Here come the drums

GFT here. Another post, another mix.

The first record I had on Gyroscope was the classic ‘Defender – Feel It’, but it took me a while before I felt the urge to explore the rest of the catalogue. ‘Feel It’ is such a classic it overshadows almost everything else on the label, but make no mistake there are some definite gems in the list, you just need to dig. Hopefully this mix will expose a few and spur people to hunt them down for themselves. There aren’t too many hard to find releases amongst this bunch, but Nicky Blackmarket’s ‘D’Bounce Vol 2’ EP is probably the most scarce. The rest are still reasonably cheap although the original mix of ‘Feel It’ is always in high demand. The remixes not so much.

I love the Gyroscope Records green and black 12″ sleeves. They always stand out in the record bag!

The label

Gyroscope Records was a hardcore/jungle label set up in 1992 by Nicky Blackmarket and Dave Piccioni. Nicky Blackmarket is not only an old school jungle don in his own right, but also ran the world famous Blackmarket Records in Soho, London, now called BM Soho. All dnb heads should make the pilgrimage if they’re in town.

Gyroscope put out 7 releases before winding up at the end of 1993. It was around about this time that Nicky took a step back as far as production goes, to focus on DJ’ing. Here’s a great interview with the man himself.

The mix

This mix is 100% vinyl, crackles and all, on 2x 1210s. Suffice to say, this was quite difficult to put together as the production standards on the tunes is, frankly, all over the place. There are a few parts of the mix that sound out of time due to poorly looped samples. Not atypical for 1992-93 though, and that is part of what makes these tunes so much fun. Hopefully the end result is not too bad but I disavow any screw ups in advance 😉

Some great tunage in here. My picks – any/all of the Richie Covers productions, ‘Feel It’ of course, Nicky Blackmarket’s ‘Keep It Warm’ and the Trace track ‘Inside Information’.

A few pieces of trivia to note…

• ‘Feel It’ was recorded at Holy Ghost Inc’s studio, apparently while everyone was mashed.
• ‘Feel It’ Mix 2 was DJ Clarkee’s own remix of the tune.
• ‘Destroy’ is an alias of former Blackmarket Records employee, Ray Keith.
• At the end of the mix I’ve done a sneaky re-edit of all 3 non-breakbeat versions of ‘Known Chic – Atutu’ from GYRO01 rather than rolling all of them out in full because they’re so similar. I teased the original ‘Let the Bass Kick’ overtop of the edit, which is probably the best I could do with that one unfortunately – it’s quite raw, for lack of a better term.

Tracklist

Known Chic – Atutu (OD Mix)
Nicky Blackmarket – Pops Fusion
Defender – Second Wave
Nicky Blackmarket – Power Within
Defender – Feel It (Bass) 2
Nicky Blackmarket – Oh Yeah
Destroy – Let the Bass Kick (Nicky Blackmarket Remix)
Nicky Blackmarket – Pops Fusion (Tek 9 Remix)
Destroy – Aaron
Richie Covers – Need To Rush
Defender – Rollin
Richie Covers – Jungle rush
Nicky Blackmarket – Would I Dream
DJ E Logic feat Defender – More Control
Defender – Feel It (Bass)
Richie Covers – Richies Dream
Nicky Blackmarket – Wild Geese
>> Nicky Blackmarket – L.O.V.E.
Richie Covers – Hypa
Nicky Blackmarket – Keep It Warm
Defender – Feel It (Jack Frost Remix)
>> Defender – Feel It (Defender Remix)
Richie Covers – Blue Ocean
Defender – Kenny’s Jam
Richie Covers – Jungle Rush 94
DJ Trace – Inside Information
Adam F & Slipmater J – Sea of Destiny Remix
Known Chic – Atutu (GFT re-edit)
>> Destroy – Let the Bass Kick

Bonus material

• Richie Covers, responsible for the fantastic ‘Hypa 4’ EP on Gyroscope, has one additional 12″ release, ‘Blue Ocean’. You know how much I hate orphan releases, so I’ve included both tracks in the mix for completeness.
• ‘More Control’ is actually a remix of ‘Feel It’, so it gets included too. It has a much more ’92 hardcore feel than the original. I believe this was by DJ Terry George who was, himself, one part of Defender along with Kenny Charles and Dillinja/Blackmarket-collaborator DJ Clarkee.
• The JJ Frost remix of ‘Feel It’ isn’t on Gyroscope, but I’ve included it here anyway. It was released on one of two special picture discs put out as a jointly by Lucky Spin and Blackmarket Records. This is a strong enough connection to add them to the mix. ‘Wild Geese’, on the other disc, was engineered by Dillinja.

Enjoy the mix!

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