Review
Dino Entertainment launched their Hardcore series during March 1991. The concept is credited to Mark Arthurworrey who was also responsible for sourcing and sequencing the tracks. Special thanks is given to Nic Moran and Mark Rosenfield while the design was by Mental Block. This volume contains 20 tracks and does not come with a tagline. The Wikipedia entry states: “Hardcore albums always contained big dance hits first, and then less well-known, underground tracks at the end, making the series an attractive purchase for mainstream dance fans as well as underground followers of the genre.”
Hardcore Uproar covers some of the same ground as Thin Ice – The First Step on its opening tracks from Nomad, A Tribe Called Quest, Digital Underground and Seal (albeit we get the standard Crazy as opposed to Krazy). The lesser spotted 2 Mad drop the creepy Thinking About Your Body but the groove is whack. Far nicer is the sublime Ghetto Heaven, a timeless jam from The Family Stand. As soon as Where Are You Baby? kicks in, I am back in KG Discs, soaking up the new dance sounds and digging the Boomania vibe. It’s followed by The Dream Warriors and their self-referential hip hop of My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style. Sample time: the theme song for the 1974 Canadian television show Definition which was based on Quincy Jones’ Soul Bossa Nova.
The Adventures Of Stevie V and their Dirty Cash (Money Talks) is still an ingenious hybrid of funkiness that’s totally fresh now. Next comes the smooth jam Sensitivity (Ralph Tresvant) and the apocalyptic In Yer Face. Then Snap’s biblical Mary, Adamski’s amazing Killer, the 7″ version of Technotronic’s Megamix and Caron Wheeler’s house banger Livin’ In The Light. The next obscurity comes from Prophecy + MC Deep – the predictable 4 Your Love is best consigned to history. Much better is Black Box’s Total Mix, a fused jam of epic proportions sequenced by Graeme Park – Ride On Time, I Don’t Know Anybody Else, Everybody, Everybody, Fantasy. There’s a soulful diversion with the Wee Papa Girl Rappers on Best Of My Love before MC Tunes battle it out with 808 State. Finally it’s the single version of Together’s Hardcore Uproar – see Now Dance 903 for more thoughts.
“You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become …”
Favourite tracks
Together – Hardcore Uproar (Radio Edit)
Betty Boo – Where Are You Baby?
Dream Warriors – My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style (Radio Mix)
Lest we forget
Technotronic – Megamix
A Pop Fan's Dream 
I have some in this series but not this one – I think because I knew that the lesser tracks were generally not up to much. Is ‘Fantasy’ definitely part of the Black Box ‘Total Mix’? I have the single and my recollection is that it’s just the other 3 tracks….
Hi Andy – you’re right, I was playing a different mix of it just after airing the CD and got confused. Definitely no Fantasy on the version here.
The 12″ version of The Total Mix contains “Fantasy” but the 7″ does not.
Thanks Matt, that’s the mix I was playing last week.
Just one comment about this. This version of Nomad’s Devotion has cropped up so many times on compilations in the 90s, I’ve lost count. It’s clearly taken from the CD single version and chopped at a pretty inopportune moment. Shame there are some early fades on this as well.
That’s a pity Andrew; at least Together Hardcore Uproar is intact, one of the best of the era – a Now 17.5 special!