u/jderm1

Look, I love Tidy as much as the next person here and I really do respect that they somehow still have a strong, sustainable hard house brand, still going after 30 years. I love listening to Amo's stories, podcasts, videos etc. With that disclaimer out of the way... His approach to marketing is just ridiculous.

They are literally selling a rejected test pressing that wasn't good quality enough to be released and rebranding it a "rare as fuck collectors item". For an absurd £70 no less. How is that okay? Oh and it sold out of course, because people are suckers and fall for it hook, line and sinker.

It does make me laugh how the 'regular' release is coloured vinyl and the black version is somehow being touted as the more desirable, limited version. It's the literal inverse of how it used to be.

It's not just this egregious example - every release is hyped up to the max - collectible, numbered, limited edition, a piece of Tidy history, for true collectors etc. The worst is when he calls it an investment - personally I think that's potentially dangerous advice. It obviously works so I get why they do it. But still, milking their loyal fanbase like this never sat right with me.

Anyway, late night rant over. Thoughts?

Had both of these limited edition World Cup flavours recently. Attack is Cinnamon flavour and Defend is Hibiscus. Definitely unusual flavour choices but I thought both were decent enough. Tbh I thought the Hibiscus one tasted somewhat similar to the regular blue flavour. Attack was a pretty smooth cinnamon flavour, not "hot" at all like Fireball.

I really like it! It's one of the most accurate flavours I think I've ever had in a soda. It tastes just like biting into a fresh peach. 8.5/10

They had about 5 flavours if I recall. All labelled on the front as "animal free", but with the usual "may contain" in the ingredients (pic 3). I was surprised to see what looks like an authentic Japanese brand prominently advertising "animal free" on the front. Not cheap at £6.50 iirc, but it is imported and does have 2 portions at least.

I didn't finish it because of the ludicrous amount of salt (116% of your daily allowance) per portion.

I've never had ramen before so not the best judge but it wasn't bad. Pretty nice rich, savoury flavour. I made it exactly as per the instructions, but I'd definitely add some vegetables etc next time. Thought the flavour sachet might have a few dried veggies in, but alas not.

Very weird drink. It tastes like nothing I've ever had, yet also sort of neutral at the same time. Just like sugar / candy flavour. I suppose that's basically all cotton candy is, so fair enough! It's a cloudy white colour, the addition of milk makes for a very unusual creamy taste. Fun to try but I wouldn't buy it again.

Just saw this on Instagram but can't find any info anywhere apart from this one page. Anyone got any info or know whether it's true? Not familiar with the account, and the image appears to be AI generated, so normally I'd just write it off as bs, but all the other posts on there seem to be legit.

Really hope I'm not spreading misinformation by sharing this, so hopefully someone can confirm either way

I paid £1.99 from a corner shop in London. Thought it was pretty good actually, but a bit of an unpleasant, lingering aftertaste. I didn't think it tasted much like Dew at all, it was heavy on the cream soda which I kinda liked.

Fyi there's no real point to this post, just collating some thoughts I've had lately whilst I had some free time this bank holiday! It might be a bit long but hopefully someone finds it interesting!

I grew up listening to UK Hard House in the early 2000s and to me Hard House is synonymous with the UK sound of Nukleuz, Tidy etc. I never really cared for the bouncy European Hard House, like Klubbheads, Lock N Load etc, despite both styles getting grouped under the Hard House label.

For at least a decade it was practically all I listened to. Around the late 2000s I slowly gravitated towards Hardstyle, until it took over and I practically listened to nothing else for the next 15 years. I would regularly travel to the Netherlands for Hardstyle events at least once a year. However, over the last few years I've been feeling more and more jaded with the direction Hardstyle has taken. Maybe I'm just too old for it these days, but I felt a bit musically lost for the first time in memory and wasn't really excited by anything.

Enter me discovering this new wave of European (particularly Dutch) Hard House from the last year or two. It's sort of a hard sound to categorise - even the artists themselves don't seem to have a consensus on what to call it, or how to market themselves. I've seen it called Hard House, Eurodance, Trance, high energy dance music, 90s influenced dance music...

I find it fascinating that whenever someone posts here a link to their new "Hard House mix", it could be one of two very distinct sounds, from two very different eras, yet both fall under Hard House. I still glance at new UK Hard House releases on Toolbox Digital - I guess out of a sense of loyalty to the scene which formed my musical tastes - but haven't felt inspired by that sound in probably 15 years, let alone finding myself listening to it.

To me the new sound is just a lot of fun - groovy and energetic, kinda bouncy (but again, in a very different way to UK bounce, which I always hated! A lot of it is definitely very 90s inspired, with ravey pianos and plenty of familiar vocal samples cropping up. I guess things always come full circle, but I do wonder how long it will last if it relies too much on nostalgia. Some of it already does sound a bit samey to me, but I'm just enjoying it whilst I can.

Some of my current favourite artists amongst this new-wave include Entasia, Kyle Starkey, Kara Okay, NewTone, Centre Court, DART, Paul Sirrell.

Thought I'd include some of my current favourite tracks for anyone else who, like me, might still be discovering this new wave of Hard House.

Newtone - Party Time

Entasia - Eutopia

Centre Court - Garden Of Love

Paul Sirrell - I Feel It

And some labels - TNT, Amsterdam Dance Capital, Agrio Tracks, Rapid Trax, SOUND SOUND

Anyway, thanks if you read this. Curious if anyone else has gone on a similar musical journey! Would love to hear your stories / suggestions if so!