Metal Heads* ‎– Terminator

Terminator, along with a select few tunes from the era, we're thinking Demon's Theme, Here Comes the Drums, really gave the UK hardcore sound a credible twist. purged of the horrifically cheddar-infested hyperbolic happy e-motionalism that had ecumenically crept into the rave scene, this tune indisputably heralded the development of what we have come to know as, and love as jungle/drum and bass. Indeed, is it any wonder that the scene spawned from dark records such as this produced some of the most innovative music of the milieu? One need solely examine the rave corpus to vindicate my point...

My brother (Boogie D) who is more of a hip hop head than a drum'n'bass head told me there was a metalheads record in the local second hand shop,i finally got off my ass and checked the place out.Getting home and sticking it on i was instantly taken back to early the 90's rave scene however listening to terminator was a moment of clarity,no wonder Goldie went on to produce his Timeless debut album.All the constituent parts are there,but with a rougher edge.An amazing find in a second hand shop that hasn't just resurrected my faith in drum 'n' bass but record collecting in general.there are still classics out there to be dug.

What can you say about this one, well... it's a legend no less. This was groundbreaking stuff when it came out in late '92, with nothing like it around, except maybe some of the Reinforced stuff. Sampling the classic Terminator movies (1 & 2) and combining the samples with some futuristic beats and sounds, delivered some of the finest hardcore action yet heard and really introduced to us what was later to be known as Jungle and Drum & Bass. The production was unbelivable, giving us probably the first taste of gradual beat pitchshifting, with the tempo of the breakbeat staying the same, and the pitch changing drastically. It was amazing to hear and really inspired the whole breakbeat production community, everybody went on and tried to emulate this, with some very mixed results. One of the best IMO being "Journey From The Light" by 4 Hero (who had tought Goldie everything he knew) and DJ SS on the brilliantly ruff "The Pulse (Darkside Mix)".

The three other tracks on this EP are no slouches either, with "Sinister" being one of my all time favorites. It's so incredibly ruff and cool and hasn't really aged a day since it came out, it's so futuristic. "Knowledge" takes the formula used for "Terminator" and basically takes it to another and more manic level, giving us more of a hardcore rave feel, but still using some of the innovative ideas such as pitchshifting. Last but by no means least we have "Kemistry", a track which soothes you and drives you mad at the same time. A very emotional track which Goldie dedicated to the late DJ Kemistry (RIP), which he was dating at the time. It has one of the longest and most ambient endings of a hardcore tune I've heard, with the vocals of Diane Charlemagne calming us down with the words "Coming down, coming, coming..."

A legendary EP which has stood the test of time incredibly well and will continue to amaze, excite and inspire in the future. "That terminator is out there..."

actually...many believe this record had timestretching in it..but really it was just manual pitch-shifting on the drums using outboard processing...people later tried to recreate the effects using timestretching in their samplers which created a whole different ethos in itself.

An original Hardcore anthem. Inspired by London's Rage club this EP features 4 excellent tunes. The lead cut Terminator was a genre defining tune and has one of the first examples of pitch-shifted breakbeats.