Earthquake Full Collection (1994 - 1997)

Another epic collection from the 90s, released by Arcade and ID&T. A series than ran between 1994 and 1997, to quickly die a death not deserved. To me a very pleasant sounding series, and a fresh take on Hardcore. Yes, you had your bog standard Thunderdome collection, but sometimes you wanted to hear other CDs, you would get fed up by constantly just listening to Thunderdome. Earthquake was one of those collection which I adored, and many hours have been spent in my bedroom, just listening to these albums. And it was different to such an extend, you could see this as a standalone series that could be as good as the Thunderdome series. But it never reached that kind of status, more like a cult status... which is a shame.

I can't remember when it was, but I do remember which volume it was I purchased first. And it was the third one in this 7 album long CD collection. I bought it, and absorbed every second of it. I can still dream the whole album, and whenever I put it on, I can't stop listening to it. It had the Hardcore tunes I really wanted to hear, and weren't maybe that successful, but still deserved a stage. It was called 'The Ultimate Hardcore collection', but was that really the case? Is it really the ultimate collection, as they announced it to be?

As many of us youngsters did back in the 90s, you buy one, you start collecting the whole series. Would look stupid on your shelves to have just one, right? So I started purchasing them all, and this collection was for me completed back in 1998, when I purchased the latest one. Not knowing it would literally be the last one ever. Thunderdome went on, but other series were just killed off, probably knowing it wouldn't succeed, and Hardcore had reached the end of it's life expectancy. Little did they know, Hardcore would be alive and kicking in 2022... but hey ho, we were oblivious to anything back in 1997/1998.

At one stage it surpassed the Thunderdome legacy, and when number 7 was released, I knew that this specific CD would be one of my most favourite ones ever. And still to this day the seventh one remains an all time classic, with shit tons of underrated anthems on it. It was at the height of the Hardcore back in the 90s, and it would only go downhill from that moment onward. Maybe ID&T did kill it on purpose? Or maybe for financial reasons? Who knows.

But the tracks on each album were gorgeous. Not every album was a success or was seen as a great album at all, but it is part of the Hardcore history, and I think it is justifiable to discuss the greatness of this highly underrated collection.

You want to see the tracklist? Look at the slideshow below:

If you click on the little arrows to the left and right, you will scroll through each tracklist. And another reason why I hate growing up: when I look at each of them, I do get flashbacks to the 90s, and the way the standards were for ID&T and Arcade. It's a distinctive look each had. So recognisable and oh so 90s.

Now here comes the daunting task to name my favourites from each CD. Here we go:

Earthquake I Disc One : Gizmo - Ghost (1994 Remix)
Earthquake I Disc Two : Jean Sibart & Joel - Right Is Wrong
Earthquake II Disc One : Bertocucci Feranzano - Sax B4 Dinner
Earthquake II Disc Two : DJ Sim - Horras
Earthquake III Disc One : DJ Weirdo & DJ Sim - Kick This Muthaf#@ka (DJ Jordens Mix)
Earthquake III Disc Two : DJ E-Rick & Tactic - Hands In D'air
Earthquake IV Disc One : 3 Steps Ahead - Money In My Pocket
Earthquake IV Disc Two : Buzz Fuzz & DJ Delirium - Immortality
Earthquake V Disc One : Human Resource - Dominator (K.N.O.R. Hardcore Version)
Earthquake V Disc Two : Hixxy & Lady Tixxy - One Spliff
Earthquake VI Disc One : Jee Beat Squad - Get New
Earthquake VI Disc Two : The Inquisition - The Inquisition (DJ Promo Mix)
Earthquake VII Disc One : Omar Santana - Mind Ripper
Earthquake VII Disc Two : Bigguz Dickuzz - Howareyeaaah!?

If you had this collection, you might have got a different view on which track dominated each disc. This is obviously a personal list, and yours might be slightly different. Interesting to hear which tracks were your favourite, post them in a comment below!

It was a solid collection, but it also had a few stinkers on each disc. It was mainly the early CDs that had a few stinkers on it, but yeah, thankfully a CD player had a skip button, so we could skip them. But they were bad songs. Really bad. Not really worth being on ANY compilation. You might be thinking that they might have turned into guilty pleasure records, but they aren't. More like landfill to me.

Earthquake 7 is still the finest of them all. Closely followed by number 3. Worst one? The first one. They didn't know what to do, so they just created something out of scratch with no clear directions, no plans, no nothing. And it was crap. Number 5 is also not a great one.

A worthy collection to have. Sadly nothing can reach Thunderdome status, but this closely followed Thunderdome's footsteps. It was at some stages rougher, tougher, and a bit more exclusive, in terms of tracks.

Underneath this there are YouTube videos of each album. If you've never encountered this collection, it's a must listen to collection. A deep dive into Hardcore during its peak. 1994 to 1997. Wicked years. Wicked collection. Sadly died too soon, or at the right time? 1998 was still a good year for Hardcore music....

Did you have any of these CDs? Or all of them? Or none?