''Happy 2b Hardcore'' is a

DJ mix album A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically mixed together to appear as one continuous track. DJ mixes are usually performed using a DJ mixer and multiple sounds sources, such as turntables, CD players, digital audio players ...

by Canadian DJ Anabolic Frolic. It was released in 1997 on American

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK ...

label

Moonshine Music Moonshine Music was an electronic music record label founded by Steve Levy and Ricardo Vinas, in Los Angeles in 1992, and later headquartered in West Hollywood, California. Moonshine released over 250 compilations albums, many of which were DJ mixe ...

and is the first series in Frolic's ''Happy 2b Hardcore'' series of DJ mix albums, documenting the emergence of

happy hardcore Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. H ...

music in the United Kingdom and Europe. The series itself is a spin-off of Moonshine's '' Speed Limit 140 BPM+'' series of fast-tempo dance music compilations. The album was conceived to introduce American audiences to happy hardcore, and contains sixteen of the genre's anthems which carry many of happy hardcore's defining characteristics, such as fast tempo, frantic breakbeats,

major key In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music. The group features a '' tonic note'' and its corresponding ''chords'', al ...

tonality, off-kilter, quirky keyboard effects and "semi-melodies." Moonshine had modest anticipations for the album and their numerous promotional campaigns involved arranging for Frolic to promote the album on radio, a "whirlwind" of attention which took Frolic by surprise. The album was a surprise success, selling over 100,000 copies, a remarkable amount for a compilation of underground music. It is credited with helping increase the genre's spread in the United States and for inspiring Frolic's Hullabaloo happy hardcore rave in 1997, the first of its kind in the United States. Critics welcomed the album as a great introduction to happy hardcore, and Ned Raggett later named it the 102nd best album of the 1990s.

Background

Happy hardcore Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. H ...

emerged largely in the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s, characterised by a very fast tempo (usually around 160–180 BPM), often matched with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics, and also by a generally

tone,

4/4 beat The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

"happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

, which tend to be "darker". Initially, the genre was often additionally characterized by

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

riffs, spacey sounds and synthetic stabs. In the UK, the long-running '' Bonkers'' series of happy hardcore

s was the most popular happy hardcore compilation series, beginning in 1996 with an inaugural edition mixed by

Hixxy Hixxy, or DJ Hixxy, (born Ian Hicks) is a British disc jockey and electronic music producer known for his innovative work in the UK Happy hardcore scene, co-founding the Raver Baby record label, and the Bonkers compilation album series. Career ...

and

DJ Sharkey DJ Sharkey (born Jonathan Kneath on 25 July 1974 in Plymouth, England) is a British record producer, disc jockey and rapper. As of September 2011 he is semi-retired from music production and performance. Sharkey has performed in the United King ...

. American dance label

, known for importing electronic music from the UK and releasing it in the United States for the first time, conceived ''Happy 2b Hardcore'' in 1996 as a means to introduce American audiences to the genre. The label's repertoire at that point consisted of

rave music A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

and

UK hardcore Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. H ...

genres, including

jungle music Jungle is a genre of dance music that developed out of the UK rave scene and sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and ...

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

and

breakbeat techno Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave or oldskool hardcore) is a music genre of the very early 1990s that spawned from the UK rave scene. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In ad ...

; however, they had not released any happy hardcore music. They contacted Canadian happy hardcore enthusiast and disc jockey Anabolic Frolic, who had sent them an unsolicited demo, to compile and mix the album. Due to the music's fast tempo, ''Happy 2b Hardcore'' was released as a spin-off to the label's long-running

breakbeat hardcore Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave or oldskool hardcore) is a music genre of the very early 1990s that spawned from the UK rave scene. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In ...

series of compilations, '' Speed Limit 140 BPM+''.

Music

''Happy 2b Hardcores liner notes describe the album as containing sixteen "

hardcore techno Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...

anthems" mixed together by Frolic, the songs themselves recorded by "a bunch of UK and maybe European acts." Jason Birchmeier of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

described the music as containing "ultra-fast

bpms Business process management (BPM) is the discipline in which people use various methods to Business process discovery, discover, Business process modeling, model, Business analysis, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and Business process autom ...

, accompanied by more than enough synth melodies to hum along to -- or blow your

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

whistle to," while music critic Ned Raggett described the music on the album as being "as fast as

gabber Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...

without being at all macho; the

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...

breaks Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to: Time off from duties * Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties * Break (work), time off during a shift/recess ** Coffee break, a short mid-morning rest ...

are ripping along, but even more hyperspeed hollow, with the songs carried as much by the bizarro keyboard squelches and quick bursts of semi-melody before everything suddenly speeds up all over again, and again and yet again. And then stops and starts and continues as it should and could and must always, while shreds of lyrics pop in and out and around and back again, as purely resistant of the dire lit crit model of music writing as any straight instrumental." John Bush of

, acknowledging the album's usage of "anthems," noted the album's inclusion of "classics" such as Eruption's "Let the Music", DJ Codeine & Unknown's "Feel the Power" and DNA's "Go Insane." Specific points in the album noted by journalists include the introductory melody line from "

Take On Me "Take On Me" is a song by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha. The original version, recorded in 1984 and released in October of that same year, was produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff. The 1985 international hit version was p ...

" by

a-ha A-ha (usually stylised as ''a-''h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ...

making a sudden appearance in the introduction of "I Believe" by DJ Stompy, the unnamed singer on "Here I Am" by DJ Ham, DJ Demo and Justin Time "suddenly akingoff with the title line and the immediacy of the sheer moment of it all just brings it all home -- while

Chuck D Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D helped creat ...

yelping "Ah yeah, now that's progress" is reduced to a mere sped-up blip stuck in at the weirdest points, the tyranny of lyrical meaning implicitly quashed in the rush."

Release and promotion

Frolic described

's hopes for ''Happy 2B Hardcore'' as "modest," seeing as the album was planned to be a standalone release. Moonshine promoted the album with posters and magazine advertisements and arranged for Frolic to appear on numerous radio stations, be interviewed by the media, and photographed by a publicist. "I was now plugged into their promotional machine," he recalled. "My friend George turned to me and said 'I'll always remember you, Chris'." The work he was asked to take to promote the album took Frolic by surprise: "Up until this point I was just a small DJ, playing small local raves, but certainly not on the level of doing international appearances and promotion. So it definitely felt like a whirlwind ride." An official launch party for the album was held in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, where Frolic played a rave he had promoted beforehand on the city's popular dance station Groove Radio. During his appearance on Groove Radio, he also played a live DJ mix in the studio. Moonshine Music released ''Happy 2b Hardcore'' on 21 January 1997 in the United States. The usage of yellow

smiley A smiley, sometimes referred to as a smiley face, is a basic ideogram that represents a smiling face. Since the 1950s it has become part of popular culture worldwide, used either as a standalone ideogram, or as a form of communication, such a ...

s on the record's album cover, described by Raggett as "nice big smiley faces ��floating above a bunch of speaker cones," highlight the

aspect to the music, as the yellow smiley symbol had been used in the United Kingdom since the

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

era to represent rave music. Anabolic Frolic recalled the album's striking album cover made it stand out in the "

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

" section of American record stores: "It’s no surprise it was an immediate hit." Many customers purchased the album on a whim, and wrote to Frolic afterwards; in 2017, Frolic rhapsodised that it's "hard to think back to those days before

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

s and

internet streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

, that often you just bought CDs in the store trying your luck and hoping you liked it."

Reception and legacy

Upon its release, ''Happy 2b Hardcore'' was a surprise success, selling over 100,000 copies, which Frolic noted "which was an incredible number for obscure music." He later said the album's success "emboldened" him: "I knew the audience was out there, but rave promoters at the time didn’t know how to book it inside their events." As such, it inspired him to birth the successful Hullabaloo raves in June 1997 in order to cater for happy hardcore's American audience. Also as a result of the album's success, Moonshine and Frolic later released multiple sequels to the album, turning it into the first of a series; the first sequel, the similarly acclaimed ''Happy 2b Hardcore: Chapter Two'', was released 9 September 1997. The series became a best-selling series. ''Happy 2b Hardcore'' was also released to critical acclaim. John Bush of

rated the album four and a half stars out of five and said it is "the best place for happy hardcore novices to begin as well as a great mix (by

Slipmatt Matthew Nelson (born 22 April 1967 in Loughton, Essex, England), better known as DJ Slipmatt, is a British electronic music producer and DJ. He was one half of breakbeat hardcore group SL2, who had a 1992 UK hit with " On a Ragga Tip". Biogra ...

) for fans who already have most of the material." He concluded that, "along with several volumes in the '' Now We're Totally Bonkers'' series, the collection is one of the best documents in happy hardcore's immense catalog." In 2002, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' noted the album's release was a significant moment in the history of Moonshine, "documenting the underground sound of happy hardcore." The album, along with other instalments in the series, later influenced happy hardcore producer one nut Chaos D. In 1999, Ned Raggett of ''

Freaky Trigger ''Freaky Trigger'' is an Internet publication and e-zine that focuses on popular culture with topics varying from music to cinema. It was founded by the music critic Tom Ewing in 1999 and features Pete Baran and Mark Sinker as editors. From 2000 ...

'' ranked the album at number 102 in his list of "The Top 136 or So Albums of the 90s". He described it as a "perfectly sequenced and mixed compilation" and Frolic as "

lending In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that de ...

everything together just right": "it's not merely a great mix disc, it's just so goddamn fun and nuts that I can't understand why anyone would actually hate it, while realizing at the same why loads of people couldn't stand it." He described the music as sounding "like it's mutating and growing and changing as you listen to it, and is so wonderful for it."

Track listing

# Eruption – "Reach Out" – 2:27 # JDS – "Higher Love" (

Remix) – 5:50 #

DJ DNA Arjen de Vreede (born 26 April 1962 in Utrecht, The Netherlands), known by his stage name DJ DNA, is a Dutch DJ and producer. At age seventeen, he started as a DJ, and became a pioneer in the Dutch music scene playing hip hop, house, acid house a ...

– "Go Insane (Future Primitive Remix)" – 4:20 # DJ Codeine & Unknown – "Feel the Power" – 4:24 # Seduction & Dougal – "It's Not Over (Remix)" – 3:44 # DJ Hixxy & Bananaman – "Forever" – 4:10 # DJ Ham, DJ Demo & Justin Time – "Here I Am" – 4:08 # Eruption – "Surrender" (

Force & Styles Darren James Mew (born 23 May 1975), better known as Darren Styles, is an English record producer, DJ, singer and songwriter from Colchester, England. Originally a member of the breakbeat hardcore group DJ Force & the Evolution, Styles found s ...

Remix) – 5:04 # DJ Ham – "Here We Go Again" – 3:46 # DJ Stompy – "I Believe" – 3:09 # Force & Styles – "Heart of Gold" – 4:12 # DJ Demo – "Muzik" – 4:01 # DJ Stompy – "Dawn of a New Era" – 4:34 # Eruption – "Let the Music" (Brisk Remix) – 4:44 #

Scott Brown Scott Brown may refer to: Sportsmen *Scott Brown (American football), American college football coach of Kentucky State * Scott Brown (baseball) (born 1956), former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds *Scott Brown (footballer, bor ...

vs. DJ Rab-S – "Now is the Time" (Hixxy & Trixxy Remix) – 3:08 # Hixxy – "Wanting to Get High" (Smoogies Awake) – 4:24

References