tracks like Kariya – Let me Love you for Tonight and Rhythim is Rhythim – Strings of Life were to become major rave anthems. A straight 4/4 beat was the order of the day here and during this era breakbeats were rarely used. In 1990 harder, techno oriented tracks started to appear such as Beltram – Energy Flash with its rumbling basslines and dirty acid riffs. It was tracks like this along with Altern8 – Real Time Status, GTO – Pure et. al. that gave rise to the birth of hardcore. By 1991 things had hotted up quite a bit, tempos had now sped up considerably, more hard techno style synths and pianos were being used, and on the UK scene, sped up hip-hop style breakbeats were introduced in favour of 4/4s. The European scene was however following a different direction. Dutch/Belgian style hardcore progressed in a hard techno style with producers like Frank DeWulf and T99 using heavier 4/4 beats and hoover style synths (as used in the famous track Second Phase – Mentasm). This was to eventually develop into what is now known as gabber. In late ’91 full on hardcore tracks like T99 – Anaesthesia, Bizarre Inc – Playing with Knives and Prodigy – Charly were to become top 10 smashes although at this time the cheese element was creeping in considerably and pop-rave tunes by 2Unlimited, Oceanic et. al. were being manufactured to capitalise on hardcore’s commercial success. Nonetheless the rave scene was still thriving, with major events such as Fantazia, Raindance and Perception being commonplace throughout the UK. By 1992 things had got harder and faster still. Heavier, more cut-up breaks were being used along with more high-speed chipmunk style vocals. Rave continued to dominate the charts in both its commercial and underground forms and more and more producers were jumping on the bandwagon. Forward thinking producers like Acen and Wax Doctor started producing tracks of a darker nature thus keeping the scene alive. However, by the late summer of ’92 the whole scene started to decline. Rave started to lose its previously massive following as the overall sound became more commercial. By the end of ’92 Djs on the house scene and dance music magazines were declaring rave ‘dead’. Hardcore did however continue to flourish (albeit on a smaller scale) in ’93 and ’94 as it regained its underground status and mutated and split into happy hardcore, darkcore, jungle and hardcore techno. Tracks like SMD (1, 2 & 3), Jack ‘n’ Phil – We are Unity, DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer – In Effect and Krome & Time – The Slammer were to become huge anthems on the post ’92 rave scene and have had a big influence on the hardcore and drum ‘n’ bass sounds of today.

Following on from the disco of the late 1970s, house was the beginning of a new generation in dance music. It originated from Chicago in the mid 1980s and gained a loyal following of Djs and producers such as Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley and Todd Terry who pioneered the sound. The first club to start playing house music was the famous Chicago club The Warehouse which opened originally in 1977 and was the main residency of Frankie Knuckles where he started playing disco & soul type records with a faster tempo and more percussion thereby making them more dancefloor friendly. Meanwhile in New York this sound was also taking off at a club known as The Paradise Garage where the more soulful and vocal/gospel based elements of house were being developed into what was to become ‘garage’. Original New York style garage is not to be confused with ‘UK’ or ‘speed garage’ which is the most popular and recently developed style here in England. Famous producers and Djs such as Tony Humphries and Masters at Work have become very well established in the US garage scene and have kept the sound alive and fresh throughout the ‘90s to the present day. In the latter half of the ‘80s a new faster, more aggressive take on house emerged and became known as ‘acid house’. Acid took the basic 4/4 rhythms of house and added harder, squelchy sounding basslines and riffs (a typical sound of the ‘Roland TB303’ synthesiser, which was used heavily in acid house). Tunes such as Phuture – Acid Tracks and A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray became massive club anthems both in the US and in the UK and by 1988 acid was the biggest sound in dance music and a global trend. The smiley faced logos printed on badges and t-shirts were to become a trademark of late ‘80s dance culture. By the turn of the decade the acid sound was still present but was developing into the harder more techno oriented sounds of rave/hardcore (see above). During the rave days house music was still a huge global phenomenon and although in the UK the production of quality house music had somewhat given way to the rise of hardcore the US was still a world leader in the genre. The European house scene was however still very solid and in Italy a more lively, uplifting sound was being developed. Italian style house was very vocal oriented with driving percussion and distinctive, elevating piano riffs. Although more commercial sounding than the original ‘deep house’ coming out of the US, this style was to become very big in clubs across the UK (especially in the North) and Europe and its influence remained strong up until about ’95 when ‘hard’ UK style house took over. In 1992 the UK dance scene changed direction and as rave died down ‘progressive house’ was born. The supremely talented UK duo Leftfield had starting producing progressive sounding house music back in 1990 with their club smash Not Forgotten but it was not until 1992 that progressive house really took off. The progressive vibe encompassed a number of different genres, namely European techno/trance, American house and disco, and combined them into one new and innovative sound. The basis of progressive house was a basic 4/4 dance beat with heavy use of rolling percussion at a tempo of 120-130bpm. Tracks like Havana – Shift, Gat Decor – Passion and D.O.P. – The Groovy Beat became anthems at clubs such as Renaissance in the UK. As with other styles of house, progressive house has moved on since ’92 and the current, up to date tracks are quite different from what was being produced back in the day. Nonetheless progressive house is still very big on the underground club scene and is staying strong into 2002. The period in house music throughout the ‘90s to the present day has been a time of experimentation and a fusion of styles, a great many different sounds and genres have been developed since the early days back in the ‘80s and with new producers and Djs appearing on the scene at every opportunity the future for house music appears bright.

During the early ‘90s (circa 1992 to be exact) a new form of ‘techno’ began to appear in Europe. In Germany labels like Eye-Q and M.F.S. (the home of Paul Van Dyk & Cosmic Baby) were the first to start putting out trance type records and in the UK and Holland React and R&S followed with classics like Age of Love – Age of Love, Jam & Spoon – Stella and CJ Bolland – Mantra. Trance became one of the cutting edge dance sounds across Europe and was to gain even more popularity in the coming years. The music itself was (and still is) characterised by driving 4 to the floor beats (at approx. 130-145bpm), pulsating high-energy basslines, hypnotic 303 riffs and synth arpeggios and a prominent use of uplifting/haunting melodies. Unlike other forms of techno which focus on developing a harder more minimal sound, trance is generally more hypnotic and flowing and, despite being quite uptempo, can induce tranquil, dreamlike states of mind. Djs like Paul Oakenfold and Paul Van Dyk were the initial pioneers of the trance scene and by 1993/94 they had a huge following, becoming some of the biggest names in dance music to this day. Oakenfold in particular took trance to new levels by pushing the new sub-genre of trance ‘psytrance’ (or ‘goa’) on his Perfecto Fluoro label. This took the more arpeggiated, psychedelic sounding elements of trance and embellished upon them thereby creating a more ethno oriented vibe for the underground club scene. Goa takes its name from the famous island of ‘Goa’ situated off India where trance became very popular and synonymous with the psychedelic hippie culture prevailing there. Goa was and still is a Mecca for trance and has become a popular place among trance enthusiasts world-wide. Throughout most of the 90s (up until about 1998) trance and its following had remained relatively underground but in the latter half of the decade the scene underwent a shift to the mainstream with tracks that had previously been anthems in the clubs surfacing as top 40 hits. Classic anthems like Energy 52 – Café Del Mar and Cygnus X – Superstring were revived and remixed and, although still remaining credible in their own right, somewhat lost their underground appeal and became commercialised. In my opinion the late 1990s was a mixed era for trance, some of the tunes being released were more along the lines of what might be loosely termed as pop-trance and bore little or no relation to the unique vibes of the early and mid 90s. However, quality tracks were and still are being produced and dedicated trance clubs such as Dune in London, Gatecrasher in Sheffield and Slinky in Bournemouth & Bristol are hosting events on a regular basis. There is a strong progressive element in the current trance movement and major artists like Ferry Corsten, Binary Finary and James Holden are taking this direction and creating tracks with deeper melodies more ambient FX and generally more innovation. Since ’99 the popularity of trance in the UK has declined somewhat due to the abundance of commercial sounding tracks, however the real trance scene is still going strong and as long as the Djs and producers keep making fresh, creative sounding music then trance will continue to grow and will stay a strong, global force in dance music.