It was Saturday afternoon, late November 2007. I hear the lid of my letterbox slamming and I rush down to see what the postie has brought with him today. Thinking I would find a particular CD I was waiting for, to my surprise it turns out to be ‘Hardcore III’ which I had only bought 4 days before from Israel. That was quite fast and instantly I slam disc 1 in my HIFI. While being awed by the mixing skill which has a live feel, I realise that there’s no happy Dutch gabber tracks here, but Hard Techno-Hardcore crossovers from obscure UK and French labels mainly.

After having listened to all release I sat back and asked myself: What if I had heard this in 1996? Back in 1996 I was only served with Arcade compilations like Thunderdome and Earthquake in the record shops. This surely would have changed my perception of Hardcore, and that Hardcore wasn’t just distorted 909’s with chipmunk vocals, shameless sampling and larger than life piano riffs.

This double mix CD is what real Hardcore is in my humble opinion, and a credit goes again to the mixing skill. The raw, unpolished sound continues to add that live feel. Too bad I wasn’t exposed to this release before, but it’s never late to try “new” sounds. Only drawback with this release is that it’s quite rare but it’s worth the money, trust me.