Remember when dance music used to be full of music that was fun and something you could dance to? When it wasn’t full of this minimalist electro bullshit which is just the producer / DJ trying to show that he’s more than a person who plays records, but a musician too. Well, I do. And Hardcore Beats 3 shows there are still people out there who want to DJ to a crowd and have a good time.

Whilst the ‘hardcore’ label may put off a few people, it’s a bit of a misnomer as the music isn’t what most traditionally consider hardcore. The Hardcore Beats label is full of fun, enjoyable music, and it’s showcased to perfection by label boss DJ Ollywood. Affinity’s Andromeda Strain gets the head nodding with the heavy breaks and hoover sweeps, and as soon as Ollywood start’s scratching you can’t help but grin. Get Twisted with it’s wobbly bassline segues perfectly with Stanton’s Move to the Left. Cut & Run, those genius remixers, have a stomping remix of Bass In The Place, sure to get the old school throwing their hands in the air.

The latter part of the album is less rave-y and a little more darker, but without being heavy or hard. The Reggae riddems and rasta chants of Boombox and Ed209 & Earl 16’s Tijuana Fever are interspersed with sci-fi basslines and samples loved by Screwface’s productions Final Conflict and The Day The Earth Stood Still, all mixed sublimely by Ollywood, who’s scratching complements the sound, rather than competes with it.

A lot of people dismiss the breaks subgenre of “tear out”, but they can stick their fluro and electro rubbish up their arse. Breaks have become over thought, over produced, and over commercialised. This takes the sound back to the rave roots of the genre but adds a bit of grungy darkness that totally hits the spot.