Ambush Records 12inches

(I know the picture is kinda corny, but it made me smile anyway...)

This one comes from a fellow blogger: muse1453 of Autres Grooves and A Closet Of Curiosities fame kindly hooked me up with the tracks he downloaded from the homepage of DJ Scud's and Aphasic's now defunct breakcore/raggacore label Ambush Records. There's one track missing from Ambush 04 and two tracks from Ambush 08, but other than that this is a complete collection of the first dozen Ambush releases. Since these 12inches are long sold out and the mp3s are no longer available for download, I guess they're somewhat rare by now. I'm a bit lazy today, so instead of a review here are some excerpts of a conversation about Ambush muse and I had at Autres Grooves:

"square dancer: Usually I'm not that much into breakcore/raggacore etc, but there's something about a lot of that DJ Scud/Panacea/Ambush Rec. related stuff, though I can't really put my finger on it.

muse 1453: What appeals to me about the Ambush label is that most of the tracks are not just hardcore tracks utilizing rapidfire percussion, but how the tracks are created with free-improv and musique concrete influences. That's what makes these tracks listenable for many repeats. Most of the stuff in this genre really gets boring after awhile and are not worth listening to again because a few artists in this area actually attempt to be creative.

square dancer: I think you're pretty right about the peculiar qualities of their releases. Obviously a vast knowledge about different kinds of music went into the making of their tracks. I'd probably add that another factor may be that those people actually seem to be knee-deep into rave, jungle, hiphop, dancehall etc. They're loving this stuff and know it well. Whereas a lot of other breakcore artists (especially from the "artsy" side of the spectrum) merely seem to cannibalize it."

Not each and every track here is up to the same standards of course. To the outside listener some of them are "merely" solid genre stuff, though if you're really into breakcore you will find them pretty outstanding, I guess. But there are more than enough gems to be found that are nothing short of amazing.

Well, enough babble. Below's the tracklist. Click on the picture above and download the whole batch in one file.

Jackal & Hide - Escape From South London (Ambush 01)

In Bed With Hanin 5:26 Post Industrial Funk 3:38 Coldharbour Lane 4:41 The Jackal 4:35

Aphasic & DJ Scud - Welcome to the Warren EP (Ambush 02)

Aphasic & DJ Scud - Justify My Hate 4:28 Aphasic - Comparative Vandalism 5:23 DJ Scud - MTV Generation 5:29 Aphasic & DJ Scud - I Hear a New World

Shizuo - Give Up (Ambush 03)

Moshi-Moshi 4:55 Brain Dead (remix) 3:43 Trouble 3:53 To Shizuo 1:49 Give Up 3:23

Aphasic & DJ Scud - Snipers At Work (Ambush 04)

DJ Scud - Mash the Place Up 4:50 DJ Scud - Scud Missle 4:04 Aphasic - You Only Happen Once 3:14 Aphasic - Despair In the Community 3:44 Aphasic & DJ Scud - Belief is the Enemy

muse1453 said: sorry track 3 "Skatebored" is missing. I couldn't find it on my hard drive. It was mediocre anyway which is possible that I deleted it.

Mwarf - Sex With a Machine (Ambush 05)

Brockbeat 4:21 Fat Boy 6:21 Is It Safe? 7:35 Pillar 4:08

DJ Scud & Christoph Fringeli - Bodysnatcher EP (Ambush 06)

Bodysnatcher 6:27 Ruled By the Mob 3:56 XXX 3:42

Din S.T. - In the Case of... (Ambush 07)

Search 4:44 Classic Case 4:12 About to Go Down 4:31 Stay Calm 4:38 Street Urchin 3:25

DJ Scud & I-Sound - Mortal Clash EP (Ambush 08)

DJ Scud - VIP Pressure 3:50 I-Sound - Sufferers 3:25 I-Sound - Trauma 4:55 I-Sound - Short Sharp Shock (version) 4:20

muse1453 said: sorry there are a couple of tracks by DJ Scud missing; these two files are corrupt and won't play

Aphasic - Bass & Superstructure (Ambush 09)

Anthem For Doomed Youth 3:21 Dirty Face 3:19 Superstructure I 3:22 Bloody Nora 4:00 Superstructure II 2:57

Rich Kid/DJ Scud - untitled 12" (Ambush 10)

Rich Kid - Rude Bimmer 4:03 DJ Scud - Badman Time 3:00 DJ Scud - Put Up Your Lighters 3:57

Slepcy - And Again (Ambush 11)

And Again 6:33 untitled 02 3:46 Form (Play) 3:13

Noize Creator - Deferred Media (Ambush 12)

Per Thousand 2:49 Deferred Media 3:57 Have a Piss 2:43 Broken Bar 5:50 Hate Cops 5:15