More Horsepower

Dance music truly exploded in the early 90’s and I felt I was in the midst of a musical phenomenon. Illegal raves were still being organised, pirate radio stations seemed to spring up every week and if you went to the right record shops, you could find treasure. 

One day a friend of mine played me a recording of a pirate radio station broadcasting in my home city. Through the hiss of the cassette and the FM broadcast, the magnificent sound of ‘Horsepower’ by Ravesignal III assaulted my eardrums. It was a truly glorious moment. Once I tracked down the CD I noticed it was released by a label called R&S. I began to buy most things released by R&S for a few years including the original “Analogue Bubblebath” by Aphex Twin, Human Resource’s “Dominator” and Jam & Spoon “Tales from a Danceographic Ocean” all of which are worth a few pounds now. 

Yet it is CJ Bolland’s Ravesignal III project that I treasure above them all. Thus, imagine my excitement when whilst playing my new Microwave XTk synthesizer I found the preset Bolland used for the intro to ‘Horsepower’. The patch has been modified slightly but certainly comes from the Microwave. For many years I wondered which synths were used on this track. The drums are obviously TR-909 and TR-808 but everything else remained a mystery. So I am about to get my flange effects up and running and try to recreate the majesty of Horsepower. I wish it was 1991 again.