Geecast 5 - Kev Gee & Riddler

The nights are drawing in and there's a shiver coming down the spine of the world as the Geecast launches another foul mouthed tirade of sonic swear words at your earlobes!

YES!

That's right! This month is a belter! Hitting your face like a punch from a prime Mike Tyson!

Prepare to be amazed as Geecast head honcho Kev Gee lulls you into a false sense of security with his usual nice melodic starter followed by the main course of rotten, mouldy, moth eaten Hardcore & Hard Drum & Bass!!  And for your pudding we have the Legendary Dj & producer Dj Riddler ready to give you the monty python after 8 mint sketch (youtube it kids!)

And of course no Geecast is complete without a few words from the co conspirator himself.

So download, share, listen far & wide!! We are now available on Deezer, Spotify, Youtube, Tune in radio and more!!

 
Hello Mr Riddler!

How are we today! I hope youve served us up a nice sweet tasty sickly mix of Hardcore & Gabber?
I'm good thank you mate, and yes, about 1 hour 30 of suitably grinning good times deng lined up. Some retro tracks that I always loved, working through to newer/recent tracks that have ticked the boxes of late.

So can you talk us through the Riddler world? Who were your main influences when you first started out?
As a young lad at my first raves I always enjoyed Clarkee, Paul'O, Brisk, Scorpio, Producer etc.. dj's along those lines that I felt played with a bit of an edge. I loved the way Fergus and Mzone played across the board too, techno, happy, hard trance, gabber etc.. just great sounds all fused into one with balls, a real lightbulb era. When lownoise and Theo came to Doncaster warehouse, they really changed things, fantastic mixing and unique tune selection, it was a real contrast to the other DJs I was hearing at the time.

Can you remember your first rave? who was playing, where was it etc?
It was Doncaster Warehouse back in the day, me & my mate Sy Shillito (RIP) went to see Carl Cox & Producer, an amazing night.

You started out like many of us in the early to mid 90s. Can you remember the first hardcore record you bought?
I bought Prodigy, Messiah and other 'early rave' 12's, but proper hardcore as we know it was Ultraviolence ‎– I, Destructor (The Lenny Dee Mixes) still amazing. After hearing 'that' Sterns tape things seemed very different.

If you had to go unto a desert island & could only take ONE Hardcore record, what would it be?
Haha that's probably the hardest ever question, for any genre as there are so, so many! I wouldn't know where to start with that one 😂 

Are there any records you missed out on that you wish you had bought at the time? And now think "FGS why didnt I buy that?!"
Maybe some of the early Thunderdome ep's as they're amazing and now worth a small fortune.

What drew you to the djing side of things?
Fascination for the tunes I was hearing on tapes and in clubs, crowd reactions to certain tunes and the way they sounded when mixed together was completely captivating and magical. 

Can you tell us what equipment you had in your first set up?
A pair of second hand worn old belt drives and a really old 4 channel mixer with mega worn faders 😂

 
Your known for playing fast balls out but melodic HARD Hardcore! What drew you to playing that side of the 'core rather than the harsher stuff?
It probably stems back to the early Dutch tracks, Dwarf/Babyboom era. There's a euphoria and release in hearing an uplifting melody, vocal, breaks or cool synth stab with a massive kick drum all over it 🤗 

Your a resident for long running Hardcore night Uprising. How did that come about?
From going to events when it started in 95' and as I look back, and later on getting to know folks on the old site forum. I played a few sets and was asked to be resident a little after that, which was fantastic and a real life changing scenario. I'm really grateful to have been given the opportunity to be part of a night that means so much to me.

 
The scene is going through a really bad time at the moment and I think its fair to say that the modern UK (happy) Hardcore scene is pretty much dead.  What mistakes do you think have been made, compared to in Europe were the scene is huge & wont be doing anytime soon.
The main consideration of event success in Europe is that they're all easier to access, many countries all linked together allows for huge attendances. That and the music is generally seen as more credible there, with adverts on tv for gabber albums and nights etc.. I think over here we've had it pretty good for a small island, its hard to say where things could be improved as some of the ideas that work in european countries may not work so well here. We've had promoters that have happy main rooms, darker/harder backrooms and vica versa but financially times have been hard in recent years which have undoubtedly played a part in the downturn of attendances. The uk hardcore sound has dominated main arenas where years ago there was much more variety of styles, I dont think that helped retain clubbers interest as they got older, its hard to say. Some of the fantastic R.O.A.R podcasts discuss this topic in much greater depth. There was a fascinating documentary from Annie Mac called 'Who Killed The Night?' that highlighted how many clubs had been lost over the past 10+ years too, the smoking ban also, all contributing factors. The book by Dave Haslam 'Life After Dark' is definitely worth a read and covers lots of nightclub background stories and histories/lifespans. I think its really hard to compare the two scenes as they're different, although I know what you're saying. 

 
If you could go back in time to any era of Hardcore, what years would it be & why?
The mid 90's for sure, 94/5/6 some of the best tunes ever made were being released, many of them classics now. It was all so new, fresh & exciting.

Have you any tracks ready for release in your Riddler guise that we should know about?
There are a few that I was working on with my mate Triple XL for our Thorn Industries side project, some good ideas that we've to finish working on when everyone's allowed out to socialise again. 

 
Do you think the scene will ever recover from the scourge of Coronavirus?
I really would like to say yes. I think it'll be a completely different experience on the other side of it. As long as we can go out again somehow, we always need that release don't we, and that feeling will be hugely amplified.

Which media do you most enjoy playing? Vinyl? Digital?
Vinyl is amazing and where our hearts are, but it became harder over time to find a club with a pair of technics, and then many quality tracks didn't get a vinyl release so as with many others we were funnelled into the digital realm. The digital realm has offered loads of scope though, cue points etc.. taking all your tunes with you without the heavy bag was a winner from day one.
 

Are there any producers out there who you really admire?
In no order or year preference, Speedfreak (so many aliases and clever tracks) Scott Brown (ridiculous quality consistency and for all of those timeless bouncy tracks in the 90's) Buzz Fuzz, Whitepasta, Menace & USD, Lenny Dee, Twins Artcore, D Passion, Tellurian, Promo, I dont play much of his stuff but KRTM is amazing, so much detail, Detest is another for the detail. Devastate, Triple XL, Dolphin and Tones too, just fantastic at what they do. This is another tricky question, there are stacks of amazing producers I really rate, the list could go on & on!
 

Which label(s) do you enjoy playing the most?
Mokum was and still is a favourite, and maybe an obvious one, but they've really been consistent in quality output. There are so many labels covering harder sounds though. Rave Muzik, Rotterdam, Traxtorm, Tcher No Beat, KNOR, Ruffneck, Area 51, ID&T offshoots/sub labels were always interesting and fun too. Paul'O, Brisk, Fergus and co always spoiled us with loads of that tackle back in the day. So many to choose from. 
 

Can you talk us through your mix? tell us why you chose these tracks?
I wanted it to flow at a decent pace, and progress through the years. Starting at 1993, and moving through the years with many of my favourite hardcore tracks right upto the sounds of now.
 

Thanks for your mix!!  Any shouts?
No worries mate, thank you for the invite, it was much fun! 
I hope everyone enjoys it, I know we all really all miss hearing sounds like these through a big system.
Shouts to all of the usual suspects, lifelong friends and anyone who has ever enjoyed any of my sets over the years! 😀

The set includes tracks from;

Myself
System 3
Stormtrooper
Weirdo & Sim
RMB
Buzz Fuzz
Lenny Dee
Kutski & Joey Riot
Peckerhead
Thorn Industries
Re-Style 
+ 

Kev Gee!

Kev Gee's Tracklist

1 Intro
2 - Micron - The Moment You Realised Everything Was A Lie
3 - Current Value - Dispelling Fear
4 - Meander - Operation
5 - The Outside Agency - Here Be Dragons
6 - The Outside Agency - More Primitive
7 - Strobcore & AK Industry - Invisible
8 - D-Fact - Lord Of The Underground
9 - Katharsis - Psychosis VIP
10 - Max Shade - Autopsy
11 - Deathmachine - Sonar
12 - Mastervibe - Coming Home
13 - Mastervibe - Blood Clot Jungle Techno
14 - Dj Producer - All I Want (2017 Instrumental Dub)
15 - Detest - My Art Is Destruction
16 - Lenny dee & Malke Feat APE - You Cant Stop Us
17 - Savage - Deceive 
18 - Frenesys - Demolition
19 - Hellfish - Single Use Weapon
20 - Hellfish - Toilet Break
21 - Micron - Smithsonian Cover Up 
22 - Micron - Social Media Slave
23 - Outro