Drum and bass is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines,samples,and synthesizers. The genre grew out of the UK's jungle scene in the 1990s.
Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats,the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns,hoover,and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno,sounds from acid house and bleep techno,and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.
Jungle is a genre of electronic music that developed out of the UK rave scene and roots reggae and dancehall sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore,the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats,heavily syncopated percussive loops,samples,and synthesised effects,combined with the deep basslines,melodies,and vocal samples found in dub,reggae and dancehall,as well as hip hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings. Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.
Happy hardcore,also known as 4-beat or happycore,is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene,and Belgian,German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. The thing that makes happy hardcore stand apart from Gabber,is that happy hardcore tends to have breakbeats running alongside the 4/4 kick drum.
Hardcore is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands,Belgium,and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorted sawtooth kick,the intensity of the kicks and the synthesized bass,the rhythm and the atmosphere of the themes,the usage of saturation and experimentation close to that of industrial dance music. It would spawn subgenres such as gabber.
Bouncy techno is a hardcore dance music rave style that developed in the early 1990s from Scotland and Northern England. Described as an accessible gabber-like form,it was popularised by Scottish DJ and music producer Scott Brown under numerous aliases.
Chris Samojlenko,better known as Anabolic Frolic and Chris Frolic,is a happy hardcore DJ from Canada who is known for the Happy 2b Hardcore CD series and the Hullabaloo! promotion he threw in Toronto,Ontario.
DJ Sharkey is a British record producer,disc jockey and rapper. As of September 2011 he is semi-retired from music production and performance. Sharkey has performed in the United Kingdom,the United States,Australia,Canada,and Japan.
Matthew Nelson,better known as DJ Slipmatt,is a British electronic music producer and DJ. He was one half of breakbeat hardcore group SL2,who had a 1992 UK hit with "On a Ragga Tip".
DJ Dougal,is a British UK Hardcore and Happy Hardcore artist and DJ.
The Bonkers series was one of the leading happy hardcore compilation series in the UK. The first release was in 1996 on the record label React. It was available on 2xCD and 2xTC formats. DJs Sharkey and Hixxy were signed by React,and they released "Bonkers",the first in a series of albums that has become the best-selling hardcore compilation series of all time. As of 11 May 2009,the series had reached its nineteenth release,titled Bonkers:The Original Hardcore.
Drum and bass is an electronic music genre that originated in the UK rave scene having developed from breakbeat hardcore. The genre would go on to become one of the most popular genres of electronic dance music,becoming international and spawning multiple different derivatives and subgenres.
Darren James Mew,better known as Darren Styles,is an English music producer,DJ,singer and songwriter from Colchester,Essex. Originally a member of the breakbeat hardcore group DJ Force &the Evolution,Styles found success during the 1990s as one half of Force &Styles. The duo were pioneers of happy hardcore and wrote several well-known songs such as "Heart of Gold","Pretty Green Eyes" and "Paradise &Dreams".
React Music Limited was a British independent record label,based in London,formed in 1990 by James Horrocks and Thomas Foley. James Horrocks was initially involved with successful dance music independent Rhythm King,and React pursued a similar approach —specifically electronic dance music,house music,acid house,techno and rave,along with newer "dance" oriented subgenres which emerged throughout the 1990s. These included hard house,tech house,trance,hardbag,happy hardcore,drum and bass and chill out.
John Walker known by his stage name,Kutski is a British radio DJ,from Chester,England. He presented various shows for BBC Radio 1,playing a variety of hard dance music,including breakbeat,electro,hard trance,hardcore and hardstyle. Kutski now produces and hosts a weekly podcast,"Keeping the Rave Alive",which plays music similar to that heard on his BBC Radio 1 shows.
Dowster or DJ Dowster,also known as David Thomas,,is a Welsh record producer,singer-songwriter and disc jockey from Cwmbran in South Wales. David has been involved in the rave scene since 1998 and his love of the music lead him to begin his DJ career in In 2001,Dowster was signed to Raver Baby Records by its owner DJ Hixxy to become part of the original Raver Baby Collective. This collective,known at the time as the RBC,included some of the UK Hardcore scene's leading DJs and MCs –Hixxy,Breeze,Darren Styles,UFO,MC Storm and MC Whizzkid. In addition to his DJ bookings and single releases within this period,Dowster's solo and collaborative studio projects can be found on certain volumes of the highly successful Bonkers series as well as other leading names in UK hardcore compilation albums. Three of his most popular tracks were "Starlight","Steps Ahead" and "Here We Go".
Fracus &Darwin are a British DJ and production duo,known for producing a variety of electronic music styles. They have been guests on BBC Radio 1 and have performed at clubs and festivals across the world.
Hixxy,or DJ Hixxy,is a British disc jockey and electronic music producer known for his innovative work in the UK happy hardcore scene,co-founding the Raver Baby record label,and the Bonkers compilation album series.
Happy 2b Hardcore is a DJ mix album by Canadian DJ Anabolic Frolic. It was released in 1997 on American breakbeat label Moonshine Music and is the first series in Frolic's Happy 2b Hardcore series of DJ mix albums,documenting the emergence of happy hardcore music in the United Kingdom and Europe. The series itself is a spin-off of Moonshine's Speed Limit 140 BPM+ series of fast-tempo dance music compilations. The album was conceived to introduce American audiences to happy hardcore,and contains sixteen of the genre's anthems which carry many of happy hardcore's defining characteristics,such as fast tempo,frantic breakbeats,major key tonality,off-kilter,quirky keyboard effects and "semi-melodies."
Belgian hardcore techno is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. This particular style has been described as an "apocalyptic,almost Wagnerian,bombastic techno",due to its use of dramatic orchestral stabs and menacing synth tones that set it apart from earlier forms of electronic dance music. It flourished in Belgium and influenced the sound of early hardcore from Netherlands,Germany,Italy,UK and North America during the early-1990s,as a part of the rave movement during that period.
