REVIEW - Men From Del Bosca, Freshtrax & HMS & Unknown Artist - El Bland E / Harmonik Force / Feel The Melody (Keeping Vinyl Alive - Rare And Unreleased 1992 Hardcore)

 

A - Men From Del Bosca - El Bland E.

B1 - Freshtrax & HMS - Harmonik Force.

B2 - Unknown Artist - Feel The Melody.

Earlier this year Sublogic Recordings, one of the premier, artist approved oldskool, remastering, unearthing and re-pressing vinyl labels announced their sad farewell in it's current form. However out of it's ashes rose a new label with the same artist supporting and quality vinyl producing agenda. That label is Keeping Vinyl Alive

(from their Discogs page)

"Keeping Vinyl Alive is a new label set up by the now inactive Sublogic Recordings It is centered on releasing crowd funded small run vinyl pressings of oldskool hardcore, jungle and drum and bass music. The ethos of the label is to discover and share interesting or rare and unreleased 1991 - 1995 tracks not for profit but for posterity."

[KVA001] does not fail to deliver on this promise of rare and unreleased gems. First up is the extremely sought after 'El Bland E' from Men From Del Bosca (aka Freshtrax & HMS), a dark 1992 track with moody synths, N.W.A. 'Straight Outta Compton' vocal samples and rolling amen break. The track just oozes menace and introduces some crunching junglistic breakbeats, then lifts things up with an uplifting piano section and euphoric female vox.

'Harmonik Force' also by Freshtrax & HMS takes you on a trip to rave ecstasy with soaring syths, 'hold me baby, come fly with me' female vocals and an uncomplicated break to let the focus fall on the uplifting elements.

The EP is rounded up with a surprise unreleased track found on DAT dated July '92, with a proposed release on the Great Asset label. Any other information of who created it is still lost and remains a mystery. However the track rolls in on a 2 Bad Mice 'Hold It Down' break and features uplifting pianos, hoover riffs, assorted rave stabs and a top 'Dibby! Dibby DJ' chant courtesy of Cutty Ranks. A veritable unearthed gem of a tune and an absolutely essential EP.

For those still interested in grabbing a copy there a 4 left from Will (owner of Keeping Vinyl Alive label and the now defunct Sublogic Recordings - he's put them up for under a tenner to let latecomers get a copy before the Discogs price scalpers get in there trying to sell them for over £50 a pop! So be quick!).

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Volume-1/release/5016126