Acen
Trip To The Moon 2092
(Kniteforce)
There are many examples of box sets that collate all of an
artist’s singles, complete with the original picture sleeves. But I’ve never before
encountered a box dedicated to a single single. If ever there was a tune
that could withstand this degree of inflation, though, it’s “Trip II the Moon”.
Not only is this breakbeat hardcore classic widely considered the greatest
anthem of the rave era, there was
already a certain grandiosity to the way Acen and his original label Production
House rolled out the track across the summer of 1992.
The record came out in three successive versions, the second
and third not so much remixed as re-produced: “Trip II the Moon, Part 1”, “Trip
II The Moon, Part 2 (The Darkside),”
“Trip II The Moon (Kaleidoscopiklimax).” Giving remixes, when done by the original
artist, titles that involved words like “Part” or “Volume” would become a
hallmark of the jungle scene. Most likely this trend took inspiration from Hollywood
pulp franchises with their sequels, itself an echo of the sprawling sagas of
Tolkienesque fantasy and Frank Herbert-style s.f. But in ‘92, a track that came out three times
over several months was virtually unheard of. A sales-driving strategy designed to extend a
tune’s currency and possibly rocket it into the pop charts, it also reflected
artistic ambition: a growing confidence from some operators within a scene then
sniffed at by techno-cognoscenti that they were not in the business of trashy,
ephemeral floor-fodder but crafting popular art that would pass the test of
time.
And here we are in 2021, almost three decades later, the
original “Trip”tych A-sides plus excellent
B-sides arrayed across six slabs of vinyl, where they jostle alongside new
interpretations by Acen and nine guest remixers. The box title’s reference to
“2092” gestures at a posterity even further down the temporal line. “2092” suggests both aesthetic durability and the implication
that this music comes from the future. A sensation that felt absolutely real back
in the early ‘90s and still somehow clings to these tempestuous tracks even
now.
The sheer solidity of the attractive if pricy box is a
demonstration of maximal respect. “Maximal”, as it happens, is the right word
for Acen’s sound and peers like Hyper-On Experience. Before hardcore, and indeed after it during
the later Nineties, techno and house generally cleaved to a minimalist
aesthetic, sometimes taking a single riff or vamp and inflecting it subtly over
five, six, seven minutes. UK rave producers, conversely, “get busy”, action-packing
their tracks on both on the linear axis and the vertical. Tracks unfold through time as multi-segmented
epics hurtling through bridges and breakdowns, intros and outros. But each
passing moment is layered with simultaneous sound-events, resulting in a stereo-field
infested with audio-critters bouncing around like in some crazily detailed
animation.
Listening again to all three “Trips” is a reminder of just
how unique and curious an animal was hardcore. There’s hardly a trace of
Detroit or Chicago audible here. Most UK producers, including West Londoner Acen
Razvi, were former B-boys, electro fans who spent their teen years breakdancing
and spraying graffiti. Acid house (and attendant chemicals) flipped their
heads, but soon they reverted to type. But while breaks and samples are the
foundation, hardcore’s hyperactivity is a world away from ‘90s rap like Wu Tang
Clan. No British rave producer would drag out a single break-loop across six sombre
minutes of stoned monotony like RZA. There are hardcore tracks from this era
that that contain a rap album’s worth of ideas crammed into them.
One thing hardcore did share with East Coast hip hop is
soundtrackism. The centrepiece sample in “Part 1” is an impossibly stirring
swathe of orchestration from “Capsules in Space” off John Barry’s You Only
Live Twice score; “Part 2” likewise lifts a serene ripple of strings from
the same Bond movie’s “Mountains and Sunrises”. Actually, that’s not quite accurate:
the copyright holders blocked sample clearance, obliging Production House to
hire a mini-orchestra to replay Barry’s themes, which Acen then sampled at a low-resolution
setting to recreate the particular grainy quality he’d earlier got by sampling
direct from vinyl. The fetish for movie-scores manifests also on the brilliant
B-side “The Life and Crimes of A Ruffneck,” which heists the heart-spasming staccato
melody of Morricone’s “Chi Mai.”
Other raw ingredients come mostly from rap, R&B, and
ragga: Rakim’s sped-up squeak “I get hype when I hear a drum roll,” Chuck D’s
threat/promise “here come the drums,” Topcat boasting he’s “phenomenon one”. The electrifying diva shriek “I can’t believe
these feelings” that supplies the main vocal hook on “Trip” hails from obscure
Britsoul outfit Tongue N Cheek, while Prince protégé Jill Jones supplies erotic
gasps for another terrific B-side, “Obsessed”. As for that eerily familiar goblin voice murmuring “in my brain” – that’s a witty bit
of self-citation, pulling from Acen’s previous single “Close Your Eyes”, which sampled
Jim Morrison off The Doors’s “Go Insane.”
Nowadays, it’s easy to identify the constituent parts of
beloved tunes thanks to websites like whosampled.com and the collective nerd
knowledge of old skool message boards. But back in the day, the music barraged
your brain as a kinetic collage jumbling the instantly recognizable, the
faintly familiar, and the wholly unknown. (Whether you spotted stuff depended
also on your listener competency – age, musical background, level of
intoxication). Hardcore was technically postmodern, in its procedures. But as a
sonic outcome, and in terms of motivating spirit, it hit with the juddering
force of full-bore modernism. The conceit felt true: this was music from
the future, built from mutilated and mutated shards of past. That’s one reason why the idea of the space race
– Man’s greatest adventure, a surge into
the unknown – resonated with rave and supplied Acen not just with the “Moon”
title but the name of his next single, “Window in the Sky”. Drugs played a part
too (understatement of the century). Rave was modernist but it was also
psychedelic.
If the main meat here is Acen’s extended spurt of original genius,
the remixes are mostly splendid. Kniteforce boss Chris Howlett a.k.a. Luna-C
and old school legend NRG manage to stay true to yet also intensify the original
“Trip” blend of cinematic and epileptic. Retro-jungle youngblood Pete Cannon
offers a pell-mell scratchadelic take on “Ruffneck”. The only misfire comes from doyen of
scientific drum & bass Dbridge. If
only he could have reinhabited the mindset of his own teenage hardcore identity
The Sewer Monsters! Instead, “Obsessed” gets
flattened into a dank neurofunk furrow a la Jonny L’s “Piper”. It sounds
obsessive, for sure, but the emphasis on sound-design and moody monotony has
nothing to do with the larcenous free-for-all and cartoon delirium of the early
‘90s.
Q + A with Acen at The Wire website.