It’s me, it’s me… it’s GFT.
I first came across this label via represses I picked up at my local record store in the early/mid 2000s. Being a pure DnB DJ at the time, the 12″s sat gathering dust for a few years before my focus shifted, but once I really listened to the tunes I came to love them. As such, Boombastic Plastic was the first old school record label I ever completed a run of. Makes sense for this to be the first mix I roll out on the blog.
The label
Boombastic Plastic put out just six vinyl releases from 1992-94. The label was run by Jan Salisbury and Jason Cambridge aka Citadel Of Kaos (which I presume must have been taken from the Fighting Fantasy book of the same name? Nerd creds yo…). Salisbury continued to release under the Citadel of Kaos moniker after he and Cambridge eventually parted ways. Jason Cambridge is now very well-known as DnB stalwart A-Sides, running his own prolific label, East Side.
The tunes
No gimmicks here, all mixed from vinyl on a pair of 1210s. The style is standard 92-93 hardcore breaks business but nothing ever gets too crazy or out of control – not too dark, not too happy. The production is definitely of a high quality. The breaks are tightly arranged and everything sounds bright and clear in the mix. There is a welcome absence of the common ‘relatively-shit-earlier-releases’ syndrome – every release is a solid one. Best of all, the 12″s are cheap to pick up as most have been repressed – there aren’t any hard-to-find chasers in there.
The mix
I really enjoyed doing this mix! Almost every tune is a banger that I would recommend to anyone. The highlights:
Tracklist
All tracks by Citadel of Kaos except * by Ruff and Tumble Crew and ** by A-Sides.
Shut Up and Listen
Alpha 1
E-Z Man
Urbanity
Narrow Boy Retouch
Yellow Moonshine
Ronnies Revenge
It’s Not Over
Space Cakes
Warped
Searching For Gold
Come Down*
Earthquake
I Miss You**
Drums of Justice
String Trips**
Ceasefire
Jacob’s Ladder (The First Chapter)**
People of the Universe*
81 BPM**
Passion
Freedom
Bonus material
There is a mispress of BP005 (Ceasefire/Passion) which, given my OCD about shit like this, I also have. This pressing replaced the intended b-side, ‘Passion’, with the two Ruff & Tumble Crew tracks included in the tracklist above. These tunes were properly released as the b-side to ‘Innocence’ on Bizzy B’s Brain Progression label. Fortunately, they fit in seamlessly with the rest of the Boombastic Plastic tunes so no reason not to include them.
So, kick back and enjoy the mix of every tune ever put out on Boombastic Plastic.
Here come the drums 