A Long Time Ago In A Field In Hampshire, Alright

Balkan Vinyl, the limited-edition retro-dance label responsible for Acid Relief, has released a new limited edition 7″ hardcore single – Rave Wars II – The Hardcore Strikes Back. This nifty slice of nasty comes with some cool artwork, and a free vintage Star Wars action figure. Or at least, it did. In the time it took me to write about it, it sold out. You can still buy the digital download though.

Here’s the player with the tracks to stream:

Acid Relief was great – a benefit album for African Famine relief. I bought it and love it. Great for harsh Excel-wrangling. Here, have a listen:

It’s worth pointing out some transatlantic terminology differences. Hardcore in the sense of this single means a break-driven style of electronic dance music popularized in the early 1990’s in the UK. Hardcore in the US means a aggressive, politicized form of punk rock, popularized in the 1980’s.

I nearly wrote another post with a longer list of these differences, but I could only think of one more – New Wave. I think of New Wave as the smarter, sharper form of post-punk, but here in the US I’m told that a-Ha, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and The Human League were New Wave, so there’s clearly a disconnect there somewhere. Simon Reynolds, we need you!