The early 90's British rave scene was responsible for a number of highly energetic, breakbeat infused electronic acts which had their stylistic roots in acid house, hip-hop and techno, such as The Prodigy, SL2, Acen and Shut Up And Dance, all centered around a drug fueled community of a multicultural selection of lower middle-class youths who lived around London's M25 motorway. Whether you refer to this music simply as old school, or electro, or breakbeat hardcore, recordings from this period are numerous, but little known act Awesome 3 happened to release one of the best songs of the era with
Don't Go, presented here as a short EP with a number of remixes.
This song is quite simply infectious, an analogue bassline hammers you from the beginning punctuated by some upbeat piano keys as a female voice sings a repeated line over and over -
"
I cannot bear to see you leave me, I'm begging you don't go!
and though you tell me that you love me, sometimes I just don't know".
Energetic breakbeats drive the song, and a shining pop quality is evident in the songwriting. I feel this could have been a small radio hit back in the day given appropriate exposure, which makes its obscurity a shame. The remixes flesh this album out nicely, the
Kicks Like A Mule and
2nd Movement edits fine rearrangements whilst the 760 mix moves into more acid house realms. The good thing is that these are lengthy enough to make a listen through of
Don't Go not just seem like a mere single with some filler thrown in. The final track included here,
Headstrong, is good by it's own merits, a repetitive, early 90's UK rave ready electronic piece with no vocal samples that would make a b-sides collection by The Prodigy proud.
I find
Don't Go simply a great track, in all of it's several arrangements presented here. There were a wealth of great electronic acts releasing stuff around the early 90's, but I feel this stands out enough to be distinctive from the crowd.
