Turn Up The Bass

I completely agree with the comment below from "GoodNF" .

Turn up the Bass was an excellent series that had kinda everything as music style from 1988-1992 . There was New-Beat, House, Rave, Rap , etc... there was something for everyone to listen at with the variety of tunes .

But to me the TUTB series became cheesy and boring since Turn up the Bass 19 to 25 many tracks were slow paced and offered nothing to be excited about .

Some years later another label offered kinda the same vibe with many variety of music styles ( House, Techno, Hardcore/Gabber, Goa-Trance, Psychedelic Trance ,...) by the name of Subterranean ( Rave Mission, Ravermeister, Napalm Rave, Pulse, Tantrance, ...) .

The only negative point i have from Turn up the Bass series is their Records 2x12" you couldn't use them to mix in a DJ set . Best to buy them on CD .

But yeah the ending of Turn up the Bass series started a new one with Thunderdome kinda what was clearly shown with one of the best House Party megamix CD , House Party 6 there you could hear the fahrwell of an era ( 1988-1992 ) and step into a new one ( 1993-199? ) .

All in all for me Turn up the Bass gave great memories and alot of fun . Recording many audio cassettes for my friends for their walkman's pure joy . I so miss those times ...little tears in eyes...

The year was 1988, the country the Netherlands. My cousins were making fun of me, because I was the only person in our generation of our family who did not like Acid House. I myself trying to listen to tapes that my cousins received from their friends and all I could recognise was noise and unstructured sounds. They were actually dancing to that stuff at events they named "House Parties". Although I was 18 years old at that time, I did not go out at that time, because I did not have any friends who got along with me. Considering the music, I was listening to ordinary songs, with a melody, verses and a chorus. And yes, I did like tunes such as "House arrest", "Doctorin' the house", "Beat dis" and "Theme from S Express". I even LOVED "Tired of gettin' pushed around", not knowing that this was also filed under "House music". It must have been the trumpet that was part of the band's name that did it...

Things changed at the end of 1988/beginning of 1989 when I recognised some of the tunes on those tapes as they were played on mainstream radio. You may have guessed it: "Jack to the sound of underground", "TBM Mix", "Love House", "The Sound of C", "Stakker Humanoid" and a couple of others had become hits. I was a dedicated follower of the Arcade comps those days and I was wondering why there was no comp yet with tunes like these. Maybe it was because the people at Arcade had no idea how that comp should be named...?

A Tyree track proved to be the solution. I still the radio advert early 1989: (translated) "Start the weekend whenever you like it, with the perfect double album: Turn Up The Bass! Also on two stamping CDs!". Although I was still not into this music, I liked the idea. This changed during 1989 when hiphouse became popular, and I also started to go out. I spending 80 NLG (36 euros, a very big amount of money for a 19-year old those days) to buy CD volume 5 and 6, as it was the soundtrack of my nights out. From then on, I carefully saved my money until 4 months were gone and I had another 80 NLG to buy the two CDs of next volume...

Meanwhile, TUTB was no longer just house, acid and new beat; new jack swing and hiphop also found their way to the series. Hiphouse was slowly replaced by the eurodance of Technotronic, and there was even room for guitar-based UK indie (Primal Scream, The Farm). A commercial peak was reached on 8th June, 1991 when volume 7 (CD 13/14) contained 8 tracks of the Dutch Dance Top 40, six of them in the top 10 (T.99 - Anasthasia at 1, De La Soul - Ring Ring Ring at 2, KLF - Last Train To Trancentral at 4, Nomad - Just A Groove at 5, King Bee - Cold Slammin' at 6 and Tony Scott - From Da Soul at 8).

TUTB also introduced the masses to L.A. Style ("James Brown Is Dead"), 2 Unlimited and hardcore gabber, but as usual, all good thing had to come to an end. In 1993, the dance music market was so fragmented that dance music lovers were no longer into each other's music. TUTB was always a sort of soundtrack of what was popular during an average night out, but there simply was no average anymore. House, techno, hardcore and hiphop each had their own clubs, and mainstream clubs were not into underground stuff. This was reflected in the compilation album market, with compilation series such as Megadance and Thunderdome, which had their specific target audience. Volume 25 was the final episode, released during Summer 1993. The focus was on club, but clubbers found out that comps such as "Global Cuts", "The Best Of Stealth Records", "Fresh Fruit Cocktail" and "Static/Spiritual Tracks" were alternatives that reflected the club atmosphere better than TUTB did.

And so, an era ended. What remains is a stunning overview of 4 years that changed the dance music market forever, with nearly two million units sold, 4 Rap spinoffs, the first commercially available yearmixes (mixed by the winners of a TUTB DJ-mix competition, who would become The Klubbheads later), the start of the House Party mix albums, a club tour "The House Party On Tour" and the foundation of subsequent comps Techno Trance, Megadance and Thunderdome. Right now, more than 25 years after the first edition and writing this text, I still enjoy the music of those days, which still sounds as music in the first place = also fun away from the dance floor. Something I never came up in those days of 1988...