Hyper-On Experience* – Deaf In The Family (A Sad Title For An Otherwise Splendid EP)

HoE certainly had a unique sound. Undoubtedly one of the most creative outfits in the scene, they managed to weave together random chaos without it ever falling apart at the seams and turning into a complete mess. That can't have been an easy thing to do, and it's credit to their production skills and craftsmanship that they managed to achieve that.

Of all their many great tunes, I think my personal favourite has to be Thunder Grip; the level of production that has gone into this tune is insane! From the moment the Fly II sample leads into a turntablist beat-juggle with the breaks you know this is going to be something special. The drumwork is impressive throughout with plenty of scratches, distorted kicks and tight edits, whilst various melodies dip in and out around each other in a synchronised yet seemingly freestyle fashion. Hearing all the different sounds coordinate themselves like a breaker crew's dance cypher is an absolute joy for the ears, and I can't think of any other tune like it. A masterpiece imho.

Repress incoming, hang on vultures... Kniteforce is coming for you

if anyone has just the cover for shadow 30 let me know, I just have the non promo version with no sleeve so I would like to buy a cover

Impossible to choose a favourite from these, Lords of the null lines became the most popular, especially the remixes, I played my copy to death.

Notes from Alex Banks on the Lords Of The Null Lines
"This was a big deal for me and Danny. This was the first time we did a tune at 160bpm. There was much debate in the Shed as to whether we should make a tune that fast.

In fact, on the floppy disk the working title was just “160BPM”.

Korg M1 melancholy intro. I had programmed it so that some of the notes weren't in time. Rob Playford asked if I had played it in live? I said yes, but I lied…

Looped sub tone littered with Predator samples.

“Fucking Voodoo Magic Man!”. Rob Playford ran a Moving Shadow night and called it Voodoo Magic.

Incidentally, as EZ Rollers we cut 10 copies of our own scratch record with MC Jakes and a load of samples which included the “Voodoo magic” sample.

Cheeky little 8 bar intro to the drums.

“We’re gonna rock ya!” came from my sisters friend’s daughter. One afternoon we were sitting in the small courtyard that separated the shed from my sisters house. Harriet was about 5 years old and I was demonstrating my dictaphone, while getting her to say cool shit!

What a crazy intro. Quite distinctive in the way the edits are integrated into the beat. Settles down a bit before the drop.

Which includes a lion roar and the sound of a splash.

Bass note was from a sample CD. I remember sweeping the midrange eq ‘till I hit the sweet spot. The effect was a preset for a Zoom FX unit at Purple Rain.

Breaks are from Norman Cook - Skip to my loops.

Love the string sound that comes in. I remember programming the velocity manually in a more logarithmic way.

Switch. Of course!

Synth sound came from A to D Sample CD.

Layering strings and Korg M1 choir.

Another switch. Frantic bassline integrated with drum edits. Back to synthline.

Now. The bell sound that comes in at the end was a late addition.

Danny said “I think it needs an extra sound at the end there”
“Nah mate, there’s enough in there already”

We have this argument about this bell sound and eventually put it in. Now its my favourite part of the tune!

In Poland when I played Lords everyone in the crowd sung along to the bell sound!

When Foul Play remixed it they asked for this sound, but I had lost the M1 card it came from. Gutted!

Outro with odd pitched note and bell.

Sure feels good to me.

How did we name it?

Its from the theory of special relativity. A null line is the path of a massless object traveling at light speed. Because at that speed you don’t experience time, all points in the universe will appear no distance away.

Goldie used to call me “Null Lines”

The working title of Thunder Grip was Hello Darkness.

This represents the pinnacle of Hyper On Experience's kitchen-sink brilliance. The tracks themselves have so many changes and edits from start to finish that they're almost impossible to mix. All the DJs played the Foul Play remix of "Lord Of The Null Lines", and it's great to be sure, but I prefer the sheer uninhibited insanity of the original version. "Thunder Grip" and "Time Stretch" are gems as well, with the remix of "Imajika" being the only less-than-brilliant moment.

Lords of the Null-Lines is a totally mental tune unlike any other. Beats that stop and start, crazy samples that jump out from nowhere and a bassline with more energy than a lightning bolt. This track doesn't stand still for a minute.