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Shadrach wrote:Thank you.

Words: Warlock

No, ‘Euro’ isn’t a currency, it’s actually an extremely short-lived genre that no one really knows about. It’s a bit like some obscure yet bountiful tiny island in the Channel Islands, or Diego Garcia – under the radar, but royally plundered over the years. But less of the metaphor, let’s get to the crux: Euro was the original, unsung rave music, period. Euro was the sound of 1991. The concept of a rave containing up to 20,000 people had recently been established by the summer of love but the music being played was coincidental: acid house and all it’s Ibiza derivatives. Now came the very first music purpose-built for such a gargantuan arena; designer music for a new generation. It’s truly where the blueprint of rave was established; the hoover noise, the stab, it was all born here.

Still, Euro wore its influences on its sleeve: the industrial sound of the late-80s, bands like Nitzer Ebb and Front 242, the deepness of Detroit, the early funk/acid of Chicago, and of course New Beat (which anyone one involved with Euro would prefer to forget). New Beat actually helped a lot of Euro producers learn their craft and hone their production skills – thank the Lord they didn’t take the charts by storm for otherwise we wouldn’t have had the underground wonders of Praga Khan and the like that followed. Check ‘Ibiza’ (pronounced ‘eebessa’) by Amnesia and Acid Rock (which was a techno version of ‘Smoke On The Water’ – thankfully times have changed) by Frank De Wulf and you’ll see the all-important link. Euro is the chosen name for this genre simply because the bulk of the music came from the European mainland. There was pretty much bugger-all from these shores, and if you were doing it here then you were ahead of your time. The main hotbeds of activity were Holland and Belgium: the former generally having a little more fun with it while the latter was coming up with some ultra-serious shit. The French also provided a few choice bits and the Italians offered some of their own very stylish and sophisticated interpretations of the sound too. The Germans were at it as well, but but they don’t figure so heavily in this run-down, as really their best stuff came later. See what we missed by not being connected to the land mass? Oh, and of course there was a small but highly significant Stateside connection in the form of Joey Beltram who really should’ve been called Joey Belgium, considering all the epic stuff he put out on R&S. And how can we forget CJ Bolland, another seminal blip to the Euro curve – an Englishman who moved to Ghent at the age of 2.

Euro was the original unsung rave music, period.

I remember going into Wired For Sound in Hackney to buy tunes and every week – without even trying – I would end up walking away with 50 quid less in my pocket and a hefty bag of pure quality tuneage. It was total bliss, I didn’t even have any money, but that was a small concern: the sheer volume of choice tunes every week was awe-inspiring. More signifcantly What I also remember about this era was other people being equally affected and bowled over by the music. I saw a lot of people where I was in East London (and it was happening elsewhere – Leicester, Birmingham, Stafford, Manchester etc) being so impressed and empowered by the output, the quality of production, the impact of the tunes, and then thinking, ‘Right. We can do this.’ In this way Euro kick-started a vibrant white label culture, albeit one largely sample-based. It really got a lot of people off their arses and onto their feet.

We all know by now that hardcore was important. It’s at the very centre Simon Reynolds’ much-debated theory of a ‘Hardcore continuum’. I’m not denying hardcore’s significance, but really the original essence of rave started with Euro. It’s one of the most formulaic forms of music ever conceived, but it completely justifies itself by embracing that formula and transcending it. It’s a pleasure to mix because it’s beats-by-numbers but even so, the music still charts some unfathomable depths (if you can see beyond its dazzling surface).

Euro kick-started a vibrant white label culture, and got a lot of people off their arses and onto their feet.

Euro is the purist form of rave; listen to it and you’ll see straightaway what I mean. It didn’t get all sophisticated and sleek like Detroit techno, it didn’t necessarily dwell on the funk like Chicago, it didn’t remain all cold and staid like industrial, it just went for it in a completely unhinged, inhibited way. That’s why I always had a hole in my pocket at the end of the week. It was the inspiration for a thousand genres after it, not just hardcore, but gabba, techno, trance, breaks, nu electro, bassline, fidget, whatever. And yet still there’s always been something refreshingly humble about Euro, even when it was off racing down the fast lane doing it’s thing.

There are even producers sampling Euro to this very day; often they don’t know it, they’re just sampling it 3 or 4 times down the line. This isn’t a bad thing; it’s beautiful really. The spirit of Euro lives on.

I have to confess I was partly inspired to write this piece by FACT’s 20 Best Hip-House as chosen by Greco-Roman’s Alexander Waldron. A spot-on article, it instantly made me realise that there was another mutant genre has been given a similarly wide berth over the years, one whose records are still available on Discogs for next to nish. Euro was its younger lunatic brother by about a year or two. And if you were inclined to file FACT’s 20 Bests into some sort of order, 20 Best Euro would fit neatly between Simon Reynolds’ 20 Best Bleep and Richard X’s 20 Best Hardcore.

Alright, let’s get down to it. There are a few fairly obvious tunes in this list, some that even made it into the UK top 40, but I respect their original intentions and that’s why they need to be included. And of course we’re also going to delve a bit deeper, and blow the dust off some almost forgotten little gems…

Warlock has put together a special mix of the 20 Best Euro records you’re reading about.