in a place playing a feed of old Top of The Pops performances and there are bands I recognize doing a lot of bouncier, more “novelty” stuff than I’d expect

@swampgallows, this really got me seeing the “toytown” era of happy hardcore as a lot more continuous with mainstream British pop than I’d realized (and given some of the reggae stuff, jungle too)

thebest90sravecovers:

Paulina Taylor & Golgo 13 ‎– Harmony 2 (1997)

Fade & Bananaman ft. Abbey - A Dreams Surprise

dig that carousel organ bit at 2:05

SE 34th & Belmont
Portland, OR

ohnoproblems:

from the bottom of my soul

oh man, I remember this when it happenned on the happycore mailing list, the three main pillars of that community were Muppetfucker (good ol’ boy from Texas, goes as Noaphex now), Entropy (from Boston, bisupremacist, kind of a ponce), and this one redneck from like central Pennsylvania who was always going on about Beast Ice

I remember when the sound was changing around the turn of the millenium or so and there was argument over whether to call it trancecore or freeform or something else so Muppetfucker just started calling it Kenneth

Robbie Long & Devastate - Caffeine Rush

zarggg:

Artist’s comments:

I wasn’t able to record my set at Candyball 11 in NYC, so here are the same tracks used in a studio mix. Enjoy!

1. Like It Loud - Gammer & Alex Prospect Remix - Alex Prospect & Becci
2. Dreams Of Reality - Sash Dee & Alex BassJunkie
3. Suma Ov Love - Teenage Twins
4. Good Time - Nobody
5. I Dont Want Nobody Else - Original Mix - Aural Kaos
6. Call Me - Original Mix - Modulate feat Jay Jacob
7. Sincerely Yours - Prospect & Pinnacle
8. Higher (Pulse Remix) - Electrux
9. The Key, The Secret (Fracus Remix) - Urban Cookie Collective
10. You Gotta Know (2012 VIP Mix) - Haze
11. Other Things (Kicks Mix) - Firefly
12. I Will Wait - Fracus & Darwin Remix - CLSM
13. Keep It Comin’ - Original Mix - Fracus & Darwin
14. Eye Opener - DJ Brisk and Trixxy
15. Part Of Me (Joey Riot & Tom Revolution Remix) - Nobody
16. Sunshine On A Cloudy Day - Eufeion Remix - Bang
17. Heaven On Earth - Dougal & Gammer feat Jenna
18. Rush - Adam J & Freestyle
19. Dont Stop - Original Mix - Fracus & Darwin
20. I Just Do It Like This - Original Mix - Chris Unknown
21. Set You Free Again - Anon
22. Can’t Hold Us - Spree
23. Airhead (S3RL Remix) (Spree edit) - DJ Brisk
24. Stay With Me - Greg Peaks Funked In The Sun Remix - AB
25. When The Sun Comes Down - Hardcore Mix - Lady Dubbz
26. Love Of My Life - Brisk Mix - Northern Lights
27. When love takes over - Nock off nigel

kontextmaschine:

Hixxy - I See The Light

swampgallows:

Brisk & Fade — Skillz & Stylez
Blatant Beats [BB027], 2001

If I could, I would post the entire discographies of Blatant Beats and Next Generation all over my blog.

Also, if this doesn’t hype you up, you might be dead. 

kontextmaschine:

DJ Spree - Summer Anthems 2009

DJ Spree did a “Summer Anthems” mix every year 2001-09 except ‘06 (I think). They’re some of my favorite mixes. This is ‘09, I guess the last one. Sniff.

Oh hey, I found a tracklist.

1) Recon - Open G-ds Eyes*
2) Brisk & Vagabond feat. DMO - Never Be Alone
3) Ultrabeat - I Wanna Touch You (Squad E Remix)
4) Dab Hands - Super Good (Sy & Unknown Remix)
5) Hixxy feat. Taya - Take Me To Heaven
6) Hypersonic v. Jorg Schmid - Doesn’t Matter (Reacon & Squad E Remix)
7) Anon. - No-One Else
8) Clubraiders - Move Your Hands Up (Al Storm Remix)
9) Druid & Stormtrooper - Electrified (DJ Kurt Remix)
10) Breeze Vs. Lost Witness feat. Louanne Feeney - Rise Again (Sy & Unknown Remix)
11) Brisk & Vagabond feat. Tess - Shouting Out
12) Eufeion - Ravers Groovin’ (S3RL Remix)
13) Slipper Disco - Feeling High (Kevin Energy Purist Remix)
14) Billy Daniel Bunter & Jon Doe - Round & Round (Sy & Unknown Remix)
15) Inverse & Orbit1 feat. Sunrise - Don’t U Know
16) DJ Stormtrooper feat. Kristy - On The Run
17) Hixxy - Deep In The Night
18) DJ Seduction feat. Alison Wade - Open Up (DJ Chaos Remix)
19) UFO & Supreme feat. Shelly Clifford - Best Days
20) Anon. - Show You The Way
21) Impact & Resist feat. Lisa Abbott - All I Want





*Jesus Christ, how many versions of Eyeopener are there?

you: is this nightcore or happy hardcore
me: you're stepping into dangerous territory, stranger

No happycore on here in a hot minute, sooo…

Cloudskipper - Get Vocal

A 2004 vocal anthems mixtape

swampgallows:

For sammyeatshands:

First thing about happy hardcore is that the genre is constantly changing. Happy hardcore from 1994 sounds nothing like the happy hardcore from 1999, or from 2004, or so on. Every couple of years the sound shifts, which is why an introduction to happy hardcore needs to be given sort-of chronologically.

Another fun thing about happy hardcore: there are only a handful of people who make it, but they have more aliases than fingers and toes. Discogs is a really good site to check what an artist’s other names might be, or joint acts, or what have you. The best is to look up music by the labels they were released on, rather than the artists themselves.

First up, oldskool happy hardcore was considered an offshoot of jungle back in the day. It is sometimes called “breakbeat hardcore” or just “old school”. You’d be looking for out for artists like:

• DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer
• Vibes
• Wishdokta
• Seduction
• Jimmy J
• “Scratchmaster" DJ Sy
• Billy Daniel Bunter
• Future Primitive
• Cru-L-T/Luna-C
• Slipmatt/SMD

Good places to start are Kniteforce Records and Just Another Label. Unfortunately for the old old school above, most were listed on bootlegs to avoid copyright issues (like 89 Revival and SMD) or found in cassette tapes of live mixes like Vibealite and Helter Skelter. Lots of songs sampled preexisting house/dance classics of the early 90s like Bizarre Inc. and Ratpack, and therefore had trouble with official releases. 

==A shameless plug for my friend M27, an amazing DJ with an enviable collection of the old school classics, which he regularly mashes with jungle and hip hop and releases on cassette. 

Moving on, there is a variant of old school sometimes referred to as "toytown” or “cheese” because it is regarded as being highly infantile, featuring chipmunk vocals, slamming piano riffs, and children/cartoon samples. This is around the mid to late 90s where things really start getting hyperactive and separating from jungle influences, trading breakbeats for 4/4; It is the happy hardcore. This era is very important because 90% of these artists founded happy hardcore as it’s known today, and continued throughout the years to produce and splinter the sounds and directions of the genre.

• Brisk
• Ham
• Vinylgroover
• Bang! (of DDR fame)
• Robbie Long & Devastate
• Hixxy
• Kaos & Ethos
• DNA
• DJ (Kevin) Energy
• Sharkey (“Toytown”, anyone??)
• (Scratchmaster) Sy & Unknown
  
• Force & Styles
• DJ Stompy
• DJ Demo
• Triple J (Jimmy J)
• The unbeatable MC Junior (R.I.P.)

==And here, another shameless plug for my good friend DJ Flapjack, who professes in the cheesy style of happy hardcore. If you like this stuff, you’ll get more than enough from his expert mixes. Check the labels Essential Platinum, Next Generation and Blatant Beats, and as Slammin Vinyl for more. Cheesy happy hardcore has its own fair share of bootleg labels, including but not limited to Juicy Cuts/Silk Cuts and Ravers Choice.

FROM THERE, happy hardcore in the early 00s started taking a harder, yet more trance-like direction usually dubbed UK hardcore, with many of the above artists following suit:

• Scott Brown (Plus System, Interstate, Q-Tex) (I’ve posted less popular tracks because everyone knows Elysium, Lost Generation, Power of Love and its many remixes, etc.)
• Dougal & Gammer (and their many tracks together)
• Breeze & Styles (These two are personally responsible for some of the greatest UK hardcore hits out there, save for the bigguns up there like Scott Brown and Dougal & Gammer.  Recently Darren Styles hit it big with his newer tracks and has somewhat left Breeze in the dust.)
• Brisk, Fade, Ham, and Vinylgroover all return with a vengeance in their new style of “bangin hardcore” in this era.
• UFO
• Sy & Unknown (DJ Sy, again)
• Storm & Euphony
• CLSM
• Weaver
• Re-con (who also sings)

Good labels to check out for these genres are Raver Baby, Evolution Records/Evolution Plus, Quosh, Essential Platinum 2002, and the Bonkers compilations. I don’t know any DJs who play this genre anymore but I am planning to, so keep an eye on my soundcloud!

From this came an acid-influenced (that’s 303 acid, not the drug acid) even harder, more driven style of hardcore called freeform. Aforementioned DJs Sharkey and DJ (Kevin) Energy had made their homes in this genre when I came into the scene.

• Kevin Energy
• Alek Száhala
• Eryk Orpheus
• AMS
• AC Slater (who now produces electro)
• K-Complex
• Oli-G
• Robbie Long & Devastate (they’re back!)
• Stormtrooper
• V.A.G.A.B.O.N.D. (closer to the ‘bangin hardcore’ of NextGen/Blatant Beats but cooperates well with the genre, I think)

Good labels to check out are Nu Energy and its multitudes of sublabels, Bedlam Records, Thin N’ Crispy, Raw Elements, and the Hardcore Tsunami compilations released by HappyHardcore.com. Unfortunately I have lost touch with this subgenre, as it is no longer being produced (to my knowledge) and didn’t resonate with me much in the first place.

And now there’s the new “clubcore”, nicknamed such for being released on the Clubland X-Treme Hardcore compilation albums. I personally can’t stand most of this, but it’s super popular. I dunno any of the labels it’s being released on, so your best bet is just to stick to the Clubland CDs.

• DJ S3RL
• Jamie Ritmen
• Darren Styles (of Breeze & Styles)
• Chris Unknown (of Sy & Unknown)
• Squad-E
• DJ Kurt & Joey Riot, known for their “powerstomp” subsubsubgenre

Some newer (mostly Australian) artists within the newer genre that I do like are:

• Darwin
• Orbit-1/The Acolyte
• Entity
• Nu Foundation (R.I.P)
• Chwhynny (plays her own instruments and does her own vocals)

This brings us about to the modern era, but I have lost touch with the newest stuff coming out. The genre is closing in on being two decades old and has changed so, so much in that short time (and this is without even going into its actual “hardcore” roots that eventually sprout into gabber, speedcore, terrorcore, hardtek, and the like). The journey into happy hardcore is an expansive and rewarding one, and hopefully these links will provide a great start into discovering more from the kind that interests you. 

Enjoy!

swampgallows:

never thought i’d miss you
but i do 

_{oh ho} ^{ey hey}_{oh ho} ^{ey hey}_{oh ho} ^{ey hey}_{oh ho} ^{oh hoo}_{oh ho}

this is not over yet!

scibot9000:

remember that song from last week’s episode of FiM? 

I thought pinkie’s vocal were perfectly cheesy for a hhc type tune

so I made this. I’m pretty happy with it, although I can’t think of a decent title

limegl0wstix:

Scott Brown & Cat Knight — All About You
Evolution Records [EV 76], 2004

Scottie B played this last night and I sobbed, of course.

limegl0wstix:

CLSM — Free Your Mind (Original mix)
Quosh Records [QSH047], 2004

Speaking of CLSM, this is a real sad-jam. Oh man, I think this calls for some Cube::hard.

Hixxy - I See The Light