Narcosis – A Journey Through The Outs And Ins Of Underground – Guerilla Records, Released August 2nd, 1993
1993 was the year I decided I had to go underground.
Bootleg mixtapes from UK raves had become the de-facto schoolyard currency, followed later by German trance. But every so often, in hushed and reverential whispers, I’d hear older boys make furtive references to a superior form of of “underground” music.
The very word itself implied the existence of an elite cabal of ravers with access to hidden realms of musical expression and imperious clandestine frequencies, so I endeavoured to be a teenage Orpheus and submerge myself in it, however long it took.
My world at that time was as far from the hazy bunkers of Berlin as it was possible to get, but that didn’t stop me digging. Pocket money in hand, I ventured into the local record shop and, spying a record with the word “underground” on the front cover, began to study it in detail.
On the back, I saw the names of artists I’d never heard of before, exotic names like DJ Hell. Wow, I thought, DJ Hell, now there was a name that sounded decidedly subterranean.
Next, I read the liner notes and I knew I’d found a winner:
Narcosis has been compiled quite simply to showcase great global underground dance music. It is by definition two albums, one uptempo, one downtempo, musically diverse to one another with wide ranging contributions from America, Holland, Germany, Belgium, and The U.K. and contributors who are greatly respected within their own fields. It is also a compilation to suit far more than a single mood, with startling combinations of energy and emotion from start to finish. This isn’t an obvious compilation, you won’t find any “club hits”, but we believe many of the records included will undoubtably be considered seminal in years to come. Records which epitomise what and where our own influences derive from. Records which will hopefully, if they haven’t already, inspire for the future”
Dean O’Connor, Summer 1993
I vividly recall reading those words while standing there in the record shop on a miserable dark Autumn day. They were enough to convince me to part with my pocket money and take my first ever trip deep into the underground.
No more buying shitty tape compilations with names like Rave 92 or Steamin’ Hardcore, those days were behind me. I was a true champion of the techno underground now.
Those words would also prove prophetic, at least for me. As I embarked on my first ever voyages of techno discovery, this masterfully curated compilation of techno, trance and experimental electronica became my northern star.
And while it’s fair to say not all of it has aged well (whenever I say this you can be certain I’m usually referring to the trance) the majority of the tracks on here are timeless.
And indeed, many of those featured – artists such as DJ Hell, Dave Angel, Luke Slater, Richard H Kirk, Global Communication Orlando Voorn – remain as inspiring and influential as ever 30 years on.
Going Underground
Track 1: Silence Of Water – Emojonal
I’m not sure what to call this track. Back in the day it fell under the umbrella of trance but it wasn’t really trance and certainly bears little to contemporary trance. Hippy house might be a better description.
It’s a distinctly chilled and melodic track featuring some new-age chick blathering on about the tranquillity of water because it was the 90s and people were more introspective and mystical back then because they took a lot less cocaine. Listening back now its gentle nativity sounds almost as dated as the synth sounds. I still love this though, brings back great memories.
Track 2: Game From The Planet Onchet – Hole In One.
This one definitely got deep into my psyche when I was young – it’s straight-up trippy acid from outer space.
It’s easily the most psychedelic track on the album, somewhere between trance and techno, back when trance was deliberately sparse and minimal and the whole idea behind the genre was to build up slowly, how I miss tracks like that.
Along with all the fizzes and bleeps and bloops, there’s occasional blasts of whale song. I’m guessing these whale samples must have been on one of those Zero G sample CDs back in the day since they’re basically the Wilhelm scream of 90s electronica whales as sampled by Utah Saints debut album and practically every ambient album of the era.
About a third of the way through we get a nice payoff, a double helping of acid on top of a rolling Amen break to drive the track home. I absolutely adore the final riser effect at the very end of the tune too. Just when you think it’s about to stop it just keeps on going.
Track 3: My Definition Of House Music (Resistance D Remix) – DJ Hell
I wasn’t as well versed in house music back then as I am now, to say the least, but I was at least acutely aware that DJ Hell’s definition of it differed considerably from what I imagined most people’s definition of it would be.
Though I wasn’t initially a fan of this track, as with a lot of the music I was discovering that year (The Orb being a case in point), it grew on me in time. It also served as my first introduction to DJ Hell, whose career I’ve been following closely ever since.
Track 4: Come Into My Life (S.M.I².L.E. Version) – Abfahrt
From Bavarian scharfhaus to some richtig deutscher Käse – I always found this one a bit cheesy even when I was a teenager but it still brings back good memories simply because I love this entire album so much.
It starts with a guy playing guitar and singing while trying to sound American but unable to hide an obvious German accent – but that’s ok, I knew German was good, German was underground, German meant techno.
That much I knew, even if the schoolyard musical gatekeepers had me brainwashed into believing guitars had no business in electronic music.
Nice banging kick on this one, lovely 303 work but the vocals weren’t my cup of tea and the lyrics, even by 90s dance records stands, are pure bollocks (“heard of a gnome and so I went to his door” – eh?). The main chorus, for lack of a better word, is where this track shows its age in much the same way that, for example, other German stuff of that era like Dance 2 Trance and Jam and Spoon do.
And yet, and yet – there’s still something about this track, listening back to it now gives me fond memories.
Track 5: New Age Heartcore – Trance Induction
Despite its name, this one isn’t very trancey at all, it’s more of a dark moody techno track, but with a slower house tempo, primarily consisting of a single sample and low sub bass looped over a 909 with some toms adding to the low end. Strings are then added later to lend an additional undercurrent of foreboding.
Track 5: Flash – Fix
I love this track too. It’s minimal yet captivating, upbeat boppin’ techno from one of the original Dutch masters, Orlando Voorn. So much to love about this track; it’s fast, it’s funky, it’s cheeky, it’s bouncy and it’s timeless. You can easily play this one out today and still enjoy the reaction of the crowd – trust me, been there done that. A classic.
Track 6: Diamond Bullet – Effective Force
Best track on the compilation and easily one of my favourite electronic tracks of all time,
I want to put this in a movie, it needs to be in a movie, imagine it in the lead up to a final showdown, the assassin’s walking in slow motion, just one last job and then he’s out forever but as the music plays we know it’s not going to go according to plan…
Seriously, put this track in a movie, it’s a fucking masterpiece and way ahead of its time.
The track opens with just the slow drubbing bassline and a sample of Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now (from which the track takes its name), “I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That’s my dream, that’s my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor… and surviving.”
And that’s what this track feels like. A slow and unnerving trip deep into the heart of digital darkness with 808 breaks, deep rumbling subs, horror movie strings and menacing acid bubbling under the surface.
I instantly imprinted on this track and have been a slave to it ever since – never get out of the boat!
Track 7: In The Shadow – Morganistic
After the stifling gloom of the previous track, this one feels like a window’s been opened to brighten things up and let in some cool, fresh air. Though despite its more upbeat tempo, the ambient pads and haunting reverb-drenched pianos provide plenty of atmosphere.
It’s techno through and through, old skook, sure but lightyears ahead of anything you’ll find on Beatport in 2023.
Track 8: White Darkness – Sandoz
Another stone-cold classic from the late, great Richard H Kirk, White Darkness starts with a beatless ambient intro as gentle synth melodies play in counterpoint, accentuated by soft choral pads and rousing synth sweeps.
We eventually hear a 909, but it’s playing a languid hiphop beat, before the track veers off in another direction with ethnic chants and tribal percussion.
The use of a shuffling triplet rhythm is noteworthy here, something which has long since become an insufferable psytrance cliche, but this is the first time I’m aware of something like this being done in any track and frankly I’ve never heard it done better.
Only at the halfway mark does the track morph into something more familiar, adopting a slinky house vibe, yet retaining all the original melodic elements.
The use of different time signatures in this is what makes this song so interesting, while its soothing melodies make this a perfect post-club chillout tune. Still compelling three decades on and a reminder, if any was ever needed, of the enormous musical legacy of the late Sheffield-born innovator.
Track 9: Brother From Jazz – Dave Angel
In the 90s, Dave Angel – the original Dave Angel, not the Fast Show imitator – had a well-earned reputation for delivering balls-to-the-wall, high-octane techno sets and equally blistering releases under the alias Sound Enforcer.
His other productions released under his actual name, however, were generally more low-key, with a strong focus on Detroit futurism and jazzy polyrhythmic experimentation.
Brother From Jazz is a case in point, it’s still got the 909 front and centre, but the beats are off-kilter, as soft pads and melodies drift back and forth across it and the bassline works to glue it all together.
It has no business whatsoever on a dancefloor, but it’s techno nonetheless and timeless techno at that.
Track 10: Ob-Selon Mi-Nos (Global Communications Mix) – Mystic Institute
Full disclosure, I hated this originally – honestly, I didn’t get it.
Keep in mind I was a hyperactive kid, still in my early teens. I hadn’t even started shaving yet and only a few months previous had disappeared down a deep and dodgy rabbit hole of gabber.
It’s fair to say I’ve never been a huge fan of ambient, except on very rare occasions, only for the true masterpieces and this is most certainly one of them.
It was a slow burner track for me in many ways, though I found myself returning to it again and again.
Much as I have music of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard generally, in all their various guises, over subsequent decades.
This is a real comfort blanket of a tune, ideal for late night earphone listening as the warm, downy melodies and the steady hypnotic thunk of the metronome helped me to drift off to sleep.
Sounds Of The Underground
Prior to purchasing this album, my tastes in electronic music could best be described as “radio-friendly rave”, as I was primarily listening to groups like The Prodigy, Altern 8 and SL2.
I continue to cherish them all, of course, but Narcosis was a turning point for me, it marked the moment when I truly I began delving deeper into purer forms of techno and more experimental electronica.
This compilation served as the perfect introduction to, and an enduring foundation of, my lifelong love of underground techno. It’s where my dancefloor journey truly began.
So to the people at Guerilla Records who compiled this masterpiece, all I have to say, mission accomplished.