Hard on the Outside, Harder on the Inside... need we say more !?!

Nick Rafferty

When you hear the name Nick Rafferty you immediately think of Sundissential, Nick was there at the humble beginning and before he became a world class resident he used to get sent all over the country putting flyers in the shops for Sundissential!
His position soon changed (after endlessly bugging the promoters) and rightfully took up his place behind the decks as one of Sundissential’s first original residents and has grown alongside Sundissential since that day. From then he was re-named at Sundissential HQ “The Specks On The Decks” much to his annoyance I am sure!

To look at what he has achieved is incredible not only does he play at all the major clubs in the UK he is also in great demand all over the world, on top of that had many successful releases on various record labels and has now launched his own label NR Recordings!


TRACKLISTING
MIXED BY NICK RAFERTY
1.Mauro Picotto 'New Time New Place'
2.DK 'Murder was the Bass' DK8
3.Champion Burns 'Sex Drugs Machine' Harder mix 4.Rafferty,White & Jeffries 'Everybody'
5. Lisa Lashes 'What Can You Do For Me?' Colin Barret remix
6.James Lawson & Steve Hill 'You & Me, XTC'
7.K90 'Into the Future' Bitch!
8.Steve Morley ‘Reincarnation’ Matt Williams remix
9.BK & Guy McAffer 'Gonna Funk U Up'
10.99th Floor Elevators 'Hooked' Pete Wardman remix
11.Nick Rafferty & PBS 'Groovin' Jez & Charlie remix
12.Ollie Freak 'Radium' Lee Haslam remix
13.BK & Dave Randall 'Tiptronic'
14.Nick Rafferty & The Coalition 'U’ Nukleuz
15.Ed Real, Rowland & Wright 'Pretty Fast' Nukleuz
16.Prime Mover 'Perfect Organism' Andy Farley remix
17.Defective Audio 'Intoxicating' Paul Maddox remix 18.BK & Paul Glazby 'Outta my House'
19.Ben Johnson 'Come 1' Nick Sentience remix

D.J Ilogik

D.J Ilogik comes from a hardcore background known then as “E-logic “ playing out from the early years he then progressed onto the hard house circuit where his talent was soon recognised by Danny Kirk who gave him a booking at Sundissential North, he quickly became a very popular DJ within Sundissential.
Some people are born to the 1210’s and Ilogik is certainly one of them!
Rarely do you see a DJ with so much pure natural skill – this lad can mix!!!
Besides his residencies with Sundissential he is very successful not only as a D.J but as a producer, running his own record label – Elastic Man.
He has gained much respect throughout the industry producing some of the best hard dance tunes you hear out today.

MIXED BY ILOGIK
1.Equinox ‘Condemned’ Andy Farley remix
2. Ilogik & Paul Janes ‘Hole In The Speaker’ 3. Pants & Corset ‘Malice In Wonderland’ Paul King remix
4. James Lawson & Anne Savage ‘The Hoffman Experience’
5. Signum ‘What Have U Got 4 Me?’ Ilogik remix
6. Ilogik & Trauma ‘Godschild’ Elasticman
7. BK & Rob Tissera ‘Zulu Nation’
8. Andy Farley & Ant ‘Rhythm’ Nukleuz
9. Ali Wilson & Matt Smallwood ‘Just Listen’
10. Dynamic Intervention & Richie & Gordi ‘No Other Way’
11. Stimulant DJ’s ‘Scream & Shout’
12. Mark Johnson & Dave Holmes ‘Jericho’
13. Matt Williams & Phil Reynolds ‘War On Drugs’
14. Ilogik & Paul Janes ‘Do It’
15. Gaz West ‘Visions Of Skywalking’
16. James Lawson & Phil Reynolds ‘Rock & Roll’
17. Ilogik ‘One Time’
18. BK & James Lawson ‘Calm Before The Storm’
19. Lisa Pin-Up ‘Goes Like This (Bang!)’ Rowland & Wright remix


CD1 Nick Rafferty

Wow.... nearly 80 Minutes, 19 tracks, and what a way to begin, with what is possibly my favourite track this year, New Time, New Place a funky, crazy piece of work from the Italian masters. Take tricks, effects, weird sounds, energy, a funky bassline, this has it all, best played loud, and on repeat too! It's nice to see I'm not the only one who begins a set with this tune though! If this was not magical enough, it is followed up by an awesome track Murder was the bass with the fattest bassline you'll hear this side of when that comet that you don't realise is coming hits earth with a bang, deep, filthy, what more can you say about it, If you're of a weak disposition, I wouldn't recommend turning this up, but if you are, then go nuts! Fortunately for the Neighbours, this only goes on for just under 3 minutes, which speaker manufacturers might also be pleased at, not so many returns from bass damage, although anyone who hears this in a club might end up with crushed ribs or something! We have to move on though, and we do so with Sex, Drugs, Machine a weird titled track from the well known Champion Burns, about sex & drugs, and lots of vocal effects too.

Continuation is the key here, and another nice transition takes us into Everybody a track that I've not heard before, which seems to be very much a filler track. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it has no major breakdowns or huge synths or bassline tricks like other tracks, probably fitting into the Hard Techno genre here, but don't quote me on that one. What can you do for me is undoubtedly one of Lisa Lashes best productions, and that features next with Colin Barret bringing us a remix on this occasion. Starting off with a Hard Technoish beat, leading to a dark stabby lead & a nice breakdown, this track really hits the spot. Carrying on with a very hard kick & bass, this is definitely not for the soft. Exclusive is a word that appears on the listings more than anything, and we have that here, with James Lawson & Steve Hill bringing us You & Me, XTC which breaks down at about 2 minutes, and has a nice array of layers, each rough sounding, and then a soft string comes in underneath it all, and it is great to hear them all, each layer trying to pull you towards it. A soft female vocal whispers the title of the track, then we have a lovely stabby breakdown.

Every Harder CD does need in my opinion a lot of melody too, and we begin to get that more so, beginning with Into the Future a renowned track from K90, which I remember from a long time ago, played out by DJs like Mark EG & Slipmatt I seem to recall. Long soft layers of strings and a cool usage of a Tom lead us to the high pitched stabby lead, best played loud like always! I really love this track, and to hear it here is wicked. Up next is another track recently given the remix treatment, Reincarnations is perhaps one of my favourite tunes ever, especially with remixes like the Mystic Groove & Jam-X & De Leon ones, but this Matt Williams remix is the first time I've heard a newer remix of it that actually brings back the greatness of the first installments, being as close as they can to it. High pitched sounds are again the order of the day in the main melody, which change chord beautifull and give me shivers hearing it even now. We have to carry on though, and we do so with BK & Guy McAffer and the cooly titled Gonna Funk You Up with a driving bassline, funky as well as good, managing to bring us a Techy sounding track with a funky tip to it. Hooked takes us on, and it has almost an old Tony De Vit sound to it, I'm not sure if it's from that sort of age, but it definitely sounds like it to me, and is wicked, either immitating the era of 97-99 very well, or of course if it is from then, you can just call me a good guess, Answers on a postcard to the usual address!

Groovin' follows up and it does pretty much what the title suggests, groovy basslines, the old sounding vocal to it, and a simple but effective breakdown give us all we need from it, but to add to this, we get a wicked bassy section in the breakdown, and this enhances the track from a good one to a great one. Ollie Freak's Radium is up next, and is pretty much a standard tune, very good changes of chords and quite trancey, but not as hard or head-mashing as some of the others, infact as I've listened, I've enjoyed, but hardly noticed going from Groovin' to Tiptronic which is after it, so maybe thats a good thing, you can't just bash 19 killer tracks on a cd, I'm sure they'd have a law against it! Almost a tribal feeling to begin with, we're soon onto the heavy kick & bass and this is very standard, but the tribal like chanting adds to it so much for me, just in the right places, and really hits the spot like a good sunday roast!

U is our 14th track, and is a softer to begin with track, with a very trancey tip to it, and continues the mix of harder tunes, techy ones and melodic, all mixed together perfectly so far, not shoved down your throat til ur fed up of them. Continuing with yet another exclusive track, we have Pretty Fast and just by looking at it, i'm afraid of how messy it might get. We have a vast array of layers, slowly building up one at a time giving us a great tune, and the percussion especially helps give a feeling of it being faster than it actually is. Informed that life moves pretty fast, and it we don't stop and turn around once in a while, we could miss it, You're bound to turn around, and greeted with a fast stabby sound, a bubbling bassline a tad later, and an awesome use of the kick to give a long breakdown that definitely isn't standard practice, and fits really well. Hot as ever, Andy Farley brings us a stomping remix of Perfect Organism which has some wicked deep sounds to it, and soon we're taken into the next track, well with 70 odd minutes & 19 tracks, we don't have time to stop for bathroom breaks or anything! Trancier than the last track, and using a great pitch induced main lead Intoxicating grabs you by the shoulders and shakes u into many involuntary movements with clever synthage and a wicked breakbeat section, typical of Paul Maddox's ever increasing confidence to be a bit different in producing.

As we approach the end of the CD, we have 2 tracks left, and this starts with Outta My House and for those with a dislike of the F word, maybe you should skip on, though it's used so often in todays society, especially by those tellytubbies, that it's no longer offensive to most, but common! Long snarly sounds seem to gurgle and squelch before the kick & the bass and percussions come back. Finally we have We Come 1 which everybody and their grandma will recognise as a Faithless track, but Ben Johnson with help on remixing duties from Nick Sentience have produced a fully licensed remake of it, and you take the usual track, and add extra funky sounds during the main sequence, and you have a wicked track & a great way to end the first installment.

Great Work from Nick, hitting the radar up at 9.5/10 here!

CD2 Mixed by Ilogik

Ilogik starts us off with Condemned from Equinox, and on this case an Andy Farley Remix. Squelching Melody here, and a couple of male voiceover extracts, and a pretty much standard opening tune, nice, but not prime time stuff. Hole in the Speaker is our second insert, and this track has a deinite harder sound to it from the beginning and an evil sounding synth greets us in a repeating riff, slowly expanding, and extra sounds added too, one bit reminds me of Trance & Acid in the sound, the awesome evil sound is definitely there. Malice in Wonderland Makes an appearance next, although this track might be better known as Cenith-X - Feel to people who heard it originally in 1998, but in this case it's the second coming of it, and a Paul King Remix. I love the high long sounds in the main melody, and the chord changes that slowly progress it through the mind.

The word Exclusive once again comes in on this cd, with more Exclusive than Non-Exclusive tracks! This includes The Hoffman Experience which unusually titled,
is mixed in with some awesome scratching from Ilogik. As a big fan of DJs like Sy, Hype and Unknown from hardcore or D&B days of the mid 90s, You can see why ilogik has studied them & respects them so much, as he's scratching the fuck out of this! Huge deep bass sounds come in, and a nice percussion too, and if you can take anymore, the beats on it's way! What ya got 4 me will go down with fans of trance & harder house alike as a classic, and this compilation sees the highly acclaimed remix of Signum's classic tune, and there basically isn't a lot you can say, apart from enjoying the scratching & mixing, then the tune itself, best played loud, and this is some peoples favourite remix of the tune too, which I can see, personally I think all of the ones i've heard have their own qualities, but that's not the point here, so let's move on before I talk too much rubbish.

Godschild carries the journey forth, and does so with a cool melody, very trancey & a really good listen, with stabby sounds, and really hits the spot perfectly And allows us to go into Zulu Nation part of the recent kluBKollaborations from Ben Keen, and this one with Rob Tissera, was probably one of my favourite off that album, taking a slow winding buildup, we're taken through various layers and progress quickly & in a good sounding way. Ilogik caries the mixing on, and we're soon ready to move onto the 8th installment on the cd, Rhythm from Andy Farley & Ant. A Hard techish kick & percussion is well mixed in, and then we get a really deep sounding bass, low sounding, for which an old-skool sounding synth layers in and is pushed forward a bit with the kick, and the tune in places reminds me of Murder was the Bass, but a More techy sound than just blatant hard as nails.

Just Listen takes us further on, and includes a mashed up stabby lead, that seems to be coming at you from all directions, leaving you ducking under a table as if an earthquake is imminent, before the calm comes, and with a cool percussion and deep stringed sound, very rough sounding though, nothing soft here, brings another lead in during the breakdown, and after that we're soon progressing into the next track, No Other Way which I believe is a take off from RBA - No Alternative, in the fact it uses the vocal sample but not the rest, maybe why it's slightly differently titled. Awesome deep synthage is the order of the day again, and pretty standard structuring in the tune, after the second breakdown we're ready for the next track, produced by one of my favourite duo's, the Stimulant DJs, Scream & Shout is a bit trancier to begin with that some of the harder tracks we've just had, but it is also banging, nothing too soft, just more of a trancey sound than before, and the main bit is a soft lovely epic-ish sound, but you never forget the fact that you're in the middle of a Hard Trance journey with other elements added too to mix it all up. A rolling lead is used too, and If I wanted to annoy neighbours, I easily could, this track is pretty much top notch. The Next track is Jericho and is also very trancey, but not to the extreme highs of the last track, and has a couple of clever uses of snares, bassy sounds & kicks. The melody itself is weird, as it is very short before the change in key is made, which is unexpected & works a treat.

Now we have a War on Drugs from Phil Reynolds & Matt Williams, no, not a police raid, but a track with that title which has some clever effects, including slowing the bpm right down to a stop near the beginning then getting it going quickly, and a lot of awesome typical hard dance stabs used too, designed to blow the mind, this has a lot of the sounds used from very early, making it sound very complex. We have a sermon from an American Male Voiceover talking about High School Seniors using drugs more, and then the build comes, driving us on, up, and forth. Later on too we're treated to more scratching from Ilogik, and it's really a pleasure to hear, especially on a mixed cd, adds to it all, something not everyone will give you. As we have the finish line in sight, Do It gives us our 14th test of the speakers, with a vast array of unusual sounds, a spacey sounding long string & a slight bit of voiceover, which tells us in the words of a popular sports clothing manufacturer, to 'Do It'

Next we have Visions of Skywalking which is a cool title for a start, in my opinion, and Hard Trance again is the subject, with a lead that sounds tinged with electricity, and a nice string underneath it too, leading us on a Melodic but Hard trip into paradise. Rock & Roll appears next, but don't worry meatloaf, status quo or someone equally as embarassing aren't waiting in the wings, it's just the title Phil Reynolds & James Lawson came up with! It has a male voiceover of Rock and Roll which echoes on a bit, over the top of a nice simple but effective trancey sound, which repeats over & over. Ilogik makes another appearance on the producing side of it next, with One Time which is pretty cool sounding, if hard to explain, a squelchy bass sound, a string, and a rolling lead are the main factors, and soon we have a slight use of percussions, but nothing major just yet, the string & lead layer perfectly, with odd fx used for good measure, and the Kick comes in slowly, building us up for takeoff, and it's go! Next, alongside yet more wicked scratching, we have the Calm before the storm onimously sounding but starting off anything but calm, until we drop down and land at the bottom of the sea. We slowly swim up, looking for air, finding only a clap & hat, bass, and a slight vocal. Pushing further up towards the top of the waves, a deep sound comes in and as we push upto the surface, a kick comes in, driving us onto dry land, not bad for diving into a shallow bit of sea eh?! Silly descriptives aside, we're mixing into the last track soon, and it's entitled Goes Like this (Bang!) yet another exclusive, infact there's been more of those than you could shake a stick at. Huge Deep sounds begin it, as a bell chimes, taking us with the kick forward a bit, until we stop again, and a huuuuuge bassy sound comes in, driving slowly from being quietish to louder, taking over your ears, and screaming down them, "It goes like this" Don't ignore it though, it's telling the truth. The final breakdown is approaching and it takes us upto the skies then explodes, throwing us in 2000 pieces in all directions, wow!

Another Great Effort here, For the adding of scratching as well as tune selection, we once again have 9.5/10

Conclusion:
Wow, what can we say, yet again you'll have to open your wallets to get another great release from these guys, or of course, enter our competition to win a copy!