The explosion of happy hardcore meant that a lot of producers started to make harder tracks to distance themselves from the cheesefests that indoctrinated the scene. Labels like Ruffneck, Coolman, H2Oh, Cenobite and more produced fast tracks with fierce juno's or blazing e-guitars. This CD contains tons of artcore tracks which could be found on cd's like Raver's Night.

Hardcore evolved, opposing the happy hardcore in the charts producers created raw tracks with a minimum of 180 bpm. Guitars, juno’s and heavy bassdrums were the primal ingredients of aggressive hardcore tracks that were the opposite of the happy hardcore movement.

This was the first one I actually produced of the 4 retrospective mixes. It contains the more happy-sided face of the hardcore-scene but lays the emphasis on the more serious releases which still hold up today as there was a lot of junk and trash released in those years. '94-97 mark the years of the rise and fall of happy hardcore. That is reflected in this mix:

‘94 was the beginning of the happy hardcore era which ended in ’97. Dominating the charts it had it’s effect on the hardcore too. Catchy tunes, pitched up old 70’s and 80’s songs and breakbeats were widely used in the hardcorescene from ‘94 to ’97. This is a look back at tracks that clearly represent that era.

This is the first of 4 mixes I produced in 2004/2005. All containing a look back at hardcore form the 90's and the evolution that found place back then. Most of the tracks featured on all of these mixes were huge hit back in the day, although occasionally they was an onbscure track to be found here and there, but in the end you would remember a lot from the Thunderdome's, Rave the Cities and other compilations which dominated the market in the 90's. Every mix had a little inscription on the inside explaining more about the peroid and style of the mix:

It all began in 1992, house became so diverse that substyles emerged: mellow, trance, techno, hardcore. This is an overview from the first hardcore tracks to the happy sound which entered the scene halfway through 1994 

This CD was the follow up to "Slippery When Wet" only with more Jumpstyle put in it. This was a hype in Belgium at the time but not here. But just because the internet has no borders I was taken up in this hype. The second part of the cd features a lot of tracks from the Jumper label. This CD consists also from a lot of MP3's so the sound quality isn't the best there is in some cases, although it's never dreadfull.

This mix was made in the period of my graduation, when we wrapped up our final exams and had to wait for the result. It was a test to see how a 100% digital mix would work out and I decided to use my MP3-library chock full of dance MP3's to good use. It contains tons of cheerlfull summer dance tracks. I had a lot of fun creating in and it was the foundation of what was to come later this year as I created two more mix-cd's purely digital, namely Deception and Condemned to Darkness. 

The last of my regular mixes. Creating these things is really time consuming so after this one I took a 3-year break to eventually create the Hardcore Retrospect series.This one shows glimpes of that project because halfway through I decided to throw in 5 tracks from 1993. There are some older tracks in here other than those because every now and then I would obtain a record that was out for a few years already. The CD artwork btw is the planet of Cybertron, the home-planet of the Transformers in the cartoon with the same name.

This was my first mix cd made on an ancient computer and in mono, because of some technical limitations. It was a test to see what was possible as I previously I made mixtapes which fas far from perfect. I wanted more control, I got more control! The mixtapes were stereo but on all other fronts this method was a clear winner. The tracklisting is very representative for that period as all records were released around that period. Far from a perfect mix it is interesting to see where all my music-skills on the computer started.

This is the first hardcore CD produced on a then new iMac G3 in blazing stereo as it follows Deception which was produced in the summer of 2000. The tracks used are all from that period and give a clear view of what was rocking the dancefloor. The only weird thing about this cd is that I used a track from the Rap-formation Body Count as the intro. So my Mix CD starts off with Ice-T.