The year is 2003. Nearly 20 years ago. And there was an event called Shockers. Remember Shockers? Were you there? Did you go to it? If you have, I am so jealous. As you can imagine, I didn't go, But I wish I did. I did buy most of the Shockers CDs, and to my knowledge, they hold the Guinness World Record (unofficially of course) for being the CDs that became scratched beyond belief the quickest. For kids that grew up without CDs, this means that I kept playing them over and over, and during the process they got damaged sadly. See, MP3s are just superior over CDs. The Shockers CD collection remains to this day one that I still find fascinating, and listen to whenever I can.
The other day I found the last in the series on Youtube. Shockers - In Control. And what I didn't know, was that ID&T decided to end Shockers as an event and change the name and the concept to In Qontrol. Hence why the last CD was called that way. Since 1999 up until 2003 the CDs were released every year, and were a success. It was probably a marketing decision to change from Shockers to In Qontrol. A good one I suspect, as Hardstyle would become huge around 2003-2004. But I do miss the older events, like for example Innercity.
But hey ho, that's life. And even though I never went to Shockers, I did love the CDs. It was a mixture of everything on them. And the last CD in the series was already hinting toward a change, but thankfully it was still mainly focussed on Techno (on CD 1), while the second disc was more into Hardstyle.
Around the Millennium era I was lost. Hardcore for me lost it a tad, and I started to discover and venture into new and exciting styes, like Techno, Hardstyle, Trance, etc, and Shockers fit my craving for something different perfectly. And both CDs contained music from around 2003, so damn quirky and different. And for TCD that was just the best.
But what if you haven't bought these CDs, and do not know what was on them? Well, here's the tracklist for both discs:
CD 1
Queen vs Vangaurd - Flash
Benny Bee - Satisfaction
Nam Trak & Dr. Motte - Bush Fire
Len Faki - Figurę Series 1.1
Cave - Car Ne Vale E.P.
Da Goose - Cobra's Bite (K-Cee Remix)
Glenn Wilson - Enemies (Alexander Kowalski Remix)
DJ Misjah & Sir Jamez - The Amateur
Nam Trak - What You Need (Emerson Remix)
Frederik Almquist - Being & Becoming (Marco Carola Remix)
Live Tracks - The Ghost Of Lele
Toni Rios - Palomitas (Kiss EP)
Sven Väth - Ghost (John Starlight Remix)
Kay D. Smith & Alex K. Katz - Deep Silence
K-Cee - Rise Of The Machines
CD 2
Zappaman - Hardstyle Lover
Ya Ya - Future Loop (Loop Mix)
DJ Mike - Resistance (Blutonium Boy vs A-Lusion Hardstyle Mix)
Zenith & Dana - Victims Of Hardstyle (Champagne Mix)
DJ Zany - In My Mind
Showtek - Seid Ihr Bereid
The Prophet - Follow The Leader (Luna meets Trilok & Chiren Remix)
DJ Jorn - This Is Your Brain
Mindcontroller - Mindcontroller 2003 (Controller Mix)
Methods Mayhem - Fuck You Up (Showtek Remix)
Deepack - Zero Crossing
Jam - Right On
ASYS - From Past To Phuture
Luna - In Control (Shockers Exclusive)
Temper Temper - I Will Be Master
Mental Miracle - After The Storm (Schwarzende Remix)
You might be looking at this tracklist and salivate. Sorry about that. But you are not the only one: my keyboard is currently covered in saliva. This takes me back, way back in time. I can still picture myself in my bedroom, with my headset on, playing this out loud. Who fucking listens to this with the volume on low, right? Fuck those eardrums, they need to be mutilated! Probably not the best idea, as I'm now Oost-Indisch doof (East Indies deaf = only deaf when a person wants to be).
I do remember this disc very well. It came in this rather unusual shaped CD case. Didn't fit in well with my OCD collection. But it's all about the music, and the music was good. Different, but good. you would look at CD one and think 'wtf is Queen and Benny Benassi (a.k.a. Benny Bee) doing here?' Well, to be fair, the Queen vs Vanguard song is actually dope as fuck, and Benny Benassi was just a phase. Still dope and very catchy. But there was so much more to this collection:
So two discs, and a lot of flashbacks to 2003. But which appealed the most to me on each disc? Well, fuck it, Queen vs Vanguard's 'Flash' has to be it on disc one, and on disc two 'I Will Be Master' by Temper Temper. Don't hear that tune very often to be fair.
The two discs couldn't be any more different from each other: where as the first disc focusses on the Techno and House side of things, the second is more rougher and tougher, and focussed on Hardstyle. The first CD wins, by a huge margin, for me. Bigger, better, and damn good anthems.
A trip down memory lane. Maybe an idea for ID&T to revive this concept. They have done it with a few of their concepts, like Thunderdome, Trance Energy, and maybe in 2022 Shockers 2.0? If that would happen, I would be the first to buy a ticket!
Artists: Various Artists
Genre/Style: Techno, House, Hardstyle
CD Info: Shockers - In Control
Length CDs: +/+ 2 hours
CDs: 2 (two)
Tracks: 31 (thirty-one)
Release Year: 2003
Label: ID&T
Product Number: 7006702
More Information: -----