Looking for an old song - happy hardcore mix of "Chi Mai"

So, er, about 16 years ago, when 'happy hardcore' was getting a lot of play on London pirate radio stations, one of my mates used to make tapes of the pirate mixes.

And I had this one tape which had an awesome remix of Chi Mai by Ennio Morricone on it.

It had the strings from Chi Mai mixed with some very fast breakbeats and a chipmunk voice saying 'rock it' (or something like that). The percussion was reminiscent of Out of Space by the Prodigy.

This is a real long shot because I don't know the artist name, and I don't even have the tape any more. The year was 1993/94.

Any ideas what the track was and who it was by?

That would be "The Life And Crimes Of A Ruffneck" By Acen.

amazing! thanks xy_politics. +1000 pwn points to you.

the bit at 1:45 is the bit I remember. It sounded quite a lot better with a stoned west london pirate radio dj mc-ing (somewhat erratically) over the top of it.

So it turns out Acen is currently on myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/acenmusic

... and listeneing to his "Trip To The Moon parts 1,2,3" I also realise he was responsible for other great tracks that I never knew the names of.

*travels back to 1993*

nice john barry sample at 3:28

acen, one of the top maestros of the rave scene for sure. he seemed to disappear without trace in 94, a shame. should have been as successful as prodigy

brothers grimm "exodus" is another good production house cut, acen/dyce production:

  xxx said:

This is a sad effect for me as well. I first discovered rave by taping the mixes off the radio all night when I was 13 or so.

... Although I have discovered that you can actually re-create the "Pirate Radio MC" effect by inviting a few mates round and recording yourselves shouting random bollocks over the top of the tracks. "Big shout going out mugsy", etc....

hmm apparently Dream FM are staging a comeback this year:

http://www.dreamfmonline.com/

there's also a facebook group, oddly.

The MC'ing is part of it, but I also think that you notice the half-baked production when you're older. I remember listening to this stuff when I was 14, and although I still love it, it'll never sound as good now as it did then.