I loved hooj choons at the time - my memory's hazy and I can't remember what labels these originally appeared on but I know they all got licensed to HOOJ at various points
felix - don't you want me
this was basically the sound of rave taking over the clubs once and for all, a total sledgehammer of a tune, any lingering doubts finally vanquished, all resistance futile, all leave cancelled. What it lacked in subtlety it made me up for in sheer POWER. MAX POWER. As an 18 year old, I'm not sure dance music ever sounded more exciting. co-written by Rollo, if memory serves, in his pre-Faithless days.
energy 52 - cafe del mar
the three n one mix is the one that went stratospheric, but the original tune featured a much better mix by Kid Paul which Pete Tong had caned a few years previously on his Friday night show. I think it's about 140bpm! One for the NU NRG crew!
andronicus - make you whole
perhaps alone among the hooj archive in actually having some depth and artistic merit, I love this tune, still love it to this day. It has a real melancholic charm and was a big underground hit in London in the 90s which unfortunately is when I was living away and never really got to experience it out - until Lottie played at Bestival 2005, tearing the roof (or canvas?) off
hyper go-go - high
if any tune sums up the hammersmith palais experience for me in the dying days of my a-levels before leaving London, then it is this. The very essence of handbag, a handbag with a great slab of dairylea inside, and few records of the era better captured the total unbridled joy of finding yourself on a podium arms aloft as that vocal exploded across the room. The fact that every hyper go go track used the same ravey formula with the same cheesy riffs was immaterial. This music made you feel damned good.
I still have the Hooj 1993 compilation 'SOME OF THESE WERE HOOJ' which contains the immortal byline:
"occasional providers of half decent house for a f**ked up world"
quite.
)