Showing posts with label Skanna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skanna. Show all posts

Saturday, 19 December 2015

[SKANNA 07/SKANNA 08] Skanna - The Greatest Thing & All You Wanted Reissues [12" Vinyl + Bonus Digital Download Available Now!!!]

For a short time in the history of hardcore, jungle and drum & bass, producer Skanna, aka John Graham was responsible for some of the most sought after, classic singles ever released between the years of 1992 and 1995. Skanna's tracks appeared on respected labels such as White House Records and the artist's own short lived Skanna label, as well as being featured on many a compilation including the 'Jungle Tekno', 'Hard Leaders' and 'Artcore' series. 
After having select back catalogue tracks remastered, re-issued to vinyl and subsequently selling out on Sublogic Recordings and more recently, Keeping Vinyl Alive, The Underground Music label in collaboration with the artist himself, have set out on a mission to fully re-master from D.A.T. and re-issue each of the Skanna label's singles to make these lost gems available to jungle DJ's and collectors once more.




SKANNA 07 - The Greatest Thing.

A - The Greatest Thing (Summertime Mix).
B1 - The Greatest Thing.
B2 - Heaven Remix.

Beginning with a veritable atmospheric jungle/drum & bass classic from 1994, SKANNA 07 features two exhilarating mixes of 'The Greatest Thing', the 'Summertime Mix' leading us in a smooth, atmospheric direction, the 'Original Mix' being featuring more hard-hitting, drum & bass elements. 
The single is concluded by the ahead-of-it's-time, highly polished jungle-tekno styled 'Heaven Remix', which fuses 4/4 kickdrums on the intro with clattering breaks, soaring pads and sci-fi sound FX to great effect.

The Skanna 'The Greatest Thing' single is available to purchase from the Underground Music Bandcamp page for £7.99 for the 12" vinyl, which includes a digital download in whichever format you could possibly ever desire. There is also the option of purchasing a Skanna 'The Greatest Thing' 12" vinyl plus an exclusive T-shirt featuring the classic Skanna record label artwork for £24.99
If you wish to further support the artist and label, you can also donate more to the purchase price for future releases.



 



SKANNA 08 - All You Wanted.

A - All You Wanted.
B - The Greatest Thing (Criminal Minds Mix)
(Remixed By Spatts At The Hill).

Accompanying the SKANNA 07 single is 1994's SKANNA 08, which features the epic, proto-intelligent jungle anthem, 'All You Wanted'. An immense Think break meets intense Amen-edit driven track steeped in dubby atmospherics and polished off with the haunting self-titled vocal. 
On the flipside we see Skanna's 'The Greatest Thing' receive a deep remix from Spatts, of the legendary oldskool hardcore and jungle outfit, The Criminal Minds. Expertly fusing frenetic amens, with gentle bass pulses and lush, Summertime R&B vibes.

The Skanna 'All You Wanted' single is available to purchase from the Underground Music Bandcamp page for £7.99 for the 12" vinyl, which includes a digital download in whichever format you could possibly ever desire.
If you wish to further support the artist and label, you can also donate more to the purchase price for future releases.

https://undergroundmusic.bandcamp.com/album/all-you-wanted






Follow the Underground Music label and keep up to date with futurereleases on Bandcamp...

https://undergroundmusic.bandcamp.com/music

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

[KVA004] Skanna - 2015 Remastered Collection [3 x 12" Vinyl Available Now To Pre-order From Keeping Vinyl Alive!!!]


 

A-Side - Nightstalker. (1993)
B-Side - Heaven. (1993)
C-Side - This Way. (1993)
D-Side - Find Me. (1995)
E-Side - Until The Night Is Morning. (1993)
F-Side - All You Wanted. (1994)

John Graham under his short lived Skanna moniker produced some legendary tunes from the from the birth of hardcore in 1992 right up until the beginnings of drum & bass in 1995. With releases appearing on the likes of Whitehouse Records and his own Skanna label, with many of them becoming extremely sought after nowadays.
Between 2008 and 2009 the reknowned but sadly defunct Sublogic Recordings released two artist endorsed and remastered Skanna releases on 12" vinyl, which collected the cream of Jon Graham's Skanna label. Both soon sold out and have subsequently become sought after in their own rights. However due to an increasing interest in classic hardcore, jungle and drum & bass, Sublogic Recordings label boss, Will Irvine has taken the steps to collect both 'The Skanna Collection Volume One' double 12" vinyl pack and the 'Until The Night Is Morning / All You Wanted' single to offer the 'Skanna 2015 Remastered Collection' triple vinyl pack on the Keeping Vinyl Alive label as a limited edition remastered package.
 
Opening with the 'Papua New Guinea' sampling, 1993 jungle-tekon classic, 'Nightstalker' which combines a thundering breakbeat backed by a booming bass thumps and techno blip melodies before dropping into the infamous Future Sound Of London drop. 'Heaven' on the flipside incorporates militant, junglistic breaks with added percussive elements along with a pervasive and warping mentasm riff and 'Ohh I'm In heaven baby' vocals to create a perfect example of the thinking man's darkcore track.

'This Way', also from 1993 takes things towards a more melodic direction with lushly sweeping strings backed by restrained, stepping breaks and gorgeous Caron Wheeler vocal samples. An early example of what would become intelligent/atmospheric drum & bass. The timeline jumps forward to 1995 next with the exquisite pre-liquid D&B classic 'Find Me'. A lush stepping track with rich layered breaks and gentle bass throbs which morph into soulful keyboard notes and female sighs.

The legendary pitch-black anthem 'Until The Night Is Morning' drops next in a thunderstorm of clattering, pitched breaks and bass booms, accompanied by suspenseful strings and brain searing hoover stabs. However all is not lost to the darkness with the inclusion of one intensely atmospheric drop featuring the infamous 'I'll be there.....until the night is morning!' 1994's 'All I Wanted' wraps things up by dropping a dub-vibed,  deeply atmospheric jungle monster with intensely programmed and layered breaks and percussion.

Six rarities from one of the hardcore, jungle the drum & bass scene's unsung heroes and a vinyl collection that is sure to become just as sought after as the original releases.

The 'Skanna 2015 Remastered Collection' triple vinyl pack is available to pre-order for the price of £30 plus postage and packaging from the Keeping Vinyl Alive webstore link below, and is estimated to be ready for distribution in approximately . There are approximately only 40 copies left for pre-order so buy now before they are gone forever!!! 
 
This release has been mastered by Beau Thomas (aka oldskool hardcore/jungle D&B legend Intense, Babylon Timewarp, The Whitehouse Crew) at Ten Eight Seven Mastering, and is being pressed by Optimal Media GmbH in Germany. So expect nothing but the best quality!

http://keepingvinylalive.bigcartel.com/product/skanna-2015-remastered-collection-kva004-3x12-vinyl

For further information keep tabs on the 'Skanna 2015 Remastered Collection' thread at www.backtotheoldskool.co.uk...

http://www.backtotheoldskool.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=127771