Luna-C
Encyclopedia
Luna-C is a British
DJ and record producer
, known for his work in breakbeat hardcore
music. He made up a third of the rave
group Smart E's in 1992, which had a number 2 hit in the UK with a remix
of the Sesame Street
theme song
("Sesame's Treet
").
Luna-C founded the Kniteforce Records label
in 1992, which has continued to have a cult following
throughout hardcore music's changes in popularity. Kniteforce sprouted subsidiaries and Luna-C produced hundreds of tracks and remixes, under the name Luna-C and other aliases. Luna-C sold Kniteforce Records in 1997, and the label stopped releasing records, but Luna-C resurrected the label as Kniteforce Again (KFA) in 2001, bringing back Kniteforce Records and all its subsidiaries. An internet forum
and online store propelled KFA back into the spotlight. The label has maintained niche market popularity in the hardcore scene among dedicated followers and breakbeat hardcore fans.
DJing at rave
s and clubs
worldwide, Luna-C has become well respected in his native United Kingdom
and many other countries, including Germany
, Australia
, New Zealand
, the United States
, Canada
, Japan
, and Poland
. His name has become synonymous with a versatile and varied style of mixing, incorporating breakbeat hardcore, freeform
, happy hardcore
, old skool hardcore and drum and bass
into his sets. His use of unreleased dubplate
s and DJ tools, which he produces for the purpose of playing live, is considered unique. These planned but innovative sets have been released free online, in a series called the "Supasets". Many of his releases on Kniteforce Records and sister label Remix Records have received wide airplay among hardcore DJs. Some, such as "Piano Progression" or "Take Me Away" and "Six Days" (as Cru-L-T with fellow producer Jimmy J), have been considered classics of this style. KFA tracks such as "My Angel" have received critical acclaim from the UK music press.
. As a youngster he was a champion
in a major competition and has continued to skate as a hobby ever since.
On an early school report, his music teacher said that he had no ear for music and that his exam result of 13% reflected this. He was a huge fan of hip-hop music
and DJ'd in his spare time well before he experienced the UK rave scene and hardcore music. In fact, he has said that he and his friends ridiculed hardcore music when they first heard it, as much of it sampled
hip-hop and sped it up. However, he was persuaded to go to the hardcore club Labrynth in 1990, and it changed his view of the music and the scene forever. He soon began buying hardcore music in Music Power Records in Ilford
, London
, and Boogie Times in Romford
, Essex
. It was here that he met fellow record buyer Tom Orton, with whom he also worked in a supermarket. Orton DJ'd as "Mr. Tom" and helped run a weeknight rave called "Ultimatum". Howell began DJing alongside Orton at these raves, and the two of them continued to buy records together in Boogie Times.
Boogie Times had its own record label, Suburban Base
, and after talking to the shop owners, Howell and Orton decided to make a record, purely for fun. Orton had a friend, Nick Arnold, who had his own studio and had some experience in music production. The three of them decided on the name Smart E's and set about making a tune.
s were pressed and, quite unexpectedly for the Essex
trio, interest in the record skyrocketed. Steve Jackson hosted a house music
show on London radio station
Kiss FM
, and began playing the record every day. Suburban Base and Smart E's saw an opportunity and realised that the record had the potential to be a big seller. They drafted Steve Jackson to do a remix for the main release of the record. The record was being played at all the raves and on all the pirate radio
stations (which were the main channel for hardcore music being played on the air—the commercial stations, other than a select few like Kiss FM, chose to ignore underground
dance music
entirely). The number of copies of the record requested by the distributor shot up from 1,000 to 10,000 to 50,000. When the record was finally released it reached #2 in the UK pop charts
, which at the time was the highest debut single entry ever.
The success of the Smart E's track thrust Howell and Smart E's into the media spotlight. Many dance music magazines panned the trio as a joke, and, at worst, money grabbers who had only come into the rave scene to jump on the bandwagon
and make piles of money. Neither of these had really occurred to the three Essex lad
s when they went into the studio to make Sesame's Treet, but Howell freely admits now that the tune and the onslaught of copycat records sampling a whole array of children's television themes, computer games
, and old songs did hurt the rave scene considerably, though that was certainly never their intention. Many have argued that in retrospect it couldn't really be said that they were a rave group that had "sold out", as the first and second records were novelty records of sorts. Sesame's Treet was picked up for distribution all over the world, and Smart E's were signed to Atlantic Records
toured the United States, doing 29 live PAs in 32 days. Howell felt that the group was ripped off by many people during this time, and although Smart E's produced one album for Atlantic Records, he didn't feel that he could continue working under the Smart E's name.
In 1995, Howell formed another record label, Remix Records, with happy hardcore DJ Jimmy J, who owned a shop with the same name in Camden
, London. The label and the shop shared the same logo, and the shop became a front for the Kniteforce label. Kniteforce and Remix Records promos adorned the shelves, and many Kniteforce Records artists could be seen there.
Howell produced tracks for the Remix Records label under the name Cru-L-T with Jimmy J. Jimmy J & Cru-L-T found success in the hardcore scene with the high sales of their tunes "Take Me Away" and "Six Days", which sampled house tracks but reworked the vocals with piano riffs written by the hardcore duo. "Six Days" sold very well in Australia, and Howell and Jimmy J travelled to Australia to promote the record. They DJ'd and did live PA's, which gave Luna-C a renewed taste for DJing live.
, Sy, Vibes and Ramos, to get involved with the label. He commissioned a series of remixes from these DJs and this move did indeed sell more units of those particular releases. The DJs played their versions of the tunes out, and the record buyers bought them up.
During 1995, the hardcore sound had begun to change, and more and more tunes were coming out with a heavily distorted kick drum riding over the well-established breakbeat
s. Some of Luna-C's productions mirrored this to keep up with the sound, and in 1996, he even set up a sublabel of Kniteforce, Malice Records, to cater to the hard-edged gabber
sound that was being mixed with UK happy hardcore in sets up and down the country. The first release on Malice Records sold very well, but later releases didn't quite keep up the momentum.
Luna-C also started a sublabel called Knitebreed, which was originally intended to release more records by up-and-coming producers; however, he found that very few producers who sent in tapes impressed him that much, and he ended up releasing tunes on the label under his own variety of aliases. By this time Howell was recording under the names The Timespan, Eko, Garion Fey and DJ Psycangle, and as part of 2 Croozin and 2 Xperience, as well as the usual Luna-C and Cru-L-T monikers. This way of producing tracks under many different names allowed Howell quite a lot of anonymity while many of his tunes were widely recognised.
As Luna-C, Howell's productions were quite different from the bulk of what was being produced in the hardcore scene, and although these tunes were Luna-C's passion, they still weren't selling well enough. Luna-C had become disenchanted with the hardcore scene in general, and the label had started to run into financial difficulty. He had also got into trance music
by the time Kniteforce 037 came out and had even started a trance label called Strange Room, which was completely unsuccessful. Reluctantly, Howell halted production on the label and for a while lost interest in making music altogether. DJ Brisk, who had released tunes on Remix Records, formed Next Generation Records with Kniteforce stalwart DJ Ham; DJ Force & The Evolution started UK Dance and split into the two duos DJ Force & Styles and New Motion. The tax bill for Smart E's came in, and Luna-C found himself in a lot of debt. In 1997, Luna-C was forced to sell Kniteforce Records to pay the bills. Luna-C recalls that it was a heartbreaking decision, as he and many of his friends had invested a lot in the label, but it was the only option at the time.
Luna-C sold Kniteforce Records in 1997 to Death Becomes Me, Ltd., which owned Rogue Trooper, Happy Trax, Punisher and a few other labels. He continued to engineer for the label, and produce tunes under yet more guises, but Kniteforce stopped releasing at number 60. Remix Records stopped its first run under Luna-C's direction, but the name was bought up by another company that released records under the same name and logo. That company in turn sold it on, and the label has continued in one form or another, on and off for years, but no longer has any association with Jimmy J & Cru-L-T.
After the label was sold, and as Luna-C started to recover his financial footing, he married a Japanese woman and began DJing in Japan a lot during 1998. He forged a set that included custom-made dubplates that he created. They mixed many old skool hardcore classics with more recent happy hardcore. This was Luna-C's first sign that he was edging back into the hardcore scene. He also released a couple of tracks under the Keep It Fresh label, which were old style breakbeat hardcore, but these sold under 500 copies. Luna-C later divorced the woman from Japan and finally cleared his debts in 1999.
. It was the first tune that had inspired him in a long time, and he decided he wanted to learn how to make drum and bass. Using Aphrodite's style as a template, Luna-C started Influential Records. He had once produced a jungle-style tune on a one-off release on JFK Recordings as Hired Gun; under a variety of different names again, Howell started to release tunes on the Influential imprint. At first, these were collaborations with DJ Influence, and later, when DJ Influence left the label, with other friends. A couple of the Influential tunes were released under the Infiltration Records banner, which was resurrected later on in 2001. Influential Records had pushed the Jump-Up
style of drum and bass, and as this style featured less on the scene, Luna-C founded another label in 1999, Dyne, for a darker style of drum and bass.
Around this time, a longtime Kniteforce fan DJ Deluxe approached Luna-C about creating an official Kniteforce Records website
. The website was launched and became the hub of all Kniteforce-related activity, including a forum where a small community of hardcore Kniteforce fans soon formed.
Luna-C released the second single on KFA "Luna-C Projects 8 & 9" and then got many of Kniteforce's original artists such as Future Primitive and Alk-e-d back on board to release new material. KFA reintroduced the breakbeat sound to a hardcore scene, which by now was dominated by the trance-influenced freeform
style. Despite being alone in this at first, KFA releases sold quickly, and on May 10, 2002, Luna-C bought back the Kniteforce Records label, all its subsidiaries, and all the rights to the music and the logos (with the exception of the Remix Records logo, which had been sold along with the shop in Camden). The KFA label created a real buzz around it, especially on the internet, and Luna-C introduced an innovative idea called the "Executive Edition" whereby the first 100 copies of each release sold by Kniteforce's official retailer (at the time an independent online outlet called i-Tunes—not related to Apple's online music store, the iTunes Store
) would include a free gift of some kind—sometimes even a free record unavailable elsewhere.
produced for the tune on DVD. The single gained wider play than anything previously on KFA and received positive reviews in UK dance music magazines.
After the success of the first "Supaset", which was recorded and released as a free download on the Kniteforce Records website, Luna-C released a follow up, and then after touring that set for a number of months, a third. The sets gained legendary status among followers of hardcore music, and Luna-C's released material displayed a harder edge and skipped wildly between frenetic breakbeats and gabber. German producer Panacea
, with whom Luna-C became friends, started to release material on KFA in 2003, and his influence on Luna-C's direction in production was evident on 2004's "Victory", a split single with Panacea's "Winter Mute". October 2004 also saw Luna-C's first venture into event promotion when Kniteforce's 12th birthday party was held at the Electrowerkz in London.
By 2005, however, sales of KFA records had started to wane. Luna-C had already established an online Kniteforce store after its previous outlet, i-tunes, closed down, and much of Kniteforce's revenue had actually started to come from merchandise sold on the site.
Luna-C saw an opportunity to collaborate with some of the other like-minded small hardcore labels that had emerged since Kniteforce's return to the picture and formed All-4-1, a collective of labels that shared a similar philosophy on how to continue to push hardcore music forward. The Kniteforce web shop morphed into the All-4-1 site, which also became the main outlet for the other labels. The entire back catalogue of Kniteforce and its related labels and releases became available through a "create your own CD" feature on the site.
In May 2006, KFA released two more vinyl releases, one of which was a Luna-C release that did indeed hark back to more familiar breakbeat hardcore territory. These releases coincided with a new KFA CD album of unmixed tracks (including the tracks featured on the two new vinyl releases) that also had an enhanced section for computers with many added bonuses. May also saw the release of the awaited "Luna-C FM" set (also known unofficially as Supaset 4). This was sent to all buyers of an executive edition of a previous KFA vinyl release, along with a DVD that featured the mix with visuals created by KFA to go along with the music. The mix was then released as a free download. It blends commercial pop music with Luna-C's own brand of breakbeat hardcore, drum and bass and gabber, and plays in the style of a live radio show.
Luna-C has announced his plans to close the "create your own CD" service at the KFA shop on the All-4-1 website and replace it with an mp3
store selling high bitrate mp3s of all Kniteforce music.
On June 11, 2006 Luna-C married fellow KFA artist Bexxie. After being introduced to the band Keane by a mutual acquaintance, Luna-C was asked to do an official remix of one of their songs. He remixed "A Bad Dream
" in two separate versions: the hardcore version was released on the 7" vinyl and CD versions of the released single, and the alternate version was released on the 512 USB flash drive release.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
DJ and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, known for his work in breakbeat hardcore
Breakbeat hardcore
Breakbeat hardcore is a derivative of the acid house and techno, of the late 1980s and early 1990s, that combines four-to-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats, and is associated with the UK rave scene.-The rave scene:...
music. He made up a third of the rave
Rave music
Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties...
group Smart E's in 1992, which had a number 2 hit in the UK with a remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of the Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
theme song
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
("Sesame's Treet
Sesame's Treet
"Sesame's Treet" is a 1992 remix of the "classic" Sesame Street theme song by the English rave group Smart E's. The song reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart....
").
Luna-C founded the Kniteforce Records label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
in 1992, which has continued to have a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
throughout hardcore music's changes in popularity. Kniteforce sprouted subsidiaries and Luna-C produced hundreds of tracks and remixes, under the name Luna-C and other aliases. Luna-C sold Kniteforce Records in 1997, and the label stopped releasing records, but Luna-C resurrected the label as Kniteforce Again (KFA) in 2001, bringing back Kniteforce Records and all its subsidiaries. An internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
and online store propelled KFA back into the spotlight. The label has maintained niche market popularity in the hardcore scene among dedicated followers and breakbeat hardcore fans.
DJing at rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
s and clubs
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
worldwide, Luna-C has become well respected in his native United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and many other countries, including Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. His name has become synonymous with a versatile and varied style of mixing, incorporating breakbeat hardcore, freeform
Freeform Hardcore
Freeform Hardcore is a term used to describe a subgenre of Happy Hardcore UK Hardcore. The genre developed gradually as conventional Hardcore slowly became more influenced by trance. The music is generally more instrumental, being known for its 4/4 beat, prominent acid lines, and often rolling bass...
, happy hardcore
Happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as happycore, is a genre of music typified by a very fast tempo , often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of hardcore techno, which tend to be "darker". It is typically in...
, old skool hardcore and drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
into his sets. His use of unreleased dubplate
Dubplate
A dubplate is an acetate disc – usually 12, 10, or 7 inches in diameter – used in mastering studios for quality control and test recordings before proceeding with the final master, and subsequent pressing of the record to be mass-produced on vinyl. The "dub" in dubplate is an allusion to...
s and DJ tools, which he produces for the purpose of playing live, is considered unique. These planned but innovative sets have been released free online, in a series called the "Supasets". Many of his releases on Kniteforce Records and sister label Remix Records have received wide airplay among hardcore DJs. Some, such as "Piano Progression" or "Take Me Away" and "Six Days" (as Cru-L-T with fellow producer Jimmy J), have been considered classics of this style. KFA tracks such as "My Angel" have received critical acclaim from the UK music press.
Early life
One of Howell's first passions in life was skateboardingSkateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
. As a youngster he was a champion
Champion
A champion is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition.There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, and even further divisions at one or more of these levels, as in soccer. Their champions...
in a major competition and has continued to skate as a hobby ever since.
On an early school report, his music teacher said that he had no ear for music and that his exam result of 13% reflected this. He was a huge fan of hip-hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and DJ'd in his spare time well before he experienced the UK rave scene and hardcore music. In fact, he has said that he and his friends ridiculed hardcore music when they first heard it, as much of it sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
hip-hop and sped it up. However, he was persuaded to go to the hardcore club Labrynth in 1990, and it changed his view of the music and the scene forever. He soon began buying hardcore music in Music Power Records in Ilford
Ilford
Ilford is a large cosmopolitan town in East London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It forms a significant commercial and retail...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and Boogie Times in Romford
Romford
Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. It was here that he met fellow record buyer Tom Orton, with whom he also worked in a supermarket. Orton DJ'd as "Mr. Tom" and helped run a weeknight rave called "Ultimatum". Howell began DJing alongside Orton at these raves, and the two of them continued to buy records together in Boogie Times.
Boogie Times had its own record label, Suburban Base
Suburban Base
Suburban Base Records was one of the biggest British jungle/drum and bass record labels based in Romford, Havering, UK. It was established by Dan Donnelly and operated in the UK from 1989 to 1997 and in the United States from 1994 to 1997.- History :...
, and after talking to the shop owners, Howell and Orton decided to make a record, purely for fun. Orton had a friend, Nick Arnold, who had his own studio and had some experience in music production. The three of them decided on the name Smart E's and set about making a tune.
Smart E's
The first tune Smart E's released was on Boogie Times Records, an offshoot of the parent label Suburban Base Records, and was called "Bogus Adventure". It was a simple hardcore track that featured samples from the film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It only sold a few hundred copies, which wasn't unusual for a first release on a small hardcore imprint. The group then produced a track sampling the theme from Sesame Street entitled "Sesame's Treet". At the time, many hardcore tracks sampled what could be considered silly things, and as Chris recalls, "[T]he hardcore scene had a sense of humour". By this time, the Boogie Times Records label was no longer used, so this track would appear on Suburban Base Records. A number of promoPromo
Promo may refer to:*Promotion , one of the four aspects of marketing*Promotional music videos, such as those played on MTV*Promotional recording, a recording distributed free in order to promote a commercial recording...
s were pressed and, quite unexpectedly for the Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
trio, interest in the record skyrocketed. Steve Jackson hosted a house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
show on London radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
Kiss FM
Kiss 100 London
Kiss is a UK radio station broadcasting on FM and Digital Radio, specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and TalkTalk TV...
, and began playing the record every day. Suburban Base and Smart E's saw an opportunity and realised that the record had the potential to be a big seller. They drafted Steve Jackson to do a remix for the main release of the record. The record was being played at all the raves and on all the pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
stations (which were the main channel for hardcore music being played on the air—the commercial stations, other than a select few like Kiss FM, chose to ignore underground
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
entirely). The number of copies of the record requested by the distributor shot up from 1,000 to 10,000 to 50,000. When the record was finally released it reached #2 in the UK pop charts
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
, which at the time was the highest debut single entry ever.
The success of the Smart E's track thrust Howell and Smart E's into the media spotlight. Many dance music magazines panned the trio as a joke, and, at worst, money grabbers who had only come into the rave scene to jump on the bandwagon
Bandwagon effect
The bandwagon effect is a well documented form of groupthink in behavioral science and has many applications. The general rule is that conduct or beliefs spread among people, as fads and trends clearly do, with "the probability of any individual adopting it increasing with the proportion who have...
and make piles of money. Neither of these had really occurred to the three Essex lad
LAD
*A boy or young man*Lad culture, a British subculture*Ląd, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland*Lad: A Dog, a collection of short stories by Albert Payson Terhune**Lad - The real-life dog that the stories are based on....
s when they went into the studio to make Sesame's Treet, but Howell freely admits now that the tune and the onslaught of copycat records sampling a whole array of children's television themes, computer games
Computer Games
"Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1979 in Australia and New Zealand and in 1981 throughout Europe. It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand...
, and old songs did hurt the rave scene considerably, though that was certainly never their intention. Many have argued that in retrospect it couldn't really be said that they were a rave group that had "sold out", as the first and second records were novelty records of sorts. Sesame's Treet was picked up for distribution all over the world, and Smart E's were signed to Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
toured the United States, doing 29 live PAs in 32 days. Howell felt that the group was ripped off by many people during this time, and although Smart E's produced one album for Atlantic Records, he didn't feel that he could continue working under the Smart E's name.
Beginning
After some time, Howell decided he wanted to continue making music, but wanted to have more control over it; therefore, he bought a studio and founded Kniteforce Records. His ethos for the label was and always has been that the label belonged to the Kniteforce crew, who were a group of friends Howell had skateboarded with for many years before the formation of Kniteforce. The first release on Kniteforce Records, The Luna-C Project 1 – Edge of Madness, was produced by Luna-C but was in fact engineered by Austin Reynolds, the studio engineer at Suburban Base Records, as Howell hadn't yet taught himself to use his studio. The first release entirely produced by Luna-C in his studio was The Luna-C Project 2 – Mission of Madness, the second release on Kniteforce Records.1992–1995
Kniteforce continued to release records, some of which predictably sold better than others. A good release would sell 5,000 copies and a more successful track would sell much more. The label had its own artist who designed all the logos, label artwork and covers. Many of the tracks were played by DJs in the scene at the time. Howell produced tracks under the aliases Luna-C and Cru-L-T, and as part of the groups Future Primitive and The Trip. He also took engineering duties on all Kniteforce releases, until a bit later on when label signings DJ Force & The Evolution and DJ Ham were so confident in the studio themselves that they presented tracks to Howell ready for release. During this period Luna-C very rarely DJ'd out live, instead preferring to be behind the scenes producing tracks for other DJs to play. Kniteforce releases sold very well in Germany as well as in the UK.In 1995, Howell formed another record label, Remix Records, with happy hardcore DJ Jimmy J, who owned a shop with the same name in Camden
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
, London. The label and the shop shared the same logo, and the shop became a front for the Kniteforce label. Kniteforce and Remix Records promos adorned the shelves, and many Kniteforce Records artists could be seen there.
Howell produced tracks for the Remix Records label under the name Cru-L-T with Jimmy J. Jimmy J & Cru-L-T found success in the hardcore scene with the high sales of their tunes "Take Me Away" and "Six Days", which sampled house tracks but reworked the vocals with piano riffs written by the hardcore duo. "Six Days" sold very well in Australia, and Howell and Jimmy J travelled to Australia to promote the record. They DJ'd and did live PA's, which gave Luna-C a renewed taste for DJing live.
Rise and fall
Kniteforce records were selling, but not in the numbers for which Luna-C had hoped. His artists were pushing the boundaries of hardcore and some tunes were receiving significant play at raves, but the records were selling in relatively small numbers. Howell decided that to bring more sales to the label, he needed the "big name" DJs of the hardcore scene, namely SlipmattSlipmatt
Slipmatt is an English happy hardcore producer and DJ based in Essex, England. He was one half of rave act SL2, who had a 1992 UK hit with "On A Ragga Tip".-History:...
, Sy, Vibes and Ramos, to get involved with the label. He commissioned a series of remixes from these DJs and this move did indeed sell more units of those particular releases. The DJs played their versions of the tunes out, and the record buyers bought them up.
During 1995, the hardcore sound had begun to change, and more and more tunes were coming out with a heavily distorted kick drum riding over the well-established breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
s. Some of Luna-C's productions mirrored this to keep up with the sound, and in 1996, he even set up a sublabel of Kniteforce, Malice Records, to cater to the hard-edged gabber
Gabber
Gabber , is a style of electronic music and a subgenre of hardcore techno. "Gabber" is a slang word of Yiddish origin that means "mate", "buddy" or "friend"....
sound that was being mixed with UK happy hardcore in sets up and down the country. The first release on Malice Records sold very well, but later releases didn't quite keep up the momentum.
Luna-C also started a sublabel called Knitebreed, which was originally intended to release more records by up-and-coming producers; however, he found that very few producers who sent in tapes impressed him that much, and he ended up releasing tunes on the label under his own variety of aliases. By this time Howell was recording under the names The Timespan, Eko, Garion Fey and DJ Psycangle, and as part of 2 Croozin and 2 Xperience, as well as the usual Luna-C and Cru-L-T monikers. This way of producing tracks under many different names allowed Howell quite a lot of anonymity while many of his tunes were widely recognised.
As Luna-C, Howell's productions were quite different from the bulk of what was being produced in the hardcore scene, and although these tunes were Luna-C's passion, they still weren't selling well enough. Luna-C had become disenchanted with the hardcore scene in general, and the label had started to run into financial difficulty. He had also got into trance music
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
by the time Kniteforce 037 came out and had even started a trance label called Strange Room, which was completely unsuccessful. Reluctantly, Howell halted production on the label and for a while lost interest in making music altogether. DJ Brisk, who had released tunes on Remix Records, formed Next Generation Records with Kniteforce stalwart DJ Ham; DJ Force & The Evolution started UK Dance and split into the two duos DJ Force & Styles and New Motion. The tax bill for Smart E's came in, and Luna-C found himself in a lot of debt. In 1997, Luna-C was forced to sell Kniteforce Records to pay the bills. Luna-C recalls that it was a heartbreaking decision, as he and many of his friends had invested a lot in the label, but it was the only option at the time.
Luna-C sold Kniteforce Records in 1997 to Death Becomes Me, Ltd., which owned Rogue Trooper, Happy Trax, Punisher and a few other labels. He continued to engineer for the label, and produce tunes under yet more guises, but Kniteforce stopped releasing at number 60. Remix Records stopped its first run under Luna-C's direction, but the name was bought up by another company that released records under the same name and logo. That company in turn sold it on, and the label has continued in one form or another, on and off for years, but no longer has any association with Jimmy J & Cru-L-T.
After the label was sold, and as Luna-C started to recover his financial footing, he married a Japanese woman and began DJing in Japan a lot during 1998. He forged a set that included custom-made dubplates that he created. They mixed many old skool hardcore classics with more recent happy hardcore. This was Luna-C's first sign that he was edging back into the hardcore scene. He also released a couple of tracks under the Keep It Fresh label, which were old style breakbeat hardcore, but these sold under 500 copies. Luna-C later divorced the woman from Japan and finally cleared his debts in 1999.
Influential Records and Dyne
After losing interest in the hardcore scene, Luna-C was looking for a form of music which made him feel like hardcore once had. He found this in a drum and bass tune called "Tower Bass" by DJ AphroditeAphrodite (artist)
Aphrodite also known as A Zone or DJ Aphro, is a UK jungle and drum and bass DJ/producer commonly referred to as the "Godfather of Jungle", who works along with Micky Finn on their joint Urban Takeover label...
. It was the first tune that had inspired him in a long time, and he decided he wanted to learn how to make drum and bass. Using Aphrodite's style as a template, Luna-C started Influential Records. He had once produced a jungle-style tune on a one-off release on JFK Recordings as Hired Gun; under a variety of different names again, Howell started to release tunes on the Influential imprint. At first, these were collaborations with DJ Influence, and later, when DJ Influence left the label, with other friends. A couple of the Influential tunes were released under the Infiltration Records banner, which was resurrected later on in 2001. Influential Records had pushed the Jump-Up
Jump-Up (electronic music)
Jump-Up is a subgenre of drum and bass that was first popular in the mid-1990s. Tunes typically were light-hearted, featuring hip hop samples and loud melodic basslines. The term is derived from the earlier use of "jump-up" to refer to tracks with often ambient intros which altered their style at...
style of drum and bass, and as this style featured less on the scene, Luna-C founded another label in 1999, Dyne, for a darker style of drum and bass.
Knite Force Again (KFA)
Over the years, Luna-C had many requests for represses of the Kniteforce back catalogue, which was unfortunately more difficult than was perceived as the original plates from which the vinyls were pressed had all been destroyed when the pressing plant Kniteforce used went bankrupt. In 2001, he decided to release a record on a new label called KFA Recordings, which was essentially a new style hardcore remix of both "Six Days" and "Take Me Away" by Jimmy J & Cru-L-T. As Luna-C no longer owned the rights to those names, he renamed them "Sicks Daze" and "Hand of Destiny".Around this time, a longtime Kniteforce fan DJ Deluxe approached Luna-C about creating an official Kniteforce Records website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
. The website was launched and became the hub of all Kniteforce-related activity, including a forum where a small community of hardcore Kniteforce fans soon formed.
Luna-C released the second single on KFA "Luna-C Projects 8 & 9" and then got many of Kniteforce's original artists such as Future Primitive and Alk-e-d back on board to release new material. KFA reintroduced the breakbeat sound to a hardcore scene, which by now was dominated by the trance-influenced freeform
Freeform Hardcore
Freeform Hardcore is a term used to describe a subgenre of Happy Hardcore UK Hardcore. The genre developed gradually as conventional Hardcore slowly became more influenced by trance. The music is generally more instrumental, being known for its 4/4 beat, prominent acid lines, and often rolling bass...
style. Despite being alone in this at first, KFA releases sold quickly, and on May 10, 2002, Luna-C bought back the Kniteforce Records label, all its subsidiaries, and all the rights to the music and the logos (with the exception of the Remix Records logo, which had been sold along with the shop in Camden). The KFA label created a real buzz around it, especially on the internet, and Luna-C introduced an innovative idea called the "Executive Edition" whereby the first 100 copies of each release sold by Kniteforce's official retailer (at the time an independent online outlet called i-Tunes—not related to Apple's online music store, the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
) would include a free gift of some kind—sometimes even a free record unavailable elsewhere.
"Supasets"
In 2002, demand for Luna-C's DJing grew, and he began touring extensively all over the world. KFA continued to do well, and Luna-C released tunes as Cru-L-T and The Timespan, as well as releasing The Luna-C Project X (11 Reasons Why) (number 10 in the series) in October. By 2003, Luna-C's popularity as a DJ had rocketed and he split his time between managing the label and DJing at raves in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. In addition to releasing records on KFA, demand for his remixes increased, with his remix of DJ Skywalker's "Killerwhale" a notable example from 2003. In October 2003, he released the album 11 Reasons More, which covered a wide range of hardcore music styles and experimented in styles of hardcore production, which, it could be argued, had never been tried before. He began DJing a planned set, the "Supaset", which incorporated every style of hardcore music and varied in tempo throughout with the aid of Luna-C's self-produced "DJ Toolz". In April 2004, Luna-C released "My Angel" along with a special videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
produced for the tune on DVD. The single gained wider play than anything previously on KFA and received positive reviews in UK dance music magazines.
After the success of the first "Supaset", which was recorded and released as a free download on the Kniteforce Records website, Luna-C released a follow up, and then after touring that set for a number of months, a third. The sets gained legendary status among followers of hardcore music, and Luna-C's released material displayed a harder edge and skipped wildly between frenetic breakbeats and gabber. German producer Panacea
Panacea (artist)
Mathis Mootz is a prolific German electronic musician and DJ from Germany. Mootz is best known as The Panacea , his drum and bass stage name and main musical project, and as m2 , his dark ambient side project and alter-ego.Born August 18, 1976 in Wetzlar, Germany, Mootz served an apprenticeship in...
, with whom Luna-C became friends, started to release material on KFA in 2003, and his influence on Luna-C's direction in production was evident on 2004's "Victory", a split single with Panacea's "Winter Mute". October 2004 also saw Luna-C's first venture into event promotion when Kniteforce's 12th birthday party was held at the Electrowerkz in London.
By 2005, however, sales of KFA records had started to wane. Luna-C had already established an online Kniteforce store after its previous outlet, i-tunes, closed down, and much of Kniteforce's revenue had actually started to come from merchandise sold on the site.
Luna-C saw an opportunity to collaborate with some of the other like-minded small hardcore labels that had emerged since Kniteforce's return to the picture and formed All-4-1, a collective of labels that shared a similar philosophy on how to continue to push hardcore music forward. The Kniteforce web shop morphed into the All-4-1 site, which also became the main outlet for the other labels. The entire back catalogue of Kniteforce and its related labels and releases became available through a "create your own CD" feature on the site.
Vinyl is better?
At the beginning of 2006, Luna-C announced that it was unlikely there would be any further KFA releases on vinyl due to rising costs and relatively poor sales. Although there was still a dedicated following to KFA, Luna-C said that it just wasn't enough to pay the bills. However, soon after this he announced his intention to change direction in producing and to go back to old skool style breakbeat hardcore. This was met with a mixed response, but when some new productions were previewed on the internet, feedback was very positive and Luna-C has had a slight change of heart with regards to vinyl. He has stated that he will continue to release vinyl as long as he possibly can, and he will produce both old skool style breakbeat hardcore and the new style he has been pioneering.In May 2006, KFA released two more vinyl releases, one of which was a Luna-C release that did indeed hark back to more familiar breakbeat hardcore territory. These releases coincided with a new KFA CD album of unmixed tracks (including the tracks featured on the two new vinyl releases) that also had an enhanced section for computers with many added bonuses. May also saw the release of the awaited "Luna-C FM" set (also known unofficially as Supaset 4). This was sent to all buyers of an executive edition of a previous KFA vinyl release, along with a DVD that featured the mix with visuals created by KFA to go along with the music. The mix was then released as a free download. It blends commercial pop music with Luna-C's own brand of breakbeat hardcore, drum and bass and gabber, and plays in the style of a live radio show.
Luna-C has announced his plans to close the "create your own CD" service at the KFA shop on the All-4-1 website and replace it with an mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
store selling high bitrate mp3s of all Kniteforce music.
On June 11, 2006 Luna-C married fellow KFA artist Bexxie. After being introduced to the band Keane by a mutual acquaintance, Luna-C was asked to do an official remix of one of their songs. He remixed "A Bad Dream
A Bad Dream
You might also be looking for Nightmare."A Bad Dream", often mistitled as "Bad Dream", is a song by English piano rock band Keane appearing as the fifth track on their second album, Under the Iron Sea. It was released on 22 January 2007 as the sixth and final single from the album...
" in two separate versions: the hardcore version was released on the 7" vinyl and CD versions of the released single, and the alternate version was released on the 512 USB flash drive release.
External links
- Kniteforcerevolution - The new official Kniteforce site including free mp3 downloads.
- Kniteforce.co.uk - official Kniteforce Records and KFA website
- All-4-1.co.uk - official Kniteforce Records online store (at label collective)
- HappyHardcore.com - Extensive Luna-C discography