C-Tank - Nightmares Are Reality

Another one of my favorite records. The title 'Nightmares Are Reality' really does itself honour. Dark, growling, creaking, pounding tekkno, acid core. I think you can describe this record as being one of the first, of what we call now, industrial hardcore records. Back in 1993 you didn't have anything like this and it was really ground breaking. The use of the different layering of sounds is outstanding. A lot of factory noises are used as are a lot of effect sounds. But it keeps on hammering.
Let me take you through the record.
We start out with the title track, Nightmares Are Reality
which starts with some kind of anvil sound with dark growling in the back. A compressed 808 beat kicks in followed by the sample: We're Gonna Get You, from the movies with Freddie, Nightmare On Elmstreet. The beats pro minute are floating around a 160 in this track which keeps on building. A lot of the PCP stuff is copied from this track by the way.
The second track is Air Bounce. It starts out with a real nervous sound that evens makes the air want to disappear. Dark motor sounds with a crazy delay follow. Some grinding knives sounds think they are hihats.
Fog horns in the back call you back out of the mist but than the beat goes crazy again with the delayed motor sounds which are really nicely build.
The B-side also contains two tracks.
House Hallucination makes use of a truly oldskool sound. Housy but again pounding hard beats to accomplish this. Not your ordinary house track.
This track is real groovy for a hard tekkno track. All the elements are used. Good compression, good use of effects, another outstanding track.
Holomania is straight out of a the grave track. Imaging dark forsaken factories where not human like creatures are pounding on metal, making Holomania, scary stuff. A trippy synthlead takes over hypnotizing you to dance, not to worry about these creatures. In the back the sound of the anvil is still heard, it continues throughout the record on a funky delay. In this record there is a kickdrum that is they kickdrum. So compact hard compressed, just when you think the track is over it suprises you yet again, toink, toink, toink.
The C side is the only side that contains three tracks.
The Rave Zone is what it says it is rave, but rave on the C-Tank way offcourse. Not your happy smiling hands in the air Scooter rave. I think that guys hair would go black and immediatly fall off if he heard this.
Rave Zone is real fast tekkno core, the guys at C-Tank are really in love with that 808. They makes use of a hollow tom sound accomplished with a nervous razor machine sound that shaves of the hair of your component. This track makes use of a gentle bassdrum because the tom sound makes up for the bass part. A real nice tekkno rhythm, razor sharp.
Tank Trip is dark blowing trance tekkno core. Absolutly great. The trippy sythlead goes back and forth climbing than diving again making the track really wide. Suddenly another kick comes in with some crazy reverbed delayed pounding sound. Some fog horns are calling out again. Than the synthleads comes back in with whistling maniacs in the back. Than the master fog horn comes and takes over.
This track has so much variation truly brilliant. One of my favorites from this LP.
Monotonic is the only more acidic track from this LP but almost immediatly it goes in a direction that you wouldn't expect. The take the acidline and make it a goaline? But tekkno goa? Nice. And that for 1993. These guys where ahead of there time, way ahead.
Biolunch is a track that also appears on Thunderdome II. I don't know why they choose that track. It's not the strongest one, maybe C-Tank wanted to remain underground?
Then comes Drug Trash. One of the best tekkno, hardcore tracks i know. It just goes and doesn't stop. A trippy sound goes throughout the record. The beat they are using is one of my favorites bassdrums, so much sub bass in this compressed bassdrum.
Finally the beat flips over in pounding mayhem building and building untill it falls back in the original pattern. Really great stuff, kills every dance floor and makes the whimps go home. I'm in love with this track.
Hans Märkle, Dirk Löwenhaupt & Alexander Troitzsch (aka Mark N-R-G) are C-Tank. After Part I there is also a Part II & III of Nightmares Are Reality but those never outclassed Part I. C-Tank also never released anywhere else but on Overdrive btw, except for one release that was licensed to Downtown back in 1992.