7. Scott BrownBonkers 13: Hardcore Horror Show, CD 3
As an outsider to Glasgow and the dance music scene there, I’m quite aware of how much of an anthem Scott Brown’s ‘Now Is The Time’ is to people. Do you have any particular experiences of attending happy hardcore raves where you might hear this music?
Yeah, for a while me and some friends did 48K which was a happy hardcore party in Glasgow. We would do it in bowling clubs and they would be free-to-attend events, so I’d play hardcore out quite a lot. I’ve not been to any big ones just because they’re a bit mad [laughs]. I only got into happy hardcore maybe 10 years ago, because growing up in school, you associated this kind of stuff with the kids that wanted to fucking stab you. That made me avoid it for quite a while.
It’s not cool music at all, but Scott Brown’s one of my favourite producers ever, just because of how simple his piano melodies are and how emotional his sense of melody is. He’s the master of really simple piano riffs that just ‘get’ you. A lot of the music that came from the Bonkers series is fucking shit to be honest. Happy hardcore for me got a bit crap after ’96. This is quite a new one, but there are so many good tracks on it that I can’t not like it. I do tend to prefer the early-to-mid-’90s happy hardcore before it developed into harder kick drums and gabber. Some of that just sounds terrible. Like everything though, there’s shit in all genres, as well as great stuff.
