Metropolis (4) Feat Martina (7) – Is This Love? / Liquid Nights

Excellent release both tracks are top quality and up there for me, definitely worth a pick up for any late 90’s hardcore fans

Heard ‘is this love’ on an old cd recently and it sounded amazing and uplifting. Some tunes really stand the test of time and this is one of them!

In 1997, Essential Platinum was going from strength to strength, the label managers were Dougal and Hixxy, the top Happy Hardcore DJs in England at the time with Hixxy signed to React co-creating the famous Bonkers CDs. Make no mistake, this music is cheese of the HIGHEST order, if you can stomach it, feel free to listen to the awful A-Side track. However, if you are lactose intolerant, the B-Side shines through with a sensational Hardcore tune that is arguably the best track on Essential Platinum.

Liquid Nights starts off with a very solid kickdrum, good breakbeats and a loud, pulsating killer bassline synth that is omnipresent throughout the duration of the song. The first breakdown is rather lengthy but absolutely worth each second, a mysterious Pad sound and a lovely floating synth line. What's even better is instead of ecstasy induced female vocals going on about how much they want a massive root, you actually get some handy information from The Doors! And it works, also the high end background breakbeats are a welcome addition. The crux of the track is a beautiful main melody working with the oscillating bassline synth, its wonderful! The second and last breakdown has a very bubbly Acid-like synth sound, sounds great but unfortunately doesn't get explored further. The main melody continues on sounding awesome and takes us to the finish line. When DJ Fade applies himself to more serious Hardcore, it tends to result in good tunes. Highly recommended!

Another lush example of Happy Hardcore. Helter Skelter tape listeners will recognize those intro swirling synths to Is This Love, then comes the great vocal, which is nice and subtle (for HH), simple but well sung, deceptively dull at first but growing on the listener over time as you begin to realize its brilliance, particularly as it climaxes into the 'hey yeah' part of the chorus. Call it cheesy if you want, but it's happy Hardcore after all and it's all good, and actually one of the more progressive of the happy hardcore anthems.

Liquid nights IS well produced. Many people prefer this track on the vinyl. I can't say I share their views as I don't really like the vocal sample, and a few other things, but it certainly isn't poor. However, it doesn't push the boundaries out enough to really be freeform, and doesn't entirely fit in a happy set either, so i'd really be buying this one for the A side.

On the whole, simply put: YES, you want this vinyl.

Heard this first on one of the Bonkers compilations, Liquid Nights instantly stood out as a very different sound for that era, a little moody but banging!

All bout liquid nights.loved these trancey electronic based tracks fade was doing.compared some of trancecore which got far to acid driven.

Review of "Is This Love?" by Slipmatt in Muzik:
"A very sparse intro of kick drum, hi-hat and clap, and then the amen break joins in. The first breakdown sounds quite familiar with a good selection of interesting techno sounds which move swiftly on to the vocal section, which also sounds familiar, back into more techno sounds and then vocals to round off a simple but effective track. 7/10"