Slow down the sound of acid house and add a lot more menace and sex and you’ve got an idea of what Belgian New Beat sounds like. In fact Belgian New Beat is hardly new, it started out in the clubs and enjoyed its peak in the late 1980s and then quickly disappeared in the early 90’s.

The merry bunch at the rather infamous V/Vm Test Records have taken it upon themselves to remind the world how cool the sound of Belgian New Beat was. Rather than trying to hijack something old and make it the “in sound” again, they have put up an informative history of the scene, complete with mixes, a gallery of old record covers and links to other resources.

The three explicitly titled tunes aren’t that much different from each other, but I enjoyed the dark and intensely sinister elements, which of course today have been totally ripped out of most dance music played in the clubs. A thick, nasty, filthy distorted synth dominates the mix along side the 303 and the reverb-ed drum machines. The last ingredient is of course the sound of moaning and groaning girls who could only be engaged in one thing.

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Posted on August 28th, 2006 by ikram · 4 comments