shades of rhythm - extacy edition
cd1
01. sweet sensation
02. the scientist
03. homicide
04. shakers
05. lonely days, lonely nights
06. the sound of eden (original mix)
07. lies
08. 666 – the no. of the bass
09. the exorcist
10. summer of ’89
11. extacy
12. everybody
13. armageddon
14. the sound of eden (x-press 2’s x-pressive dub)
15. the sound of eden (every time i see her)
cd2
01. homicide remix
02. homicidal
03. fear of the future (12" version)
04. holocaust
05. dance to the rhythm
06. techno dream
07. frequency
08. jaberwocky
09. make it better
10. getting away (her mix)
11. getting away (his mix)
12. sweet revival (keep it comin’) (digital funk mix)
13. sweet sensation (joey negro’s konvershun mix)
14. the sound of eden (12" instrumental)
following on from the recent reissues from the depths of the ztt archives comes the latest 2 cd set by shades of rhythm.
an early doors techno-rave collective who were along with the shamen, the prodigy at al, trail blazers in their slamming together of chart threatening pop hooks and underground dance grooves.
to be honest, my love affair with ztt records had dissipated somewhat by the late 80s/early 90s (i stepped out after the hoodlum priest album, heart of darkness, now an expanded edition of that album i could really get into !), meaning that i never really picked up on the shades of rhythm groove, but during my first spin of this set my grey cells kicked into action.
in the summer of 1990 i returned to the uk having enjoyed an extended stay in finland with a few quid in my pocket. cash which funded the purchase of a big-n-clunky, but gorgeous sounding in comparison to cassette, sony discman, that i could connect up to my student dorm shaking boom box. subsequently, from then on i trawled the sales racks in jumbo records, and picked up anything on cd that was on offer, which meant i normally ended up with a few cheesy rave cd singles.
and until today i forgot that one of those purchases was the cd single version of exorcist/homicide, but as soon as that weird off-kilter hook kicked in, long closed sections of my head started to open up.
of course in the years since, the cd single has been cleared out of the archive to make space for something of far less importance.
thankfully such errors of judgement have now been corrected with this expanded edition of the bands album meaning i can throw back the years and revel in the time stamped beats, italo-piano house riffs, and bleep excess.
lifted from digital sources found in the ztt records cellars (no skip-n-jump scratched up rips on this release) this beautifully packaged edition includes the classics, a few previously unreleased remixes for the ‘ardcore fans and detailed liner notes.
old school ravers of any generation should be getting their orders in now.
more detail : here