Catscan – My First Response

Catscan had gone through an interesting journey during his producing career in Hardcore Techno. Starting off at the end of ID&T/Thunderdome record labels at a turbulent time in the history of Hardcore. After that, he made a successful jump to Third Movement and in the mid 2000's kickstarting Pro Artist Management. With the demise of PAM, Catscan joined his friend DJ Outblast at Masters Of Hardcore, a juggernaut in of itself. Although he'd already released on MOH as Base Alert, it seems they decided to give Catscan his own sub-label, hence Cr8tiv Response. After a nine month hiatus, My First Response seems somewhat appropriate as a fully fledged member of the MOH family.

The title track picks up from where Catscan left off from with Not Revolutionized and Brave New Dance. Well produced dancefloor friendly melodic Hardcore. Excellent synth stabs with effective effects added on top adding some richness to the production. A more top heavy kickdrum is a nice change and that high pitched electronic "scream" plonked across the track are both big pluses. Overall, My Response continues Catscan's excellence at making melodic Hardcore during the 2000's. Though this isn't surprising as he was the ghost producer for Korsakoff at the time.

With the big friendly track out of the way, Catscan can concentrate on more unfriendly Industrial Hardcore. Return To My Own World seems to be a return to his material from My Defragmented Head. A more twisting and turning synth line and an almost horror movie like break in the middle, though more short in length and weird. If you're more into Catscan's Industrial underground Hardcore, this will be up your alley. I do like the British sample used, because it does sadly predict the future: Vinylgroover & The Red Head (Trixxy) - Live For The Weekend (Acapella / DJ Tools).

By far the most memorable song on this record is Cr8tiv Counter. In the grand tradition of Hardcore tracks that speed up progressively, I'm sort of surprised there's not more of them. They are more scarce in the 2000's, so Cr8tiv Counter fills that gap quite nicely. Although it starts off normal enough, don't be fooled. It quickly descends into different territory with a slick but sharp riff pattern that acts as a point of familiarity before things go pear shaped. Then there's the voice, I'm not sure if its Vocal FX or an original vocal, but its suitably robotic, unnerving but does its job conveying its cold message. It's actually a lot of fun hearing the various BPMs and thinking about the real massive differences that sometimes us Hardcore folk take for granted. It's also fun watching people trying to keep up with the pace of the track! Although it settles back into a slower groove Cr8tiv Counter is a great track to finish off a set with, which certain DJs did in 2007 and 2008. As a postscript, even though I dislike Refixes, Cr8tiv Counter got a second wind, when the original kickdrums were substituted with the famous kicks from Chronic Disorder by Menace II Society/Angerfist (another MOH artist). It actually works incredibly well with the Cr8tiv title, Chronic Counter.

Philosopher Reading is a timely reminder as to why I have zero interest in boring repetitive pure Techno music.

My first response to My First Response back in 2007 was the record is another killer release by Catscan. He does the smart thing and gives you a bit of everything in his repertoire and I do admire that. Sadly Cr8tiv Response didn't take off and this was the only release, it could have been so good. Catscan was integrated into the Masters Of Hardcore label and arguably sucked into their more homogeneous Hardcore sound. Still in my mind, Catscan is one of the best Hardcore producers during the 2000's.

The record label info on the old MOH website when this record was released:

CATSCAN PRESENTS CR8TIV RESPONSE !

Who does not know him?

He's called the Whizzkid, the artistic hero, the cr8tiv mastermind.....The man responsible for high end releases on major labels as the Thirdmovement and Masters of Hardcore and welknown for his superior remixes of How much can you take (Bodylotion), Communication (Outblast), Fly by wire (Alkaline 3dh aka Dave Clarke) en Atmos-fear (Rave Creator) decided it was time to take total control and started his own recordlabel.

Creativity and artistic freedom are ingredients for the new recipe called CR8TIV RESPONSE!

The very first release on this brand new label is out now and includes 4 brand new Catscan productions!

For those trying to find the floorfiller "Cr8tiv Counter", stop your quest, its here!

Please attention, CR8TIV RESPONSE, this is not normal.....

I may be the only one, but the vocal of "Cr8tiv Counter" always reminds me of "Digital Boy - Dedicate To All The Italian Ravers" on the D-boy Gold 5..
https://www.discogs.com/fr/release/112635-Various-D-Boy-Gold-5