Brainstorm Cru Bandcamp

Plus, unfortunately for you, a mix of their stuff from me.

Brainstorm Crew – three mates from Peterborough (later four with MC Storm) who blew all our heads off with the Southey Woods EP on White House Records back in 1992. I noticed an anomaly as Brainstorm Cru on Bandcamp, bought all their EPs, found the artist unsurprisingly on social media and asked the question: you the original (excuse the pun) crew? Richard Carter got back in touch and responded that he is the lone driving force behind Brainstorm Cru yet modestly gave big ups to the other members who were in the original band. Well, one thing led to another and a full interview ensued. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did; some of the following info I simply did not know…

Me: Hiya!

RC: My pleasure, yeah I had a look at your blog…top work, there’s an absence of “historical” records on the scene. Much of it told through the eyes of top Ibiza DJs which in my mind misses what the scene was really about. Keep an eye out for more tunes, I’m back into it after a long break and having to relearn everything!

Tell me a bit about the Brainstorm Crew history!

I’ve got lots of long (and short) stories to tell … The original Brainstorm Crew started back in 91 around the time the term rave was being coined. Myself and Rob started the group and were soon joined by (another) Richard who was the driving force behind the production side. We were renowned for our free parties, pretty much pitching up anywhere with a sound system. We’d promote our stuff at these (the first EP is actually named after the local woods where we’d hold all-nighters in the summer of 92). Carl (to become MC Storm) also joined us for our gigs. 92 was a whirlwind with the Formation stuff. Weirdly we all went our separate ways at the end of 92. I fell out with the “scene” in 93 and by the mid-nineties was producing house and trance on my own, and got back into throwing more free parties. So it’s only recently I’ve got back into production and in my words, I picked up where I left off at the end of 92, so it’s taken me 30 years to get into the jungle scene of 93 onwards . It’s just me now (the other Richard has done some stuff as Brainstormer). We’ve threatened a reunion a couple of times, but I think we’ve all just moved on. So now I use Cru not Crew to avoid any issues (it’s a fickle game!).

Best times?

The summer of 92! For me the small parties were often the best, sometimes just a handful of friends and strangers in a car park, field, woods, or old barn. Bizarrely I never did the big raves like Dreamscape. One time (summer of 92) we had somehow discovered a rave in an old farm building (somewhere in Cambridgeshire – I can’t remember where!), the three of us in the Crew were all there, but no more than 50 or so other people. I remember the sun coming up and we heard a track from our Southey Woods EP being dropped, we all looked at each and said, “who gave him that to play?” On chatting to the DJ, he’d actually bought it! I’m not sure who was more chuffed, us for someone playing our tunes, or him for the Brainstorm Crew being at his gig! He asked us to sign the record, we duly did….it still does the rounds on eBay from time to time. Apparently (according to the internet) there are 5 signed copies in existence, I don’t recall signing the other four!

What was promoting yourselves like back then?

Yeah, promotion was a bit different 30 years ago… I was lucky enough to work in an office with a photocopier so would run off hundreds of printed flyers to promote our gigs and releases. We’d sell vinyl out the back of the car (no digital back then), but one thing that has stayed the same though is the “merch” we had a load of t shirts and sweatshirts printed up and sold these too in the local ticket outlets / record shops. Some copyright infringement on the design, but that’s another story! Everything else was word of mouth back then for the “after parties” we held after the clubs closed at 2! My car was fully loaded with a sound system, not a car stereo….a sound system that we lifted out of the boot (plenty of power for a hundred people). It was quite recognisable, and people would literally follow us in a convoy to the rave to party until sunrise. One time I was actually just going home and when I got there a couple of cars had followed me home expecting there to be a rave…no, I was just going to bed!

Enlighten me on the underground scene.

For me the above epitomises the Summer of 92, I’d seen the scene develop over the last 5 years or so, from early house, acid house, bleeps and techno. The rave scene is often portrayed by big name DJs and how the sound emerged from the bigger clubs. Rave was more than this…every Raver will have a story to tell like mine, for me it was just three guys doing what we loved. Producing music in a bedroom and playing it to people and being part of something special. One thing I’ve reflected on as I’ve grown older and wiser is the positive vibes and unity of the scene, it brought all walks of life together and broke down so many barriers, something that is rarely captured in this day and age. Good times!

And there, internet-land, is a proper history lesson of our Hardcore & Jungle roots. The love for the scene back then was incredible as proved by the effort to host and attend secret raves; it’s almost Goddamn folklore man.

So here’s a mix of their stuff from me, a journey from Hardcore to Jungle where I had to move the tempo up a couple of times, something I’ve never done in a recorded mix before. DJ Gershwin did teach me how to do it once but I’ve long forgotten… For the chin/beard strokers, you’ll find some unreleased “for fun” remixes in there that you can easily find on YouTube.

I’d also like you to consider that Richard C has done an almost wormhole-like jump from ’92 Hardcore to Jungle amen with a gap of 3 decades in between – still solidly crisp production. A big thank you to one of the pioneers of the scene, I’m forever humbled not only by his generosity but the time he took with me and it just goes to show, no matter how much you think you know just by being there in the early nineties, someone’s always got a tale to tell and every day is a school day.

Who’s ready for some kickin’ beats?

Audius Mini Player

Unfortunately, Mixcloud has inevitably put a limit on free accounts as of December 1st 2022 so this may well be the last mini player you can click. Try the Audius player above and next time you’ll have the Google Drive link (but not Mediafire, promise!)

Tracklist

• Brainstorm Crew – Define The Beat
• Brainstorm Crew – Pick Up The Pace
• Brainstorm Crew – Jungle Tekno
• Brainstorm Crew – Play It Loud
• Brainstormer Feat. Gurk – Dark Ages
• Brainstormer – Harder
• Brainstorm Cru – You Come Back Remix
• Brainstorm Cru – Dub Power
• Acid88 – The Beyond (Brainstorm Cru Remix)
• Brainstorm Cru – Original Time
• DJ Chris Carr – Jungle Junkie (Brainstorm Cru Remix)
• Brainstorm Cru – In the Shadows
• Brainstorm Cru – Flying High (Remix)
• Brainstorm Cru – Future Voodoo
• Brainstorm Cru vs DJ Ande – Twilight The Wolf [Unreleased]
• DJ Ande – The Cleaner (Brainstorm Cru Remix) [Unreleased]
• Brainstorm Cru – Feel So High
• DJ Ande – 10 Grams (Brainstorm Cru 20 Grams Remix) [Unreleased]

Here’s a neat outfit along with a neat name – Spirits From An Urban Jungle. I recently downloaded their latest track Elysium and was blown away by it. The smoothness, the slick production and the whole way it captivated me with those heavenly synths layered over a perfectly reputable amen easily makes it my second favourite tune this year (because I’m self-centred, my fave choon in 2022 is my collab with Jon Tetly). It reminded me of a tune I couldn’t quite grasp for a week, and it suddenly came to me when I woke up one morning; JMJ & Richie’s Montana from 1997.

No surprise then that Spirits From An Urban Jungle are the same outfit along with John Williams from Tekniq – talk about a dream team or what?! To add further intrigue, I finally found out that Parallel World, the one-hit wonder on Good Looking Records with Tear Into It are also the same pairing of Jay Hurren and Andrew Riches. That tune reaches somewhat notoriety for me as the version I had on vinyl back in ole ninety four is of a minutely different structure with a slightly altered vocal stab on the intro than the more populated release. No repress, so the second version must be a later released CD version; I’m currently in the middle of tagging the entire GLR/LGR discography – a project going on for more than two years now – so I’ll stumble across the ‘wrong’ version eventually.

So here’s a little selection of tunes from the four groups, all mid-90’s style with those familiar Omi Trio-esque whiplash snares and super-tight production… prepare for lushness.

Audius stream and/or/not bothered download (54Mb)

Tracklist

• Free La Funk (PFM Remix)
• Tear Into It (Original Vinyl 12″)
• Case Closed
• White Lightning
• Hall of Mirrors (Omni Trio Remix)
• A New Dawn
• Prologue To Freedom
• Inhabitants Of Pandemonium
• Rewind
• Montana
• The Voyager
• Elysium

Audius

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Spotify

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YouTube Channel

Juic-e self-titled Juic-e Album (11 tracks)

Juic-e Limitations Album (14 tracks)

Raised on 90s pirate radio, it says on his profile. ‘Nuff said.

If you want a deeper, more Jungley sound harking back to days of yore, then Juic-e’s yer man. Add in some modern DnB sounds, call it experimental, call it genius, whatever – Holy Shhh case in point: a modern synth b-line chased with a two-key 808 sub, holy shhh indeed.

There’s a decent shift away from the amen too, a few years back probably a cardinal sin in my eyes but I’ve taught myself that if it makes your head nod, it gets a spin, end of story.

Juic-e also uses his trusty Akai CD3000XL sampler for that 90’s analogue sound and blimey, he don’t half smash it.

Even better: if you buy both albums (see links above), you get a couple of quid discount. That’s 25 tracks for less than £12. What’s not to like? I’ve been proper caning his tracks lately, so, not to be selfish about it, here’s a mix of a (very) small selection of his output:

Stream and/or Download (135Mb)

Tracklist

• All
• Here I come
• Euphoric Tool (Remix)
• You & Me (Antares Remix)
• Baby
• Come Dance
• Crush
• Diced
• Broken
• Free
• Limitations
• The Morning
• Moederland
• Resist It
• Pluck Sake (Lion UK Remix)
• Sweat
• Bedroom
• Music Box
• Reece’s Piece’s
• Turntable Junkie
• Inna
• Tough
• Look Ahead (2019 Remaster)
• Rave End
• Golly Gosh (Original Mix)
• Mellow Days (Original Mix)
• Apache’s Other Side
• Holy Shhh

I’m back in full effect after a brief lull…

Some of you may argue the particular years of this blog post, but 1992 was essentially – for me anyway – the progression of a kind of music back then I knew only as Hardcore Techno. The breaks had more yaw and roll in them and producers were getting adventurous and downright daring with samples. The 4-on-the-floor mainstay was slipping back to mainland Europe (but would later reappear on the South coast and in Scotland as a harder, faster, happier hardcore) and the UK was making a sound it’s own: Jungle Techno was born.

This was the year when I really got into the music and there was a brilliant summer where I left school and met new people at college who were also into this new style of electronic breaks. It only seems like yesterday and I’m probably looking at it with nostalgia rather than the technical aspect of it but damn, them tunes were kickin’ back then.

This classic era of tunes reminds me of my good old friend Pauline driving us around everywhere in his parents’ Austin Metro that we dubbed the “Ravemobile”, rushing his bollocks off on the dancefloor and then spewing his ring out at Frankley Services post-event on a regular basis; that man never let me down. Sponge, this one’s for you me old mucker .

Is this set generic? Yes. Is this set cheesy? Oh, yes. Is this set an anthem basher? Yup. It’s taken me a long time to compile this set as although they’re not necessarily my favourites, it shows a good aspect of how the scene pitched in and out of styles; there’s some stomp, happy pianos, chipmunk vocals, amen and darkside galore.

Man, I still have to pinch myself to comprehend that all this lot is THIRTY years old…

Stream n’ Download (99Mb)

Tracklist

• Egyptian Empire – The Horn Track (Original Mix)
• Q Project – Champion Sound
• Jim Polo – The Night Rider Part 1
• Nasty Habits – Here Comes The Drumz
• Defender – Feel It (Bass) 2
• Darkman – Darkman
• Double X-Posure – Ultracore
• Orca – 4AM
• DJ Krome & Mr Time – The Slammer
• Jonny L – Hurt U So (Black Label Bootleg)
• Mystery Man – Love E (Remix)
• The Dok – Your Love
• D.J. Peshay & Roger Johnson – In My Soul
• L.T.J. Bukem – A Couple Of Beats
• Urban Shakedown – Some Justice (93) [Unreleased]
• Krome & Time – This Sound Is For the Underground (E5 Remix)
• T. Power & The Sandman – Ode To A Deadman
• Tango & Ratty – Tales From the Darkside
• Sound Corp – Toll
• Pascal & Sponge – Nosebleed
• CO₂ – Time Bomb (Fuse Mix)
• Fourth Dimension – Infection
• Nu-Matic – Treat Me Right (Re-Vi-Til-Ized Mix)

I had an inkling in 2020 during the pandemic that a lot of creative artists would be getting their Junglistic juices flowing and I was proved correct; I also predicted at the end of last year that 2022 was gonna be an absolute belter of a year for Jungle – but I didn’t think it would be this good.

There’s an older blog post quoting Shock C as saying in the early nineties that we were so young and everything was fresh and exciting. True, but I believe this era is on a par music-wise and that is some Bo-Selecta statement coming from me. Okay, there’s grey in my beard and I have no hair but goddamn, how flippin’ brilliant is the music at the moment?! I should never compare to the original scene but bloody hell, it’s a great time to be into Jungle at the moment. On a personal note, Tim Reaper, Jon Tetly & Kid Lib are on the podium for me.

The opener is a dream come true for myself – a recent collaboration with none other than Jon Tetly. Although I’ve shared it on as many platforms as possible, I forgot to put it on my own blog🤦‍♂️ Strings are from Firestarter, dialogue from The Batman & A Cure For Wellness. Little bit of tune arrangement from myself, most of the hard work done by Jon. We were pleased with it, so it’s the title track on his latest Bandcamp EP.

Also, if you’re bored enough and are awake at 3 in the morning reading my older blog posts trying to get back to sleep, you’ll find that the MediaFire blog mix links are dead. All sets are now on my Google Drive, download away! If you have a look toward the end, you can see a couple of bonus extra sets!

It’s been pointed out that I’m biased towards amen rollidge (guilty as charged) but there’s a lot of deeper sounds out there too to get ya buzzing and some may say this is the true sound of Jungle. So, without further ado, here’s a bi-annual selection showcasing this year’s releases and enjoy the sheer awesomeness of 2022 so far. Good God, there’s so much more to come and we’re only halfway through…

Let’s roll.

Stream & download (132Mb)

Tracklist

• Jon Tetly & Swipez – Vengeance
• The Invisible Man – Twisted (Mr Sensi Remix)
• Innercore – Old Empire
• Tim Reaper – Deep Within (Nebula Remix)
• Motorist – Blast Route
• Radicall – Haunted
• DJ KOS – Neo’s Real Future (Blame “Shadow” Remix)
• The Vanguard Project – Want U Back (Coco Bryce Alternative Remix)
• Acid Lab – Electrical Impulses
• Subjects – Inception
• Source Direct – Snake Style 2
• 4am Kru – Just Saw Johnny (Extended Mix)
• Lavery – Hackney Vandal Patrol
• Rez – Headstrong VIP
• We Rob Rave – I Believe
• Arkyn – Never Again
• Hproject – Artemis
• Intense – Time Space Continuem (Ricky Force Remix)
• Nookie & Ruth Royall – Love Less Chaos
• BC Rydah – Tombaugh Regio
• Boa Boa – 0000
• Tankdubz – Come Wit It
• Defender – Feel it (Clarky ReBoot Raw Mix Edit)
• Liquid – Sweet Harmony (ODF Bootleg)
• Veak – Dirty Cash
• Marc OFX – Blood Never Lies
• Solaris – Revolve

Something a bit different: I’m constantly promoting the newer Jungle and although I’m not exactly neglecting the oldskool, the bits in between don’t get a play. I’ve found 648 tracks from 2010 until 2019 (yeah you can yawn if you like as they’re mostly amen rollers) excluding all the Bizzy B releases as I haven’t forgotten about that artist’s mix-series that I’ve let go a little stale. I’m guilty myself of not playing them let alone mixing them because there’s so much stuff coming out lately they do tend to get put on the wayside.

No longer…

Stream & Download (64Mb)

Tracklist

• Army of Ghosts – Dreaming
• Essence Of Aura – Fall Down On Me (Unreleased Dubplate Mix)
• Tango + Fallout – Positive Chaos (Essence Of Aura VIP Remix)
• Msymiakos – Blacksteel ( Part 2 )
• Nookie – The Three Elements
• Ricky Force – Flow VIP
• Ricky Force & Greenleaf – Dangerous
• The Untouchables, Mantra – Black Spell
• Nebula – Model Projection
• Killawatt – The Necromancer
• Mortal Combat – Unknown Artist
• The Torchmen – Told You (Mix 1)
• Q Project – Champion Sound (Unofficial ’95 Bootleg Mix) [Unreleased]

A staple for when tearing Jungle really sprang from the blocks, I’m well pissed off I didn’t have any of these on vinyl; instead naively feeling that buying the “anthems” was priority. If I did have a DeLorean, the only thing I’d change would be to have a wider gamut of vinyl releases rather than from maybe the four of five labels I relied on, just because everyone else liked them. Listening to these in the clubs back in the day, they meant to me a proper deeper sound. Nearly three decades on, my mature lugholes realise the engineering and arrangement from the White House crew was second to none.

I downloaded the entire sublabel, 4 Star, about three years ago and wanted to do a mix of every track from the label but felt there were some releases that were significantly weak. Someone a couple of weeks ago mentioned on a Facebook group the excellent In Perfection tune Expression which I was delighted (but not surprised) to find was on my hard drive, saw a remix from the God-farder Bay B Kane and the rest was history.

If you’re bored enough to listen to the whole of the mix, you’ll notice the end is faded out (thank you, Audacity) whilst mixing in Phrenetic’s Candy Man. The tune didn’t really fit in with vibe of the rest of the mix and I completely botched it anyroad.

Stream & Download (95Mb)

Tracklist

• The Rood Project – Thunder
• The Rood Project – Thunder (Peshay’s Ariel Assault Mix)
• Double T. & Mr. E. – Krakerjack
• Code K – Ryde N’ Slyde
• Justice – Perfect Chaos
• Spirits From An Urban Jungle – White Lightning
• Gin & Tonic – Right Bullet Right Time (Remix)
• Spirits From An Urban Jungle – Prologue To Freedom
• Bay B Kane – Let Me Go
• EKO – Where Does It Come From
• Spirits From An Urban Jungle – Inhabitants Of Pandemonium
• Ellis D – You Got To Believe
• Ellis D – One For The Ladies
• Justice – Beyond Silence (Blame’s Pipe Mix)
• EKO – Distant Hopes
• Loxy & Technician – Roll Calll
• Fourth Dimension – Sun Vibes
• Remarc – Sound Murderer
• Chuck E – Fantasy
• Chuck E – Smokin A Blunt
• In Perfection – Expression
• In Perfection – Expressions (Bay B Kane Remix)

Yes! Another round of the Amen-minister-so-sinister Jon Tetly. Only a mix just over half an hour long, these volumes will be in bitesize chunks so there’s at least eight more volumes left… truth be told, the bugger’s knocking out more tunes faster than I can mix ’em.

“What we’re gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into time…”

Well, 2020 actually. You’ve got exactly 23 seconds on the intro to breathe as this is pure amen. Done proper.

Stream & Download (46Mb)

Tracklist

• Old Score
• Chaos & Mayhem
• Unloved
• Hail Messiah
• R & C
• Crust
• Red Mills
• Most Flow
• Fatty’s Leg
• Doda Jam
• What Does It All Mean
• Nasty But Nice
• Earthquakes
• Ulysses

Here’s a set that’s been menacingly pacing around since I compiled a 1992 set (soon come) but I couldn’t bloody mix in Intimidator so in the end I completely sacked it off because I didn’t feel that it fitted in with the whole Skanna vibe.

I’ve praised Until The Night Is Morning on what I think was one of my very first blog posts as it was the third or fourth vinyl I bought – man, I wore that mad funker out. The snares amazed me and still do. Mixing this set, I realised just how clever Skanna is, creating his own amens with those high-pitched aerial-attacking snare hits and after watching the waveforms, that kick drum programming ain’t ‘alf bad either. Also note although there’s stabs of dark synth badness, there’s a mellow vibe as well, all amalgamated together to create the unique Skanna sound: The 1993 Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Darkside.

I used to hang around with a geezer who taught Skanna how to beat-mix, true story. Anyway, check out Skanna’s bio as it may surprise you. There’s probably dozens of Skanna mixes splattered all over t’interweb-land but gadzooks, the material advised only to be blasted out here: Oh my.

Download + Stream (77Mb)

Tracklist

• Ceasefire
• Roots
• The Future
• Exit the Lights
• Run To Me
• This Way
• The Joker
• Heaven (Remix)
• Heaven
• Night Stalker (B2)
• Untitled
• Night Stalker (A1)
• Until the Night Is Morning
• All You Wanted
• Night Stalker (A2)
• Night Stalker (B1)
• The Greatest Thing (Criminal Minds Mix)

Yes, the undercover evil organisation planning to take over the east coast of America – or for the people who’ve never watched The Simpsons, Globex Corp is a sublabel of 7th Storey Projects, concentrating on the 1990s Jungle sound. It’s all quite refreshing with tip-top production from Jungle-rebirth pioneers Tim Reaper & Dwarde plus other associates.

I’ve been in a Tango/Ratty 1993-bouncy kinda mood lately so I did a little mix of their stuff; they reached the appropriate energy levels and all that, but I needed something a little more, well, sensually dynamic. And more amen. And even darker synth stabs. I just couldn’t hunt down that sweet spot. Fortunately, I’ve found the style of music I juuuuust wanted… in the Globex releases.

A BIG thank you to Dev/Null, whose contribution has made this post and mix possible plus an amusing insight into the label’s tracks which are all incidentally untitled, hence no track list and there’s more to come from the label later in the year.

Tim, if you’re reading this, check out the tune at 46:00!

Download + Stream (108 Mb)