You can find all of these tracks on YouTube, often with direct links to the label websites should you care to purchase high resolution copies. Do the right thing. Support independent record labels and their artists!
1990 was a whirlwind year for the underground rave scene. Music was pouring into the country’s record shops on import, and this meant there was a heady mix of Italo house, American house and garage, Belgian new beat and techno and of course, everything UK producers were coming up with at the same time. This mix of material in the shops was obviously reflected in the raves and it was perfectly normal for most DJs to play all of those styles in a single set, and pack out dancefloors. 1990 was the year of UK RAVE.
As the year progressed, British producers started to define the hardcore breakbeat sound and moving into 1991, there was enough material for DJs to play sets that were almost exclusively breakbeat led (though many still chose a lot of the incredible music coming from across the channel). So while this is just a snapshot of the start of this scene defining decade, it must be stated that this is mostly a focus on breakbeat tracks (because ultimately we’re trying to chart the history of jungle and drum and bass) and NOT the other incredible music that was also on rotation that year, though we have thrown in a few warehouse bangers in the other 1990 sections to give you a more general overview. The UK and Europe had a strong techno game in 1990 and there’s no way we would have missed this out of the equation.
