MEMORY-026_
The Prototype Years
Various Artists - The Prototype Years
Higher Ground / Prototype Recordings (XPR 2339)
Buying it straight off the shelf at Music Now, not even bothering to listen to it on the listening station. I distinctly remember I was at my mom’s house in Bowie for my university’s winter break, it was the last year she lived there (1997). It wasn’t until I got home that I realized what I had. The sheer awe of hearing Optical, Matrix, and John B tracks for the first time, realizing I had heard “Grey Odyssey” weeks earlier when Ed Rush had made his North American debut at 2Tuff’s Dementia party in DC. Then finding Dillinja’s “Silver Blade” and immediately pulling out the DJ Trace mixtape from the Bassrush Formation party I had attended that fall in Baltimore (if I can find some ephemeral from that night, I’ll do a post about it, one of my favorite parties I ever went to). The version Trace played was different, it had dialogue from the movie TRON, but it turns out that dialogue was from either a laserdisc version, or some broadcast version.
The one, two combination of hearing Optical and Matrix for the first time, that was amazing for me, and I immediately started looking for more music by each of them. Then to find out they were brothers; I was reading A LOT of UK electronic music magazines, especially Atmosphere/ATM and Knowledge/KMag. I thought both tracks were kind of short, but they did so much, just created these sci-fi scenes in my head. I already had the single “Still” from Boymerang, and hoped there would be more, with his album coming out later that year.
The copy I bought was the limited edition promo, with the black & white x-ray skull on the outer cover… which I have since lost. I still have the records, and I eventually bought a copy of the CD version, which had some music that was not on the vinyl. Maybe 7-8 years ago, I made an edit of the Dom & Optical remix of “Still” so I could play it in sets. Can’t find it though, so going to have to make another one since I dug out the CD for this post.
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/master/74290-Grooverider-The-Prototype-Years
I usually don’t do track breakdowns when I do these, but the tracks on this compilation had a lot of character to me, and I can still recall how I felt about them 25 years ago (damn, that’s a while ago…)
John B “Secrets” — always felt this was an ominous tune with the low pipe sounds, the horror movie stabs, and the short dialogue sample.
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Optical - “Grey Odyssey” — this one had a dream-like vibe to me, but not like airy fun, and not dark, doom, more of a melancholy. Sort of that churning stab, the long sweeping stabs and 808 bass hit.
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Matrix - “Mute” — this one I always imagined was a ship of some sort, and all the mechanical bits getting started up.
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Codename John - “Deep Inside” and “Dreams of Heaven” — I really liked both of these, but didn’t see how they were connected to the rest of the compilation. They were like precursors to the sound of Prototype Recordings at that time. But then you end up with…
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Codename John - “Warned” — this was a staple of DJ Trace’s sets in 1996, heard it so many times. And then there was a different version that was on Metalheadz. I basically imagine my friend Todd doing some weird glow stick dance, holding them like he has a rifle.
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Ed Rush & Fierce - “Locust” — t e c h s t e p. Heard this so much in 1996/1997, and then they had the “Cutslo” version on a single. Distinctive Nico reece bass.
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Lemon D - “City Lights” — this actually wasn’t on the vinyl, but was on the CD. Didn’t realize that until, well, today, but I totally remember this track, and it is a style I want to hear more of. It fits with the other Lemon D tracks on Prototype. Makes me think of Detroit techno.
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Dillinja — “Silver Blade” — this is my favorite on the entire compilation, and one of my top ten dnb tracks ever. I forget who I was talking to at Elements the other week, probably Nick Minieri, Ant TC1 had played a couple Dillinja tunes, and it was wild how strong they hold up today. Dillinja did damage way back, and the tracks still stand out. Total science fiction with this one, the break alone is all one needs to hear and you get the hairs standing up on your neck. And it’s not an aggressive sci-fi, it’s layered, there is so much happening in this one track, just the story it’s trying to tell.