Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Cult

First up today, we have three releases from a little known label named Cult. There's virtually no information I could find on the records themselves or on the internet, but my guess would be that this is a Germany based label and that the records were released somewhere between 1993 and 1995. I make that guess based on having found the record in German shops, one of the sellers of which claimed to have had the record in stock since it was released. Also based on the style: there's a mixture of breakbeat hardcore, happy hardcore, jungle, dnb, gabber/industrial hardcore, and a style which, frankly, I don't know how to classify. They also seem a bit faster than most of the hardcore/jungle that was coming out of the United Kingdom at the time, and considering that industrial music had a larger influence in Europe in those days, I'm led to believe the conjecture might be correct. There were three releases that I know of, each with the same design on the label, although a different color, and each beginning with catalogue number MZN. There may be other releases. I couldn't tell you.

The colors and catalogue numbers are as follows. I can only guess that they were released in order of increasing numerical order, but considering the catalogue numbers are so odd, again I can't be sure.

Black - MZN 3547/3548
Red - MZN 3841/3842
Green - 4049/4050

I can tell you however that I still remember the first time I heard the Red one, my introduction to the label. I was having a conversation on soulseek with Jahba and had to stop just so I could relisten and pay closer attention to what I'd heard. I enjoy both atmospheric and ragga jungle, but it's rare that I find them combined in such a way that they don't seem out of place. This was done perfectly and used a sample I was already familiar with, "Cool down the dancehall" from Andy C's tune. (This is not meant to insinuate that the sample was taken from Andy C's tune but merely to state that the sample is one and the same.)

There seems to have been a problem with some of pressings in that two of mine skip/jump horribly, so I've only recorded one side of the Green release, which does jump, but I liked the tune well enough to listen to it even with the faults. For this reason I include a copy of the Red record that I didn't personally rip as my copy jumps on one side. I imagine a wide variety of people will find tunes they both like and don't like in here, so hopefully at least one of them appeals to you.

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