Death Is Not The End - Pause for the Cause: London Rave Adverts 1991-1996, Vol. 2

Format: Cassette
Catalogue No.: DEATH061
Barcode: 5050580791121
Release Date: 02 Sep 2022
Genre: Rave

01: Intro (Don Ads) - Death Is Not The End
02: Don's 1st Birthday - Death Is Not The End
03: Telepathy Man II - Death Is Not The End
04: Junglists & Junglettes - Death Is Not The End
05: The Sound of the Underground - Death Is Not The End
06: Boogie Beat Promo - Death Is Not The End
07: Tribal Dance - Death Is Not The End
08: Lost & Found - Death Is Not The End
09: Music Power Ilford - Death Is Not The End
10: Dance Xplosion Pt. II - Death Is Not The End
11: Think of the Future - Death Is Not The End
12: Advertising Eruption - Death Is Not The End
13: Club Booyaka - Death Is Not The End
14: The Way It Was - Death Is Not The End
15: Get the Buzz - Death Is Not The End
16: Washing the Dishes - Death Is Not The End
17: Fusion - Death Is Not The End
18: Smithy's House - Death Is Not The End
19: Rumble in the Jungle - Death Is Not The End
20: Bear Necessities - Death Is Not The End
21: Brave New World II - Death Is Not The End
22: Double Dipped & Every Picture Tells a Story - Death Is Not The End
23: Halloween Spooktacular - Death Is Not The End
24: Total Music - Death Is Not The End
25: Atmosphere - Death Is Not The End
26: Hocus Pocus - Death Is Not The End
27: Don Merchandise - Death Is Not The End
28: Teen Rage - Death Is Not The End
29: Innersense - Death Is Not The End
30: Adventures in a Land of Music - Death Is Not The End
31: Hi Poison Demos - Death Is Not The End
32: Telepathy Man III - Death Is Not The End
33: Wax City Records - Death Is Not The End
34: Energy Ads - Death Is Not The End
35: Leading the Ravers Forward - Death Is Not The End

Back in the early '90s, whenever the pirate radio MC announced "a pause for the cause", I usually pressed pause on my cassette recorder. That's something I would regret years later, when ad breaks had become cherished mementos of the hardcore rave era. Luckily, back in the day I often left the tape running while I went off to do something else. So a fair number of ad breaks got captured accidentally for my later delectation. Not nearly enough, though. So in recent years I started combing through the immense number of pirate radio sets archived on the internet. Sometimes the tracklists would note "ad break" or "ads", helping to narrow the search. But often I'd just stumble on a bunch in the middle of a pirate show preserved on YouTube or an oldskool blog. A few of my original unintended "saves" and latterday "finds" are included in this wonderful collection by audio archaeologist Luke Owen. It's the latest in his series of compilations of UK pirate radio advertisements, with this volume focusing on the audio equivalent of the rave flyer: MCs breathlessly hyping a club night or upcoming rave, listing the lineup of deejays and MCs, boasting about hi-tech attractions like lasers and projections, mentioning prices and nearest landmarks to the venue, and occasionally promising "clean toilets" and "tight but polite security" ("sensible security" is another variation). Some of these ads are etched into my brain as lividly as the classic hardcore and jungle tunes of that time. (Most rave ads incorporate snippets of current music, of course – big anthems and obscure "mystery tracks" alike). Names of deejays ring out like mythological figures: who were Shaggy & Breeze, Kieran the Herbalist, Tinrib, Food Junkie? Putting on my serious hat for a moment, I think these ads are valuable deposits of sociocultural data, capturing the hustling energy of an underground micro-economy in which promoters, deejays and MCs competed for a larger slice of the dancing audience. But mostly, they are hard hits of pure nostalgic pleasure, amusing and thrilling through their blend of period charm, endearing amateurism, and contagiously manic excitement about rave music's forward-surge into an unknown future. The best of these ads give me a memory-rush to rival the top tunes and MC routines of the era.

— Simon Reynolds, author of Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture.

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