Sperm Records

Track Listing: Boomerang - So Damn Tuff Babylon Mix Paradox - Funky Cheeba Sativa Mix Scope Floored Mix Yum Yum - 3 Minute Warning Nuked Up Mix Societe - Pale Drifter Yum Yum - Hypermania Yum Yum - Let Me Go Metal Mix Boomerang - Inner Space Yum Yum - 3 Minute Warning Fallout Mix Apply Within - Space Grass Spaced On Acid Mix

1995 DJ friendly double vinyl (also a CD Mixed by Judge Jules) release and its an excellent compilation of the old Sperm back catalogue. Opening on the first 12", side A storms off on a housey vibe, with Boomerangs' So Damn Tuff, which later features on the Feel So Alive 12". This is one of the stronger tracks on this first disc. Paradox deliver a funked up, tribal drum driven 70's little number, with a jazzy piano melody which is quite fun and bouncy. I was a little disappointed with the choice of mix of Scopes' Bacchanal. The 12" of this track has some great mixes on it that are more tribally than the Floored Mix that features here. Still, its an old favourite of mine and a big hit at Whirl-Y-Gig. Yum Yums' classic trance anthem 3 Minute Warning gets an airing over on side B, although the Nuked Up Mix on this first disc sounds a little bare and doesn't really go anywhere. Societe's Pale Drifter closes the first disc, with panpipe melodies and congo drum rhythms.
The second 12" is far better than the first in my opinion, with faster driving tracks than the slower content of some of the already mentioned tracks. Yum Yum opens up the show with his bouncy trancey Hypermania. A long build up leads into an acidy and squelchy track which happens to be pretty damn good too and far better than 3 minute warning. Second up on the C side is Let me go, again from Yum Yum, and again, very good. Its a little faster and more trancey than the previous track, although i can't help but feel that it lacks depth. Over on the flip Boomerang deliver what must be the best track on the compilation; Inner Space is a very bouncy, house/trance little number. Shooting space effects zoom over a long build up before breaking into an uplifting dance floor stormer which is far better than Feel So Alive. Keeping up the pace is another mix of Yum Yums' 3 Minute Warning, this time round delivering the goods. With a lot more drive and uplifting vibes, the Fallout Mix makes up for the disappointing Nuked Up Mix on the first 12". This just leaves Apply Within's Space Grass, which is a rather dark and plain slice of acid trance which fails to go anywhere in particular and is a weak choice of tracks to close the compilation.
So, overall its a mixed bunch from banks of the river Sperm. It covers a mixture of styles from tribal through to deep house and trance, stopping off with a bit jazzed up funk along the way. There are a few dance floor stormers and the odd dance floor dud too. Overall though, it gets the thumbs up from me.

Track Listing: Yum Yum - 3 Minute Warning - Scope Mix Apply Within - Space Grass - Spaced On Acid Mix Yum Yum - Livin It Up - Cedric Winkleburger Mix Yum Yum - Headspace Scope - Bacchanal - Alpha Mix Yum Yum - Let Me Go - Metal Mix Yum Yum - 3 Minute Warning - Nuked Up Mix Yum Yum - Let Me Go - Red Lite Mix Yum Yum - The Mind Gap Boomerang - Inner Space Boomerang - Catch It - Scope Mix Boomerang - So Damn Tuff - Full On Mix Yum Yum - Free Bass Paradox - Funky Cheeba - Indica Mix Boomerang - Catch It - Original Mix Apply Within - 5000 Feet - Original Mix Societe - Loca Motion

Released 1995 on Sperm Records. A huge, fantastic CD mixed by Judge Jules, with nearly every track is a hit. Alas, most tracks are carved down to less than 4 minutes and almost none are available to CD collectors in their full glory. Thanks to Brian Harris for this information.

Track Listing: Bacchanal - Alpha Mix Bacchanal - Beta Mix Bacchanal - Floored Mix Bacchanal - Transient Mix

Released 1994 on Sperm Records. Written and produced by James Gillespie. This is a tune and a half and one of my all time favourites. Head straight for the Alpha Mix, a very uplifting, lengthy percussion based slice of global trance featuring a harmony of tribal chants. The Beta Mix is simply an edit of the Alpha Mix, whilst the Floored Mix is a faster alternative dance version. This just leaves the Transient Mix, which is a sublime, spacey ambient version. Whilst very rare these days, this vinyl is an essential global dance tune that's well worth hunting out. The Alpha Mix also features on the Trance 6 compilation.

Track Listing: Let Me Go - Club Mix Let Me Go - Red Lite Mix Let Me Go - Metal Mix

Released in '95 on Sperm records. Written and produced by Chatterley and Schiessl. Although sounding a little dated the Club Mix of 'Let Me Go' is quite fun.

Track Listing : Free Bass Hyper Mania Head Space

Released in '95 on Sperm Records. Written and produced by Chatterly and Schiessl, except track 2, written by Chatterly, Schiessl and Law. Head straight for 'Hyper Mania' on this EP - an uplifting slice of hard house that will get dance floors rocking. The other two tracks aren't anything to write home about.

Track Listing : Free Bass EP (7.24) Hyper Mania (6.26) 3 Minute Warning (8.25) Let Me Go (6.50)

Released in 1995 on SPV. Thanks to Brian Harris for this information.

Track Listing: Legacy - Yum Yum Vocal Mix Legacy - Yum Yum Acid Mix Legacy - Ian Ossia Mix Cyclone* - Scope Mix

Released in '96 on Sperm Records. All tracks written by Ossia, Chatterly, Schiessl and Melder, except * written by Ossia, Chatterly and Schiessl. This is an excellent uplifting track; the Yum Yum Vocal Mix has sublime vocals from X-Avia, whilst the Yum Yum Acid Mix drops the vocals and turns up the 303's in a superb trancer. The Ian Ossia Mix is slightly more housey, leaving an superb hard-edged remix of 'Cyclone' by Scope (that features a very similar bongo rhythm to that in Scope's 'Bachannal') - this 12" is worth buying for this remix alone.

Track Listing: Yum Yum Mix Oldskool Mix Meantime Mix

Deep Sound are Mckenzie and Attree. Nothing overly inspiring with this - with the title Party Spirits I was expecting something a little more uplifting than this, and none of the mixes albeit the Meantime Mix get anywhere near this. The Meantime Mix has potential, although I don't rate the vocals much, which tend to ruin the track. Yum Yum dishes up a very average mix, whilst the Oldskool Mix is an 'interesting' piece of electronica. One to avoid.

Track Listing: Club Mix CJ Bolland Mix Yum Yum Mix Wave Captain Mix

Released 1996 on Sperm Records. Produced by Tom Wax and Norman Feller. Both the Club mix and the Wave Captain Mix have a very old "rave" sound about them - probably due to the sirens. The former is quite fast, whilst the latter is a lot slower and more housey. CJ Bolland delivers a heavy industrial hard house mix, that is all a little on the messy side. But its Yum Yum that saves this 12", with a storming hard house/trance remix. Opening with what sounds like the word "gay" repeating over and over (although i maybe hearing things!), it quickly builds up into a great track which is very uplifting and anthemic - stomping stuff.

Track Listing: Club Mix CJ Bolland Mix Yum Yum Mix Wave Captain Mix Miijk van Dijk Mix Tom & Norman Remix

Released 1996 on Sperm Records. Produced by Tom Wax and Norman Feller. The two new ones here (compared to the vinyl release) are the Mijk van Dijk Mix and the Tom & Norman Remix. The former is the one to shoot for, much more thorough and satisfying. Thanks to Brian Harris for this information.

Track Listing: Feel So Alive - Yum Yum Mix Feel So Alive - Babylon Mix So Damn Tuff - Babylon Mix

Feel so Alive is written by D.Fry, Maverick and A.Gilkes, and is more of a housey little number than most of the material on Sperm Records. Babylon deliver a storming slice of bouncy house, with its cheesy vocals and piano chords...excellent stuff! Yum Yum goes for the harder house/acid trance effect which is again, in my opinion, excellent. Big acidy build-ups and a driving beat guaranteed to be big in the clubs. So Damn Tuff is written by D.Fry and Maverick and is an older track, featuring on the Sperm Bank Compilation, which doesn't sound that different from the title track. An all round fab, if not a little on the edam/cheddar side, 12"!

Track Listing: Tribal Mix Conga Mix

Written and produced by Guido Gronwald, who can be contacted by email on: joker@webtrek.de. Only two mixes to play with here, but both are wicked. The Conga mix is a little on the bare side to start with but half way through the track it breaks into a fast tribal trancey number, with its own fair share of big build ups and break downs. The Tribal Mix on the flip starts with more hectic drums than the Conga mix and quickly kicks in as a hard tribal trance stompathon. An excellent track.

Track Listing: Magic Eye Magic Carpet Flash Bang Mix Magic Carpet What It Is

Mckenzie and Attree return with another housey number. Magic Eye is quite a dark trancey track which is pretty average, but its Flash Bang (Andy Chatterley) who steals the show with his superb remix of Magic Carpet. Slow Indian type chants flow into a driving bouncy trancey beat with huge build ups....wicked stuff! The original mix of Magic Carpet is quite housey and bouncy, although a little on the cheesy side. What It Is is nothing more than a bizarre collection of beats with an attempt of a melody thrown over it.....hmmmm.

Track Listing: Starkissed 97 Aroma Venus Mix Original Mix (11:55)

This has got to be the best track on Sperm Records to date. A hard trance, eastern influenced little beauty, with all mixes hitting the spot, especially the Original Mix. The Original Mix was originally released in '95 as a 12" on Logic Records and also features on The Secrets debut album; click here for more information on this and other releases by The Secret.

Track Listing: Jam and CV Gate Mix Yum Yum Remix Striking Man Remix

Another great trancey track, with the Jam and CV Gate Mix proving to be the best mix here. It starts with a laid back intro over which the word "bastard" is whispered a few times, before one final crazy sounding "bastard" shrieks out and a full on trancathon lets loose. Full of bounce and good vibes this track will whip any dance floor into a frenzy. The Yum Yum mix is a little disappointing, whilst the Striking Man Remix is rather different, with respect to a clowns annoying laugh which features nearly all the way through the track. If you can put up with the laugh, then this is a great remix, very bouncy and trancey, with the crazy sounding "Bastard" popping up every 30 seconds.

Track Listing: J.A.M. In Deep Remix (7.34) Jam and CV Gate Mix (7.02) Striking Man Remix Original Radio Version (3.50)

Released 1997 on ZYX Music. Wonder if ZYX Music got permission to use the Boris Vallejo art on the cover? Thanks to Brian Harris for this information.

Track Listing: CD: The Vision - Original Mix (9.49) Terra Ferma Remix (10.50) Yum Yum Mix 23 (9.20) Onawind Mix (5.36) 12" #1: The Vision - Original Mix (9.49) Piece of Mind 12" #2: Terra Ferma Remix (10.50) Yum Yum Mix 23 (9.20)

Yum Yum returns (9/97) with this excellent slice of trance, which has got to be his finest work to date. Its delivered either as a single, with the bonus ambient Onawind mix, or on 2 x 12", with the bonus hard trance tracl 'Piece of Mind'. 'The Vision' is the better of the two tracks here; very melodic and uplifting with lots of African chants and driving rhythms and hands-in-the-air piano melodies. Yum Yum's Original Mix is hard to improve on. An ambient to start, with electronica winding sirens, into which builds what I can only describe as one of the most bouncy beats I've heard in a long time. A mid-track pause allows you to get your breath back before the finale of the track hits full on. From here its up all the way, building into what must be a huge dance floor smash - uplifting is an understatement! My only gripe with this mix is the strange ending to the track, with its weird "croaking" sound effects that goes on for far too long.

Yum Yum's Mix 23 is nowhere near as good as the original mix. It retains the bouncy nature of the beat, but squelchy sound effects are thrown in which make the whole mix sound a little abstract. The Onawind mix is a very short, slow, ambient affair with cascading melodies which is pleasant in its own sense, probably better during the morning after a long night out.

Claudio Guissani of Terra Ferma adds a gentle drum n' bass beat into the intro of the track, before the more familiar Platipus beat kicks in (if not sounding a little fatter than normal). Keeping all the essential elements of the original, Claudio remixes this track superbly, adding his own distinct flavour to it in the form of a very acidic trance nature towards the later of the track. Huge build-ups that will drive clubbers crazy - Wicked stuff!

Track Listing: Entropy - Original Mix (9.13) Entropy - Scope Remix (7.10) Entropy - Yum Yum Remix (7.34)

Released November '97 on Sperm Records. Written and produced by Oldhams, Taylor and Brain Transeau. This is another corking track on Sperm - the Original Mix is a stomping trancer with an acid edge to it, whilst Yum Yum's remix is a funky chunky little number full of bounce and delicious guitar licks. Thanks to Gavin Stock for the additional information.

Track Listing: Love Club - Dub Feel Lazonby - Sacred Cycles Yum Yum - The Vision : On a Wind mix

Released '97 on Sperm Records. This is the promo for the Yum Yum Remix album, which, in full, is continuously mixed on CD and unmixed on vinyl - I can't comment further on the full album because I've not heard it yet. However, on this 12" there are 3 superb tracks (see above for comments about The Vision). 'Sacred Cycles' by Peter Lazonby is a trance classic in its own right, and yet Yum Yum does a superb piece of remix work and further enhances it - this is a current favourite of mine. Equally as good is the Yum Yum remix of Love Club's 'Dub Feel' (the original of which I've not heard) which is another uplifting trancer with a slight Eastern feel to it.

For further information, see the Sperm Records Web Site, contact: