A Homeboy, A Hippie & A Funki Dredd - Total Confusion

This record absoutely tore up the dancefloor back in the day. Pre-rave meets industrial that was just edgy and hard-rock enough for those that craved the harder key sound and techy enough to speak of what lay around the corner. Music mutating music. Great stuff.

Total Confusion is a proper underground rave classic from back in the day ...or rather it's two classics for the price of one! The Confusion Mix is the heavier version with a slammin' low-120's breakbeat, thrashy rave stabs and a cut-up shouted "total confusion!" sample. These are joined by the distinctive Native American stylee whoops, Chuck D's "radio stations..." sample and of course the relentless "c'mon feel the bass cos London's here!" rap.

It's the aptly-named Heavenly Mix that really does it for me though. This version simply takes the breakbeat and the gorgeous trance-line (from under the rap) from the A-side, punctuating them occasionally with the thrashy stabs, to make a superb track - proving the theory that "less is more". I don't know much music theory but whatever chord sequence they used on that trance riff makes it totally haunting and moving - it catches me every time. The middle two minutes of the track are a bit sparse but I can forgive HHFD for that, they put together an awesome single here.

Classic, original flavor warehouse techno - you could't avoid this choon in the underground throughout the early '90's. The Public Enemy "radio stations call themselves black, but we'll see if you play this..." and the ravey (in a classic good way) "woo! woo! woo!" Many a techno tune sampled these yelps - this record helped convert the first wave of ravers and made them believe.