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Carl Cox’s long-forgotten gabber and hardcore roots explored in new tribute mix: Listen

Take a trip back to the hardcore days of rave...

Carl Cox is one of the world’s most respected DJs — but what is often overlooked is in the early ‘90s he was one of the biggest names in the UK hardcore rave scene.

As a tribute to his long-forgotten penchant for the insane BPMs and genre-defying mixes, American DJ Pearsall — who now resides in Berlin — has recorded a mix that shines a light on the music Coxy was championing between 1993 and 1994.

Pearsall has successfully tried to mimic Cox’s long-forgotten style where the three deck Jedi would mix Dutch gabber with Scottish bouncy techno and everything in between for some truly eclectic sets in the early ‘90s.

“I wanted to boil down two years worth of his musical selections into a single mix, with nice and crisp audio quality and no shitty mc's,” said Pearsall on the mix's creation.

"To do so, I built a database of 25 tracklistings from 1993/1994 and pulled together a tracklisting of 45 tunes that captures all of the elements of the Carl Cox rave experience.”

The mix was recorded in Pearsall’s adopted hometown using 100% vinyl — just the way Coxy likes it.

Cox recently announced that he will be playing a fundraiser in San Francisco to raise money for his annual Burning Man stage production.